Interview with technologist / blockchain PhD holder Alex Norta

 

Alex Norta, to me. It seems like I have known you a very long time. For my one reader or readers. However, they do not know you or profession or your story from South Africa to where you are now. Could you please tell my reader about you?


    https://www.etis.ee/CV/Alexander_Norta/eng?lang=ENG

    https://www.researchgate.net/lab/Blockchain-Technology-Group-Alex-Norta

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexnorta/

    https://freenet.space/bafana

What one story do you wish people would know about you? That makes you. Well, you?

Maybe that already when I started working on my PhD-thesis in 2001 and that I defended in the beginning of 2007, I worked on what is now called smart contracts and DAO-collaboration. However, that fact only became clear to me so many years later when the Ethereum whitepaper came out. 

You are a professor. That works with doctorate candidates in their thesis about electronic contracts. Can you talk to your work on helping them?

To be correct, of the 6 PhD students who defended so far successfully under my supervision, or co-supervision, one PhD thesis has so far been about blockchain technology and smart contracts. This year, I expect another PhD student of mine to defend about the legal relevance of smart contracts in a European context. Also next year, I expect yet another PhD student to defend successfully about requirement-engineering techniques with a focus on blockchain DApps. Indeed, several more PhD students are in the pipeline and they are progressing with their research under my supervision working on blockchain- and smart-contract related topics. I found that for my supervision work, it is very helpful to adopt classical thinking that is trivium- and quadrivium based thinking. Despite the roots in classical thinking I also found a very nice popular-language website that nice expresses what I mean: http://www.triviumeducation.com/

Cryptocurrency and electronic contracts, a wave of the future. Could you provide your vision of the future for contracts, etc?

Smart contracts should be explored for their legal relevance. In fact, when we resolve the issue of legal relevance for smart contracts and provide tools that also allow lawyers, other industry practitioners and even private individuals to execute smart contracts then we are all set to have them take over and become the new norm. This way, we can also aim for a full automation lifecycle support of smart contracts that will help us achieve a lot more effectiveness and efficiency in running society, i.e., an enormous amount of cost savings and explosion in productivity as we can dismantle countless layers of bureaucracy in public- and private organizations. Thus, we flatten society from that current state of vertically integrated pyramids of command and control that are run qualitatively by humans who are prone to produce errors, fraud, nepotism, corruption. The future state is then a flat and process-flow aware new society without hierarchies that operates peer-to-peer and where blockchains powering smart contracts serve as trust engines, which are quantitatively rooted in mathematics and cryptography. Thus, code will be law and I assume old-school lawyers will have a rough time to face from here on adapting to such a transition towards automation.

So the awkward questions. Microsoft patent. What do you think of the idea of humanity becoming a battery for Microsoft? https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=WO2020060606&fbclid=IwAR3cukmm RcPjztVidJeD70vcdiSKXF-P1Av0-XZUJETPLfmbERSrF-U_m2Y

I am aware of that patent and shocked about it. In principle, technology is always neutral while it is up to humans to use and tweak technology in a weaponized way. While I am not part of any religious organization myself, I am intrigued that the patent number even comprises 3 times the number 6, which brings thoughts about the bible and the revelation chapter to my mind. In my opinion, we have here a clear inversion of the original intention of blockchain technology according to Satoshi’s first use-case paper of Bitcoins towards what I can only describe as beast technology. Quite honestly, I am not surprised such a patent emerges from the deep bowels of that particular military-industrial spyware complex organization.

What one idea do you wish readers would take away from a conversation with you?

Maybe that we have a unique opportunity with the emergence and diffusion of blockchain technologies of all kinds in society to fix so many problems in society that will potentially bring us to the next level of prosperity. Most people don’t understand the profound contributions of blockchain innovation being the solution to the Byzantin generals problem (a classic distributed algorithm problem) by offering novel consensus models. Next, the so-called double-spend problem has been solved too that assures a token can not be spent more than once. Finally, I must stress that blockchain technology also allows for powerful triple-entry ledger management that will render armies superfluous of auditors, compliance officers, lawyers, accountants bookkeepers, and so on. To put this into perspective: the introduction of single-entry ledger management allowed society a transition from hunters and gatherers to farming communities. The introduction of double-entry ledger management then turned farming communities into industrial societies that we still predominantly live in and suffer from. It will be exciting to see what societal transition the transition to triple-entry ledger management will bring. My prediction is the transition will be extremely deep and profound as blockchain technology in its philosophically authentic form promotes total distribution, decentralisation, disintermediation and disruption.

Which country do you feel is leading the way into the future you see?

Oh my, as an anarchist, I do not think any so-called country is capable of leading the way in anything. Instead, it will be individuals who come together and take the initiative to disrupt the status quo with smart contracts and blockchain technology. I feel very privileged to be in a position where I can work in this domain as a researcher all the time. Hopefully, it will be possible to maintain my position and continue this way. One must understand that is not easy as universities are government funded and as such, professors are typically expected to work on innovations that strengthen the power and influence of the government and state. By having me work all day long on anarcho technology such as smart contracts and blockchains, I do by no means take it for granted that I can continue this way working in my current position.

What is your favorite author and book? Could be different.

There are so many good authors to mention. But maybe the most powerful and relevant authors and their books would have to be George Orwell with 1984 and Animal Farm, and Aldous Huxley with Brave New World. Society has gone absolutely bonkers for several years and this trend towards a total Idiocracy is just strengthening every day. I can not believe how self-respecting adults can still go along and tolerate the abuses of psychopaths in charge.

What one question do you wish I would have asked? And what is the answer?

Q: What is the solution for the ever increasing tyranny and decline of society?

Solution: We as individuals must start to seek the truth with all possible effort and stand up for the truth against bullies and tyrants as resolutely as possible.