On the way to becoming a blockchain hub

Transition through blockchain

Up until a few years ago, blockchain was considered as a technology experiment - and now it is an actual agent of change. More and more companies are implementing and testing blockchain in use. Most decision-makers believe that their own company will lose a competitive advantage if distributed ledger technology (DLT) does not find its way into use. Hamburg focuses on this technology of the future - and is on its way to becoming a European DLT hotspot.

As part of the city's Regional Innovation Strategy, a large number of blockchain projects are already being implemented in Hamburg and the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, in sectors such as energy, logistics and industry.

Europe's leading blockchain conference in Hamburg

Since 2018, Hamburg has hosted the annual Blockchance Europe, which is regarded as the leading blockchain conference in Europe. From 16 to 18 October 2024, stakeholders from business and industry will meet at the CCH to discuss the future of this technology under the tagline 'The Web 3 Conference'. Another fixture on the scene is the MoinBlockchain event organised by Moinworld e. V., which has set itself the goal of increasing the share of women in IT to 50%.

Dialogue between business, science and society

Fabian Friedrich, initiator of Blockchance Europe and co-founder of the Hanseatic Blockchain Institute, is convinced that the use of blockchain technology for trust-based collaboration in the digitally networked world is the next big step. In addition to the Blockchain Research Lab, there are several startups in Hamburg in this field, including Finexity and Exporo, a crowdinvesting fintech that has developed a token-based property bond.

Real use case in logistics

As a transparent, fraud-proof and decentralised technology, blockchain holds great potential for the logistics sector. The North German joint project HANSEBLOC ("Hanseatic Blockchain Innovations for Logistics and Supply Chain Management") aims to achieve a forgery-proof and standardised exchange of freight documents based on this technology.

What is blockchain technology?

A blockchain is a decentralised database that holds a constantly growing list of transaction data records. The database is expanded chronologically in a linear fashion, similar to a chain to which new elements are constantly added at the lower end - hence the term 'blockchain'. Once a block is complete, the next one is generated. Each block contains a checksum of the previous block. This is intended to protect the technology from manipulation. Blockchain is therefore part of distributed ledger technology (DLT).