Pavel Romanenko studied law in Berlin, worked at the advertising agency BBDO and for a Berlin VC before he started working for the start-up publishing house NKF Media in 2016. There he is now in charge of the Blockchain Circle project.

Blockchain is on everyone’s lips – Who will win the race for this technology?

In my view, the file-sharing markets with their billions of dollars in profits today are quite attractive to classic stock exchanges and banks.

There are already decentralized counter-drafts to Google Ads, Amazon Web Services, Facebook, Visa and Master Card. This is why companies behind these products also invest themselves in the research and development of their own block chain projects.

But if we talk about the status quo, today the biggest winners of the block chain revolution so far are unfortunately almost only the exchange markets for crypto currencies and the producers of the mining hardware.

Estonia is already enabling its citizens to carry out administrative procedures digitally, using Blockchain technology, while Sierra Leone has for the first time used this technology in elections.

We are still talking about a nationwide network expansion in Germany. Are we on the way to an e-Developing country?

Estonia, Sierra Leone and Malta together account for almost one seventh of the population of Germany and do not have to administer more than 11,000 municipalities.

It is obvious that they have more flexible legislative and executive powers to develop sandboxes for innovative technologies. However, this justification must not be used to slow down digitisation in this country. China, too, is experimenting with blockchain technology on many levels and is boosting the development of this technology with billions in funds.

For which persons is Blockchain a blessing, for which a curse?

Blockchain, like all technological progress, is a double-edged sword. The technology can be used to break the data monopolies of large Internet groups. It can enable direct democracy at a level never imagined, with tamper-proof digital voting rights. But it can also be misused by companies and surveillance states to store our digital “imprints” in an unalterable database.

Which digital impressions do you mean?

Search queries, surfing behaviour, biometric data and health data.

Why is this not being addressed by enacting appropriate legislation?

Technology is developing much faster than the laws that should regulate it. The pessimists among us would perhaps argue that it also depends on the development of our moral values.

What must happen in order to use this technology for the benefit of all?

For Blockchain, AI and robotics to be a blessing and not a curse for us all, we must welcome them with a basic optimism, but also discuss them thoroughly at all levels, with our families, friends, at conferences and in dialogue with politicians.

How privacy should be dealt with in the future is a very controversial issue. One idea is that everyone who produces data should also earn money from it. Is this idea with Blockchain conceivable? Citizens as producers and traders of their own data?

Data is produced everywhere – in our households, on the street, at work. Many block chain start-ups advertise that they want to strengthen consumers as the owners of the data. At the same time, every company should be interested in precise and as cheap as possible consumption and usage data. The Blockchain offers a technological solution to strengthen the data sovereignty of the users.

But it is not Blockchain as a technology that will decide whether we have better access to our data, but a sharper understanding by consumers of the value of this data.

So the awareness of his “digital identity”- what does such an identity look like in the world of Blockchain technology?

Already today, our data can be stored on the terminal of our choice and shared in a secure environment. On the basis of blockchain, a link between the owner of the data and the user of the data is made possible – sensitive data does not land on the blockchain or on a server of our partner, it remains on our end device. With the Blockchain world, we retain control over our sensitive data – our “digital identity”.

How would this affect cybercrime and its containment?

We have regularly heard about the hacks at large companies where data of millions of users was stolen from a server “in one go”. This can be a thing of the past with wise use of the block chain. Sensitive data can no longer be stolen, as it is only on the user’s terminal device.

What is your forecast for the future? When and how will Blockchain prevail?

I think blockchain is already catching on today, your use cases are spreading rapidly, there are more and more blockchain startups and they are often quite well financed. Many good projects today are dealing with protocols and infrastructure that will pave the way for consumer applications.

Can you give me a few examples?

The application examples in logistics and supply chains are developing well, where the block chain will save companies a lot of money and enable new business models.

In the Smart Home and Smart City areas, the cross-fertilization of blockchain and IoT devices is very promising. Blockchain solutions for international financial transactions in the b2b area are currently attracting a lot of attention. The block chain will also continue to change the way we invest in companies and other assets.

Bitnation wants to be a digital world state for every person in the world and realize this with Blockchain. What do you think of this idea? Do we still need national borders in a digital world? Can we realize the dream of a common state for all people of the world?

Bitnation explores the potential of the block chain in the area of governance. Without specifically evaluating Bitnation’s solution: The promise of the technology in this field of application is incredibly strong. Tamper-proof elections, functioning land registries, effective data protection.

What we in Germany consider unproblematic today is an unthinkable luxury in other corners of the world. Here, technologies such as the block chain can improve conditions even beyond national borders.

For me, as a collector of utopias, it sounds like wonderful and promising music – but is it realistic?

Yes – That sounds utopian! But even a world currency that does not belong to any bank or state sounded extremely utopian before 31 October 2008, didn’t it?

… and definitely belongs in this blog! Thanks for the interview!