All posts by natalie

10 May 2017

KPMG Representative to Speak About the Future of Blockchain in the Notary at Blockchain Conference Astana

Blockchain Conference Astana to be held on June 14 – 15, 2017 in the capital of Kazakhstan promises to be one of the greatest blockchain events in the country. The program of the conference already includes performances by representatives of Microsoft, IBM, Deloitte, Humaniq, Juscutum Attorneys Association, Sofitto and many other companies. The conference will involve over 20 speakers and 150 guests from around the world.

The senior consultant of the management consulting department at the IT consulting group in KPMG Kazakhstan and Central Asia Zarina Kuzhmaganbetova will share practical application of the blockchain technology in the notary. In particular, the KPMG representative will explain why the distributed network technology is ideal for checking signatures and documents in legal transactions.

Zarina has over 10 years of experience in the IT sphere. In 2013, Zarina received a degree of Master of Science from the Imperial College London. Today, she is a student of PhD Computer Science at the L.N.Gumilyov Eurasian National University. Zarina’s expertise includes projects on architecture development, technical writing (ERP choice), IT infrastructure audit, and system inspection for compliance with information security requirements. The industry experience includes public sector, telecommunications, banking, transport, and logistics.

BConference Astana creates the largest platform for discussing the role of blockchain in the modernization of priority sectors of Kazakhstan’s economy. Proceeding from this mission, the conference organizers make the event program to be as useful as possible for state bodies, the banking & financial sector as well as the energy sector.

Participation in the conference is open to everyone interested. To attend the conference, please register on the site.

In order to keep abreast of all the news of BConference Astana, please sign up for our newsletters and stay tuned on the website bconference.kz.

11 Mar 2017

The Future of the Energy Sector to Be Discussed in Kazakhstan

In 2017, Astana will host the World’s Fair Expo 2017 being recognized as one of the most important international forums. This time, the Expo is not accidentally devoted to the theme of Future Energy. The problem of energy consumption has been relevant for the entire planet as never before. According to its organizers, the Expo aims to draw attention of states and governments to the issue of responsibility to future generations, planning and monitoring of the energy consumption on the planet and reducing the damage to the environment.

Supporting the key topic of the Expo 2017 and being for the introduction of revolutionary solutions for the energy sector development as well as cleanliness and safety of the planet, Blockchain Conference (BConference) will take place this June in Astana. The conference will bring together representatives of the blockchain industry from around the world to talk about their successful experience of using the technology that has already proved itself to be the main innovation in the financial and energy environment.

The BConference Astana program covers the following topics:

  • Blockchain technology capabilities for the financial environment: solutions for banks, payment systems, money transfers, exchange operations, etc.
  • Energy trading and renewable energy
  • Smart grids
  • Data tracking and analysis using the blockchain

In addition, during the second day of the conference, its organizers will hold a tour to the unique complex of Expo 2017 Future Energy demonstrating the exhibits from over 200 countries around the world.

Participation in the conference may be of interest to representatives of banking and financial sectors, managers and owners of companies in the field of money transfers and exchange operations, energy companies, oil & gas sector representatives, save-energy companies, blockchain start-ups as well as representatives of public authorities at all levels.

In the near future, we will announce the conference program with more detailed information. To register, please visit the conference website.

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AroundB is an organizer of the world-wide series of conferences under the brand name Blockchain Conference. AroundB is among the world’s first companies focusing on events and marketing services exclusively for projects in the sphere of cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies. The Agency’s core areas of activity involve organization and holding of specialized events, development of communication strategies and implementation of PR campaigns of any complexity for projects dealing with blockchain technologies and operating on the Ethereum platform. The portfolio of the AroundB team includes over 10 conferences organized in five countries and 8 cities

12 Dec 2016

Blockchain Conference Abu Dhabi 2016 Results

BLOCKCHAIN IS A DELICATE MATTER

The Future magazine has been a media partner of Blockchain Conference Abu Dhabi. The conference has become a consolidation of visionary and strategic views on prospects for the segment development, expert presentations in the context of the infrastructural management of the blockchain ecosystem (regulation, legislation) and practical experience using real international cases.

Strategic View

If you google ‘blockchain’, you will get about 21 million hits in total, while IoT (Internet of Things) gives you about 90 million hits, VR (Virtual Reality) – 115 million hits, and a search query for ‘Donald Trump’ – over 400 million hits. A blockchain evangelist and IBM | Middle East representative Saqr Ereiqat has begun his presentation with this short demonstration of the blockchain penetration into the real world. During the introduction of the emerging industry, he has however noted that the modest statistics is not surprising, because the increased public interest in the topic of blockchain appeared only at the end of last year and at the beginning of this one. So, the awareness of this technology has not been significant yet even in the professional financial world.

According to various sources, however, today 80% of banks are exploring possibilities of the blockchain technology, and 78% of them believe that blockchain will acquire widespread use in five or six years. The greatest transformations in the next five or six years will occur in such segments as the consumer banking, payments & fund investments, wealth management, according to the PwC Global FinTech Survey 2016. As Gianfrancesco Martinico from PwC | Middle East has noted, 219 fintech companies related to blockchain have been registered as of today; 30 industries have become aware of valuable benefits from financial services based on blockchain; an amount of investments in the blockchain-fintech sector has been about $ 900 million.

Thus, even today we can observe an increased interest of leading financial players in the blockchain technology. For example, the French AXA Group has invested $ 55 million in the Canadian startup Blockstream located in Montreal. A Goldman Sachs has received the license for its own cryptocurrency SETLcoin. In parallel with the private investment projects, there is a trend of creating consortiums and associations like R3, Hyperledger and others.

“Companies are going to achieve more being together,” the speaker from PwC has noted.

Nuances of Government Regulation

At a time when a lot of hype surrounding the blockchain technology enters into a real business, a theme of the emerging industry regulation is becoming more actualized as well as the theme of fintech in general. One of the most interesting panels at Blockchain Conference Abu Dhabi has been devoted to this issue, which is cared deeply about by the most developed fintech markets of the world and their financial regulators. Two presentations have been given within this panel – PwC | Middle East and Zayed University Abu Dhabi (please follow the link to watch a video about the university).

The first presentation delivered by Madhukar Shenoy from PwC | Middle East has demonstrated real cases from the experience of the UK, Singapore, Australia and Switzerland being systematized in a framework format. The key idea of the performance is as follows: a successful supervision involves an availability of a responsible regulatory institution with a clear strategy aimed at establishing transparent rules for business and security for the consumer; a creation of the regulatory practices on the basis of a mutual dialogue between the regulator and business (‘sandbox’ formats,  etc., which provide an opportunity to test business processes and find appropriate regulatory solutions); as well as technologically neutral position of the regulator, which is essential for building an effective regulatory practice.

The second presentation delivered by Christian Chamorro-Courtland from Zayed University Abu Dhabi has focused on what should be a subject of regulation and how to enhance the effectiveness of regulation. His presentation has featured the regulatory practices of the Crown Dependencies of the Isle of Man, the European Union and the American city of Ontario (CA). He has announced an idea of creating a regulatory field in the format of ‘bottom-up’ based on the business practice. This effectively means the establishment of rules of the game by the business itself (including being represented in the different jurisdictions and able to bring advanced ideas) and the development of self-regulatory approaches. The creation of a transnational regulatory field (joining efforts of regulators from different countries) becomes very important. The speaker has predicted a growing demand for the regulation in the field of the Internet, DLT organizations working with the blockchain technology and the market of crypto assets in the near future. In general, the presented international experience can be called universal milestones for the creation of a successful regulatory practice in any emerging fintech market.

Blockchain in Practice

The section of practical cases has several reports that are worth mentioning. Thus, Marina Reznik from Ubitquity LLC (Canada) has spoken about the practical application of the blockchain technology in the real estate sector.

The benefits include an equal and transparent access by all the parties to the whole variety of information (this is an impressive list of transactions and procedures related to the real estate), which greatly facilitates interaction and speed of execution of all business procedures.

Dominik Schiener from IOTA (Germany) has spoken about the prospects of integration of the Internet of things (IOT) and the blockchain technology.

For a start, there is a global data: in 2020, there will be 50 billion of interconnected devices worldwide. This concerns the issue of how to create scalable data clusters on the principles of smart decentralization (on the basis of blockchain technologies and smart contracts) by combining online and offline ecosystems, which will lead to the formation of the Economy of Things and make a variety of resources more accessible and improve the quality of life.

This panel has also featured a case of the digital bank based on blockchain (Hashcoins) and a case related to the increased transparency of green investments in the solar energy (SunExchange, South Africa & SolcryptoJV, Japan).

For example, SunExchange project represents a p2p micro finance platform based on blockchain. This crowdfunding platform allows investing the minimum capital subject to high transparency of assets, enabling companies and natural persons to invest sums of $ 10 in the distributed solar energy projects around the world, according to Cambridge Abe from SunExchange. The project has been launched in South Africa, where there is a lot of solar potential and growing demand for the electric power.

Conclusion

Summarizing the results of the conference, we would like to share several conclusions. The first one is that the scope of blockchain technology application can be found everywhere; we just need to proceed from the specificity of a given geographical area and needs of the economy and consumers. The second conclusion follows from an exclusive interview with the blockchain evangelist from IBM | Middle East for the Future magazine (to be published in full in the December issue), which has grown from Q&A format into an interesting discussion. Thus, in five or six years our world will be a global public blockchain ecosystem consisting of a number of private blockchain ecosystems (with sectoral or functional specificity). This global ecosystem will be completely digital; however, it will be largely connected with the offline world through the Internet of Things. And if you as a business unit or an individual are not there, it will mean that you are absent on a new ‘world map’, which will be entirely digital by that time. And the key aspect in the creation of a global ‘world map’ and a global blockchain space is an issue of cross-border and cross-sectoral cooperation.

The Future magazine would like to thank the organizers of Blockchain Conference Abu Dhabi for the opportunity to give coverage to the exclusive content.

30 Nov 2016

Final coundtown – 7 days to Blockchain Conference Abu Dhabi

B Conference is coming closer and we would like to give you a small update on what, where and when you should do not to miss something interesting.

1. Tickets. You still have a chance to join our amazing event in Abu Dhabi, which will open a new opportunity with Blockchain for you.
Please register and buy a ticket here >>>>>>
Kindly note that the registration deadline is December 7, 2016.
If you wish to join our conference, please make sure to buy your ticket before this date.

2. Agenda. The conference starts at 9:30 a.m. and ends at 6:00 p.m. We recommend you to arrive a bit earlier to receive your badge and have a cup of morning coffee with your future partners.

3. Location. The conference venue is Marriott Downtown Abu Dhabi PO Box 37421
Sheikh Rashid Bin Saeed Street
Abu Dhabi
Please refer to the following directions >>>>>>

Don’t miss the chance to attend Blockchain Conference Abu Dhabi! We will be very pleased to meet you there.

27 Nov 2016

Blockchain Conference Abu Dhabi has obtained new Platinum sponsor – it`s GBMiners.

GBMiners is the first Bitcoin Mining Pool from India and Biggest from outside China. It is currently operating at 66+ PH/s (which is 4% of world’s hashing power) GBMiners is a product in association of Amaze Mining & Blockchain Research Ltd and Darwin Labs.
Contact details: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gbminers
Twitter: @GBMinersPool
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GBMinersPool/
And welcome our partner- BitcoinGrowthFund, it is a crowd sourced fund which evaluates startups and companies and invests capital in them. We use colored coins to distribute the shares of the fund among the investors and this enables us raise from any number of people with an amount as small as 1BTC.
Email ID: [email protected]

22 Nov 2016

Unique presentation & workshop: How to Create a Blockchain Bank using Blockchain

Blockchain Conference Abu Dhabi is coming closer! Only two weeks are left before the main FinTech event in the UAE. Its organizers still have fire to make this conference truly interesting and worth visiting.

We are glad to offer you a unique presentation & workshop: How to Create a Blockchain Bank using Blockchain.

General partners of Blockchain Conference Abu Dhabi have prepared something really interesting.

Edgar Bers, HashCoins Partner Relations Manager, will uncover details of the upcoming next-generation crypto financial ecosystem and provide crucial information on the exclusive participation options in the investment project to be implemented in Q1 of 2017.

The second speaker Vitali Pavlov, HashCoins Senior Project Manager, will talk about the current financial system’s faults and the planned ICO aimed at funding an entire array of blockchain engaged financial service projects by HashCoins.

If you are interested, you still have a chance to visit our event!

The second great news for our delegates is an appearance of our new financial panel moderator. Zubair Ahmed is the Senior Vice President, Head of IT & Business Innovation at Emirates Islamic. Previous to this role, Zubair spent nearly 2 decades in challenging leadership roles at the heart of the finance technology industry. A Harvard Alumni with 24+ years of IT & financial industry experience, he enjoys being customer facing and engaging businesses in strategic use of technology. Excelling in enterprise transformation, he has led and produced compelling results in creating business innovation at the grass-roots of the organization. Zubair is the author of the book “Power to Kids” that serves as a guide in ‘applying quality & management principles to parenting’. He is also actively involved with a number of non-profit causes across the region. As an ardent speaker / panelist and a life coach, Zubair is regularly featured in numerous conferences around the world.

We cordially invite you to spend an exciting day with us on this truly innovative and disruptive new technology- Blockchain.

15 Nov 2016

What do you know about the creation of eVoting system on the Blockchain platform?

Our event is approaching fast and we are proud to introduce to you our next speakers, who are the best representatives of Blockchain industry.

What do you know about the creation of eVoting system on the Blockchain platform? If nothing, then come to the conference on December 8, where Cecil O’Brien Owens, Jr., Total Technologies and Solutions FZ-LLC Chairman and CEO, will tell you about his project.

The theme of his report is as follows: ‘Blockchain Enabled Shareholder / Proxy Voting System’.

The ADX-eKtetab™ enabled meeting management and e-Voting system is an instant, secure, transparent and incorruptible voting automation solution based on the Blockchain technology with decentralized consensus for trust, accuracy and integrity.

The AGM and e-Voting system allows shareholders and proxies to participate in meetings and vote either by their physical attendance or remotely from anywhere else in the world.

A shareholder or proxy may vote using a smartphone at the venue or using other devices (such as a laptop or tablet) to remotely vote via the Internet.

Remote attendance and eVoting do not require the shareholder / proxy to download any software onto their smartphones, laptops or other devices.

The Blockchain technology used within the ADX-eKtetab™ e-Services Technology Platform constitutes the backbone of Meeting Management and eVoting Applications.

We are also glad to introduce to you our conference moderator. Fakhri Ahmadov is a managing director of Ahmadoff & Company. He is a Certified International Wealth Manager (CIWM) and a full member of Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (TEP).

In his role, Fakhri Ahmadov advises wealthy individuals and families on capital transformation, multi-generational structuring and philanthropy. Mr. Ahmadov holds a bachelor degree in economics from the ASAU and attended Global Philanthropy program at New York University. He is a founding hub curator at Global Shapers Community of World Economic Forum. Fakhri’s leadership and succession planning researches have been featured in Forbes magazine.

Join us, if you haven’t already done so!

 

10 Nov 2016

UAE based representatives from IBM Middle East and Flat6labs Abu Dhabi have joined our speakers’ panel

We are pleased to introduce to you the UAE based representatives, who have joined our speakers’ panel to appear on December 8 at Blockchain Conference Abu Dhabi. They know everything about Blockchain and start-ups in the UAE.

Saqr Ereiqat, a Senior Managing Consultant and Blockchain Evangelist, will provide you with the best ever introduction to Blockchain technology.

Saqr is a Dubai based Blockchain Evangelist and Program Manager, who has lead large strategic business changes and implementation programs in 23 countries specializing in turning around complex projects.

Victor Kiriakos, a Managing director of Flat6labs Abu Dhabi, knows everything about start-ups on the UAE map. Victor holds a position of the managing director at Flat6labs Abu Dhabi, a leading start-up accelerator in the MENA region. His role involves investing in start-ups and supporting them in growing their businesses. Previously he worked for Intigral, the largest digital media service company in the MENA region. During his tenure at Intigral, he introduced innovations as a service, an offer tailored for large organizations wishing to improve their innovation execution capabilities. As a part of his mandate, he set up two corporate accelerators, one of which was developed for Saudi Telecom Company. Before joining Intigral, Victor started his career in the financial service industry, where he worked as an institutional trader in the MENA region and the North America collaborating directly with fund managers and institutional pension plans. Victor holds a BA in economics from AUB, an MBA from INSEAD and is a THNK.org participant.

Join us December 8 at Blockchain Conference Abu Dhabi!

07 Nov 2016

Conference agenda includes 5 panels and representatives from 12 countries

Blockchain Conference Abu Dhabi, the main FinTech event in the Middle East region, will be held on December 8 at Marriott Downtown Abu Dhabi. This activity promises to be multinational, with representatives from 12 countries to share their views on the future of Blockchain technology.

We are glad to announce that the conference agenda includes 5 panels, which are as follows:

Intro Panel:

  • Saqr M. Ereiqat (IBM Middle East) – “Your introduction to Blockchain”
  • Steve Plimsoll (PwC Middle East) – “The future of audit/accounting 2016 version”
  • Yves-Laurent Kayan (Coinplus) – “Investment in Blockchain: what is worth to know”
  • Victor Kiriakos (Flat6Labs) – “Blockchain start-ups on the UAE Map”

Finances and Banking:

  • Rajashekara V. Maiya (Emirates NBD & Infosys Finacle) – “Case study: Blockchain network for Emirates NBD”
  • Loretta Joseph (Sydney Stock Exchange Limited) – “How to build a blockchain settlement system”
  • George Basiladze (Cryptopay) – “Bitcoin as a settlement mechanism for card industry”
  • Cecil O’Brien Owens (Total Technologies and Solutions FZ-LLC) – “Blockchain-based e-voting system”
  • Hilal Hussein (IDB Group) – “Secure payment system using cryptography, and Blockchain technology”

Regulation:

  • Madhukar Shenoy (PwC Middle East) – the topic will be announced soon
  • Christian Chamorro-Courtland (Zayed University Abu Dhabi) – “Law enforcement and regulation”

Real Case Studies:

  • Pavlo Tanasyuk (Blockverify.io) – “Oil Freight Blockchain Applications”
  • Marina Reznik (Ubitquity LLC) – “Blockchain technology for real estate transactions”
  • Dominik Schiener (IOTA) – “IOTA-ledger of things”

Chain of Solar

  • Luke Johnson (SolCryptoJV) and Abe Cambridge (SunExchange) – “Overview of the use of Blockchain Technology in the solar industry”

+ Unique presentation of new product to be launched.

Each panel will be moderated by experts, who are skilled and proficient in each topic; they will make the conference day full of pithy discussions and provocative questions.

The conference speakers will talk about new technological solutions, security and privacy issues, collaborations and new products. They will share their practical cases and specific examples demonstrating operation of Blockchain in the best possible way. You will learn how to use Blockchain in your own business and earn more than others.

Join us, if you haven’t done it yet!

26 Oct 2016

Speakers from PwC will lift up the curtain on the future of auditing & accounting and share their vision of Blockchain technology regulation and legislative base

Blockchain Conference Abu Dhabi has obtained 2 amazing and highly professional speakers from the leading consulting company- PwC.
Steve Plimsoll, PwC Middle East Chief Digital & Data Officer, will share his view on the future of auditing and accounting and entrenched rules to be changed due to Blockchain technology.

Steve is a leading global digital transformation expert with almost 20 years’ experience using data and technology to design and deliver customer centric digital disruption platforms that create new and integrate previously siloed capabilities to enable ground breaking and award winning solutions. Repeatedly tapped to design new leading & differentiating global multi-channel customer centric data and technology strategies, assess the impact / benefits of new technologies and implement products and solutions that beat the competition by offering superior features, services, and both end user and shareholder value. Expert in translating emerging technologies into bottom-line business benefits. Steve brings a unique combination of both strategy & design AND proven disruptive transformation delivery capability.

Madhukar Shenoy, Partner and ME FS Risk and Regulatory Consulting Advisor, will speak about regulations and measures to be taken to make Blockchain a part of the financial world.
Madhukar is leads FS Risk and Regulatory Consulting Advisory Services for PwC in the Middle East. He has over 25 years of audit and consulting experience. He has focused on Regulatory Policy and Risk in the last 15 years during which period he has advised a number of central banks in the Middle East and Asia on a wide range of issues. He has helped central banks in the GCC build their versions of risk based supervision; drafted 2 volumes of rulebooks for Central Bank of Bahrain, assisted on policy for Islamic real estate for a prominent Asian regulator, and more recently advised on Fintech related regulatory policy for central banks.
He has advised a number of banks on governance, risk and compliance projects. He has spoken at a number of conferences on risk, regulation, Islamic finance, corporate governance and Basel III. He has served on the Accounting, Auditing and Governance Standards Board of Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions and has been a principal author of some of the standards.