Announcing Consensus 2015: A Summit on Digital Currencies and Blockchain Technologies

Digital currencies and blockchain technologies cut across numerous sectors, with the potential to impact everyone from the suits on Wall Street to the world’s unbanked.

We want to drive the conversation forward by connecting the doers and thinkers in those sectors – global development and aid, civic technology, government and policy-making, financial services and more – with the technologists, entrepreneurs and investors at the heart of the digital currency world.

To do that, we’re launching our first conference: Consensus 2015 at the TimesCenter in New York City on 10th September.

CoinDesk’s Expert Briefing for members of the UK tech and finance press in March.

At Consensus 2015, we’ll discuss the role of a decentralised public ledger in global aid and disaster relief scenarios with the individuals and organisations who are spearheading that debate. We’ll examine the future of global finance with luminaries from the world’s largest institutions. We’ll talk about how decentralised protocols can form a new layer in today’s technology stack, with lessons from the darknet markets. See the agenda we’re building here.

Some of our first speakers at Consensus 2015 are:

Hans Morris, Nyca Partners – Hans is a managing partner at Nyca Partners. He sits on the board of portfolio companies Lending Club and Cardworks. His firm has invested in ChangeTip and Abra. Hans is a former president of Visa, managing director of General Atlantic and a chief financial officer at Citigroup.

Kosta Peric, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – Kosta works on digital payments as a deputy director and chief technology officer of Financial Services for the Poor at the Gates Foundation. He’s a co-founder of SWIFT’s Innotribe group.

Alesh Brown, World Vision – Alesh is developing the Cash and Markets Innovation Lab at World Vision, one of the largest charities in the US with projects in nearly 100 countries. The new lab will focus on simplifying and scaling the use of cash in the global humanitarian and aid sectors. He previously worked with Save the Children, UN Habitat and founded apt-info.

They’ll be joining other speakers from the World Economic Forum, USAA bank, the New York Times and IRIN News. See our first announced speakers here.

Update: You can now register for Consensus 2016