2024 Events

Role of AI in Finance in 2025

As AI continues to redefine the financial sector, new opportunities—and challenges—are emerging at an unprecedented pace. In this session, leaders from Stripe, Ramp, Crypto Conexion come together to explore the transformative impact of AI on finance in 2025. From improving transaction security and fraud detection to stabilizing the value of digital assets and stablecoins, AI’s role in shaping a resilient and inclusive financial future is just beginning.

Join us for an in-depth panel discussion covering:

AI and Financial Security: Discover how cutting-edge AI solutions are enhancing cybersecurity in payments, lending, and transactions while introducing new challenges in fraud prevention and data privacy.
Stablecoins and Digital Currencies: Examine AI's potential to bolster the reliability and security of stablecoins, paving the way for increased adoption across traditional and decentralized finance.
Responsible AI Implementation: Delve into the ethical and regulatory considerations surrounding AI in finance, from data transparency to responsible AI deployment for financial inclusion.

Panelists:

Stacey Wong, Stripe
Amanda Carroccio, Ramp
Karen Hsu, Appdome and Blockchain by Women
Monica Talan, CryptoConnection

***2024 Web3, Crypto and Blockchain Projects and Investments***
**Speakers:**
Cleve Mesidor, Founder, Blockchain Foundation
Nisa Amolis, Managing Partner, A100x Partners
Emma Todd, Chief Executive Officer, MMH Data Systems
Karen Hsu, Co-Founder, Blockchain by Women and SVP Mobile DevOps and Security, Appdome
**Topics:**
**Market Trends:**
What major trends do you anticipate shaping the crypto, NFT, and blockchain landscapes in 2024?
Which sectors within blockchain (e.g. DeFi, DAOs, GameFi) do you see holding the most promise for growth in 2024? Why?
**Investment Areas:**
What do you think are the top 3 investment areas for 2024?
What are your thoughts on investing in "Layer 2" scaling solutions for Ethereum and other blockchains?
**Regulation and Security:**
What regulatory developments in 2024 could significantly impact the crypto industry, both positively and negatively?
How can companies protect their customers from hacks, scams, and other security threats? End consumers?
**Specific Project Insights:**
Beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum, which specific cryptocurrency projects do you believe have strong potential for significant growth in 2024?
What advice would you give to companies looking for funding in 2024?
Are there any blockchain-based companies or protocols you think are particularly undervalued right now?
**Recording:** https://youtu.be/qNAY0aJMwws?si=rJIhuFPMuD1Mo6XY

**May 2024: Mobile Privacy Unveiled - Fortifying Your Mobile Frontiers**
**Description:**
Join us as we explore the pivotal role of Mobile Privacy in securing your mobile applications. Learn why protecting user data and maintaining privacy integrity on mobile devices is crucial in today's digital landscape. Get insights into potential risks and discover effective strategies to fortify your mobile app security.
**Speakers:**
Cleve Mesidor – Executive Director at Blockchain Foundation
Rena Shah – VP of Product and Operations at Trust Machines
Karen Hsu – SVP of Mobile DevOps & Security Solutions at Appdome
Sandeep Kamble – Founder & CTO at SecureLayer7
**Recording:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPQ7pcfhbVQ

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quarterly events where panels of experts discuss perspectives of each topic below
1:1 session with expert from focus area, matched based on your professional goals and interests
papers and other content for focus area

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***Next-Generation NFTs and Web3 Social: Shaping the Future of Digital Interaction***
**Description:**
In this session, we’ll explore the evolutionary trends and groundbreaking innovations that are redefining the landscape of digital interaction, creative expression, and community building.
**Key Topics:**
**Dynamic NFT Ecosystems:** Immerse yourself in the evolution of NFTs beyond static digital assets. Hear how Next-Generation NFTs are incorporating dynamic elements, interactive features, and programmable functionalities, ushering in a new era of engaging and adaptive digital collectibles.
**Web3 Social Metaverse Integration:** Explore the seamless integration of NFTs within the Web3 Social Metaverse. See how these technologies are converging to create immersive digital experiences, where users can not only own and trade digital assets but actively participate in a shared virtual environment.
**Smart Contracts and Tokenomics:** Delve into the intricate world of smart contracts powering Next-Generation NFTs. Learn how advanced tokenomics models are shaping economic ecosystems within Web3 Social platforms, fostering sustainable growth, and empowering creators and users alike.
**Inclusivity and User Empowerment:** Uncover the democratizing influence of Next-Generation NFTs and Web3 Social on digital creativity and expression. Hear stories of inclusivity, empowerment, and how these technologies are breaking down barriers, allowing a more diverse range of creators and communities to thrive.

**Verification, Data Ownership and Privacy**
**Description:**
In this session, hear experts dissect the challenges and opportunities surrounding the responsible handling of data, ensuring user privacy, and establishing robust verification mechanisms in decentralized ecosystems.
**Key Topics:**
**Decentralized Identity Verification:** Uncover the innovative approaches and technologies reshaping identity verification in the decentralized landscape. Hear how blockchain technology is revolutionizing the concept of digital identity, offering secure and transparent solutions that prioritize user control and consent.
**Data Ownership Empowerment:** Navigate the shift towards empowering individuals with greater control over their personal data. Explore blockchain-based solutions that enable users to own, manage, and monetize their data, ushering in a new era of data ownership rights and digital sovereignty.
**Privacy-Preserving Technologies:** Delve into the cutting-edge advancements in privacy-preserving technologies within Crypto, Web3, and Blockchain. Discover cryptographic techniques and privacy-focused protocols designed to safeguard sensitive information while fostering trust in decentralized environments.
**Regulatory Compliance and Trust:** Examine the evolving landscape of regulatory frameworks governing data privacy and security in blockchain and crypto. Understand how compliance measures can be integrated seamlessly into decentralized systems, enhancing trust and accountability.

**The Next Evolution of Decentralized Finance (DeFi): Navigating the Future of Financial Innovation**
**Description:**
In this forward-looking session, gain insights into the emerging trends that will shape the next evolution of decentralized finance.
**Key Topics:**
**Cross-Chain DeFi Interoperability:** Witness the rise of cross-chain interoperability and how it is reshaping the DeFi landscape. Explore the potential for seamless asset transfers and liquidity movements across diverse blockchain networks, fostering a more connected and collaborative decentralized financial ecosystem. Hear how you can evaluate and mitigate the security risks of cross-chain interoperability.
**Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) 2.0:** Delve into the evolution of DAOs, moving beyond governance structures to more sophisticated decentralized decision-making frameworks. Discover how DAOs are becoming the backbone of innovative financial organizations, driving community-driven initiatives, and managing complex financial instruments.
**Programmable Liquidity and Dynamic Yield Strategies:** Uncover the future of liquidity provision and yield farming with programmable liquidity and dynamic yield strategies. Explore how decentralized platforms are incorporating advanced algorithms and automation to optimize returns and provide users with more sophisticated financial tools.
**DeFi 3.0: Privacy, Security, and Regulatory Considerations:** Navigate the next phase of DeFi's development, addressing critical aspects such as privacy, security, and regulatory compliance. Learn how decentralized finance is maturing to meet the challenges of a rapidly evolving regulatory landscape while maintaining user privacy and security.
**Dethrone the CeDeFi giants:** Are decentralized exchanges, lending protocols, and asset management platforms are poised to eclipse their centralized counterparts with unmatched transparency, efficiency, and control.
**Embrace fractionalization:** Imagine a world where everything from real estate to intellectual property can be owned and traded in fractions, unlocking unprecedented liquidity and democratizing access to previously illiquid assets. We’ll discuss how DeFi 2.0 will shatter ownership barriers and redefine financial inclusivity.
**Unleash the potential of on-chain analytics:** Real-time market data, risk assessment tools, and AI-powered investment strategies are converging on-chain, bringing unprecedented transparency and data-driven decision-making to DeFi.

Energy and Sustainability
**This session will dive deep into the cutting-edge applications of blockchain technology that are rewriting the rules of how we generate, distribute, and consume energy.**
**Peer-to-peer energy trading:** Goodbye to centralize monopolies? We’ll discuss how the blockchain enables direct energy exchanges between individuals and communities, fostering a more equitable and efficient energy market.
**Renewable energy microgrids:** Empower local communities to generate and manage their own renewable energy with blockchain-powered microgrids, boosting energy independence and sustainability.
**Carbon footprint tracking:** Blockchain's tamper-proof nature provides a transparent and verifiable way to track carbon emissions, paving the way for effective carbon offsetting and emissions reduction strategies.
**Interoperability and standardization:** Addressing fragmentation is crucial for large-scale adoption. Blockchain-based energy solutions are working towards standardized protocols and interoperable platforms to create a seamless energy ecosystem.
**Grid modernization**: Integrating blockchain into smart grids can bring enhanced security, automation, and demand response capabilities, leading to a more resilient and efficient energy infrastructure.
**Data privacy and security:** Balancing transparency with user privacy is paramount. Innovative blockchain solutions are emerging to ensure secure data sharing and user control in the energy sector.

Previous Panels

Data Driven Investments: Blockchain Companies and Protocols

Hear experts discuss the data and metrics they consider when investing in blockchain companies and networks.

Our panelists: Maria Shen, Partner, Electric Capital

Matthew Merle, Partner, Fifth Era

Brynly Llyr, General Counsel, Celo

Sinhae Lee, Partner, GBIC

Moderator: Karen Hsu, Founder, BlockchainIntel & Founder, Blockchain by Women

Data Driven Investments and Execution

Hear experts discuss data and execution options to consider when investing in blockchain assets

Panelists: Ambre Soubiran, CEO Kaiko

Christine Sandler, Head of Sales and Marketing, Fidelity

Beatrice O'Carroll, Co-Founder Reciprocity Trading / Prycto

Angela Dalton, CEO Signum Capital Growth

App talks link

Fireside chat: CBDC Technology and retail use cases

Hear from Jim Cunha, SVP at Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and Neha Narula, Director of Digital Currency Initiative at MIT

Weighing the risks and opportunities of Defi and crypto

For a summary of the panel with Satis Group, Idex, FalconX, LedgerPrime, and BlockchainIntel, see: https://www.blockchainintel.com/blog/weighing-the-opportunities-and-risks-in-defi-and-crypto

Lending, Derivatives and Reducing Credit and Regulatory Risk

Hear from LedgerPrime, FalconX, Digital Gamma and BlockchainIntel on reducing credit and regulatory risk in digital currencies.

Mitigating Liquidity and Regulatory Risk (May 20) -

Hear from Gemini, Coinfloor, Dash and BlockchainIntel on how investors and regulated/deregulated exchanges address liquidity in light of the bitcoin halving and new regulations.

May 6: Reduce risk in the exchange of digital assets and securities

Join Bitstamp, BlockchainIntel, Reciprocity Trading, Katten Law, Cryptocurrency.Report for a discussion on how to use transparency to bridge the gap between traditional and decentralized trading and investing. View recording here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFBLrZGBQ2I&t=751s

April 22: Stimulus, Regulation and Digital Assets/Currencies

View Recording here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pH2EM0cE3jg&t=4s

Register here

April 16: Protecting Yourself On and Off Chain

Join us April 16! For details on the event and to register, please go to this link

February 18, 2020

There are now over 200 stablecoins. In 2020, we will continue to see new stable coins launched. Hear from experts from OKCoin, Binance and Celo with Stablecoins. These experts will break down the differences between stablecoins and share their thoughts for stablecoins in 2020. They’ll answer questions such as:

What are the different types of stable coins? How do they work?
What new stable coins are coming out in 2020 and how are they different
How and where are stablecoins being used?
Are stable coins the onramps so that blockchains will become more widely adopted?
What challenges do stablecoins face, such as addressing anti-money laundering concerns and regulatory issues?
What role will CBDC’s (Central Bank Digital Currencies) have?

Our speakers:

Catherine Coley, CEO Binance

Miranda Ma, Head of Legal and Regulatory OKCoin

Brynly Llyr, Chief Counsel, Celo

Moderator: Karen Hsu, CEO BlockchainIntel and Co-Founder Blockchain by Women

October 30, 2019

Protocol Battle: Enabling Rapid Application Development & Adoption

While there are thousands of protocols, few have significant traction in terms of number of applications built on top and users. What are the characteristics that make it easier for developers to build applications on top of a protocol? In this session, we’ll hear from the developers at these protocols talk about what they’ve found through interacting with their communities and what the protocols have built to enable rapid application development and user adoption.

Many thanks to Dash Core Group and K&L Gates for sponsoring this event! Please let us know questions you'd like to have answered-- join our telegram group https://bit.ly/2Q8Ktwd

Do you need to have smart contracts?
What tools are needed for developers or what tools have developers found most useful when building new applications?
How important are additional privacy features for users?
How does the protocol scale? How are issues like the one XRP is facing now addressed?
How is the network resistant to attacks?

August 28, 2019

From Blockchain Pilot to production: Real estate, Health, media

To continue our series on Blockchain Pilot to Production, we’ll take a deeper look at companies using the blockchain to track transactions and assets. We’ll hear from entrepreneurs and advisors in Healthcare, Real Estate and Media on their journeys pilot to production. We’ll discuss the industry specific issues, organizational alignment, and partner and customer communication needed to make blockchain deployments successful. Thank you to our sponsor for this event, Target!

June 27th, 2019 - From Blockchain Pilot to production: A Financial services perspective

As blockchain projects and deployments continue to proliferate across industries, questions on how to get from pilot to production are coming up. Let’s take a look at the first industry to gain significant traction with blockchain technology -- financial services. In this session, we’ll discuss the challenges financial services companies have faced and addressed, including scalability, security and compliance. We’ll hear from Coinbase, OKCoin, Anchorage and BlockchainIntel about their lessons learned and discuss applications to other industries.

Past Events

May Event

Proof of HAPPY HOUR!

Proof of Happy Hour is an event to celebrate Consensus 2019 in NYC! May 14th, 2019

Our community joined Kadena, Republic, Quantstamp, and Blockchain by Women at Haswell Green's and experienced the old-time New York atmosphere. Set right in the heart of the theatre district, we enjoyed an evening with appetizers and an open bar connecting with teams and other Blockchain enthusiast within the space. A BIG thanks to everyone who joined! Cheers to a successful event! 🥂🍾

At Haswell Green’s during #NYBlockchainWeek

March Event

What’s working? What’s not?

You've heard the blockchain buzz and potential of smart contracts. What is actually working? What still needs work?

Blockchain entrepeneurs and experts shared how they developed their respective companies and got adoption. Thank you to our panelists sharing their insight: Alexa Beaver, leads BASF’s Blockchain Lab, Allison Berke, Executive Director of the Stanford Cyber Initiative, Saritta Jones, CEO of Trustabit, and Olga Mack, VP of Strategy at Quantstamp.

February Event

Blockchain in Energy Use Cases and Projects

Karen Hsu, co-founder of Blockchain By Women, kicked off the event by giving us an overview of the current market trends moving from centralized to decentralized, with DERs penetration. She shared a P2P transaction test example for enabling distributed energy markets and facilitating increased penetration of DER in the retail utility market.

On our panelist, we heard from Lydia Kreft on how they're using the blockchain to give people using EV charging stations the credits they are due based on time of day of charging and other factors. Sherry Li, from GE, gave her perspective on the blockchain opportunity in Energy, while Rena Shah shared with us her experience using the blockchain to address energy crises during national disasters in California and other parts of the U.S. View the livestream here.

Resources on topics of discussion:

NREL and BlockCypher P2P/Transactive Energy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPAm44p3iSg
GE: https://www.ge.com/reports/trading-neighbors-new-study-will-look-blockchains-potential-power-local-energy-markets/ AND https://www.genewsroom.com/press-releases/ge-power-joins-study-blockchain-284541

Thank you to our sponsors K&L Gates and GE.

January event

Why blockchain in 2019

We started off the new year with fresh perspectives of promising blockchain/cryptocurrency companies and projects in the face of new regulation. We heard from Lily Liu (co-founder of Earn.com) about the exciting projects and companies she has been working with, investment trends and criteria for a good investment strategy. Michelle Sabins, SVP at Silvergate, shared about the companies Silvergate has banked, their path to IPO and why they continue to focus on digital currencies since 2013. We got great insight from Wendy Walker at Sovos on taxes and tax considerations with her experience in tax compliance and business-to-government reporting software. Monica Quaintance, leading engineering and adoption at Kadena, and Jeremy McLaughlin, Attorney at K&L Gates LLP, brought their respective insights on the blockchain industry and trends they are seeing in the blockchain space.

Thank you to our sponsors: Blockchain Capital, BlockCypher, Kadena, Silvergate Bank, and Protocol Labs.