3FOOD

Third Industrial Revolution Consulting Group
Proposal 2: The Blockchain Opportunity for Luxembourg
Blockchains are an essential new technology for ensuring a more efficient, transparent, and
secure transaction-based economy. While there are very real concerns about security risks
associated with any information-based technologies, there is broad agreement that blockchain
technology presents a unique opportunity for the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg to lead a global
transformation in both energy and economic efficiency. This can, in turn, lead to greater
inclusiveness and vast potential wealth creation. Blockchain technology is so integral to the
digital economy of the future that many of the ten bold projects envisioned by the Financial
Working Group’s contributions to TIR’s Smart Luxembourg initiative cannot be optimized in its
absence. 258
Over the past year, interest in blockchain technology, the distributed ledger system that
underpins bitcoin and other digital currencies, has surged internationally. The world’s biggest
banks, largest consulting firms, most influential non-government organizations and, recently,
leading national and regional governments and central banks are all exploring blockchain
technology’s potential. More critically, there is now widespread belief that this technology will
258 Early use of blockchain technologies required energy-intensive applications that might have partially offset the
full benefits of their use. At the same time, however, both research and advances in technologies indicate a rapidly
growing improvement in their application so that anticipated energy needs by 2020 may be only three percent of
what was previously anticipated. See, for example, an interesting analytical exercise suggesting that worldwide use
of the technology could consume as much power as Denmark, but probably won’t.
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