04 Jul 2017

Registration for Blockchain Conference Abu Dhabi 2017 is opened!

We have some great news for Blockchain enthusiasts from around the world! Registration for the major Fintech event of the MENA region has been already opened. The Blockchain Conference will take place in Abu Dhabi on December 7, 2017. For two consecutive years now, we have been bringing together industry leaders from around the world in order you to be the first to learn how the world will change thanks to Blockchain in the very near future.

We are going to cover the most relevant Blockchain topics aimed at expanding dialogues between governments, international corporations, innovative companies, investors and breakthrough start-ups.

Topics to be discussed at the conference

– New world economy to be created by Blockchain

– Technology changing the financial system: payments, international transfers

– Smart contracts

– Private and public Blockchain

– Blockchain identification

– ICO and Tokenization

– Use of Blockchain in medicine, food industry, logistics, etc.

– Blockchain for Solar

– Forecasts and development prospects for Middle East Region

The mission of BConference Abu Dhabi is to bring together Blockchain experts from across the world at one time in one place to search for and develop Blockchain solutions that will continue to change the world! At BConference Abu Dhabi, you will certainly find your new customers, partners, developers and investors.

We will announce the program of the conference and its speakers in the nearest time.

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date on our news and events>>>

Find out more about BConferenceAbuDhabi 2016>>>

To register for Blockchain Conference Abu Dhabi, please visit bconference.org

+442 03 239 96 70, [email protected]

15 Jun 2017

Blockchain Conference Astana 2017 Results

Blockchain Conference Astana, the most anticipated blockchain event of Kazakhstan, took place on June 14, 2017. The Conference was attended by participants from across Kazakhstan. Over 250 experts showed an increased interest in the blockchain technology capabilities for Kazakhstan. The BConference featured speeches by 22 speakers from Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Russia, Belgium, Great Britain and Switzerland.

The Conference was opened by the Chairman of the Board of the Astana International Financial Center Nurlan Kusainov. During the welcoming speech, he outlined the priority areas for the modernization of the Kazakhstan economy laying special emphasis on the blockchain technology.

The Founder of Kuna Bitcoin Agency & Co-founder of Bitcoin Foundation Ukraine Mikhail Chobanyan opened the first section of the Conference. He revealed the features and prospects of the bitcoin cryptocurrency as well as key aspects of the blockchain technology. The Head of the Innovation Activity Department at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (Russia) & CEO at Cyber.Fund Marina Gurieva continued the Conference with an in-depth presentation on trends and prospects for the blockchain economy development in the public and private sectors. Marina’s presentation on the unique features of blockchain for the public sector was followed by a speech of the Lawyer, Founder & Managing Partner of the law society Juscutum Artem Afian. Reports on the blockchain for the public sector gave place to a report on the regulation of cryptocurrencies and ways of using blockchain technologies in the world and CIS countries, which was delivered by the Director of Legal Services Group for Deloitte CIS technology projects Artyom Tolkachev. The first section was completed by the Prime Source Director & Co-founder Eugene Scherbinin, who spoke about the features of the technology application in the financial sector.

The second section started after a short break. It was opened by the eGaas Founder & CEO Oleg Strelenko with a presentation on the blockchain solutions for e-gov. The Technology & Integration Consulting Head at CISA Deloitte Ukraine Sergei Bondarenko pursued a subject presenting DocSensus, a registry of corporate documentation based on the blockchain technology. The Senior Consultant of the management consulting department at KPMG Kazakhstan Zarina Kuzhmaganbetova spoke about the practical application of the blockchain technology in the notary. The CEX.IO Leading Developer Oleg Kudrenko continued the Conference with a presentation on “Smart Contracts: The Beginning of the End of Corruption”. At the end of the second section, the Waves CEO & Founder Alexander Ivanov spoke about the advantages and differences between IPO and ICO.

The discussion panel became a concluding chord of the second section. It involved Nurlan Kussainov, Marina Gurieva, Alexander Ivanov and Artem Afyan. The main questions from the audience were devoted to the legal regulation of cryptocurrencies in the territory of Kazakhstan, ICO and attraction of investments, as well as acceptance of payments in crypto-currencies by legal entities in Kazakhstan.

After the lunchtime, the Hotmine.io BDM Aleksandr Momot continued the Conference with a presentation on the mining features. The Chief Technical Evangelist & Leading Blockchain Strategist at Microsoft Konstantin Goldstein and the IT Architect & Technical Manager at IBM Kazakhstan Mikhail Korotko shared business solutions based on the blockchain technology of their own development. The Sofitto CEO Aleksandr Vasilchenko and the Otkritie Bank SPM Sergey Lukashk told about the blockchain-based solutions for fintech. Alexander delved into the topic of uniting the blockchain technology with traditional banking card products; and Sergei presented the experience of Russian banks in designing and creating KYC profiles for the blockchain. The BlockEx CEO Adam Leonard spoke about the usage of blockchain technology to build the transparent and accessible capital markets. The Conference ended with a presentation on the blockchain case studies. The FoodBlockchain.XYZ Director General Angel Versetti presented a solution designed for food industry; the toomuch.energy CEO Luc Graré showed developments in the field of energy.

The Conference organizer AroundB thanks all participants and partners for their interest in the blockchain topic and high-quality discussions. The scale of the Conference shows a real interest in and a huge potential of Kazakhstan for the implementation of its own blockchain solutions. We are confident that everyone will know about actual Kazakhstan projects based on the blockchain technology in the near future.

We also express thanks to our sponsors Prime Sourse, Waves and Cryptoviser, demo area participants and official Conference partners, MOST business incubator, Atameken National Chamber of Entrepreneurs of Kazakhstan and the Community of Kazakhstan IT Managers for having supported us.

Let’s Blockchain this world together!

The photo report is available here >>

To view presentations, please follow the link >>

16 May 2017

Blockchain Conference Astana to Discuss How Blockchain May Change Food Industry

On June 14, 2017, a global-scale blockchain summit Blockchain Conference Astana in Kazakhstan will feature over 20 speakers delivering practical solutions to the issue of blockchain technology use in e-Gov, FinTech, energy sector, food industry and other spheres.

The CEO of a Swiss company FoodBlockchain.XYZ Angel Versetti will share a blockchain solution for the food industry. He will devote his speech to the influence of smart contracts and distributed databases on the food supply system, provision of new levels of food quality and safety, and development of new levels of transparency for end users.

Angel Vercetti is a CEO of FoodBlockchain.XYZ, the world’s first blockchain solution based on Ethereum for the global food industry. Previously, he worked in various departments of the United Nations Organization (the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR)), as well as World Resources Forum, Bloomberg, and was on probation at Google. He also manages a television media project at Dukascopy Bank and often participates in conferences and meetings of the highest level (Vatican, Davos, UNESCO, etc.).

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

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.

10 May 2017

IBM World Blockchain Experience to be shared at Blockchain Conference Astana

The IBM representative will speak at the global blockchain summit Blockchain Conference Astana in Kazakhstan on June 14, 2017. The conference program will also feature performances by representatives of Microsoft, Deloitte, KPMG, Humaniq, Juscutum Attorneys Association, Sofitto and many other companies. The conference will involve over 20 speakers and 150 guests from around the world.

The speech of the IBM Kazakhstan’s leading developer Mikhail Korotko will be devoted to the company’s approach to the blockchain as well as participation in the world-famous HyperLedger project and its business application. Let us recall that the alternative blockchain system HyperLedger is a product that allows companies to build solutions based on the distributed ledger technology of its own design.

Mikhail Korotko is a highly qualified and certified IT architect with over 14 years of experience in the IT sphere. He has over 35 international certificates in the field of IT (Open CA – a master certified IT architect, certified architect of IBM, CCEE, CCAA, CCA, MCSE, MCITP, MCSA, VCP) and two international awards (VMware vExpert). Mikhail has an extensive expertise in planning, managing, designing and implementing of medium and large IT projects (Cloud Computing, IT Infrastructure, Big Data, industry solutions, etc.) including pre-sale / sales, architecture development and implementation, system integration and services. Mikhail has a great experience of work in the team as a technical manager with distributed international and multicultural teams.

BConference Astana promises to become one of the most significant events in Kazakhstan. The conference will be devoted to the blockchain technology capabilities for the financial environment, solutions for banks, payment systems, money transfers, exchange operations, etc.; composition of public services with the help of blockchain; energy trading and renewable energy; data tracking and analysis using the blockchain.

On the second day of the conference, June 15, 2017, BConference attendees will have 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 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.

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.

________________________________________________________________________

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.