Understand everything at the blockchain. "At the beginning of bitcoin, you had to be good technically, I did not manage to buy some"

Laure de la Raudière, co-rapporteur of the information mission on blockchains in the National Assembly, must report in September ...

Blockchains are not limited to cryptocurrency [bitcoin, Ethereum ...], quite the contrary. In the future, a whole bunch of services could be created thanks to this technology of storage and transmission of information. It could eliminate most of the centralized "trusted third parties" (banks, notaries, land registry ...) and Laure de la Raudière, member for Eure-et-Loir and co-rapporteur of the information mission on blockchains in the United States. National Assembly, has understood the stakes of these famous block chains that everyone speaks but that nobody understands (it must be said).

improve human knowledge in many systems. Today, a new technology is coming, the blockchain. It allows to certify exchanges without the institution of a trusted third party. We have fallen behind the first two revolutions, I do not want that to be the case with the blockchain.

What do you expect from this mission?
The parliament must seize the subject to understand it. Understand how it works, the potential of this technology, its limits. Understand where we are today in the case of uses. The second objective is to educate fellow MPs so that we do not fall behind.

In your opinion, what is the urgency to seize this subject?
If we want to defend our values, it is better to get ahead. Otherwise, the Americans or the Chinese may impose their vision of the world. You must not be afraid of this technology, but you must not be naive either.

What did you learn while working on this mission?
We auditioned about twenty people and institutions for the moment. There are two use cases: public blockchains and consortium blockchains. As far as public blockchains are concerned, few use cases still exist apart from crypto-assets (bitcoin, ethereum, etc.) and fundraising by the exchange of "tokens". France is well placed in terms of research, it has a dynamic startup ecosystem, it would be a pity if our work is used for the development of companies outside the country. But we also need to consider crypto-assets as other assets, both in accounting and from a tax point of view, which is not at all the case today.

What are the dangers of blockchains?
On a public blockchain, the only case of use today is that of crypto-active. After a fairly "Far-West" debut, the actors push today for the creation of a label by the AMF (Autorité des marchés financiers), which will make it possible to distinguish "good" platforms from those that would be fraudulent. This information will help to fight against scams and money laundering, crimes often accused of bitcoin. The other risk for the consumer is the fluctuation of the prices of crypto-assets, as we saw with bitcoin at the beginning of the year. On the consortium blockchains, the possible applications are promising. It guarantees a better transparency in the exchanges. I take the example of a lasagna dish with meat. When you are able to certify, from the producer to the distributor, the different stages of creating a food, you know if the dish meets the regulatory challenges of the country. This helps to fight against fraud and to ensure greater transparency for consumers.

When we talk about blockchains, nobody understands anything. Is not the priority to popularize this technology to the public?
We can understand the blockchains when we will have another use than that of bitcoin. It's not about understanding technology. The whole population does not know how the Internet protocol works but understands that this technology facilitates exchanges between individuals. It is necessary to make understand what can serve the blockchain and it is the object of this mission.

And then, what can it serve?
The Ministry of National Education is currently studying an application: the certification of diplomas. When a central entity issues a degree, be it a big school, a university or a high school, that entity is the authoritative one. The idea is to put his diplomas in the blockchain and make them accessible to everyone. We leave an imprint in the blockchain, this allows to give access to the document to people who ask. We will know that it is the original and that there is no fraud. Today, when you have been an employee of a company, you indicate it on your CV. But the CV is not always consistent with reality. On the other hand, if the company in which you worked has the obligation to put this information on the blockchain, it is possible to trace the CV of a person. In the same way, one could imagine that your identity is certified by a blockchain. You decide to give access to someone with whom you are in contact to prove your identity. The information put on the blockchain is unfalsifiable. We bring more confidence.

Is not there a risk for the individual, the fact that everyone knows everything about him?
The individual decides whether or not to give access to a third party on this information. Power must remain at the level of the individual. On the other hand, he must not be able to lie. The blockchain helps to ensure trust. We fight against fraudsters, but the goal is to guarantee the accuracy of information.

Bitcoin, we know, is very bad for the environment. Are you going to tackle this ecological problem?
We will work precisely on the energy impact of these different technologies. Some blockchains consume less than others. The bitcoin blockchain is very energy intensive. Each transaction represents 32 days of consumption of an American household, it is delusional.

What can be done against bitcoin mines?
The majority of minors are neither in France nor in Europe. Today, bitcoin is the most used blockchain protocol. But through the auditions we conducted, we saw technological alternatives to the bitcoin blockchain. The consortium blockchains that have applications like the ones I mentioned (diplomas, digital identity, gray cards ...) do not have the same energy consumption defects as that of the bitcoin blockchain. We can not imagine multiplying services running on bitcoin type channels. It would not be acceptable. And it is not desirable. With bitcoin, you have to wait 10 minutes for each transaction. It's not great.

Have you invested in cryptocurrencies?
Yes, with my husband, we bought bitcoins. At first, when it was 30 euros, we tried, but we had to be good enough technically to buy. There were no platforms as easy to use as today. We did not succeed. Then he bought some before the bubble, which he sold fairly quickly, and without making a fortune!

In your opinion, the future is cryptocurrency? Will it replace existing currencies?
Today bitcoin is more of an asset than a currency. There is an exchange rate and there are people who use them in bars, that's right. But in most cases, people use it as an asset. The use of cryptocurrency will grow with services on the blockchain, not just as a currency but as a service. When you use services on the blockchain, you will also develop associated payment methods to improve efficiency and transaction costs. But you know, maybe the future I imagine will never happen and I will be completely contradicted. We must remain humble.