Major cryptocurrency event, Consensus 2020, has officially kicked off in virtual mode. Consensus: Distributed, Coindesk’s first ever fully virtual conference, featured European Central Bank (ECB) key legal official, Yves Mersch, as the first speaker. On May 11, ECB board member Mersch delivered an exclusive keynote devoted to central bank digital currencies (CBDC), a central bank digital currency that can be used by consumers. Speaking at 6:45 a.m. ET, the ECB official outlined that the bank is mainly focused on a retail implementation of CBDC. The ECB voices its focus on retail CBDC implementation Opposing retail CBDCs to wholesale central bank …

BlockShow, an international blockchain event powered by Cointelegraph, along with the well-known San Francisco Blockchain Week, has announced its first-ever online trade show called Unitize. The gathering is going to be held digitally over a week-long period — with new content being delivered to audiences on a near-daily basis, beginning on July 6. Although the world may have ground to a halt because of the coronavirus pandemic, organizers said the community is “still building, trading and investing.” It’s hoped the virtual extravaganza will celebrate the milestones that have been reached in the “lost months” of 2020, even if many of …

Cointelegraph is launching Cointelegraph Talks, a series of online events featuring top blockchain and cryptocurrency experts and executives. The first Cointelegraph Talks event kicks off at 3:00 PM EST on Tuesday, April 21, featuring major industry figures including Binance.US CEO Catherine Coley and Robert Beadles, president at blockchain company Monarch. The meetup’s live stream will be available on Cointelegraph’s YouTube channel. The event will consist of two panels, at which industry experts will discuss the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the development of digital payments, as well as the digitization of the world’s reserve currency — the United States …

With pundits like Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey predicting that Africa “will define” the future of Bitcoin (BTC), cryptocurrency and blockchain technology continue to attract interest from both public and private establishments across the continent. Many of these adoption cases have been moving beyond finance, developing solutions targeted at issues like unemployment, identity management, health care and supply chain, among others. Amid the growing enthusiasm for crypto and blockchain technology in Africa, industry stakeholders interviewed by Cointelegraph identify a lack of education as one of the major hurdles standing in the way of more broad-based utilization of the technology. The absence …

The COVID-19 crisis may have put a stop to millions of sports events, work conferences and meet-ups across the world, but it has not halted those in the cryptocurrency space. The Coinfest Conference, which runs until April 4, has found a way to defy the coronavirus lockdown by setting up shop in the digital blockchain realm of Decentraland. The first day of the virtual conference kicked off on March 30th, beginning with a round of games that offered users the chance to win MANA tokens — one of Decentraland’s native currencies. Nearby museums and art galleries (seen below) offer visitors …

Cryptocurrencies have seemingly taken a backseat due to a concerted focus on blockchain technology in Africa, but there is still a growing interest and demand for trading on the continent. This was one of the main takeaways from the Blockchain Africa conference held in Johannesburg in the middle of March 2020. The Blockchain Africa conference, which is the biggest in the continent, has become heavily focused on the technology underpinning cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and far less so on the crypto trading space. It is a fact that was admitted by event MC Tanya Knowles, who recently became Binance South Africa’s …

Consensus, a major global cryptocurrency and blockchain-focused event, is another industry conference that had to change its plans due to intensifying coronavirus fears. In line with the increasing number of industry events being delayed or canceled in response to the coronavirus outbreak, Consensus will not be hosting a conference in New York this year. Consensus 2020 will be hosted in virtual reality at no charge However, that doesn’t mean that Consensus 2020 will not happen. According to an official March 13 announcement by Coindesk, the industry publication that coordinates the event, Consensus 2020 will now be a “completely virtual experience,” …

Impressive use-cases of blockchain technology have come to the fore after the conclusion of the 2020 Blockchain Africa Conference in South Africa. The event went ahead as planned in early March despite the global coronavirus pandemic that has made headlines around the world. The viral outbreak led to keynote speaker Charles Hoskinson, founder of Cardano, cancelling his trip to South Africa due to travel restrictions. The event also suffered a drop-off in attendance due to fears around the virus, but there were still over 230 delegates present on day one while day two numbers dropped slightly. Renowned cryptocurrency investor and …

On March 11, the co-founder of decentralized login service provider TorusLabs, Zhen Yu Yong (Zen), tweeted that he had been diagnosed with coronavirus COVID-2019. Zen urged people who may have been in contact with him during the ETHLondon hackathon held from Feb. 28 until March 1, or the Ethereum Community Conference (ECC) held from March 3 to March 5 in Paris, to take “extra precautions and/or get tested.” ECC exempt from French ban on large indoor gatherings The coronavirus threat has impacted several major cryptocurrency conferences in recent weeks, with the Paris Blockchain Week 2020 recently being postponed until Dec. …

Despite considerable testing and research, the prospect of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) still raises significant concerns for bankers in Ukraine. At a Feb. 21 conference in Kyiv, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) presented the results of testing its CBDC project, the e-hryvnia, noting that the bank is continuing to look into issuing its own CBDC. However, the central bank apparently is still concerned about such a currency’s effect on financial stability as well as the possible threat to the traditional banking system. An official announcement by the NBU reads: “The banking system may cease to be a …

Upcoming Ethereum (ETH) hardware hackathon ETHDenver is partnering with UNICEF on a blockchain bounty token system, according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph Jan. 31. The token aims to incentivize developers to create projects which promote social good, the press release notes. ETHDenver — set to take place February 15-17 in Denver, Colorado — has partnered with UNICEF Ventures, UNICEF France and ETH startup Bounties Network on the prototype for what it calls a “positive action token,” the firm stated in the press release. While the token is yet to have a name — indeed, its creators are appealing …

79 percent of attendees at crypto events are male, according to a report by events-oriented software firm Bizzabo on Jan. 28. After analyzing the registration information of 100 different cryptocurrency-related events in 15 countries, Bizzabo found that the overwhelming majority of attendees were male. In the course of the survey, Bizzabo took data from the United States, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Canada, Israel, Hong Kong, China and Australia, with the U.S. leading other countries in the number of registrants and attendees at crypto events. 57 percent of attendees were employed in the financial sector, while other registrants at crypto events …