The IEEE Blockchain Initiative Co-Chair, Ramesh Ramadoss, visited the IEEE Portugal Section
By Catarina Reis
On the 21st of February of 2020, the IEEE Portugal Section welcomed Ramesh Ramadoss, co-Chair of the IEEE Blockchain Initiative, for a status update meeting. The meeting took place at the Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto and was attended by some members of the Blockchain Portugal Working Group (PBWG).
Blockchain gained popularity with the well known Bitcoin case study and, currently, it is still strongly connected to cryptocurrencies. However, some of the largest companies in the world are starting to embrace the technology and are “using it to speed up business processes, increase transparency and potentially save billions of dollars.” as this years’ Forbes Blockchain 50 list shows once again, for the second year in a row.
The IEEE Blockchain Initiative has been, since 2018, working on Standards, including at the European level, a set of Regulation Proposals to ensure that it is possible to adopt a common ground for important issues surrounding the topic, as for instance: terminology and governance. Nowadays, one of the top priorities worldwide is energy and sustainability, and one of the biggest challenges is the combination of Blockchain technology and Transactive Energy.
The IEEE Blockchain Initiative is also very active in promoting the creation of national/regional communities to which both IEEE members, the general public and also the industry are welcomed to join. In Portugal, the IEEE Portugal Blockchain Working Group (PBWG) is one of those communities that kicked-off last July and is planning this year’s first event for April.
PBWG’s first goal is to bring the community together and gather the various interests and approaches that practitioners and enthusiasts in the area may have. This is the main goal for this year’s first event that will present an overview on the topic and a showcase of projects that are currently taking place in the industry and academia in Portugal.
<<<<Personal Note on Blockchain>>>>
One of the key goals addressed by Blockchain technology is the establishment of trust and transparency between interested parties. There is a direct connection to open source and collaborative approaches, that at their core, ensure transparency, longevity, interoperability and support. These are fundamental aspects to bring blockchain technologies to mainstream commercial adoption. Regarding non-crypto related case studies that could become successful breakthroughs, I do believe that achieving self-sovereign identity platforms, electronic enabled voting and direct application into the supply-chain management are some of the hot topics for the near future.
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