Trending Articles
Trending Topics
Trending
It tells you much about Lea Petrášová, CEO and Co-Founder of the Vexl app, that she launched it from the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. To quote Lea on the creation of the Vexl Foundation: “Vexl isn’t just an application, it’s the embodiment of our vision for financial autonomy. We’re dedicated to a future where technology empowers, and financial freedom equates to choice, privacy and control.”
That’s quite a statement, but as you’ll see from this interview Lea isn’t afraid to state her views plainly. For instance, as part of this Blockchain at Work series we’ve interviewed people who aren’t working in cryptocurrency. We’ve also written about using blockchain in renewable energy markets, the supply chain and even scientific publishing. But Lea thinks this is the wrong path.
“Unless you specifically need decentralization and immutability – like Bitcoin does – blockchain is just an overcomplicated, inefficient database,” she said. In fact, Lea is yet to see any “truly promising non-financial applications of blockchain” because the other use cases bring in fallible humans.
“Human minds, behaviour and memory are inherently mutable, unstable and subject to change,” said Lea. “This directly contradicts blockchain’s core strength – immutability.”
Fortunately, Lea herself has shown plenty of mutability through her career. Before founding Vexl – even before she founded and led the blockchain division at TopMonks – she travelled to countries where she had the opportunity to observe communities with strong identities or those living in extreme conditions. She was “interested in how people interact in a world that is often hostile to them and what life strategies they adopt in different socio-cultural contexts”.
So we think it’s safe to say that Lea is one of the most interesting people we’ve interviewed at TechFinitive (and we’ve interviewed a lot of interesting people). Here’s what she had to say, in full.
I was thrilled. I am a tech-optimist, and I tend to get both very excited and curious when new technology emerges. Back in 2016, I really jumped in right before the ICO fever and bull run of 2017. In hindsight, I would call myself uncritically passionate. The years that followed, obviously, further formed my opinion, and today, I am much more sceptical and hesitant towards these projects.
Blockchain is a revolutionary technology of a decentralized online registry of information. Its biggest weakness and, at the same time, its most important feature is the fact that it is (or should be, ideally) immutable: the information that was put on the blockchain can serve as a source of truth.
Once recorded, data on the blockchain cannot be altered or tampered with. This makes it a reliable source of historical truth, but it also imposes certain limitations – particularly when it comes to the accuracy of the data that was put on the blockchain. At the same time, however, it allows us to prevent some of the biggest challenges that modern online money faces, such as double-spending.
From my perspective, after years of experience, I dare to say – there are no truly promising non-financial applications of blockchain. Blockchain excels at enforcing strict, unchangeable rules on human behavior, as demonstrated by the ingenious design of the Bitcoin blockchain.
Every other use case I’ve encountered – whether in healthcare, supply chain or smart contracts – relies on blockchain “interacting” with human behavior, which I believe is a fundamental flaw. Human minds, behaviour, and memory are inherently mutable, unstable and subject to change. This directly contradicts blockchain’s core strength – immutability.
Expecting a technology built on unchangeable records to function effectively in systems that require flexibility, adaptation and subjective interpretation is, in my view, a very bad idea.
Technology has a huge role to play in improving healthcare, supply chains and public services, but I don’t believe blockchain is the right tool for the job.
Bitcoin. The only truly revolutionary blockchain project – the future of money. I can’t wait to see what a future of decentralized, censorship-resistant money, separated from the state, with a limited supply, will bring for humanity.
That it is going to save them. Or save them money. Or make their processes more efficient. Quite the contrary. For any of my projects, I would choose MySQL over blockchain without hesitation. Unless you specifically need decentralization and immutability – like Bitcoin does – blockchain is just an overcomplicated, inefficient database.
Not just for blockchain, but for all technology, I hope to see a world where developers design systems with user privacy and security at their core.
