Innovation Forum Blockchain Congress - two days full of workshops and Lego

A report on impressions from a conference full of keynotes, workshops, blockchain-based business ideas and Lego

Two interesting and intense days are behind me. While two older sales people are talking about golf next to me - why do you sit in a rest area of an ICE? - Let me review the conference of the Innovation Forum Blockchain, which took place the last two days in Hamburg.

As a venue, the North Academy chose a really nice venue, which allowed us participants of the conference to have a look at the Elbe during our breaks.

The event was introduced to the subject of Blockchain in various keynote speeches by the BMBF, the BWVI, the Nordakademie and the Innovation Forum project management. In this context, Frank Bolten from Chainstep has pointed to an interesting collection of various blockchain-based projects on his company homepage. Oliver Süme, partner of Fieldfisher LLP, has warned the business owners about regulatory issues regarding the use of public blockchains. Even though he felt a bit too much in favor of private blockchains, his talk could raise awareness about discrepancies between an all-saving, unchanging blockchain and issues like privacy and the right to forget. Tobias Seidl from Luxenburg has presented the company SICOS, which offers advice on ICOs and wants to bring together investors and start-ups on a blockchain-based platform.

The last keynote was deliberately designed as a transition between the lectures and the rest of the event, which was characterized by a workshop character: Prof. Dr. med. Markus Nüttgens, together with Florian Bartsch and Nils Neidhardt from the University of Hamburg, presented the workshop format Blockchain Business Building Blocks, or the B4 method for short. This format is a tool like Design Thinking or Quality Function Deployment, which helps groups develop business models during a workshop.

The great feature of this method is that you can use this not only to weigh whether a business model actually requires a blockchain, but can clearly illustrate the associated use cases. The method was introduced to SAMPL, a project designed to ensure counterfeit security in additive manufacturing.

Workshops - strangers become partners

After the lectures work was announced: In four workshops, groups of like-minded people should come together, who should work together on blockchain-based use cases. These not only had an end in themselves for the event: the purpose of innovation forums is to bring together companies to realize innovative ideas. These workshops should therefore give an initial spark.

The participants were able to join one of four groups: in three groups, the B4 method was used to develop blockchain-based business models in the areas of logistics, finance and energy. The fourth group was open to the topic, but business models should be developed here through Design Thinking and Lego.

I looked into the four parallel workshops to get an idea of the work of each group. It was very interesting to see how like-minded people gradually came together: In the Logistics workshop, various representatives of companies involved in supply chain management and logistics worked with a lady from the creative industries to find a solution Develop copyright protection for works of art.

The workshop methods were different: While the B4 method is blockchain-focused while working with business canvas, maps, and poster design, Design Thinking is a method that is angsted in terms of applied and applied technology , In the design thinking process, a lot has been done with painted pictures and in the end even with Lego.

What I found to be an interesting train of thought regardless of the workshops in the B4 method was a decision tree for considering whether a business idea actually needs the blockchain. The following questions were asked:

• Is a database needed for the implementation?
• Do I have to give shared write access to this database?
• Are all writers known and trusting?

If you can answer the first two questions with yes, the third either with no or at least with "yes, but they do not have the same interest", the business idea sounds like it's best done with the Blockchain.

I often get ideas for a new product or service that can be summed up as "X with Blockchain". One has the impression that many do not ask themselves the question "What kind of problem do I want to solve?", But with the question "What can I possibly use the blockchain for?". However, this is fatal, leading to poor blockchain-based business models, which only want to put on a hypertext. I think that these questions can help to give as soon as possible a clear feedback on the question whether it actually needs a block chain for the use case considered.

William Mougayar - wallets hidden in apps

The workshops took place on Tuesday afternoon and continued the next day. This was started with a keynote by William Mougayar. William Mougayar has over twenty years of experience with the Digital Economy and in 1997 he wrote a book about the business possibilities of the Internet. He has been involved in Ethereum and various other blockchain projects as an advisor and investor and now leads the consulting firm Startup Management. In his presentation, Mr. Mougayar talked about the potential of Blockchain. In doing so, he paid particular attention to the disruptive potential that could be realized with the Blockchain regarding its own data: According to Mr. Mougayar, we have not just one job to pursue, but three. The first job is our profession, with which we earn our money. The second job is the time we spend with ourselves or with our neighbors. Finally, the third job is our time on Facebook or Google, a time when we are providing a ton of data for these platforms. These data are used by the platforms with a large profit margin. According to William Mougayar, we, the users, can finally be paid for this third job thanks to the blockchain. This is not purely hypothetical, with steemit this is already possible today.

The topic of ICOs was also discussed: he explained the potential of this funding and investing form, but also emphasized the current weak points. So too many projects see in the tokens that they sell, a kind of carrot to attract potential investors. Tokens should not simply be coupons that are offered according to the motto "buy a thousand today and you'll get two thousand tomorrow!". A good indication for a token to market fit is whether the token inherits a project-related function right from the start, so whether they have a stake beyond the stock exchanges even after the token sale.

Finally, he introduced his vision to him: in the future, we probably will not be dealing directly with wallets; The wallets will be incorporated into apps and run in the background. Overall, a visionary lecture. Anyone who wants to read more about William Mougayar should refer to his book and weblog.

The winners: car insurance and wagon management

After the workshops were continued on the second day and the teams prototyped their ideas, they presented their ideas. All participants were able to distribute five plastic coins (of course, true to style with a Bitcoin logo on them) to projects that they found interesting.

In parallel, an expert panel has awarded a project. So there was a Peoples' Choice Award and a jury award. In the latter case, great attention was paid to feasibility, innovation and sustainability.

Participants have declared a winner of a mini-insurance project for emerging markets at Blockchain. Insurtech is an important trend and people in developing and emerging countries, where there is often no functioning insurance system, can be helped by the P2P possibilities as well as the counterfeit security.

The experts selected the "make rail easy" project in the area of wagon logistics. Here, empty freight cars can be quickly fed to another use via the Blockchain, which can be achieved in the industry a great cost savings. Logistics and supply chain management are two areas in which blockchain-based solutions are frequently discussed, so that here too one can speak of a relevant project idea.

The winning business ideas will be presented in more detail in the future. I was pleased to hear that the groups want to continue working on their projects.

I think I speak for all when I say that the two days were a win! Many thanks to the organizing team behind the innovation forum, until hopefully to the next workshop!