Building The Future: In A Peer-Reviewed Way

I was at the BBA (British Blockchain Association) hosted conference for ISC2019 (International Scientific Conference) today in the Excel conference centre in London:

It was truly international, and had several nations of the world represented:

The panels, too, were full of leading academics from around the world. We can see that institutions such as MIT, Bowie State University and John Hopkins University were putting forward the importance of creating a core foundation around peer reviewed science around Blockchain:

The driving force of the BBA has been its co-founder of Naseem Naqvi, and who has a real passion for creating a foundation of academic and peer-reviewed work within Blockchain areas:

The agenda was fast paced, and so much discussion around the applications of blockchain in a support things like data flows across borders. It included a good deal of expert panels, and people with real passion. Overall we were well represented, and first up it was our own Liam Bell (on the left hand side of the panel) and who outlined how academia can best support innovation around blockchain, cryptography and distributed ledgers:

And it was great to see one of my ex-MSc students (Simon Dyson) — who produced an amazing dissertation on cryptocurrency investigations:

I am lucky to be invited onto the IOTA Research Council, and it was great to see Jens Munch Lund-Neilsen from the IOTA Foundation. He outlined — with a passion — the Tangle, and how it can be used to create fast consensus mechanisms:

For me, I am honoured to be awarded a Fellowship of the BBA:

One of my favouriate discussions was by Oliver Kamm from The Times, and who outlined that we need more trust in our world, and that we should stop putting up barriers to things … data, trade, … On the day of a Brexit vote, his comments really echo’ed with me, and especially with the risks we are facing within the UK. We need more bridges, and do everything we can to improve trade, promote innovation, and increase our collaboration.

Conclusions

My conclusion is that we have a flawed data world, and need to change. Let’s build a world fit for our citizens. Go hug an SME, and support new companies innovating around building new data infrastructures. Academia has a core part in making sure that our world is built in the best possible way, and peer-reviewed research outputs are often one of the best ways that this is done in a way in which others can share in its progress.

I feel refreshed and energised that there are others that share our vision of building a truly citizen-focused work, and which has trust and governance integrated at its core.