Digital Currency Group’s CoinDesk has just announced new high-profile speakers for Consensus 2016, its 2nd annual blockchain technology summit, which will be held in May in New York. The most prominent speaker of them all will be Lawrence H. Summers, President Emeritus at Harvard University, and former Secretary of the US Treasury.

Mr. Summers, who currently serves as an advisor to Xapo, will share his pragmatic perspective on bitcoin and the blockchain, and offer thoughts on how new technologies like cryptocurrencies could be integrated into the heavily regulated global financial system. In a Wall Street Journal interview in May 2014, he was early to warn skeptics not to dismiss potentially disruptive technologies, saying: “It seems to me that the people who confidently reject all the innovation here are on the wrong side of history.”

Another keynote speaker will be Glenn Hutchins, Chairman of North Island, co-founder of Silver Lake, who sits on the boards of Nasdaq, AT&T and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Hutchins will offer his views on why he believes that Bitcoin technology could potentially be as disruptive as the internet itself, particularly with respect to modernizing global payment systems.

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“Summers and Hutchins are all incredibly influential leaders who have been early amongst their peers to recognize blockchain technology’s potential to usher in a new era of innovation in financial services,” said Ryan Selkis, CoinDesk’s team lead. “Our goal with this year’s summit is ‘making blockchain real’, and the insight of these trailblazers will certainly help advance that agenda. We look forward to hearing their views on how this emerging technology can help accelerate the development of a better financial system.”

These keynote speakers will join an impressive line-up of financial services executives, policy-makers and over 30 other founders from many of the leading blockchain technology companies, such as Blythe Masters, the CEO of Digital Asset Holdings, LLC.