The second Global Blockchain Summit and International Blockchain Week in Shanghai will take place from September 19-24, 2016, a combined Wanxiang Blockchain Labs and Ethereum Devcon presentation.

In an exclusive interview, Ethereum Foundation Executive Director, Ming Chan, told Bitcoin Magazine:

“This year we not only have an event twice the size of last year’s that will be sold out again, the excitement expressed by attendees, speakers, sponsors and supporters is inspiring in itself, and is sure to fuel even more of the kind of synergistic creativity, invention and breakthrough moments that were described by attendees last year.”

Uniting the Networks

Sponsored principally by Microsoft, one of the event slogans is “uniting the networks” and it seems that the event at the Hyatt on the Bund in Shanghai, Sept. 19-24 is attracting companies and organizations from around the world.

“We had many times the number of proposed presentations than spots available in spite of all the ups, downs and challenges of an evolving area of emergent tech, as well as some extra planning needed for those traveling to China for the first time,” said Chan.

A Global Effort to Unite the Blockchain Community

One of the keynote speakers, Hyperledger Executive Director, Brian Behlendorf, told Bitcoin Magazine:

“Hyperledger intends to be a global effort and so working with the China blockchain community is very important to us. I’ll be talking about the goals and progress of the Hyperledger project at the conference, but I really intend to be in listening in conversation mode, to see what more we can do to collaborate with the China blockchain community and industry.”

The Chinese government has organized a special government-industry working group to ensure that Chinese industry presents a concrete plan of action at the Summit outlining how best to go forward to promote the development and adoption of blockchain technology.

“Interest in blockchain technology, and in Hyperledger, has been huge in China,” said Behlendorf. “We have fifteen members out of eighty based in China, not counting those companies like IBM with a substantial developer presence in China.”

Wanxiang Bitcoin Lab’s Summit, Demo Day and Ethereum’s Devcon2

The week-long event includes the Ethereum Foundation Devcon2 developers conference, Wanxiang Blockchain Lab’s (WBL) Demo Day and WBL’s “Summit” events.

Hosted by Wanxiang Blockchain Labs, the Summit will focus on “addressing current and future business use cases, economic and social impacts, as well as how blockchain technology may be utilized and deployed for trade and other industries,” according to Chan.

Ethereum’s Devcon2, running from September 19–21, will feature Ethereum developers who will introduce, present and discuss the latest developments in Ethereum research and development.

This will be Ethereum’s second international development summit, an opportunity for hundreds of developers to share the latest information and their experiences working on the Ethereum blockchain. Devcon2 will also reach out to the Chinese development community to pool their resources. According to the event website, “it will be a major milestone for the Blockchain Industry and the FinTech world.”

Demo Day on September 22 will be co-hosted by Wanxiang Blockchain Labs and ChainB, one of China’s leading blockchain news agencies. New innovations and discoveries will be of particular interest to investors, venture capital firms and start-ups. Nearly one hundred projects have applied to demonstrate their new blockchain inventions in this one-day competition for prizes including 50,000 RMB for “Demo Day Champion” as well as 20,000 RMB for the the most innovative project.

In addition, winners company and logo will be featured on ChainB.com, China’s leading blockchain news site.

Among the projects are BitSE’s Qtum, a new operating system for blockchain development combined with a modularized basic chain which combines the advantages of numerous public chains like Bitcoin and Ethereum; Digix’s new gold-backed stable coin and the Digix DApp 2.0; Decentralized Capital’s DC assets, a form of digital currency that is secured by the Ethereum network and collateralized by customer deposits, which are for conversions of cash deposits such as dollars and euros; and Trusted Key Solutions Inc with a project that verifies users’ identities once, so they can then reuse their credentials on other apps and sites.

Surprise Announcements

In correspondence with Bitcoin Magazine, Ethereum developer and conference speaker Taylor Gerring said to expect some surprise announcements throughout the week:

“As the Ethereum community has grown significantly since last year’s Devcon1 in London, a first wave of project announcements are anticipated throughout the week; many of which will serve as core building blocks to further advance the ecosystem. This unique opportunity to exchange ideas across cultural boundaries with the help of sponsors from around the world is the type of massive collaboration needed to advance the blockchain industry beyond this nascent phase.”

Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, will be helping to kick off Devcon on Day 1 with his talk “Ethereum in 25 minutes” and will be speaking several times during the event.

“Vitalik’s efforts in the past year to grow the global community should be evident at Devcon2. Based on the current attendee roster, the concentration of Ethereum developers and aspiring devs in one place is likely to be unrivaled anywhere,” said Chan.

Chan is also looking forward to hearing from the substantial number of students already registered. “Importantly, there is a larger student contingency, whom we value greatly as they represent the future. There aren’t even enough developers to begin to fulfill current needs.”

“Finally, I dare say the Ethereum platform is moving towards greater reach and adoption sooner than imagined,” she added.

A recent survey by Greenwich Associates estimates that financial and technology markets investments in blockchain technology will reach $1 billion in 2016. The survey showed that venture capital backed investment in blockchain and bitcoin companies jumped from $3 million in 2011 to $474 million in 2015.

International Blockchain Week will be a celebration of this amazing growth of investment in blockchain technology in the last year.

More information about the Summit and a complete speakers list can be found here.