Fabio Bonfiglio is the president of the NEDAO Association. He advocates for the decentralization of the web and better digital education for future generations.

With 20 years of experience in project management and software development in industrial automation and enterprise software, he has specialized in DLT (distributed ledger technology) and blockchain technologies since 2016, and supports companies and organizations through this new digital transformation with his company, FBO Developments. Interview.

What is the NEDAO project?

It involves creating a platform that will be both:

  • a demonstration of new technologies related to decentralization, smart contracts, etc.,
  • a practical tool for funding projects of regional interest—whether related to innovation, culture, and/or the economy—for residents of Neuchâtel.

What were the project’s major milestones in 2020?

We were supposed to organize biweekly conferences and workshops to support early adopters, gather their feedback, and understand which key points to highlight and develop. The ultimate goal was to get everyday people to use these new technologies. The very first of these conferences was scheduled for March 2020, but the lockdown was announced just a few days before it could take place.
We then had to adjust the schedule and development milestones accordingly and focus our development efforts on the core technological building blocks, so that the user interfaces could later be adapted as much as possible to the needs expressed by early adopters.
We have already demonstrated how decentralized identity works (see video below), and we hope to make these initial interfaces available to the general public very soon so they can begin testing them.

Why is NEDAO inextricably linked to decentralized technologies, such as blockchain?

Because its goal is precisely to demonstrate to the public and to the region’s industrial and economic sectors the full potential for improving administrative efficiency, accelerating the exchange of value, and its considerable benefits in terms of transparency and traceability.

How long do you think it will take for this kind of system to become widespread?

It’s clear that we’re still at the equivalent of the mid-1990s when it comes to the Internet, and that it will take a few more years for these technologies to become fully accessible to everyone. Nevertheless, COVID has served as a wake-up call for many organizations around the world; it has revealed the urgent need for truly effective digitization solutions. I quite like the image of a contract—even in 2021—still being signed by hand with a good old-fashioned pen, scanned, and sent back via email so it can be processed by an administrative department. That’s not digitization—it’s a makeshift solution!
True digitization would operate without any physical medium, thanks to the generation of a cryptographic signature. The entire process would be integrated into a transaction published on a DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) network and would automatically trigger a service or payment, instantly and without any administrative intermediaries. This is how I envision digitization: direct, instant exchanges, without unnecessary additional costs, and without the risk of corruption or censorship.

How does the canton of Neuchâtel support this type of project?

The Canton funded the NEDAO project through NPR (New Regional Policies) funding. The region has a strong manufacturing heritage, with major innovations—particularly in microtechnology—that have made an impact worldwide. This is a unique opportunity for industrial players in the canton to position themselves as pioneers of these new technologies.
In the watchmaking sector, for example, one can envision the development of certification standards for the conformity of parts supplied by subcontractors, which could have a huge impact in terms of efficiency and cost reduction in production processes (lean manufacturing). This is just one example among hundreds that are applicable in industry, organizations, academia, and institutions, as well as to democratic institutions themselves.

 

To learn more, visit the dedicated website: www.nedao.ch