Toronto Becomes More ‘Decentralized’

Toronto’s Decentral, the blockchain technology hub and host of 2014’s Bitcoin expo, announced today a new event titled “Blockchain and Fintech Expo.” Anthony Di Iorio, the Decentral entrepreneur and cryptocurrency evangelist behind Toronto’s Decentral hub and Decentral.tv, announced details for an upcoming event for both their local enthusiasts and the international community.

Decentral’s claim to fame was last years Bitcoin expo which aimed to raise funds for the Canadian Bitcoin Alliance by the end of the event they successfully generated 80 bitcoins for the alliance. Among the 700 attendees of the expo was over 50 speakers from around the world, making it one of the largest bitcoin conferences yet.

To follow up the highly successful expo, the community announced the 2015 Decentral Canadian Blockchain & Fintech Expo to take place downtown Toronto around the second week of September 2015. The current speaker list so far includes top names in the cryptocurrency community with more speakers to be added in the upcoming months. So far the list includes:

  • Vitalik Buterin, Gavin Wood & Anthony Di Iorio of Ethereum
  • David Johnston of DApps Fund
  • Jamie Robinson of QuickBT
  • Jeff Coleman of Kryptokit
  • William Mougayar of Start-Up Management
  • Michael Terpin of Social Radius
  • Tether and the Bitcoin Foundation
  • David Bailey of BTC Media
  • Joel Dietz of Swarm
  • Paul Snow of Factom
  • Shawn Wilkinson of Storj
  • Gerald Cotten of QuadrigaCX.
  • Matthew Roszak of Tally Capital
  • Brock Pierce of ChangeTip
  • & Jason King of Sean’s Outpost

In addition to the conference, a hackathon will take place in partnership with local universities. Back in 2014, the Toronto hackathon best in show was Amir Taaki’s Dark Market, which was soon developed further into Open Bazaar, a growing platform for a fully decentralized market place.

With exciting projects coming up for release in 2015 like Ethereum and many other Bitcoin 2.0 projects, hackathons like this will give participants a sneak peek into the future and what the can expect from the ever developing bitcoin industry. As the event is still far away we can only hope more details will be released in the months leading up to the event. With any luck we’ll be able to see what’s been brewing under the slowly declining bitcoin price this past year.