Blockchain Connect Conference Calls for Stronger Academic Approach to the Technology

Blockchain technology needs a stronger academic approach. This is the key message of the organisers of the upcoming Blockchain Connect conference. The conference will take place in San Francisco on January 11, 2019. Until then, the organisers also opened a call for papers on the topic of blockchain technology.

Advanced Thinking for Blockchain Technology Growth

The Blockchain Connect Conference aims to bring together “interested scholars as well as industrial members from all relevant disciplines who study and work in the space of blockchain technology”. The conference will have two distinct tracks: academic and business.

The Academic Stage

The academic track will feature blockchain core developers, scholars and university professors. They will focus on theoretical developments as well as engage in academic discussions.

Some of the participants in the academic track of the Blockchain Connect Conference are:

• Dawn Song – Professor at UC Berkeley, and co-founder of Oasis Labs;
• Lake Dai – Adjunct Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, and Venture Capitalist;
• Dawn Song – Professor at UC Berkeley, and co-founder of Oasis Labs;
• Elaine Shi – Associate Professor at Cornell University, and co-founder of IC3 and Thunder Token;
• Ronghui Gu – Assistant Professor at Columbia University, and co-founder of CertiK;
• Vitalik Buterin – the creator of Ethereum.

The agenda for this track is still under development, but some keynote presentations are already set. They focus on issues such as:

• Privacy and scalability challenges;
• Building trustworthy smart contracts;
• Decentralised data markets;
• Empowering privacy through proxy re-encryption networks.

The Business Stage

On the other hand, the business track will focus on practical applications of blockchain technology across numerous industries. This track features various speakers, such as:

• Justin Herzig – Global Blockchain Research Lead at Accenture;
• Ashley Lannquist – Project Lead for Blockchain at the World Economic Forum;
• Mic Bowmwan – Principal Engineer at Intel Labs;
• Aaron Cai – Head of Tencent Blockchain.

One of the keynote speeches at this track will be on the topic of the blockchain invoicing experiment conducted by Tencent in China. Other speeches will focus on use cases for the blockchain technologies in various industries, such as healthcare, finances and public services. The business stage participants will also tackle the topic of the blockchain space investment trends in 2019.

Academic Papers – a Chance to Participate in an Exclusive Closed Door Meeting

The call for academic papers on blockchain technology comes with an incentive. Authors of the best papers will be invited to participate in a closed-door meeting with the guest speakers. They will have the opportunity to exchange ideas and debate on the future of blockchain. The top 3 candidates will also get a chance to present their findings at the academic stage during the conference. Interested scholars and industrial members in the blockchain space are welcome to submit their papers on various technical, as well as economics and finance topics.

SV Insight, a full-tech media and research company, is hosting the Blockchain Connect Conference. The COO of the company, Peter Qin, spoke about the need for an academic approach to blockchain:

The short-term wealth-making effect brought by cryptocurrencies does have a huge influence, but it is only a splash in the development of blockchain technology. In the face of the bear market, the academic circle of blockchain is actually on the rise. We want to add more academic value to the blockchain space.

In case you’re interested in submitting your paper, fill out this form. However, you’ll have to be quick as the deadline is December 15.