The Exponential Finance 2016 conference, organized by Singularity University and CNBC, was held in New York on June 7 and 8. Once again, distributed ledger technology and applications were extensively featured, with MIT Media Lab director Brian Forde giving attendees a glimpse of current initiatives.
Singularity University , based at Moffett Federal Airfield in California and sponsored by high-profile high-tech firms including Google, is an educational center dedicated to world-changing applications of disruptive, exponentially accelerating technologies.
The Exponential Finance conferences explore how rapidly accelerating technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, cybersecurity, quantum computing, crowdfunding and distributed ledgers are rapidly disrupting businesses throughout the financial industry. Other Exponential conferences cover medicine and manufacturing with a similar approach.
Last year, Exponential Finance 2015 featured distributed ledgers and blockchain technologies prominently. In particular, Blythe Masters , the former JPMorgan star who now leads Digital Asset Holdings, stated that financial blockchain applications will be measured in the trillions. Exponential Finance 2016 continued the exploration of the upcoming, disruptive impact of distributed ledgers.
Forde, who is director of the Digital Currency Initiative at the MIT Media Lab, gave a keynote titled “Business Decentralized,” focusing on the rapid transformations that are being driven by the blockchain and how this technology has the potential to change the financial services industry as we know it.
Forde is also a former senior adviser for mobile and data innovation at the White House. He is persuaded that blockchain technology and digital currencies will impact society to the same degree the internet has, SingularityHub reports . “The internet has exponentially increased the frequency of our communication; cryptocurrencies will exponentially increase the frequency of our transactions with others,” he said, adding that this is an opportunity for the developing world to “leapfrog” to the forefront of innovation.
Forde called attention to some interesting blockchain […]
