London Blockchain summit goes on despite pandemic

Despite the worldwide panic, canceled speakers and quarantine, London Blockchain Summit has managed to bring together attendees from all over the world and continues to spark conversation about new applications, use-cases, and struggles that come with implementing this cutting-edge technology. 

Coronavirus concerns at the conference

News about coronavirus has taken over the world completely. The media is going crazy, flight and hotel industry bear huge losses and thousands of venues remain empty because of the abundance of canceled events. Many potential attendees of numerous industry events are not ready to take the risk and fly to another company with the possibility of being stuck in a foreign city because of quarantine and travel ban. 

However, some events manage to bring people together despite panic and hysteria. Among them is the leading industry event London Blockchain Summit. Dr. Jane Thomason started the event by asking attendees to wash their hands and not sneeze at anyone. He did not shy away from the fact that many foreign experts canceled their participation in Blockchain Summit. Many people followed his example and commented on the glooming danger of pandemic virus. For example, Jamie Burke, Outlier Ventures CEO, kicked off his speech by saying that he was wondering who would be as foolish as you need to be to come to the event. And jokingly stated that he was obligated too, otherwise, he would not come either. 

London Blockchain Summit focuses on bringing major key-holders together, providing a powerful networking event for the industry and starting a conversation on benchmarks, threats, and opportunities that blockchain has to offer worldwide. 

Applications and Challenges of Blockchain

Jamie Burke, Outlier Ventures CEO focused on the possibility of Web 3.0. He is sure that advanced machine learning is capable of changing the way the Internet functions. Mr. Burke is sure that blockchain is capable of aiding in protecting our data that is routinely collected by websites and especially social media. The key topic of his speech was a sovereign identity that cutting-edge technology will be able to provide. 

However, the experts did not solely focus on the advantages and did not shy away from talking about the challenges that the industry faces why implementing the cutting-edge technology. They are sure that talking about the problems is the key stop in eliminating them. According to Parim Solutions Pty Managing Director Joanne Thornton, even though we have come this far, it is not enough to attract wholesale investors. To get them interested, we have to provide regulatory certainty and satisfactory liquidity. Other participants of the conference weighted in and agreed with the former speaker, for example, Viktor Ficher and Swen Werner. 

DeFi has a long way to go 

DeFi is treated as another buzzword to get traffic and attention in 2020, the same way as blockchain technology was used as a buzzword when every reputable media considered to cover it as its duty. The founder of Dunsmoor Law, P.C., Jonathan Dunsmoor posed a question to the audience whether they have a digital wallet. After the audience was divided by almost half, he concluded that DeFi is not as widespread as it seems, even among people interested in fintech. It is worth noting that Mr. Dunsmor made quite a scandalous statement for such a conference. He stated that maybe digital currencies are not a suitable basis for DeFi because of how volatile they are. It is safe to say that he made quite an impression on the attendees, with some of them screaming that the speaker is wrong. 

In conclusion, it is safe to say that the industry thrives when brilliant minds come together to discuss important and trending topics. Even if London is short on hand sanitizers and the speakers elbow-tap instead of a good old handshake.