Blockchain experts met to look at how it can protect and enforce intellectual property. Bitcoin Europe EU To continue providing news and award winning journalism, we rely on advertising revenue. To continue reading, please turn off your ad blocker or whitelist us . A group of blockchain experts and enthusiasts met under the auspices of the EU in Brussels for a two-day workshop about how blockchain can protect and enforce intellectual property. There was a varied level of technological understanding in the room, including blockchain heavyweights such as Mark Smith, CEO, Symbiont; John Lilic, who looks after enterprise arrangements for ConsenSys; Tyler Smith of FreeMyVunk who is also handling innovation at BHP Billington; Sian Jones, founder of EDCAB; and Sandra Ro, who heads up digital and blockchain for CME Group. The event was organised by a "low profile" branch of the EU which is looking at IP and technological advancements. As expected, there were a few lawyers in the room and it didn’t take long before the subject turned to The DAO debacle. Tyler Smith gave an impassioned apology for the decision to hard fork Ethereum. "It’s not about computers running the world, it’s about how humans can use them to gain efficiency. Ethereum employed social consensus, at great cost to the network. So much so that a new public chain came out of this. And personally I think what they did was great." John Lilic added: "I would say consensus reached by companies within board rooms might seem elegant but it might also be messy and chaotic; we just don’t know about it. Ethereum’s consensus takes place in the open. So our mess was very public." Bringing the focus back to the question of IP, Sian Jones pointed out that if these chains were being used to store […]
