Evidence of meeting #46 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was technology.
A video is available from Parliament.
4:40 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Blockchain Consortium
Everything outside of Bitcoin I would consider high risk.
4:40 p.m.
Liberal
Han Dong Liberal Don Valley North, ON
Oh my God, I'm doing advertising for Bitcoin. I can't believe it.
4:40 p.m.
Voices
Oh, oh!
4:40 p.m.
Co-Chief Executive Officer, Beatdapp Software Inc.
I have the same answer. Everything outside of Bitcoin is high.
4:40 p.m.
Liberal
Han Dong Liberal Don Valley North, ON
Okay, since everyone agrees with that, how would you categorize Bitcoin? Is it low? You can't say it's low, because the value dropped quite a bit.
Jean, I won't put you on the spot.
Patrick, you're more on the blockchain.
4:40 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Mavennet Systems Inc.
I'm not going to ask you to define either low—
4:40 p.m.
Liberal
Han Dong Liberal Don Valley North, ON
You don't want to make enemies. Okay, fine. We'll switch gears.
My point is that it is a non-partisan issue, right? When the Conservative leader, during his leadership bid, advised Canadians to put their investments into cryptocurrency to protect them from inflation, he said that this inflation is homegrown. It became a topic of debate in Parliament, so your testimony here on record is very important.
Let's switch gears.
To Patrick and Morgan, I really appreciate your presence today, because you talked about applications of blockchain other than in cryptocurrency. I have to confess, before today, much like Mr. Cannings, I was unclear about the technology itself, because of the words “block” and “chain”. Now I have a better understanding.
Would you say that this technology could be helpful to all governments around the world in terms of solving emissions issues—addressing climate change—because you can track production from its origin? Do you think it's going to be a huge tool for all governments around the world?
4:45 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Mavennet Systems Inc.
One hundred per cent. In order to know what your emissions are, first of all you need to measure them. The way we are measuring them is not by product. We're doing it by industrial facility. If I'm an organization that's consuming a large amount of product, I have to do a very deep study to find out how much impact I'm having on the environment.
4:45 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Mavennet Systems Inc.
It costs a lot of money and time. I can't be accurate, because I'll say, “Well, in buying this pen, I encourage so much CO2 in the environment,” but I'm using a global factor for this pen. This pen could be coming from Asia, or it could be from a local factory—
4:45 p.m.
Liberal
4:45 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Mavennet Systems Inc.
Exactly. It's the same thing—
4:45 p.m.
Liberal
Han Dong Liberal Don Valley North, ON
If the case is agriculture, it's the same thing.
Before the government actually sees blockchain, via regulation and legislation, as a very good tool to track emissions and therefore combat climate change, there's one question: What's the incentive for the business, manufacturer or farmer to participate in blockchain technology? What would that incentive be?
4:45 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Mavennet Systems Inc.
This is where I think we need to be smart about it. We need to start in Canada, because we know we have production of steel that is less than half of CO2 emissions. Now, with the new ArcelorMittal factory in Hamilton, it's probably even more.
4:45 p.m.
Liberal
4:45 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Mavennet Systems Inc.
Essentially, you need them to adopt standards that would allow them to—
4:45 p.m.
Liberal
Han Dong Liberal Don Valley North, ON
Would pricing on carbon be helpful? They will save a lot of money on that, or cap and trade, when they can trade their emissions capital.
4:45 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Mavennet Systems Inc.
It would help, certainly.
I think that things like, for example, driving by example.... In our procurement, looking for specific standards and looking for verification that products have a maximum amount of CO2 emissions, that's—
4:45 p.m.
Liberal
Han Dong Liberal Don Valley North, ON
If I tell you that in conventional...like in traditional steel manufacturing, there is a blockchain technology that will reduce your emissions by 50% or maybe even 80%, because now you can track where the emissions are coming from—you look like you don't believe that—the incentive is that therefore you will pay a lower price on carbon without production. Do you think that will be a right incentive?