New "Business of Blockchain" Conference Cohosted by MIT Technology Review and the MIT Media Lab Explains the Impact of Blockchain Across Industries

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Feb 15, 2017, 08:49 ET

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 15, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- MIT Technology Review and the MIT Media Lab Digital Currency Initiative today announced their first ever fintech conference examining the future of commerce.

The Business of Blockchain (www.technologyreview.com/blockchainnews), to be held April 18, 2017 at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, MA is open to the public and is a must-attend conference for senior executives responsible for finance, operations, information technology, security, and strategy–those charged with driving innovation. The conference will examine how industries from finance and health care to music and renewable energy might use distributed ledgers to operate securely and efficiently, at the speed of the Internet. Attendees will meet pioneers in this emerging field, gain a solid understanding about the underlying technology to gain business advantage, and learn to separate fact from hype in order to chart their strategy.

Jason Pontin, editor in chief and publisher of MIT Technology Review, states, "We believe that blockchains have the power to create entirely new kinds of business. If blockchain technology is the Internet of money, we are currently defining and building the fundamental protocols for the future of commerce. The time for business leaders to understand what this can mean to their business is now."

"Blockchain technology is poised to have a dramatic impact on the world, but its development is still very much in flux. Now is the time to get involved if you want to influence its direction," says Neha Narula, director of research for the MIT Media Lab Digital Currency Initiative.

The speaker lineup grows every day. Current speakers include:

Brian Behlendorf – Executive Director, Hyperledger Project
Emin Gün Sirer – Associate Professor, Cornell University
Joi Ito – Director, MIT Media Lab
Jalak Jobanputra – Founding/Managing Partner, FuturePerfect Ventures
Simon Johnson – Professor of Global Economics and Management, MIT
Kosta Peric – Deputy Director, Financial Services for the Poor, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The new conference builds on the success and creativity of MIT Technology Review's EmTech conference series, which brings the media company's award-winning journalism to life on stage in Cambridge and San Francisco each year. To learn more and register for this event, and for information on becoming an event partner, go to www.technologyreview.com/blockchainnews.

About MIT Technology Review
Founded at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1899, MIT Technology Review is a digitally oriented independent media company whose analysis, features, reviews, interviews, and live events explain the commercial, social, and political impact of new technologies. MIT Technology Review readers are curious technology enthusiasts—a global audience of business and thought leaders, innovators and early adopters, entrepreneurs and investors. Every day, we provide an authoritative filter for the flood of information about technology. We are the first to report on a broad range of new technologies, informing our audiences about how important breakthroughs will impact their careers and their lives. Subscribe. Follow us: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+.

About the MIT Media Lab Digital Currency Initiative
The DCI is a research group at MIT focusing on cryptocurrency and its underlying technologies. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin enable open, trustless digital payments and contracts. In the spirit of the Internet's wide reach, this technology has the potential to impact billions of people and become a crucial part of daily life. We engage in fundamental research while shedding light on the associated benefits, risks, and ethical quandaries. Beyond research centered at MIT, we also help support open-source cryptocurrency communities and diversity, and we hope to foster a broader academic community in this space.

Media Contact:
David W.M. Sweeney
Director of Marketing and Communications
MIT Technology Review
617 475-8018
[email protected]

SOURCE MIT Technology Review