Blockworks to unveil how NZ business is rapidly changing

Blockworks, clearly the biggest and most significant event to consider the benefits and impacts of the burgeoning blockchain technology in New Zealand, will be held in Auckland on October 12.

Blockworks will showcase how blockchain technology is transforming business, government and society through supply chain, smart city development, digital identity, finance and transport.

Business and technology leaders from businesses and organisations such as Air New Zealand, Auckland Council, universities, NZ Post, Inland Revenue, banks and law firms will be attending.

Blockworks founder Justin Flitter says New Zealand has a huge opportunity to build new prosperity based on data control and information,

“Often associated with bitcoin, blockchain technology is going mainstream and we need to take note as it stakes a claim to impact every aspect of life, for the better.

“It will streamline the way organisations run by unclogging systems and it will change the way we do business and live by giving people control and ownership of their data, instead of giving it away to a third party corporate. It will create opportunities and new ways for Kiwis to prosper.

“Blockchain is so much more than just bitcoin. Blockworks will be this technology’s coming out party when it reveals its true identity,” he says.

Blockworks features six international experts including Michael Williams from Microsoft Australia; Natasha Blycha, blockchain and smart legal contract lead from Herbert Smith Freehills; blockchain, smart cities and mobility expert Boyd Cohen from Barcelona; Dene Green from NZ Post and Michael Proper, chairman of Clear Foundation.

Centrality chief executive Aaron McDonald, winner of the technology and emerging industries’ category for the 2018 EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award, is also one of the key speakers.

Flitter says New Zealand, a tight-knit nation with an incredible sense of community and trust, already has the cultural foundation to be a hotbed for blockchain.

Blockchain’s attraction as a technology is its ability to deliver trust and security, because each block in a blockchain is a digital, tamper-proof record of information.

It’s built using cryptography, a way of storing and transmitting data so it can only be read and processed by the recipient, making it very effective in managing identity, financial information, social and medical records, transport and supply chain.

Both NZTech and the NZ Blockchain Association are supporting the Blockworks conference.

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