Organizations and consortia across industries are rapidly looking to unleash the exponential business value of blockchain technologies. Early adopters have already identified key benefits from blockchains including cost, immutability, transparency and new business models. Learn how these blockchain trailblazers have partnered to design, develop and rapidly adopt digital ledgers, digital identity, trust and transparency with Blockchain.

This session features discussion about the unique properties of Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies, which can bring new and disruptive capabilities to industries like finance, banking, healthcare and manufacturing. Understand how it will interact with other emerging technologies such as big data, machine learning and IoT, and discover how you can begin to exploit this flexible technology in the short and long term for your business. This session includes a deep-dive discussion on a number of specific real-world use cases and provides guidance on where they can be applied best to benefit enterprises in 2019 and beyond.

The healthcare sector is undergoing significant change with the migration to electronic records and massive amounts of data made possible by connected health solutions.  But, there are major hurdles still ahead when it comes to creating an efficient, integrated, interoperable, and secure healthcare data environment.  This session will look at the challenges a digital healthcare presents and how blockchain technology can be leveraged to solve many of the challenges to efficiently modernize the healthcare industry.

For high performance computing jobs, cloud is the most popular choice as it benefits enterprises by reducing costs and enabling a focus on core business competence rather than IT and infrastructure issues.  However, several key disadvantages should be noticed:  Firstly, using cloud service means all data, even sensitive information, has to be shared with the cloud service provider; second, pay-as-you-go cloud service always has an overall price tag that ends up being higher than expected.  Blockchain can offer solutions to both those issues.  Specifically, we can leverage the power of computers across the world by using a blockchain network, and then distribute the task’s workload among each computer.  In this session, we will introduce the architecture and components of the blockchain-based distributed computing platform and also discuss the challenges and opportunities down the road.

We’ve seen how many blockchain projects have launched – and how many have failed.  Blockchain has the potential to impact businesses across all verticals, but the key to a successful venture – whether it’s within an enterprise or as a standalone startup – is combining the technology with a solid business plan.  From project design to business development to marketing strategy, this session will discuss what businesses need to consider as they embark on their blockchain journeys to ensure success... and not end up in failure among the majority of projects.

The financial sector is considered by many to have the greatest potential when it comes to benefitting from blockchain, and we've already seen a number of projects in motion, from startups to financial services brands with household brand recognition.  What is the real future of blochchain when it comes to payments and financial transactions?  Can blockchain truly transform the payment industry and usher in a new era of banking?  What will it take for the promise to become reality?  Which current projects have potential to pave the road for the rest of the industry, and what risks are involved?

Blockchain technology is on track to emerge as the cryptographic foundation of digital value transfers in future. This will change political systems, financial systems, and the real economy dramatically. Tamper-proof digital evidence clears the path from the internet of copies towards the internet of digital originals. This session will provide deep insight into Blockchain initiatives and projects in Germany on federal, state, provincial and city levels.  A key focus will be the enormous challenge of identification of real demands for blockchain-based solutions and the transformation of blockchain-based Proof-of-Concepts (PoCs) into real applications with deep impact to business process integration.  Attendees will hear examples of initiatives of Blockchain-based solutions and the lessons learned from them... technical, social, jurisdictional, and fiscal).

In a time of incredible innovation in blockchain infrastructures and token applications, limited security effort has been made. This has resulted in huge losses due to widespread vulnerabilities and frequent compromises. This session presents research into the latest blockchain attack vectors and security incidents, covering both traditional attack vectors as well as new attack vectors unique to blockchain technology.  Being presented with case after case of real-world incidents, attendees will quickly learn the nuts and bolts of the attack vectors, as well as the security considerations required for building blockchain-based businesses.  Importantly, the audience will also understand the mindset of an attacker, and how the actors look to exploit blockchain systems and businesses.

While blockchain is set to underpin the anticipated major technology wave, smart contracts will become the most popular horizontal use case, with Ethereum having become something of the de facto platform thus far.  This session will look at how smart contracts are being used today with blockchains, and why they have potential to impact so many industries.  We'll look at the benefits of smart contracts over traditional mechanisms and what risks or challenges lay ahead as businesses look to them for increased efficiency, transparency, recordkeeping, and trust.  We'll also discuss what has to happen to bring smart contracts into the mainstream world, and how real the disruptive power of smart contracts really is to the way business is conducted.

While there are many key verticals that stand to benefit from the maturation of blockchain, the same technology holds promise for nearly every business that is faced with competition from innovative competitors gaining an edge in competitive markets.  This panel will discuss the potential of blockchain across general enterprises and uses of the technology that can set forward-thinking businesses apart from competitors.  Some of the many questions that will be answered include:  How can your business benefit from blockchain?  Can you and should you leverage digital currency?  How can you identify blockchain projects that will benefit your business and guide them to success?  This session will demonstrate that blockchain is truly a horizontal technology, not one reserved for financial, healthcare, and a few other key markets.

Security tokens are very likely to become one of most important asset classes of the next decade.  However, to get there, security token platforms need to evolve from basic tokenization products to complete financial offerings.  This session introduces the notion of security token 2.0 as a framework to deliver the new capabilities of security token platforms.  Crypto-financial primitives, such as debt or derivatives, governance models, voting protocols, disclosures and transparency mechanisms, are some of the key building blocks that should drive the security token 2.0 wave.  While security token 1.0 mostly focused on compliance, the next generation of security token platform should bridge the gap with sophisticated investors in order to make security tokens a relevant financial product. 

With the incredible attention blockchain technology and token-based initiatives have garnered, the job market is ripe with opportunity.  This session will detail what people looking to enter the space need to know, along with advice for those already in the market and new insight for investors, including the growth of crypto jobs over the last five years and counter-intuitive job growth during the current bear market.

Of all potential applications of blockchain technology few are as important, relevant, and ready for disruption as elections.  Regardless of political leanings, recent events have shown the importance of securing public trust through decentralization and universal transparency and, with a growing number of players in the space and rapidly increasing public and private sector adoption, advocates and opponents on both the policy and technology fronts are lining up for what will be one of the most visible and mainstream blockchain conversations of the next year.  This session will lay out the current landscape, challenges to adoption, and what it all means for the larger blockchain ecosystem.

Far beyond the financial use-cases of blockchain, there are many applications for this technology that advertisers, marketers, and content creators can implement to drive meaningful consumer engagement. Blockchain creates opportunities for new economic models and incentivization that have been impossible in the digital age. Several solutions are coming to the forefront that are changing this, enabling brands to engage with their audiences better than ever before.