Blockchain

BlockShow Asia Blockchain Week: What and Who to Expect

BlockShow Asia is returning this year for a week-long event part of the Asia Blockchain Week centered around blockchain and cryptocurrency.

The event, taking place between November 27 and December 1, 2018, promises to gather some of the industry’s most influential entrepreneurs, thought-leaders and visionaries in the blockchain space, and will provide participants with the opportunity to network, showcase new products and share some of the industry’s latest trends.

Last year’s event attracted more than 1,500 attendees, 66 sponsors and 67 international speakers of high calibre, such as Patrick Dai from Qtum, Brock Pierce from EOS, David Orban, Simon Dixon from BnkToTheFuture, Mike Kayamori from Quione, Zoe Adamovicz from Neufund, and Alexander Ivanov from Waves. It also hosted a startup competition whose winners Bancor and Electrify Asia managed to raise more than US$200 million combined.

Image: BlockShow Asia 2017, @wavesplatform, Twitter

This year, all efforts are being put into outdoing 2017’s event by bringing together 4,000 blockchain-related attendees.

BlockShow Asia Blockchain Week 2018

The Asia Blockchain Week will start on November 27 with a VIP pre-party followed by the conference itself on November 28 and 29. The BlockShow Asia 2018 conference will take place at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel and will feature experienced entrepreneurs, investors and blockchain experts who will share insights on the state of the blockchain industry and the latest trends.

On November 30, the Future of Token Economy conference, organized by the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) and the Singapore Academy of Law, will cover the topics of smart contracts and regulation, trust distribution, initial coin offering (ICO) listing and regulation, and more.

Confirmed speakers for the conferences include:

Jason Hsu, congressman and legislator of Taiwan;
Bobby Lee, co-founder of BTCC and member of the board of the Bitcoin Foundation;
Chia Hock Lai, president of the Singapore Fintech Association and chairman of the Token Economy Association;
Stanley Yong, CTO at IBM and former head of innovation at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS);
Zing Yang, member of the board of directors at the Litecoin Foundation;
Dr. Quy Vo-Reinhard, co-founder of HIT Foundation and Health Data marketplace in Crypto Valley Zug;
Alex Medana, CEO and co-founder of FinFabrik and a founding board member of the Fintech Association Hong Kong; and
Cal Evans, board member of the British Blockchain Association.

The rest of the Asia Blockchain Week will be comprised of workshops, a hackathon, a startup competition, and everyday parties to relax and network. On the final fifth day of the event, participants will enjoy an Open Doors day that will feature all blockchain hubs, accelerators and companies in Singapore.

Partners for the Asia Blockchain Week include LongHash, a platform for accelerating the development and understanding of blockchain technology, the Association of Cryptocurrency Enterprises and Startups Singapore (ACCESS), a nonprofit focused on the use and development of digital currencies and blockchain technologies, the Singapore Fintech Association and SUSS.

Singapore’s thriving blockhain industry

This year again, BlockShow Asia will take place in Singapore, Southeast Asia’s financial hub and rising crypto center. The city state has become the first choice for crypto and blockchain companies looking to expanding into Southeast Asia.

Since 2017, Singapore authorities themselves have been looking to use distributed ledger technology to boost the efficiency of settling cross-bank financial transactions. They believe that blockchain technology offers the potential to make trade finance safer and more efficient.

The Singapore Customs authority is reportedly in talks with MUFG Bank and Japanese company NTT Data to connect the pair’s blockchain solution to its newly launched Networked Trade Platform (NTP).