BarnOwl Info Sharing Insight: Blockchain Technology with Liam du Plessis
April 24, 2019
BarnOwl Info Sharing session: 27 June 2019
Blockchain Technology
Presented by Liam du Plessis is a director at Hiraeth Consulting
Thank you very much Liam for your enlightening presentation on Blockchain technology at our BarnOwl info sharing event held at the BarnOwl offices in Bryanston on the 27 June 2019.
Introduction:
Many of us associate Blockchain with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin however Blockchain is the underlying technology and has many other applications such as intercompany transactions, warranties financing, trade finance etc. Liam took us through quite a few examples of organisations who have successfully used Blockchain technology to digitize their business processes, thus reducing time, increasing efficiencies, improving accuracy of transactions and trust between transactional parties. A key message which came out of Liam’s presentation is that Blockchain is a robust mechanism which establishes and streamlines trust between transacting parties.
How does it work?
The following slide illustrates that everyone in the Blockchain network (transacting parties within the specific network / business application) act as a node and receives a copy of the ‘ledger’ transaction. No single node can change the ledger without consensus and the knowledge of the whole network; thus ensuring trustworthy secure transactions. For example, Liam spoke about smart contracts and other token-based transactions which help ensure that all parties involved in buying and selling a house are protected and receive their share of revenues in exchange for their services and assets.
The future of Blockchain technology:
The following are extracts from ‘Deloitte’s 2019 Global Blockchain Survey’:
https://www2.deloitte.com/insights/us/en/topics/understanding-blockchain-potential/global-blockchain-survey.html?id=us:2em:3pa:emerging-technologies:eng:di:050619
Though blockchain hasn’t reached its full potential, savvy executives surveyed for Deloitte’s 2019 global blockchain survey are confident about new and evolving use cases; they continue to see the technology as a connecting platform that can enable many business processes. The question for executives is no longer, “Will blockchain work?” but, “How can we make blockchain work for us?”
Indeed, blockchain is gaining traction and acceptance in more industries, from fintech to technology to media to telecommunications to government to life sciences and health care. Our research shows executives increasingly expressing confidence in blockchain’s importance and its disruptive potential that matches some of the most ambitious and far-reaching claims about its transformative potential.
Where enterprise organizations seek ways to integrate blockchain into their existing business models—or, more accurately, how to transform existing processes and systems to work with blockchain—emerging disruptors built their businesses around blockchain from the start. This makes them potentially more fluid and agile than competitors and less constrained by similar challenges that inhibit adoption among their more established competition.
In fact, we’re seeing signs of these abilities as organizations enter the second phase of disruption, in which most are no longer strictly focused on blockchain but are, instead, reinventing existing business models to create dynamic, blockchain-enabled solutions to reduce friction across organizations and industries.
Presentation and Video links:
Please see attached presentation here as well as video link here for more information.
Associated articles:
Conclusion:
Extract taken from Deloitte’s 2019 Global Blockchain Survey: “In a similar regard, there is little new in blockchain’s underlying technology—for instance, cryptography or data transaction. What is fresh is the disruptive potential that emerging disruptors are driving in the way organizations get things done. One might call this disruption a democratization of trust.”
Once again thank you Liam for your time and for your informative presentation and thank you to all those who attended our info sharing session. We look forward to seeing you at our next info sharing session. Please keep a look out for our upcoming events at: https://api.barnowl.co.za/events/
Kind regards
Jonathan Crisp
Director – BarnOwl GRC and Audit software
About Liam du Plessis:
Liam du Plessis is a director at Hiraeth Consulting which is a specialist corporate finance advisory firm. He consults on matters pertaining to corporate finance strategy, change management and sustainability as well as BEE Corporate Structure Development and BEE Strategic Mergers & Acquisitions. He has also written for the Institute of Risk Management South Africa on matters such as Bitcoin and sits as a committee member for the institute of Risk Management South Africa.
Liam has written numerous pieces on topics such as Financial Risk Management and Investor Relations for The South African Institute of Financial Markets.
Contact details – Liamduplessis12@gmail.com
Cell number – 063 246 2118
About BarnOwl:
BarnOwl is a fully integrated governance, risk management, compliance and audit software solution used by over 200 organisations in Africa, Australasia, Europe and the UK. BarnOwl is a locally developed software solution and is the preferred risk management solution for the South African public sector supporting the National Treasury risk framework.
Please see www.barnowl.co.za for more information.
