“Blockchain technology must become more human” – Introducing BLOCKCHANCE speaker Max Burger
Reading Time: 4 minutes ; Published: 2 years ago on September 1, 2021
Max Burger is an MBA with a background in trading and marketing. As Nimiq’s spokesperson, he bridges blockchain innovations to partners, businesses and the community. His main objective: Representing true cryptocurrency that proves that usability can be fully decentralized. Nimiq is working on future generations of cryptocurrencies that tackle a key point for mass adoption: usability. They follow the idea that a blockchain-based financial system needs to be simple and safe with a great UX. We asked Max some questions about blockchain and the future and got excellent insights.
As a Blockchain Ambassador at Nimiq, how have you perceived society’s attitude towards Blockchain so far?
In my daily business, I meet a lot of different people: some with very profound knowledge of the underlying technology and space and others without any prior knowledge of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, but who are very interested and open to the topic. Then it’s fun to explain why using a cryptocurrency like NIM can be an interesting alternative to traditional payment methods. Of course, I also often have to refute known criticisms or misconceptions about energy consumption and usability of blockchain technology: for example, Nimiq is not wasting energy resources by switching to proof-of-stake in the near future and that we make all the complicated technical features of blockchain technology user-friendly and accessible for our users so that they can get started very easily. As so often in life, ignorance is one of the biggest barriers to a better understanding or even interest in the topic of blockchain and cryptocurrency. Therefore, one of Nimiq’s most important goals is to make our payment solutions and especially the entry into the crypto world as easy and pleasant as possible. And all this without ever losing focus on the fundamental pillars of blockchain and crypto: Being censorship-resistant, neutral, borderless, open, permissionless, and of course decentral.
What must happen for blockchain to improve our future?
First and foremost, blockchain technology must become more human. Nowadays it’s often about a breathtaking technological development – similar to the early days of the internet – that is set to change the world, but apart from those technical possibilities and features, the ‘human factor’ in crypto is still missing. The best technology in the world is useless if it’s not also intuitively easy to use and practical for people, while also being secure, trustworthy, inexpensive, and fast. That’s what people want to see in a product, accompanied by a low ecological footprint and maybe even a charitable aspect – because people like to spend money mindfully, contribute and do good. That’s why Nimiq is building ‘crypto for humans’: a payment ecosystem of blockchain solutions that fulfils not only all standards of a true blockchain and cryptocurrency but also caters to the very human demands of products and solutions. We believe that this is the right way to foster adoption and ultimately help blockchain technology to change the world for the better!
How do you gain confidence for the future?
We as a team feel honored to be able to develop the best and easiest blockchain-based payment system in the world day by day. However, this honor is also accompanied by a great responsibility that we must live up to: as an open-source project, we have maintained a very close and transparent relationship with our community from day one. Every decision we make is always guided by the aspiration of ‘doing the right thing’. We want to achieve our ambitious goal in a sincere and honest way while helping to make the world a better place along the way. With Nimiq’s ImpactX foundation, our special reserve for supporting projects of high social and ecological impact, this aim has been firmly anchored in our DNA since the very beginning. Remaining true to our fundamental principles and continuing to always ‘do the right things’, we have good reasons to maintain a very positive outlook into the future!
What motivates you to be a speaker at the Blockchance conference?
My main motivation to speak at Blockchance is to tell the world about Nimiq’s blockchain technology innovations: This year we already released Nimiq OASIS the world’s first non-custodial fiat-to-crypto atomic swap and are about to roll out yet another one-of-a-kind solution that could lastingly change the way people buy and sell cryptocurrency. And there’s much more to come! The team is heavily working on Nimiq 2.0, our proof-of-stake blockchain that uses our own consensus algorithm that achieves sub-second transaction confirmation and peak performances of over 1000 TPS without requiring slashing, or compromising censorship resistance. Just as Nimiq 1.0, Nimiq 2.0 will enable users to directly connect to the Nimiq blockchain with nothing more than a regular browser on any device. They can hold NIM and BTC in Nimiq’s self-custodial web-wallet, stake and earn rewards and make crypto payments in both online and brick and mortar shops. And all that packaged into appealing, easy-to-use solutions and without ever compromising on decentralization and the fundamental pillars of crypto as described above. Nimiq is a true cryptocurrency, but made for humans: easy, fast, secure, and very convenient to use. And that’s exactly what we want to show at Blockchance!
Max Burger is highly experienced in the blockchain space. Meet him at the upcoming BLOCKCHANCE Europe 2021 conference, where he will highlight the contradiction behind using centralized services to interact with decentralized cryptocurrencies, e.g. leaving cryptocurrency on a centralized platform, giving away custody, being vulnerable to censorship and risk to lose your funds! Get your ticket here and take a deep dive into the universe of future technologies.