Developers, bankers, regulators, investors, businessmen, thought leaders and visionaries from around the globe descended on New York for a three-day event to discuss what has taken the world by storm, blockchain technology and its applications.
Consensus 2016, the biggest event since blockchain was invented seven years ago, set the theme with a general feeling that blockchain is not only real, but that something big is happening as expressed by Larry Summers, former treasury secretary and keynote speaker: I think this whole sphere is ripe for huge opportunity… We have over the last generation had a lot of financial innovation for the benefit of money and I think it is a good thing to have some financial innovation for the benefit of people in the form of reducing their costs of transacting and exchanging and I think that’s what this is all about. While the smartest men and women in Silicon Valley were previously focusing on creating a better picture sharing app or making ads more enticing for us to click, some of them are now betting their careers on blockchain technology. Setting up start-ups and building products to transfer value more efficiently, more cheaply and faster as well as taking advantage of the many opportunities offered by programmable money. Likewise, some banking executives are leaving to launch their own blockchain products, joined, in some cases, by experienced developers from giant tech companies, such as IBM. Meanwhile, banks see what is coming and are trying to lead while giant tech companies are focusing on industrial uses of smart contracts and machine to machine payments or IoT. Regulators Take a Back Seat
A fundamental shift in attitude seems to have occurred at the highest governance levels. Led by London, which uniquely has enthusiastically embraced Fintech and blockchain technology, going so far […]
