The Blockchain@UBC Annual Conference at UBC'sRobert H. Lee Alumni Centre features presentations and panel discussions with experts industry and academia around the theme: "Towards Decentralization". The Conference culminates in our thirs annual "Talent and Innovation Showcase", which brings students who have been participating in the Blockchain@UBC Summer Institute together with local and international industry partners for networking around jobs and internship opportunities.
Blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) are often touted as holding potential to fundamentally transform a wide range of social, business, and economic domains. Proponents present an array of benefits from blockchain-based decentralization, including vast efficiency gains, information transparency and security, and individual privacy, equity, and empowerment. However, these outcomes are by no means foregone conclusions, and many technical, regulatory, and organizational challenges remain to be solved. For instance, while blockchains themselves offer unprecedented security, the new applications and intermediary services built atop them are vulnerable to attack. Moreover, new kinds of digital assets are being created under a cloud of regulatory uncertainty, and new governance models are relatively untested and often difficult to comprehend. These countervailing forces, among others, risk derailing the lofty promises of decentralization.
These challenges motivate the theme of this year’s Blockchain@UBC Annual Conference: “Towards Decentralization”. A range of experts from industry and academia will take stock of the emergence, integration and adoption of blockchain and other DLTs across multiple domains, and provide perspectives on how we can continue on this journey towards realizing the full benefits of these technologies whilst avoiding adverse outcomes. By considering decentralization as a process, we seek to connect the lofty visions around blockchain-based decentralization to what is currently unfolding ‘on the ground’, including salient opportunities, challenges, trends, and bottlenecks across multiple domains. Panels cover various aspects of business and societal transformation, including:
Decentralizing finance
Privacy and security
Business transformations and blockchain
Blockchain/DLTs and Sustainability
The afternoon session of the conference will feature our “Talent and Innovation Showcase”, where industry sponsors (Silver Tier and above) and invited individuals and companies will present their ventures. This is a unique outlet for companies to promote their business to peers, potential investors, and highly capable students that have been participating in UBC’s landmark Blockchain Graduate Pathway, Canada’s first multidisciplinary graduate training for masters and PhD students, and the 4th Annual Blockchain@UBC Summer Institute; a two-week extensive interdisciplinary training program on blockchain and DLTs that precedes the Annual Conference.
PRICING
Blockchain@UBC Summer Institute Participants and UBC students - Free
Non-UBC Students - $25
Non-students - $100
First Nations land acknowledegement
We acknowledge that the UBC Point Grey campus is situated on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm.
Blockchain@UBC
Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems, ICICS 179 – 2366 Main Mall
Vancouver,
BC
Canada
V6T 1Z4 E-mail blockchain.ubc@ubc.ca
