20th World Blockchain Summit is going bullish in a bear market

Amaze World wins the Startup World Cup pitch competition at the 20th World Blockchain Summit. Industry leaders come together to make the event a huge success

By Shashank Bhardwaj

World blockchain, Speakers Giving a Talk at Business Meeting. Audience in the conference hall in 2017; Image: Shutterstock

The 20th global edition of the World Blockchain Summit, presented by Sedition and co-hosted by Sangkara, was held at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Center in Singapore on July 14 and 15. Under one roof, the summit brought together over 1,300 global crypto and blockchain influencers, investors, startups, policymakers, and media. The summit's organisers hoped to inspire and stimulate business opportunities across the Asia Pacific region through mutually beneficial collaborations. Jerry Sambuaga, Minister of Trade of the Republic of Indonesia, was the summit's chief guest. Illia Polosukhin, Jan Camenisch, Mance Harmon, and Hassan Ahmed accompanied him.

"Crypto asset trading in Indonesia can be one of the government’s strategies to accelerate and develop Indonesia’s digital economy by 2030…We saw the potential in crypto in that we could use it as a potential commodity for exports. By December 2020, the transaction volume of crypto assets in Indonesia alone increased to 64.9 trillion rupiahs, equivalent to $4.2 billion, and in December 2021, it reached 859.4 trillion rupiahs [$57.33 billion]," Jerry Sambuaga said in his statement.

The World Blockchain Summit aims to bring together global blockchain experts and technology players, including emerging startups, as well as regional businesses, government officials, IT leaders, tech entrepreneurs, investors, and blockchain developers. Among the many industry leaders who spoke at the summit were Decentralized Investment Group founder and CEO Haydn Snape, Sedition director Rory Blain, Redlight Finance chief technical officer Alex Van Hulle, NEAR Protocol founder Illia Polosukhin, Sangkara Misa CEO Agustino Wibisono, and Algorand head of DeFi Daniel Oon.

The two-day summit included enterprise use-cases, government use-cases, motivational keynotes, panel discussions, tech talks, a blockchain exhibition, startup pitch competitions, and numerous networking opportunities. According to Sedition director Rory Blain,

"Blockchain is a historical game changer in the art world as it will allow proper identification and ownership of what was previously an endlessly reproducible asset. Never before in history has an artist been able to guarantee that they will get a fair resale value of their work down the line."

During the summit, over 60 blockchain solution providers, crypto projects, investment partners, and community partners showcased their offerings. The summit also provided participants with a platform to showcase their innovative capabilities in front of global investors at the Startup World Cup pitch competition. Amaze World, a new-generation tourist platform built with blockchain technology won the competition.

Mohammed Saleem, CEO of World Blockchain Summit, said in a statement:

"Singapore is quickly transforming into one of the most digitised and technology-focused nations in South-East Asia and in the world. The World Blockchain Summit shed light on the adoption journey of various players in the space, featuring enlightening conversations and networking opportunities that will shape the future of Web3 technologies in Singapore and the APAC region."

Shashank is founder at yMedia. He ventured into crypto in 2013 and is an ETH maximalist.

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