By Maria Esteves – May 14, 2016

The 2nd Annual Blockchain Technology Summit (Consensus NY 2016) commenced May 2-4, at the New York Marriott Marquis. Presented by CoinDesk in collaboration with Digital Currency Group, Consensus is an annual global conference where industry leaders from financial services, government, healthcare and supply chain management converge on the new Internet layer called Blockchain technology (decentralized database) and the world of digital currency. This year's conference included Building Blocks Hackathon, opening keynote presentation with Delaware Gov. Jack Markell Blockchain, business and technology panel sessions, IBM workshops, exhibitor show, special events and network receptions.

Reaching Consensus on Open Blockchains panel session with industry leaders Gavin Andresen, Bitcoin Foundation; Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum; Neha Narula, Digital Currency Initiative, MIT Media Lab; and Valery Vavilov, BitFury; was moderated by Pindar Wong, VeriFi Hong Kong. The session discussed Ethereum open Blockchain technology, smart contract, governance, Bitcoin protocols and digital identity management in health care. Questions posed by moderator Wong to the panelists included: What do you feel different about open Blockchain technology from traditional database? How many nodes are running the Bitcoin network?



Internal Approaches for Blockchain Strategies panel session with Edward Budd, Deutsche Bank; Ian Lee, Citi Ventures; Scott Manuel, Thomson Reuters; Bart Suichies, Philips; and Jeremy Wilson, Barclays; was moderated by author William Mougayar, “The Business Blockchain.” The global panelist of financial industry leaders discussed the business model and commercial approach to the Blockchain invasion in the banking community to solve real business problems, from partnership to design ware to security to Blockchain engineer talent to digital identity. Questions posed by moderator Mougayar to the panelists included: What is the level of visibility do you think within the executive branch with Blockchain, do they understand it very well? How many engineers do you have with the Blockchain title? How many different partners do you have working with Fintech technology companies in the lab?

How Tech Companies are Embracing Blockchain panel session with IT industry leaders vice president Jerry Cuomo, Blockchain Technologies, IBM; chief instigator Austin Hill, Blockstream; Yorke Rhodes, Microsoft; and Lata Varghese, Cognizant; moderated by Forrester's Principal Analyst Martha Bennett, commenced Tuesday, May 3. Cuomo, Hill, Varghese, and Rhodes discussed key points of Blockchain strategies for implementation and deployment from Cloud to open source. Questions posed by moderator Bennett to Austin Hill and panelists included: What specifically are you seeing in terms of use cases that your clients and prospects are asking you about and also are they the right ones?