October 2018 CBT Activities Newsletter

The UCL CBT has had an eventful few weeks.

Below, we give you a roundup of our recent activities and news from our Fellows and wider community, along with a glimpse of events coming up in November.

We have also recruited two new members for our core administrative team – Letitia Zainea as our new Operations Officer, and Lars Gladhaug as our new Marketing Officer.

Cyprus Summer School

The UCL CBT had a very successful inaugural 3-Day Summer School programme in Limassol, Cyprus in partnership with Cyprus Blockchain Technologies and the University of Nicosia.

18 participants from Cyprus and the nearby region took part from a variety of industries ranging from Real Estate to Medical Devices to Fintech. The CBT was represented by Prof Tomaso Aste, Dr Paolo Tasca, Mr Nikhil Vadgama and Dr Theodosis Mourouzis. We look forward to running another Summer School next year!

Blockchain Executive Education

The CBT’s next Executive evening programme will be held in London in Q1 2019. Further details about the programme and the registration process will be made available at the beginning of November. Keep an eye on our website, and also for an email with more information.

News from the CBT:

Our Executive Director, Dr Paolo Tasca will be giving a keynote address at The FinTech Inn Conference on the 8th November in Vilnius, organised by the Bank of Lithuania and the Ministry of Finance of Lithuania.

An article by our research affiliate John Flood and his colleague at Griffith University Law School, Lachlan Robb, has been accepted by the University of Miami Law School Review Symposium (forthcoming 2019). Titled, “Professions and Expertise: How Machine Learning and Blockchain are Redesigning the Landscape of Professional Knowledge and Organisation”, the article speculates as to how professional organisations might look if they functioned on a peer to peer basis as distributed autonomous organisations.

Other news from the CBT community:

Looking for partners: CBT research affiliate Stylianos Kampakis and startup venture Blockestates are actively looking to collaborate with researchers in the area of blockchain.

CBT research affiliate Daniel Heller will be speaking at two upcoming events:

• Euroclear, Central Bank Workshop in Brussels on November 14, on the topic: Fintech and Financial Stability.
• Swiss Blockchain Summit in Brussels on November 23 and 24, on the topic: Future of money is not what you think.

Advancing Bitcoin is a 2-day conference to be held at Code Node in London that aims to provide an engaging environment for developers to learn, discuss, and be inspired by the latest technical developments in the Bitcoin ecosystem. The format will be a mixture of 30-45 minute talks, 2-3 hour workshops, and panel discussions. Five speakers are already confirmed, including Bitcoin Core contributor Jimmy Song. They are looking for 7 more speakers to present on a Bitcoin related topic of their choice, in the areas such as lightning networks, sidechains, privacy enhancements, security research, developing Bitcoin applications and contributing to Bitcoin projects. There is an option to teach a workshop on a topic of your choice. They are open to other topics, but would prefer you to avoid ICO discussions, Bitcoin competitors (unless on a technical level), Bitcoin prices and Bitcoin adoption. All expenses will be paid for, including flights, hotels, transportation, food, and entry to the event.

Events you might be interested in:

Decentralized 2018 – The University of Nicosia is proud to announce that Decentralized 2018 will take place on November 14-16, 2018 at the Divani Caravel, Athens, Greece. Featuring 70+ speakers and 1,000+ attendees from over 50 countries, the event will bring together ministers, regulators, EU advisors, academics, business leaders, investors, and startups from around the world to exchange knowledge and ideas around the business and political implications of blockchain innovation. To find out more about the success of last year’s Decentralized event in Cyprus, follow this link.

For a discounted student rate, using the promo code “UCL-CBT” at registration, select a student ticket, and repeat the promo code above. For more ticket and event information please visit www.decentralized.com.

And finally:

OB: Academic Research Database Composition – The CBT is looking to hire a London-based student to help us develop our projects database. The role requires you to familiarise yourself with past and current blockchain-related projects run by us and our affiliates and help us structure a database to later create a graphical overview. Prior experience of MySQL would be beneficial but is not essential. This project is set to run for a period of 2 months and you will be remunerated with a one-time payment of £200.

Working hours are flexible and can be adjusted according to your timetable. This project is a good opportunity to get paid to catalogue blockchain research and learn more about the blockchain industry.

If you’re interested in applying, please email the incumbent at ucemavg@ucl.ac.uk with just 50 words on why you would be suited to this role. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis until 9^th November.

Look out for our next research newsletter toward the middle of November.