I had the honor participate in a September 27 panel discussion in NYC organized by Markets & Markets.  See this agenda for the Markets & Markets “AI & Blockchain Fintech Confex” event.   SIIA views blockchain as part of a continuum of technologies that are and will continue to change the world.  Technologies such as the internet of things (IOT), cloud computing, data-driven innovation, and artificial intelligence are all topics SIIA has provided thought leadership on.  This is why  in January this year, we released an Issue Brief on blockchain and hosted an event with the Congressional Blockchain Caucus.   Many of our Member companies are experimenting with blockchain-based products. Dun & Bradstreet, for instance, provides a unique blockchain identifying number that corresponds to the Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number that it offers for companies.   This allows companies that do not know each ot ...

SIIA is a believer in blockchain’s potential as this Issue Brief makes clear and is interested in continuing the conversation we started with the Congressional Blockchain Caucus about how policy can be leveraged to promote blockchain-based solutions to real-world problems.  Broadly speaking, blockchain should be seen as one of several technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Computing that the U.S. government should promote as part of its overall foreign digital economic policy.  Given the fact that much ink has been spilled about how blockchain can make supply chains more efficient and transparent, streamline trade finance, and help customs authorities,  SIIA offers the following ideas for how policy could help advance blockchain adoption.  Include protection for blockchain in future trade agreements  One way of perhaps including such protection could be to include in future trade agreements the below language in yellow in the cross ...

Today, on February 14, 2018, the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Oversight and Subcommittee on Research and Technology held a very interesting

Yesterday’s event on blockchain, which was framed by SIIA’s Issue Brief, enticed great attendance and sophisticated audience involvement.  You can view the event on Facebook here.  It is worthwhile taking a look even just at the first ten minutes with Congressmen Schweikert’s and Polis’ interventions.  Their commitment and passion for this technology’s potential is palpable.  We are lucky to have this bipartisan approach to reviewing blockchain. We were also lucky to have an all-star cast of panelists: Robert L. Strayer, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Cyber and International Communications and Information Policy; Brian Trackman, Attorney Lead, Counsel, LabCFTC and CFTC Office of General Counsel; Thomas Savage, Lead Blockchain Researcher, Centers for Disease Control; David Egts, Chief Technologist, North America Public Sector, Red Hat; Jon West, Head of Platforms, Technology Department, Thomson Reuters; Angela Angelovska-Wil ...

Last week from October 18-20, Georgetown University hosted its “First Annual Fintech Week.”  The announcement of the event and program can be found here.  Georgetown Law, IIEL, NEX, and Thomson Reuters sponsored Fintech Week.  It was a truly first-class gathering with candid and rich conversations involving industry representatives, tech entrepreneurs, regulators, legal specialists, compliance leaders, law enforcement representatives and others. I attended the October 19 panels entitled “Blockchain & Beyond: Distributed Ledgers and the Future of Payments” and “Combatting the Dark Side of Innovation: Cybersecurity and Money Laundering.”  I am glad I did because the panels touched on mutually relevant issues.  Major takeaways from the panels included the need for partnerships and give and take between partners; the need for interoperability for scale, but maybe inter-sectoral interoperability is not needed for now; bloc ...