Montse Guardia Güell is the CEO of the Alastria Blockchain consortium. It is attended by more than 500 members from higher 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 Alastria, blockchain and how this technology can be used to fight coronavirus can be explained.

What is Alastria?
Alastria is a non-profit association; its mission is to promote and disseminate the technologies of distributed accounting records. 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 loyal to the technology it deploys 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 in three axes, working on the legal axis, the technological axis and the innovation or organizational change to help create new businesses with this technology.

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 what the state of the technology is, what kind of network 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 to the company or to all the suppliers or suppliers, to 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, which we call standardization, and that has to be in the international European framework.

How would you explain what Blockchain is?
Blockchain is a new way of transmitting information, knowledge, on the Internet. The truth is that the internet is something ethereal because we don’t touch it, it’s not tangible. When we communicate on computers, mobiles or smart watches, we communicate with these devices through this open internet network. What we have done with Blockchain is a layer, a software, a program that allows us to transmit this information in a different way. It’s different because it ensures that we protect, we encrypt, and we make sure all the information doesn’t go away in one place. We don’t centralize. What we do here is decentralize information and make the exchange stronger, more detrimental to privacy and infrastructure changes, such as when a machine or server crashes and information is lost. This network is much more resilient, much more secure and robust.

What benefits does Blockchain bring?
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 to whom you are selling.

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 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 a computer that is powered by energy. This is no longer a problem, as 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.

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. The blockchain is very useful for these responsible statements because it is a place where you can record and moreover the blockchain has a wonderful thing, a record of the time remaining for a lifetime.

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’s plans?
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 quickly and in a fast-paced way because we are aware that this technology is very useful in achieving everything needed to fight the pandemic we are seeing. What has happened to us then is that it has accelerated our plans.

How do you see 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 make big predictions or work in the world of mathematical data is from a secure source, from an authenticated source, and that’s what the blockchain does. This data provides context when it is sent from this blockchain network. Blockchain is the internet of value, the internet of information.