Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference Kiev 2016: results and impressions

Friday, September 23, the major blockchain event – Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference Kiev 2016 – took place. It is major not only due to the amount of participants and guests amounting to around a thousand but also due to the range of blockchain and cryptocurrency topics.

As the program promised, the audience was divided into three sections: for newcomers, experts, and developers. The Pro block consisted of three sections: Fintech, Govtech, and Finances.

Newcomers found out the concept of such terms as cryptocurrency, bitcoin, altcoins, blockchain, and smart contracts. According the section moderator Maxim Krupyshev, CEO of Cubits, this year, the knowledge level of newcomers was much higher. Almost everyone has already been familiar with the topic and wanted to improve their knowledge.

Maxim Krupyshev: “People are much interested in this topic and ask cool questions. I have expected that the audience would be weaker. In general, the conference is conducted on the new level: three halls instead of two, like it was the last time, and instead of one like two years ago.”

Experts learned about other countries’ legislative experience in regulating cryptocurrencies, future exchange trade and mining, as well as about the prospect of establishing national digital currencies. Among speakers were developers (including IBM companies), entrepreneurs, and startup founders.

The separate section presented Ukrainian specialists’ cases: e-Vox blockchain voting system and e-Auction platform for rent and sale of government property implemented in Kherson and Bila Tserkva.

Lasha Antadze, the head of Innovation & Development Foundation: “e-Auction is only the part of the ecosystem. As to Govtech, the next step is the register decentralization and interchange with registers. We are going to decentralize all government control areas.”

Developers were working on the code, mining station adjustment, and PoS algorithm analyses. Participants reviewed developers’ common mistakes, took part in workshop on developing smart contracts based on Ethereum and conducted live security test.

Michael Chobanian, the founder of KUNA bitcoin agency: “More than 70% of conference guests are not newcomers but people with the knowledge. Thus, the section for newcomers will be absent the next year; it will be replaced by another one. But I won’t specify what it will be.”

Feedback from participants and guests

Yoshi Goto, Bitmain Warranty: “I am pleasantly surprised with the amount of people and the variety of blockchain technology companies. Everything is quite lively!”

Yakov Dolich, Genesis Mining: “A perfect place, wonderful people, excellent questions, and sympathetic atmosphere! So many people. I haven’t counted but, perhaps, almost several hundreds.”

Stanislav Podiachev, Btcu.biz: “Today I am pleasantly surprised to see so many people desiring to change, advance, and change a surrounding world.”

Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference has become a platform where Ukrainian and foreign companies could present their products. Including: Kibo, HashCoins, BTC.com, Genesis Mining, Bitmain Warranty, and Advendor.

KUNA, UBR.ua, Finance.ua, RIA.com, Dengi.ua, and Distributed Lab have also announced themselves. These companies contributed in the event organization.

Next conference in Moscow

The next Smile Expo event dedicated to bitcoin and blockchain will take place on 10 November in Moscow. The conference will be divided into two sections: for financial experts and non-banking sector representatives. The program will include bitcoin legislative regulation in Russia, as well as cases of Russian and foreign companies in finances, insurance, logistics, media, and Internet of Things.