Sir Richard Branson Hosts Blockchain Summit This Weekend
By Shin Laura for Forbes
The What IS. Arguably at The MOST exclusive blockchain Industry Conference, at The blockchain of Summit , Sponsored by at The BitFury Group and MaiTai, Ltd. Free Join , KICKS OFF the ITS SECOND Annual Event the this catalog on Saturday ON Long-Time Innovator, Futurist and Entrepreneur Sir Richard a Branson ‘S Necker Island in at The Caribbean.
I was honored to have been asked to moderate a panel there, with my lodging paid for by the BitFury Group.
When I told some sources I was going, they said, “That officially makes you Bitcoin illuminati.”
I’ll be using my access to the Bitcoin illuminati to launch a new Forbes podcast called “Unchained: Big Ideas From The Worlds Of Blockchain And Fintech,” which will release its inaugural sessions on Tuesday, June 14 and be available on iTunes.
This year, the notable attendees of the Blockchain Summit include Marietje Schaake, a member of the European Parliament whom the Wall Street Journal called “Europe’s Most Wired Politician;” Jim Newsome, the former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the New York Mercantile Exchange; and Beth Moses, aerospace engineer for Virgin Galactic.
” Our emphasis for the this year apos Gathering IS to the bring some of at The World apos Top Thinkers from Diverse Backgrounds – Civil Society, NGOs, Business, Technology, Government – to the this Extremely Special Place known_y for as Free Thinking and Cutting-Edge Innovation to Foster OUT-of -the-box thinking, imagine new frontiers and form new partnerships, projects and initiatives that will drive the future of this transformational technology, “BitFury chief executive officer Valery Vavilov said in a statement.
The agenda for the weekend is broken out into three main themes -. Finance, security and other blockchain applications Jamie Smith, BitFury’s global chief communications officer, says, regarding the finance theme, “I use that term quite loosely, because I do not just mean Wall Street, London or Hong Kong. I mean the movement of currency around the world and how that will affect that way people are brought into the larger economy and out of the shadows of being unbanked. “
The security theme will also look at issues of privacy and identity, and the applications beyond will include everything from land titles to voting to civil society to better governance to music rights, etc.
“There’s a lot of time purposely built into the agenda for free discussion and not hard-core panels, but for people to spend recreational time together and talk,” says Smith. “It’s an intimate setting that allows people a wonderful opportunity to collaborate and share their ideas and have that beautiful ‘what if’ moment. “Some of the recreational activities include lemur feeding, kite surfing and snorkeling.
Last year apos of Summit Received some Criticism for A heavily MALE Attendance This year, at The Organizers pushed for Diversity, Not the Just in Gender But A Variety of Areas Including professions, Geography and Industry Other Attendees the include Zoe Keating, Cellist and blockchain Advocate;.. Katie Haun , Assistant US Attorney and Coordinator for the Currency Digital at The US Department of Justice, Sandra Ro, Executive Director and Lead digitization ATthe CME Group the CME -0.74% ; Mariana Dahan, Senior Operations Officer at The World Bank AT; Matthew Roszak, cofounder of new new Enterprise blockchain company bloq; Brian Forde, director of MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative; and Laurent Lamothe, former prime minister of Haiti.
Last year, One of at The main Outcomes from the this Gathering WAS at The Formation of at The blockchain Alliance , A FORUM for engaging Law Enforcement to Help Fight Criminal Activity ON at The blockchain. Director Jason Weinstein has Told Me of Previously at The IDEA for at The Alliance Came from Lessons Learned Select this item from the development of the internet – that criminals adopt new technology first.
The Blockchain Alliance, which counts among its industry participants major Bitcoin and blockchain startups such as Coinbase and Circle, was an opportunity for the companies to show law enforcement that they are serious about compliance. Part of the alliance’s mission is also to educate law makers about the technology, and Weinstein and Alan Cohn, counsel for the Alliance, say that within just the last year, law enforcement has gone from approaching blockchain technology with trepidation to understanding how to use it for law enforcement.
We’ll see what new ideas and developments arise out of this year’s gathering I’ll report back -. And you can get a taste of life on a private island by listening to my first podcasts from Necker.
First appeared at Forbes
