The Blockchain NZ 2017 confirms Antonopoulos & Buterin as keynotes, focuses on collaboration

So far this year, over 30 blockchain related conferences have been announced in a variety of different countries, one of which is New Zealand. New Zealand’s first blockchain conference was hosted in Queenstown during 2014 and organised by our very own CEO, Fran Strajnar. Bitcoin South received rave reviews from speakers and attendees.

“I personally came away with vast new knowledge and excellent intellectual challenges that are going to keep my mind working hard for many months,” said Economics writer Jeffrey Tucker. “Imagine a conference so good that 100% of attendees are at the session on the morning of the second day. I’ve never seen that before. But that’s what what happened at Bitcoin-South the first Bitcoin conference in New Zealand.” The conference was sponsored by Bitto, BraveNewCoin, Genesis-Mining and Coinex.

Mark Pascall of 3months.com then organised Ethereum.NZ in 2016. The conference attracted top international ethereum developers, startups and business leaders for a full day event in both Auckland and Wellington.

The directors behind Bitcoin South and Ethereum.NZ have now created a Joint Venture, Blockchain Labs NZ. The labs, in association with the Blockchain Association of New Zealand (BANZ), are organising a new a blockchain conference, The Blockchain NZ 2017. The conference is focused on empowering organisations to collaborate, undertake research and development, and commercialize new disruptive blockchain business models.

“The event is designed to educate, inspire and connect business leaders in both the public and private sectors around the exciting opportunities that new generation blockchains such as Ethereum have created,” states Mark Pascall, Co-Founder of the Labs. “It will be a predominantly business audience we are especially looking for speakers who can talk about real life examples of how blockchain technologies are being applied.”

"We’re really aiming to host one of the highlight Blockchain Conferences of 2017 and New Zealand is an appealing location for a high caliber event," added Fran Strajnar, CEO of BNC and Co-Founder of the Labs.

There will be twenty speakers at the event, all with deep and varying experience in the blockchain industry. Speakers will be presenting talks, taking part in panel discussions, and running workshops. The author of Mastering Bitcoin, Andreas Antonopoulos, founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, founder of Third Key Solutions, Pamela Morgan, blockchain consultant, George Samman, and former CEO of Nasdaq Tallinn Stock Exchange and the Central Securities Depository, Kaidi Ruusealepp, are among the esteemed guests.

“Bitcoin will remain, in my opinion, a relentless anomaly that refuses to go away – a black swan that cannot be ignored or extinguished.”

• Andreas Antonopulous, Acclaimed writer, Bitcoin expert and The Blockchain NZ 2017 keynote Speaker

“Bitcoin is a book where you may write only in one language and only about movement of people. Ethereum is more flexible. Universal mathematical formulae are the language of its book.”
— – Vitalik Buterin, Inventor of Ethereum and The Blockchain NZ 2017 Keynote Speaker
"We have a global, borderless communication and transaction platform. We have global, borderless money. Why not a global, borderless justice system?"

• Pamela Morgan, Founder of Third Key Solutions and The Blockchain NZ 2017 Speaker

"I am passionate about blockchains and distributed consensus systems as applied to financial technologies. I believe that blockchains and financial technologies will change how business is done in all industries."
— – George Samman, Blockchain Consultant and The Blockchain NZ 2017 Speaker
"We have built the world’s first blockchain-based platform for trading investments, and the first investments are being made."

• Kaidi Ruusealepp, founder of Funderbeam and The Blockchain NZ 2017 Speaker

The current list of confirmed speakers can be found here.

The Blockchain NZ 2017 conference is to be a highlight of the New Zealand Techweek, and will be held on Monday 8th and Tuesday 9th of May 2017 at the Viaduct Event Centre in Auckland. The event aims to attract an audience of over 500 senior business people and ticket prices going on sale shortly, with discounted tiers available for start-ups. Much like TED conferences, all the presentations will also be recorded and made available to the public online.

Tickets are expected to sell out: Pre-Register today.

The nine day Techweek is presented by NZTech, which provides a voice for the New Zealand technology sector. In 2016, NZTech released a report entitled Digital Nation New Zealand, From Tech Sector to Digital Nation. The research showed that the technology sector in New Zealand is already a grand contributor to the economy.

There are currently over 28,000 companies, employing almost 100,000 people, which is the equivalent of 5 percent of the workforce. In 2015, these companies jointly contributed NZ $32b in output, which generated NZ $16.2b in gross domestic product, an 8 percent contribution to the economy.

The technology sector also exported NZ $6.3b in 2015, 9 percent of the country’s exports and it was found that for every 4 percent growth in productivity within the tech sector 1 percent of growth could be seen in the gross domestic product (GDP), equal to NZ $2.7b. As a result, for every dollar that is invested in the technology sector, its productivity brings in a NZ $3 return on investment.

“As a country we are well connected, yet we could gain so much more if our businesses exploited technology further,” states NZTech. “Companies that make smart use of internet services are 6% more productive than average firms in their sector.  If all firms made better use of internet services, it could potentially lift GDP by $34b.”