Trescon hosted its first virtual edition of the popular World Blockchain Summit (WBS) series on Thursday, 16^th July.  Amidst the pandemic crisis, WBS was set in an interactive online environment with a special focus on the Asian blockchain and crypto market. The summit convened over 1000 participants that included HNIs, Hedge Funds and Crypto Investors alongside blockchain experts, influencers & gurus from global enterprises to discuss how Asia can thrive in the global blockchain & crypto race.

The Asia edition of WBS featured keynotes, panel discussions, tech talks, private consultation rooms, private networking rooms and more on a digital platform.

Key takeaways from World Blockchain Summit

Don Tapscott, co-founder and Executive Chairman of the Blockchain Research Institute and one of the world’s leading authorities on the impact of technology on business and society, opened the conference on Thursday morning. Don’s opening address centred on blockchain and the transformation of public health, in which he outlined the profound changes that Covid-19 pandemic will cause to the economy, social behaviour, and society. “The pandemic will reveal deep problems in our systems for innovation, commerce, data and technology infrastructure. So, this conference happened at a very appropriate time. The spread of the virus and our ineptitude to deal with the consequences had a lot to do with the lack of data.”

The Blockchain Research Institute is the largest think-tank in the world that is leading in research about blockchain opportunities, strategies and issues for different industries. While talking about blockchain for public health, he added, “We need to reinvent public health. At The Blockchain Research Institute, we are trying to bridge the gap between the enormous potential of blockchain technology and the actual deployment. Imagine if each had our own self-sovereign health record. In a crisis like this, the state can mandate availability of anonymised data about critical health information. You can have the real-time health data of an entire population. This is possible now because of blockchain.”

David Chaum, Founder of xx network who is widely recognized as the inventor of digital cash and other fundamental innovations in cryptography and privacy-preserving technologies delivered a keynote on the role of true digital cash and privacy-protecting platform in supporting decentralized and democratic life, along with CMO and CFO of xx network Jim Dolbear. On voting for complex issues and for scale-like blockchain, David quoted, “In a decentralized life, you need metadata shredding of communication, digital cash that can’t be taken down so it can also be a secured store of value and a kind of governance that scales with the complexity and size of the electorate and issue space.” He also added “We have built the real blockchain technology. We’ve been parsimonious and careful and built some very well constructed software that we are rolling out soon! I am excited to offer this to the world!”

The conference also featured a comprehensive interview between Changpeng Zhao (CZ), CEO of Binance, Singapore and Joon Ian Wong, Managing Director for Content Products at CoinDesk, U.K. When asked about global hotspots for crypto trading, CZ commented, “India is a very interesting market. We’re seeing a very large uptake in terms of user adoption. The number of users is growing quickly. Indonesia is also an interesting market with a large population. We recently partnered with Tokocrypto to launch the stablecoin.”

In a tech talk on the policy environment for blockchain innovation and adoption, Peteris Zilgalvis, Head of Unit for Digital Innovation and Blockchain at the European Commission, Belgium said, “There is a great interest for international collaboration, mainly for Asia. The governmental advisory board of the International Association of Trusted Blockchain Applications (INATBA) is bringing together blockchain stakeholders, companies and users and encouraging Asian companies to join the association.”

Some of the other featured speakers for the summit included Dr Ben Goertzel, CEO of SingularityNET, Hong Kong; Brian Behelendorf, Executive Director for Hyperledger; Alex Nascimento, Co-Founder of Blockchain and Managing Director of 7CC – Blockchain Investments, USA; Max Kantelia, Co-Founder of Zilliqa, UK; Dr Marwan Alzarouni, CEO for Dubai Blockchain Center; Pavel Bains, CEO for Bluzelle, Singapore; Tea Jazz, Founder of CoinKeeper World, Singapore; Sahil Arora, CEO of ZPAE, UAE; Joshua P Hawley, Managing Director of Satoshi Ltd, Mauritius; Chanaki De Costa, CEO – Director, Future CX Pty Ltd and Matthew Niemerg, Co-Founder and President for Aleph Zero, USA; to name a few.

The cohesive agenda for WBS highlighted key areas such as the state of crypto and blockchain companies post-pandemic; the future of cross-industry blockchain technologies; the future of fundraising; what 2020 holds for IEOs, STOs and ICOs and re-imagining the foundation of commerce with blockchain-based contracting and more.

World Blockchain Summit – Asia 2020 was officially sponsored by – Platinum Sponsors – Satoshi Ltd, CoinKeeper Pte Ltd and Future1Exchange; Gold Sponsor – ZPAYee; Silver Sponsors – Future CX Pty Ltd and Aleph Zero Foundation; Exhibitors at the summit included Tokenation and Bitcrore; PR Partner – PR Newswire