The international BlockchainUA Conference was held in Kiev on 17 th March 2017, and gathered nearly 1,000 attendees. Forty expert speakers took part in the Conference, from ten different countries. The primary Conference themes were Fintech and Blockchain.
Presentations were given at three different locations at once – the Main Stage, the Product Stage, and the Tech Stage. The Conference also presented an Expo-Zone offering real Fintech solutions from developers.
The event was supported by dozens of Ukrainian and international partners, among whom were Ukrainian magazine for fintech and the digital economy – Future, along with British Fintech media The Fintech Times.
The Conference was opened by Mr Georgy Vashadze, the founder of IDF Reforms Lab – an institution today hailed as the driver of a whole raft of digital initiatives, and a centre of e-gov and fintech innovations in Ukraine. “The biggest revolution is going to happen in the state sector, due to blockchain. Blockchain networks don’t require any political will – and this sets the scene for the cannibalisation of bureaucratic systems,” said Mr Vashadze. “Blockchain’s DNA makes it possible to switch over to a transaction economy, and carry out reform. Through transactions we will pay taxes automatically. The whole system will operate automatically. The state will move into a horizontal network of cities, and lose its function as a monopoly. Central banks will transform into decentralised crypto-technologies. The only thing the state will retain will be its role as an ‘insurance agent’; and establisher of the ground rules. We, regular citizens, will all become both service providers and users. The technology will give birth to a galaxy of blockchains, which will serve the economy and business,” he concluded.
Kate Shcheglova – the Chief Editor of Future Magazine, and Editor at The Fintech Times – gave a brief overview of how Product Stage had gone – the main arena for the professional community of conference attendees. Sixteen different speakers gave presentations on the Product Stage, who included leading Ukrainian fintech experts, along with guest speakers from Germany, the Netherlands, and France. Their presentations ran practically non-stop, and all reflected the broad diversity of product aspects – from ICO through to document processing on blockchain. 70% of the presentations were given in English. “The hall, intended to seat 150 people, was bursting at the seams,” Shcheglova said. “There were people standing in the gangways, which created a very vibrant and lively atmosphere. The whole thing was very cool, very global, and amazingly interesting. The event was not only about blockchain, but embraced the complete fintech sphere. We are extremely grateful to the organisers, Distributed Lab, for such top-level management – and we eagerly await the next instalment.”
Kate Goldfinch,
The Fintech Times
More about BlockchainUA
All photos are provided by Distributed Lab
