MEDIA RELEASE

August 22, 2014

Digital Currency on the Drawing Board

Government policies and digital currency ideas and issues will come together at three public workshops next week.

The workshops in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, sponsored by the Internet Party, will be facilitated by Robert O’Brien, a software engineer who has worked on large-scale distributed financial market systems and one of New Zealand's leading authorities on Blockchain technology.

The aim of the workshops is to canvass views on policy and regulation as it relates to financial technology, specifically Bitcoin and Blockchain technology. The focus is to kickstart the conversation and get people thinking about the implications and use of the technology from a policy perspective, as well as new ways to deliver government services online.

While the Internet Party is organising the workshops as sponsor, the meetings are politically neutral and Mr O'Brien is volunteering his time for free.

Internet Party digital currency spokesman David Currin said gathering relevant views and expertise was critical to forming strong and effective policy in the increasingly important area of crypto-currency.

“The Internet Party has a major focus on the development of digital currency in a policy context. It’s an important emerging technology for the future of finance and New Zealand, and there are huge opportunities for us to get in on the ground floor and establish ourselves as a key player.

“At the moment it’s a little like the Wild West – unexplored and unregulated but with huge opportunities for early pioneers. Digital currency is the new frontier. The underlying infrastructure, called the blockchain, has many potential uses beyond crypto-currencies which opens up new possibilities for Government.”

DIGITAL CURRENCY WORKSHOPS

Auckland

August 26
Freeman’s Bay Community Centre, 52 Hepburn St
4pm-6pm
http://www.meetup.com/Auckland-Bitcoin-Meetup/events/201179342/

Christchurch

August 28
Canterbury University, Room KA04 Kirkwood Village, Kirkwood Ave
3pm-5pm
http://www.meetup.com/Crypto-currency-and-Blockchain-Policy/events/201549052/

Wellington

August 29
Toi Poneke Arts Centre, 61-69 Abel Smith St
12pm-2pm
http://www.meetup.com/Wellington-Bitcoin/events/201080202/

ENDS

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