Blockchain, Web3 e Criptovalute: Stato di Adozione e Sviluppi Futuri  Davide Ghezz

I'm talking about So be patient, the state of adoption and, um, future developments, so understand a little about where we are in terms of adoption of these blockchain cryptocurrency Web 3 technologies and, above all, understand where we are going. um, how I'm talking about it, I'm talking about it with the hat of a university researcher within a research group at the Polytechnic University of Milan that studies the innovations brought by web trading and blockchain technology, not only from a technical point of view but also, above all, on the business impacts of these technologies. So I would say to start a little from the beginning, that is, first of all, tell us why we're talking about Web 3 and why it's relevant. um, if you're, let's say, at an event of this type, you're probably all more or less aware of the fact that the world of the web as we know it today, Web 2, has a lot of potential, has a lot of, um, many positive aspects, but also some critical issues, critical issues mainly linked to the fact that these are centralized services, so most of the online services that we all use daily are offered and managed by centralized players. So, by basically private companies and a few private companies that manage the majority of the online service infrastructure.

We are used to using it, so this poses some critical issues related, for example, to privacy and data security. We have seen several scandals in the past, Cambridge Analytica. In short, you have certainly heard about it, so this type of critical issues also related to transparency, lack of transparency, the use of this user data by these actors, a possibility for these actors to create lock-ins, therefore to force us or force us a little as users to stay within their ecosystems, thus preventing us a little from going out, and the control of data online, which as we know is not in the hands of users in Web 2, so faced with these critical issues, Web 3 presents itself as a new paradigm that offers to overcome these critical aspects a little through some key principles on which it is based, first of all decentralization but also the accessibility of services, composability, ownership and control of data in the hands of users and how. These characteristics are guaranteed, well, by the fact that the technological infrastructure underlying Web 3 is radically different from that of Web 2 and Web 3. 1 so there are no longer just applications, online services that run on centralized servers in the hands of private companies.

But there is a distributed technological infrastructure, the blockchain, obviously I'm not spoiling anything. Nothing new, I believe that it acts as a decentralized public registry on which not only transactions are recorded but also the computation of these applications, which makes these services possible, takes place in a decentralized way. This does not only pose a technical infrastructural difference, but this also has implications at the business level. So even companies have been realizing for some years now that there are business opportunities in this new paradigm, so since we are researchers, we like to start with the numbers. This is the first one that I'll show you today if we look at the top 500 companies in the world, so the 500 main companies in the world, 153 have already started at least one blockchain project.

No, We are talking about projects. Implementation projects, so not announcements of projects that will be made. We are talking about projects that are operational, perhaps in the pilot stage or even a few years ago, but they are real, concrete projects and above all they are public projects because many of those that are not They have publicly announced that they are working on these issues, let's say there are also some signs that they are working on them behind the scenes, so in short, the level of adoption is still significant even for large companies. But what are the types of projects that are developed by companies? As an observatory, we have classified three main types of projects.

I'll explain them to you in two words so if you follow me on this, then everything will be easier. There are the Internet of Value projects. So those that use the blockchain as a means of exchanging value online, so the projects that involve the use of cryptocurrencies, stable coins, CBDC, to be clear. Then there are those projects that we called blockchain for Business, where the blockchain is used to streamline existing business processes. So all the projects for the traceability of the use of Smart Contracts and automation to improve business processes are part of this, this melting pot.

Then the third type, which is a little more frontier, if you like, we called it decentralized web. These are projects in which the blockchain is not used to do better than things that I could already do with traditional technologies, but the blockchain becomes an infrastructure. enabling to build new services, new products, decentralized applications, autonomous organizations, therefore types of projects that are already going a little further on the frontier of innovation. Looking at the market, we certainly see a growth trend. These are numbers that no longer refer to the top 500 companies but to the entire market.

These are all the projects. At a global level, we have surveyed with the Polytechnic observatory. There are more than 1,300 projects. Here too, we have excluded announcements. We are only talking about implementation projects.

We certainly see growth. We see that centralized web projects are growing. Especially in the last two years because. Because in the last two years, we have seen the growth of NFTs for services of this type, products made by traditional companies that are getting a little closer to the Web 3 paradigm. Blockchain projects for Business are also growing.

In particular, in 2023, we have seen an explosion of tokenization projects, especially in the world of finance, which fall somewhat into this mix. We will talk about it in more detail later. But Iov projects are also growing, as they certainly grow through the legitimacy that is gradually arriving around these tools. Legitimacy that certainly comes through regulation. so in Europe we have the Micar we heard about it in the previous speech so I won't go into it but also the ETFs on Bitcoin on Ethereum have certainly contributed from the market point of view to legitimize these These instruments also from the point of view of traditional financial players who instead traditionally were a little more eh Some were Most were a little more cautious with these instruments but we also have many eh traditional banks and many traditional financial players who are also experimenting with the programmability of payments with stable Coin we have seen PayPal launching its stable Coin various players who are working in this direction at the center of the Internet of Value world we obviously have the Digital Euro project therefore a European CBDC which here too is a very potentially very impactful project that is moving forward Maybe not exactly at the speed of light But the project is Eh it is continuing we are currently in the preparation phase but the project was born several years ago and so eh let's see this this growth trajectory on these three constituent directions in the blockchain for Business world instead what we have seen we have seen eh A bit of difficulty in those big ecosystem projects so If you remember tradel b3i Those who are in the world of blockchain projects maybe these names resonate with something but we haven't heard about them for a while Because many of these ecosystem projects have failed or been put on hold Mainly because they had difficulty finding real economic sustainability for these projects which for the most part were, let's say, around permissioned platforms and were not able to be, let's say, used as innovation platforms to create new services possibly on top of a more open, more permissionless platform we would say no so some of the projects that are resisting are going precisely in this direction to act as an innovation platform to create new services then we have the world of tokenization which we have seen especially in the financial sector In short, financial players from all over the world are looking at this technology And they are working on it and then other developments perhaps a little less significant But also in other sectors the whole world of traceability of use of NFTs to also improve existing processes so there is certainly excitement in the world of centralized web instead what we have seen we have certainly seen many projects related NFTs are now a bit let's say the bubble has definitely burst a bit, even a bit speculative, of NFTs.

So now there is no one left who pays millions to buy the NFT of Jack Dorsey's first tweet perhaps. Fortunately, I would say, however, once again behind the scenes, out of the spotlight, we still see many companies that are working on these technologies and are implementing them not with the aim of making a big newspaper headline. Allow me, we did this project or this NFT was auctioned for several million dollars, no, they are really implementing them to create new services to exploit the possibility of creating communities around the brand to create customer loyalty projects, think of Starbucks or even Shopify, Spotify also had them studied to offer token Gate access from the playlists created by artists, so there are many possibilities that we are just discovering now, so the market hype has certainly dropped, let's say, but the value of the technology, as often happens in these cases, remains the rest of the ecosystem of centralized web also refers to decentralized applications, we have seen the world of defi which despite The market crash that we know goes up and down but the ecosystem of financial applications is holding up and there are also traditional companies and institutional players that are working on it and are also interacting with it. Societ General a year ago, if I remember correctly, a loan of 7 million dollars in dai was taken from Maker DAO. So a collateralized loan from Ario that manages the loan itself but through a decentralized application so this seems like a world still very far away, science fiction.

But the market players are already there, they are already working on it. The last theme is a bit that of centralized autonomous organization DAOs. Here again, I must say, we see a sector that is still very much confined to Web 3 insiders and to slightly more geeky users who interact with it at a corporate level. We probably haven't seen the Killer application yet, but again. Here too, we see potential developments.

Also on the business side, so what awaits us in the future is obviously difficult to say but in the Internet of Value world. This theme of legitimization of these tools is certainly continuing which will also lay the foundation for building new services that use these tools in the blockchain world. for Business, the growth of innovation ecosystems around these open platforms will certainly play a role in the future, while in the Web 3 or decentralized web world, there is certainly a little more road to travel, especially in terms of, um, adoption of these tools by the masses, who are still a little As we were saying, confined to communities of crypto and blockchain enthusiasts, now with the little time I have left, I also wanted to give you a quick, let's say, taste of the Italian market. Because, rightly, we are in Italy and it is also interesting to understand what is happening within our country, so this graph shows you. Meanwhile, how the blockchain market is going in Italy is not a linearly growing market because evidently it also suffers a little from the HPE cycles of the market.

So last year we were still around 40 million euros, a little above in 2022, a little below in 2023. But let's say it is more or less stable, it is a market that still probably needs to expand its potential, so we are probably still in a phase in which we are building to then reap the benefits in the future. In the near future, however, the ecosystem of players in Italy who work on these issues exists and is thriving. With the observatory, we have mapped almost 200 startups working on these issues in Italy, over 200 companies, over 230 projects, um, growing in 2023. So, there are many use cases and we have mapped quite a few with our research.

What is the player that we are missing from understanding what we need to investigate to close the circle of the Italian ecosystem? The end consumers. So, we talked about companies, institutions, technology tools, but then at what point are the end users in terms of adoption? To understand this, we conducted a survey representative of the Italian population, which represents approximately 34 million Italians between the ages of 18 and 75. We conducted this survey a few months ago, but the data is still very interesting.

What emerged is that approximately 3.5 million Italians declare that they own crypto assets, therefore cryptocurrencies and tokens, including NFTs, which is a fairly significant number if we think about it, especially if we add other 3.5 million Italians who declare to have owned them in the past. To this figure we add another 7 million who do not own them but declare they intend to purchase them in the short term. Therefore, we can say that the market is made up of approximately 14 million individuals.

41% of the population interviewed can be said to have owned, currently own or intend to own crypto assets. However, a very critical issue on which we still need to work is the knowledge of these assets because to the question in the Survey, how much do you know about these tools, 31% answered yes, I know them very well or I know them quite well. 46% said yes, I have heard about them but it's not like I'm a super expert. 23% don't even know what they are. But if we then go and look at the actual knowledge, then we asked some questions because we are researchers, we also like to do these things.

A bit of a look then actually. What is the knowledge and we asked five questions that are not very difficult, but not so simple either, let's say. Just to understand if the users actually knew what we were talking about and less than 1% answered correctly. all five questions less than 1% Then we have a 4% who answered four out of five questions you can see the percentages But there is a 31+ 31 62% who answered one out of five questions or none so let's say there is a potential market there is certainly interest from the end users in Italy but we also need to work a bit on making people understand what these tools are Because as we know they can also be risky They can be dangerous and knowledge of these assets of the technology behind them is also necessary to favor the correct development of the market so with this I think I have already gone overboard so I'll leave you with a slide recap of the main points we talked about but if you have any questions Or you also want to interact send us an email have a chat you can you can write to me in the last slide I'll leave you the email Nothing [Applause] thank you Thank you very much Davide um we have some time to answer some questions so if you have any questions please raise your hand and we will be more than happy to answer you of course ok I would like to talk about CBD as Actually, they could help bring an unknown user into this world, precisely through this digital euro or digital dollar, whatever it is. There will be an effective way.

There will be an effective way where you can get to the point that I mean. So, excellent question. Thanks. It's also a somewhat open question because it depends on how the CBDC is currently made. There is still some debate on what the technological design of the Digital Euro will be, for example, but the point is if the CBDC becomes a fully on- chain instrument, therefore a token on par with a stable coin, so to speak.

And then, oh yes, that becomes a significant entry point. Because at that point we can imagine that a digital wallet will be distributed and created in which all European citizens will have access to an on-chain instrument of value, the Digital Euro, which they will be able to use in the world of decentralized finance applications to buy NFTs. So, that would be a very significant entry point. The point is that we probably won't go in that direction because there are many risks and, in short, there are many actors involved, so, um, currently, the design of the digital euro will probably not be natively on a public blockchain like Ethereum. It could be like saying, um, there It could be players like traditional banks that take custody of a Digital Euro and issue its representation on Chain so that could already be an equally significant entry point but the real game on CBDCs is also played on the programmability of payments that these tools offer you.

That is, if the Digital Eur becomes a programmable tool in which I can directly express Smart Contract-type logics within the currency that are open, transparent and verifiable, then from the point of view of business applications it has a lot of potential and implications. If this is not the case, the digital euro will probably have the role of streamlining payment processes. I am thinking above all of the processes between the various banks or central banks, regulations, etc. On the innovation potential side, it will probably not be so strong and there we will have to see how much. Let me say that a Digital Euro will suffer from the competition of private stable Coins because now they are starting to be issued also by companies like PayPal, not just by banks or institutions like Teter, let's say.

If we think about USDT, this thing will also have to be managed from the regulatory point of view. So it's a big question mark, but there are many interesting reflections. Thank you, thank you. Some other questions. Then I'll ask you, go on.

not difficult but no no no no no no from the various researches that you have done the interviews the surveys we can say that the majority of the people interviewed have mainly discovered cryptocurrencies as a form of investment therefore for investment purposes whether medium or long term or have you also found someone who has spoken p In addition to asset speculation, he perhaps spoke to you about the technology, how important it is to have a slightly more decentralized currency, sensor resist, in short, all the most important features that the blockchain has. So, that's an excellent question. So, from our data on this survey, which I haven't shown you now for brevity's sake, but we have them. If I remember correctly, about 51% say they buy them as a form of investment. So, this is certainly the first use case for these tools, so we can RAC Arcela as we want, but it's still an interesting use case.

However, this data is also significant from another point of view, because if there are half of the people who buy them as a form of investment, it means that the other half don't buy them as a form of investment. They buy them to buy NFTs, they buy tokens. Because they are interested in the utility of those tokens for various reasons, okay. So, the answer is yes, the investment use case is certainly significant, but it's not the only one, and this also gives us a bit of hope because it means that there is also a segment of the population that is somewhat aware of the potential of the technology. And It is not only driven by the speculative side which is there anyway and I mean it is also natural that it is there but we know that technology also has many other potentials.

Thanks again Davide, a big round of applause for Davide for his presentation, let's continue