One of the leading think tanks in Washington, DC, namely Brookings Institution, will discuss the future of the blockchain technology at a one-day conference next week. According to the announcement, the experts of the Institute consider blockchain to be an “infant.”

The event was announced on Brookings’s website. According to the think tank,

“This infant technology could change the financial system; think the Internet before browsers. It could reduce the cost and increase in the speed and accuracy of financial transactions; it could truly disrupt the banking business. Or it could fizzle.”

According to the announcement, the event planned for 14 January will consist of two parts. During the first part, “Brookings will convene roundtable technical discussions about these issues with industry and policy stakeholders.” A video recording of the discussions will be made available online.

Later during the day, “Hutchins Center director David Wessel will convene leading industry and policy experts for a panel discussion. After the session, panelists will take audience questions.”

As CoinFox learned, the leaders of the Washington bitcoin community plan to attend the event. A CoinFox editor will also be present.

The US policymakers began discussing blockchain last year. On 16 December the US Department of Homeland Security announced that it was looking for partners to investigate the applicability of blockchain to the tasks of national security. This statement encouraged the interest towards the blockchain technology in the US to grow.

The Brookings Institution is one of the oldest think tanks in the United States. In 2014 the University of Pennsylvania ranked Brookings “the most influential think tank” in the world. While Brookings describes itself as a non-partisan organisation, mainstream media has usually perceived it as left-leaning.

Roman Korizky