‘Deathmatch’ panel on private versus public blockchain heats up at South by Southwest: Arguments over what it means to be truly decentralized

By Omar Gallaga

A panel over the future of walled-garden blockchain nodes versus so-called “permissionless” blockchain stopped short of getting personal, but was still more contentiously vocal than most talks at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas.

The featured SXSW panel “Blockchain Deathmatch: Permission-ed vs -less” Thursday afternoon was part of a “Blockchain & Cryptocurrency” track at the conference and festival. It included IBM OpenTech’s Christopher Ferris, a computer scientist and author of the company’s Blockchain Pulse blog; St. Mary’s University School of Law professor Angela Walch, who is also a research fellow at the Centre for Blockchain Technologies at University College London; and Jimmy Song, a venture partner for Blockchain Capital, Bitcoin Core developer, and author.

It was moderated by University of Texas at Austin associate professor of finance Cesare Fracassi.

No sooner had introductions for the panel concluded than arguments over what it means to be truly decentralized began in earnest.

Link to full article on ModernConsensus.com

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