Charles Hoskinson to Serve as Keynote for Blockchain Conference

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Cryptocurrency expert Charles Hoskinson — founder of Cardano (ADA cryptocurrency), founder of IOHK and former co-founder of Ethereum — will be the keynote speaker at the upcoming Blockchain for Business Conference, hosted by the Blockchain Center of Excellence at the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the U of A.

The 2021 Blockchain for Business Conference is a free, online event taking place from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. CT Friday, Oct. 8. Students, executives, industry practitioners and academics from all over the world, as well as those located in Northwest Arkansas, are invited to attend. Register now.

Learn from experts on topics such as enterprise leadership, sustainable supply chains, decentralized finance, tokenization, scalable system architecture, inclusive design, food and drug safety, digital health passes and more from companies and researchers focused on blockchain-enabled technology and digital ecosystems.

Hoskinson is a Colorado-based technology entrepreneur and mathematician. He attended Metropolitan State University of Denver and University of Colorado Boulder to study analytic number theory before moving into cryptography through industry exposure.

His professional experience includes founding three cryptocurrency-related start-ups — Invictus Innovations, Ethereum and IOHK — and he has held a variety of posts in both the public and private sectors. He was the founding chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation’s education committee and established the Cryptocurrency Research Group in 2013.

Hoskinson’s current projects focus on educating people about cryptocurrency, being an evangelist for decentralization and making cryptographic tools easier to use for the mainstream. This includes leading the research, design and development of Cardano, a third-generation cryptocurrency that launched in September 2017.

For information on the conference and to view additional featured speakers, visit www.blockchain.uark.edu/conference-2021.  

The Blockchain Center of Excellence Board Members sponsoring the event are Accenture, ArcBest, EY, FedEx, FIS, Golden State Foods, IBM, J.B. Hunt Transport Inc., McKesson, Microsoft, Tyson Foods and Walmart.

About the Blockchain Center of Excellence: The Blockchain Center of Excellence was established in May 2018 within the Department of Information Systems. The mission of the center is to make the Sam M. Walton College of Business a premiere academic leader in research and education of blockchain-enabled technologies and digital ecosystems.

About the University of Arkansas: As Arkansas' flagship institution, the U of A provides an internationally competitive education in more than 200 academic programs. Founded in 1871, the U of A contributes more than $2.2 billion to Arkansas’ economy through the teaching of new knowledge and skills, entrepreneurship and job development, discovery through research and creative activity while also providing training for professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the U of A among the top 3% of U.S. colleges and universities with the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the U of A among the top public universities in the nation. See how the U of A works to build a better world at Arkansas Research News.