By Maria Esteves

The 2018 Consensus New York (4th Annual Blockchain Technology Summit) presented by CoinDesk was held at the New York Hilton Midtown, May 14-16. The International Blockchain as a Service and Cryptocurrency annual conference featured keynote presentations, panel discussions by global leaders in the Blockchain and Cryptocurrency space, special presentations, workshops, exhibitor hall and network receptions. This year’s successful record breaking attendees of over 8,000 from around the world included industry leaders in finance and technology.

The opening presentation of The State of Blockchain World with co-founder/executive chairman/author Don Tapscott, Blockchain Research Institute, commenced Monday, May 14. Tapscott introduced the question "Why do firms exist?" by the late Nobel Prize winner British economist Ronald Coase, discussed the rise of the Internet of Information, the main effect of the Blockchain technology and the economy that can radically drop the transaction cost that cause us to have vertically integrated firms by using decentralized network and distributed value creation.

The opening Fireside Chat with St. Louis Fed, by CEO James Bullard, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis commenced Monday, May 14. Bullard discussion included how crypto assets can exist today with different features and characteristics than it existed when it was initially issued.

The Race Towards Interoperability panel discussion with leading experts Charlie Lee of Litecoin Foundation; co-founder Dr. Jutta Steiner, Parity Technologies; chief cryptographer David Schwartz, Ripple https://www.ripple.com; and founder Matthew Spoke, AION; moderated by journalist Rachel-Rose O'Leary, CoinDesk, commenced Monday, May 14. The panelists discussed the public and private blockchain platforms from asset transfer from one chain to another to escrow schemes and identity chains linked to commodities market.

The Most Secure and Reliable Commercial Networks in the World panel discussion with leading experts founder Joseph Lubin, Consensys; and venture partner Jimmy Song, Blockchain Capital; moderated by Amber Baldet, CoinDesk, commenced Monday, May 14. The panelists discussed the internet’s Blockchain decentralized interoperability solutions and privacy. Questions posed by moderator Baldet to panelists included "Let's talk about privacy. In five years, do you think it matters for the existing adminity to visible transaction history going to be positioned in the long run?"

The special presentation of RSK, the First Public Smart Contract Bitcoin Sidechain, is Live!, with co-founder/CEO Diego Gutierrez Zaldivar, RSK https://www.rsk.co, commenced Monday, May 14. Zaldivar announced the launch of the first open source Bitcoin Blockchain Smart Contract platform.

The special presentation of Tools For Trust: Enabling Institutional Crypto Trading with CEO Eric Larchevegue, Ledger, commenced Wednesday, May 16. Larchevegue announced the new release of the user friendly state of the art hardware wallet called Ledger Blue and the Ledger Consortium.

The special presentation of POLYMATH 2.0 IS LIVE with CEO Trevor Koverko, Polymath, commenced Wednesday, May 16. Trevor introduced the security tokens Polymath, Poly, and the Polymath Security Token Standard 2.0.