Montse Guardia Güell is the CEO of the Alastria Blockchain consortium. It is attended by more than 500 senior members from industry, the public sector and academia. Montse is a senior telecommunications engineer with a master’s degree in Business Administration and more than 20 years of experience in the management of information technology and operations. In this interview we explain how Alastria, blockchain and how this technology is used to fight coronavirus.

What is Alastria?

Alastria is a non-profit association; its mission is to promote the technologies of distributed accounting records, to make them known. The sum of common interests is to promote the use of these technologies, create new business models and create social impact. It was founded in October 2017 and the beauty of Alastria is that it is decentralized because it is faithful to the technology it spreads and promotes. So we are almost all over Spain, but also in Europe. We work very firmly at the international level, that is, in the European legal framework, and within this framework we move forward on three axes, the legal axis, the technological axis and the innovation or organizational change, to promote the creation of new businesses with this technology.

We now have around 542 partners and 42% of them are small and medium-sized enterprises, which is very important to us; 80% of GDP comes from there, from SMEs, and that’s where I highlight work, startups, new generation companies around the use of this technology. We also own 15% of large companies, of which I highlight my commitment to change these business models. We also work with universities, institutions and public administrations. I wouldn’t want to name it because for me all partners are key and everyone comes together.

What are Alastria’s goals?

We have three strategic goals. The first would be to promote or encourage research and development in technology in an innovative way. We say that we are blockchain agnostics and that means that we are always looking at the state of technology, what kind of networks it has, and how to strengthen this technology for the transmission of blockchain information in an orderly way. We already know what it will be used for, thanks to the business relationships we return when we call smart contracts, but the most important thing is that each partner is connected to that transmission network through nodes. We make a communication network. This network of communication between all partners can be done in a variety of ways, with stronger or less resilience and different scalability and efficiencies. And there we learn.

The other is the purpose of the business. Knowing that the way we convey information and value is changing, what new business or what improvements can they make with the company or with all the suppliers, all the customers ... what relationship can I improve? And do it the other way around. And that’s where we’re exploring innovation and talent, because we greatly encourage the spread and knowledge of this new technology, but not only at the technological level, but also at the economic level, at the legal level, at the level of any other profession that provides support.

The ultimate goal and methodology is very important to me. What we are doing in Alastria is that technological development has a direct impact on the well-being of new businesses and the creation of social benefits. So for that, we need a methodology, standards, what we call standardization, and that has to be in the international European framework.

So, in short, they would be to drive technology, drive innovation and drive methodology.

Nola azalduko zenuke Blockchain zer den?

Blockchain informazioa, ezagutza, Interneten transmititzeko modu berria da. Egia esan internet zerbait etereikoa da, ez baitugu ukitzen, ez da ukigarria. Ordenagailuetan, mugikorretan edo erloju adimendunetan komunikatzen garennez, gailu hauekin elkar komunikatzen gara Interneteko sare ireki honen bidez. Blockchain-ekin egin duguna geruza bat, software bat, programa bat da, informazioaren transmisio hori beste modu batera egiteko aukera ematen duena. Ezberdina da babesten dugula ziurtatzen duelako, zifratzen dugu eta informazio guztia leku batera joan ez dadin egiten dugu. Ez dugu zentralizatzen. Hemen egiten duguna informazioa deszentralizatzea da eta trukeak sendoagoa egiten du, pribatutasunarekiko eta azpiegituren aldaketetarako kaltegarriagoa da, esaterako, makina edo zerbitzaria erortzen eta informazioa galtzen. Sare hau askoz ere erresilienteagoa da, askoz ere seguruagoa eta sendoagoa.

What benefits does blockchain offer you?

Overall it will offer us two very significant advantages. The first is that we transmit information, that we own it, where that information comes from, when it is used, and with whom we use it. We take control of the information and it’s very important to be aware that you’re communicating something on this network that we don’t see. And for me it changes the way we exchange information or the way we sell things on the internet. The e-commerce portal will be different because you will have much more precise control over what and with whom you are buying and, on the other hand, who you are selling to.

And the second benefit is that there is much more security, much more robust, information that is very important to you in places you don’t know about the planet, it doesn’t pass, it’s at least a decentralized network, but everything is encrypted. What you send is secure and then you have much more security.

Can you give us an example of how we use blockchain today?

Current use cases are very useful at the level of two things, to secure an item, to register ... We often say we don’t know what we are eating, right? So the registration of the farm, where it comes from, can be done on the blockchain network. Record from the beginning what distribution channels you are sending to and what will reach the final buyer of that food. So you make a record of the origin and end of the item that comes from the agricultural world.

Another area and area where a lot of work is being done is documents: certification or certifying that you are sending or recording a document, saving it, and making sure that you are the author of that document. It is important for creators in today’s world that a song, a text, an article can be easily distributed without knowing how many readers the author has and without knowing who the author of that article was. This is what we call traceability.

Can the use have a negative effect?

It’s like everything. There is something positive and negative about the human characteristic that all tools use. Blockchain is still a tool. The purpose of what you use, there may be a problem or a negative impact. We started with these technologies ten years ago and there was always a need for a lot of power to build a mathematical way, a lot of computer power, and that the computer is powered. This is no longer a problem because we have managed to have computers with much more efficient electronics, and software, as we are programming programs, in a more efficient and sustainable way. In other words, it is no longer the most negative part of a misuse of natural resources. So I always think it’s out of courtesy because of the kindness of those who are programming and designing it, this tool can be used for better or worse.

What types of companies use blockchain the most?

In tourism and health, due to the pandemic situation we are in. We are increasingly realizing that it is very difficult to fight something we do not see, such as a virus. And it’s important to know where we are, what we eat, where we travel, who has traveled with us, and in that conscious privacy, in that I’m conscious of making a move or exchanging certain objects, blockchain helps a lot. Allows you to make this recording. Therefore, it is very present in tourism, health, insurance and in industry, agriculture in general, for example, we can know that the goods of the farmers arrive at the supermarket in a very clean way, knowing where they have gone.

Let’s talk about the era of the koravirus. How is it applied?

What we have promoted in Alastria with all our partners is to use the blockchain to make a responsible acknowledgment, to record that you have performed certain actions and that these actions will not involve the transmission of this virus. You can indicate the mobility situation you have been in, which can be done by the company to the employee or the employee himself. Blockchain is very useful for these responsible statements because it is the place where you can record and moreover the blockchain has a wonderful thing, a record of the time remaining for the rest of your life.

We say we record, as if we had recorded on metal. That’s an analogy to what’s done with blockchain; you give your name to life. And this is very useful in people or objects, samples or elements that have had to move during this pandemic, either through the screens or visors we need to protect ourselves, or against the traceability of any physical element that we can uniquely identify. We can register on the blockchain and find out where it came from and where they are going. This is very useful in these times of cowardice; we need to know more than ever that the virus has at least been detected and that we are not spreading it. We are now very interested in not spreading this virus, and blockchain is a good tool to declare this and not spread it.

Has this crisis changed blockchain plans? Has it opened up a whole new horizon of work?

At Blockchain we were already working on vaccine traceability and registration, and we were working on that in the healthcare, transportation and logistics environment, and we were very sad because we hadn’t accelerated before, because now we had solutions. We are emerging fast and we are emerging in a fast way because we are aware that this technology is very useful in achieving everything needed to fight the pandemic that we are seeing. What has happened to us then is that it has accelerated our plans.

So can it be said that these issues were already being addressed?

Yes, we were working on what we call digital identity, we worked to make it a standard model around the world. This model complies with much more restrictive European laws. Thanks to this work, we can now, based on the work done two years ago, promote and provide these elements of a responsible declaration.

How do you see the blockchain in the future?

The Internet is new, a new way of transmitting knowledge and leaving the world of data behind. Data is signals, but if we give it context, it is information. What we need to do to make big predictions or work in the world of mathematical data is from a secure source, from an authenticated source, and that’s what blockchain does. This data provides context when it is sent from this blockchain network. Blockchain is the internet of value, the internet of information.

And that will be the future. We probably won’t see it because it’s something that comes after our mobile screens or our smart watches or smart clothes, but it will be something that will allow us to really deliver what we want. Communicate with people and make it possible with orderly rules. I think there will be a big change, and it will be more beneficial, more sustainable and more prudent.

What future does Alastria expect?

Definitely international. We are doing a very important job of getting to know it, and we are joining many other European countries in Alastria; We have just signed with Italy and Cyprus, the Netherlands ... We are working to spread and exchange knowledge. We believe that innovation does not have to be in favor of the company, but that all companies and organizations need to be innovative as a strategy.

We also work on the link or convergence between technology and telecoperation. What we will see is the work needed to properly connect these information technologies. Both Big Data and Artificial Intelligence or the Internet of Things, each for its own purposes and in well-connected quantum blockchain networks. There is a lot of interest in using technology. Our interest is to make good use of it.