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Crowdsourcing Week Europe 2015: Shaping the Future of Bitcoin?

Jp Buntinx · @http://twitter.com/jdebunt | Oct 06, 2015 | 20:49

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The Bitcoin ecosystem extends far beyond the realm of finance and money; there are so many use cases for the blockchain technology underpinning the digital currency. While developers and engineers try to come up with creative ways to integrate the blockchain into our daily lives, various conferences are taking place all over the world, which could have implications for Bitcoin and its technology. Crowdsourcing Week Europe 2015 is a premier event that may be of great interest to digital currency enthusiasts.

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Crowdsourcing Week Europe 2015 Covers all Angles

This four-day conference, which takes place in Brussels, Belgium, will highlight various topics that could be of importance to the future of Bitcoin and blockchain technology. Europe has to keep evolving as a nation, and innovative technological opportunities such as Bitcoin are on the minds of a lot of people.

Crowd financing and collaborative innovation will be the major theme for the first day of Crowdsourcing Week Europe 2015. The sharing economy is a hot topic right now, and practical methods of crowd innovation with applications for a broad audience will take center stage on October 20th. Companies such as Uber and AirBnb started out as small ideas which were presented at a conference, and become titans of the sharing economy, so it will be interesting to see what kind of projects will sprout from this event.

What makes this event so appealing to residents of Belgium — and other European countries as well — is how the Crowdsourcing Week Europe 2015 team managed to get local politicians to host keynotes or presentations. This is quite unusual for large events focusing on technology and society, and it is a welcome change for sure. In fact, Vice Minister-President of the Flemish Government, Annemie Turtelboom, will host the opening keynote for this event.

Even though the opening day agenda is packed with interesting presentations and speakers, there is one session of particular interest. Patient Innovation’s Pedro Õliveira will be talking about “Jumpstarting Healthcare Innovation,” a key area where blockchain technology can play a huge role by both offering more transparency and by keeping medical records safe and secure.

The second day of Crowdsourcing Week Europe 2015 will focus on evolving Europe, by building smart cities and improving mobility throughout the continent. Generating robust local economies is of great importance to Europe, both as a continent and as a unified nation. Financial woes of the past years will need to be addressed sooner or later, and it looks like the topics of the day will partially focus on that.

However, the sharing economy is playing an ever-increasing role of importance in our daily lives as well. This type of open innovation ties in directly with creating smart cities, as well as how we can build networks of internet connectivity by the people, for the people. Once again, multiple areas of importance in terms of blockchain technology and Bitcoin.

On the final day — and this might be the most important day in my personal opinion — the topic shifts to crowd-based infrastructures and participatory governments. Furthermore, platforms and services have to be created to aid social and civic organizations in tapping new ideas for their future development and roles in our society. It will be interesting to see if blockchain-based solutions are a part of these discussions or not.

Not Your Typical Bitcoin Event

As you may have guessed by now, Crowdsourcing Week Europe 2015 is far from a traditional Bitcoin event. In fact, there are no direct relations with Bitcoin, or blockchain technology for that matter. However, it is at these sorts of events that new insights come to fruition, new partnerships are forged, and lots of brilliant minds come together.

Bitcoinist readers can register for Crowdsourcing Week Europe 2015 and use the discount code “CROWD15” to enjoy 15% off their ticket purchases. To purchase your ticket, follow this link. Bitcoin payments are not possible unfortunately, as EventBrite is processing all ticket payments. However, Bitcoin debit cards work just fine!

Will you be attending Crowdsourcing Week Europe 2015? If so, what are you looking forward to the most? Let us know in the comments below!

Source: Press Release via Email

Images courtesy of Crowdsourcing Week Europe 2015, Shutterstock