Business News of Wednesday, 1 August 2018

Source: Nana Kwame Fordjour

Ghana to host the second Blockchain Conference

Bitcoin is an innovative payment network Bitcoin is an innovative payment network

Following the huge success of the first Ghana Blockchain Conference in 2017, the Organisers, Blockchain Network will host the second Blockchain Conference, themed “Blockchain technology for development, on Thursday October 25, 2018, at the Golden Tulip Hotel.

Blockchain, the digital distributed ledger technology for recording ordered set of transactions securely including Bitcoin, Etherum etc, has generated a lot of interest in the business sphere.

This technology provides cryptographic identity for users, peer to peer transactions among users and a payment record of transactions. The advent of Blockchain with Crypto Currencies has undoubtedly changed the paradigm of business transactions worldwide and Ghana is no exception as a number of Ghanaians are signing on to different Blockchain platforms.

“It is critical that we become well informed about this technology that is taking the world by storm; do we have the requisite policy, legal and regulatory frameworks to embrace the blockchain technologies, and most importantly how well equipped in terms of capacity are our regulatory institutions and companies of this emerging sector?,” said Organizing Committee Chair of the conference.

How prepared are Ghanaians to absorb the potential displacement on trust intermediary entities such as registries, trusts, banks and others. “What can we do to make this better; And last but not the least, how does Ghana position herself to benefit on this emerging trend?,” she added.

It is against this background that Blockchain Network will hold the next edition of Ghana Blockchain Conference to seek answers and also engage Blockchain community inspired by a wide array of potential applications from Finance & Banking, Insurance, Academia, Shipping & Logistics, Medical, Documentation etc in this one day conference.

The conference brings together Blockchain community, Policy makers, and technology leaders to intensify our understanding of this new trend that is shaping global business. Also The conference will explore the industries that are set to be disrupted the most by this new technology, including; manufacturing, retail, financial services, legal, healthcare, insurance, energy, music, government, real estate and more.

The conference will be preceded by two days Blockchain Training Workshop with Resource persons from global as well as the local community. The total event will include: a two -day Bitcoin & Ethereum Technologies Workshop & Hackathon (pre-conference Workshop), training in technologies & applications, policy and regulations, financial inclusion as well as other crucial issues.

The maiden conference in November 2017 brought together World Class Experts and Speakers such as Deputy Governor, Bank of Ghana, - Dr. Maxwell Opoku Asare, Dr. Pindar Wong (VeriFi), Prof. Nii Quaynor, Alain Aina (TRSTECH), Albert Boasiako - National Security Advisor, Lawyer Kobina Sekyi-Hughes and many Lightning talk speakers.

The well- structured and attended event comprised of Presentations, Panel discussions and Lightning Talks which allowed participants to gain insight intomassive progress being made in the Blockchain space both locally and internationally. Participants were also given reasons why we must all get activerly involved in the Blockchain revolution.

The Blockchain Conference is aimed at: creating awareness and network with peers, create a good policy environment for Blockchain technology to flourish, knowing the policy issues, meeting stakeholders and share best practices, having first-hand demos on some of the tools and hearing from the expertsInterested participants can visit the official Blockchain website: http://ghanablockchainconference.org.

Blockchain Network is a Non-Profit organization established as a forum for Blockchain community engagements, networking & sharing of best practices.