Consensus 2015 was hosted on Thursday, 10th of September at The Times Center, New York. It is CoinDesk’s inaugural summit on digital currencies and blockchain technology.Many bitcoin experts took part in the event as speakers which include Assistant US Attorney and Digital Currency Crimes Coordinator Kathryn Haun, founder and chief executive officer of Abra Bill Barhydt, chief executive officer of Digital Asset Holdings Blythe Masters and among others.According to the website of CoinDesk, it stated, “Digital currencies and blockchain technology cut across multiple and diverse sectors, with potential to impact everyone from Wall Street to the world’s unbanked.CoinDesk will convene experts and leaders across these sectors to debate real- world problems and find solutions that cutting- edge digital currencies and blockchain tech might offer.
”Grace Caffyn of CoinDesk acting as a moderator led an afternoon session that featured Chelsea of Barabas of MIT Media Lab, John Edge of Redrose and Bill Tai of Mai Tai Global.In this particular session, Edge noted that bitcoin is a great example of what a consensus system could do. While Barabas explained that why many students at MIT are focused on the actual technology instead of potential problems or solutions.Edge pointed out by stating, “Ironically, the biggest inhibitor to the growth of consensus systems might be that humans can’t reach consensus.”In another session moderated by Pete Rizzo along with panelists Scott Robinson of Plug and Play Tech Center, Vanessa Collela of Citi Ventures, Anjney Midha of KPCB Edge and Jalak Jobanputra of Future/Perfect Ventures discussed about fundraising trends in the blockchain ecosystem.Collela revealed that Citi Ventures is looking at the blockchain technology with interest and stated,“Everyone says it’s going so slowly, but it’s only really been six years.
It is not just the magnitude of the funding that is important it’s the diversity of new ideas that are getting funded.”The panelists pointed that the disruptive potential of blockchain and according to Jobanputra, she was encouraged by what she has seen to date.Nathaniel Popper of New York Times also took part in a session moderated by Garrick Hileman of CoinDesk along with Christopher Allen, an Internet security pioneer.They discussed the origin of crypto currencies and how the crypto currency was influenced by 60’s and 70’s Sci- Fi novels.Popper stated, “People have the sense that Satoshi Nakamoto created bitcoin out of the blue, but you look at the white paper and you see 20 or 30 years’ worth of work and a lot of people.”The inaugural conference came to a close by a session moderated by Ben Parker of IRIN News and the panelists include Bill Barhydt, Olawale Ayeni of Orange Silicon Valley and Alan Grundy of International Rescue Committee.The session explored the future of cash in several diverse contexts and how it overlaps with digital currencies and blockchain tech.Ayeni stated, “When people say financial inclusion, they think about providing a bank account, it’s about providing credit and insurance and things you couldn’t get access to before.”
