Welcome & Opening Remarks

Alright monday morning Randy out. Welcome to consensus now in our 5th year. The goal of this conference is always been about you the stakeholders in our industry who are innovating the road ahead its' wonderful to see so many friends and new faces here at the Hilton. We have over 4,500 guests remarkably from over 80 countries around the world representing the people next you are a community of investors developers corporate Executives entrepreneurs and Regulators coming together to learn discuss and debate the most

important and timely issues of this fascinating new technology that we all care so much about consensus is truly the one big tent where the whole Community can come and Learn from each other and we think that's a vital part of what this experience is. That the live conversations that take place at least once a year during consensus and blockchain week are an essential ingredient to the advancement of of your efforts as my only mentioned here at the Hilton. You'll find fascinating conversations in our business track. We can cover

issues of the day and Regulatory issues how businesses are are thinking about this our Market track will cover a lot of the investment themes and certainly has an only mentioned we brought back something called konstrukt this year, which is RR in essence are Developer technical track and we did that specifically for the development Community to get updates on over 20 leading projects where they are and where they're going. I just want to say that none of this all this breakfast and then the whole the whole experience. None of this

would be possible without the generous support of of our sponsors. And so I have to take a moment just to certainly to mention them particularly are five blocks monsters that year this year that includes block Deloitte etoro Lexa IBM and Tata consulting bottle. Are they generous supporters, but truly their leadership is driving our industry forward. Also a special shout-out. We've had one sponsor who's been with us as a supporter for 5 years, and that's ledger. So quick Round of Applause. Thank you.

Well, I also just want to take this moment to publicly thank all the employees of coindesk who you may see around that we asking you to let you know if you need anything and how your experience is going. They have worked tirelessly to put this together. You really can't imagine what goes on in to planning these events, but they hosting consensus as an enormous responsibility to the industry and their dedication to serving the industry. I think is really quite unparalleled. I'm I'm really proud to work with such an outstanding team. Finally, I'm going to

introduce hand it over to our colleagues from New York City Anna and Kimberly at coindesk. We're really extremely grateful to be the co-host of blockchain week. I am to see what has sprung up into dozens of events meetups parties Gatherings formal informal that happened during the New York altering this week. Again, that's you know, what we see is a vital part of our mission at coindesk, which is to inform and educate and connect the global blockchain and cryptocurrency. So we're thrilled you're here. We're thrilled for the week, and we hope you have a great

experience with that. I'm going to introduce Hannah and Kimberly from New York. Thank you. Thank you, Kevin and good. Good morning. Everybody. Welcome to New York City. It's rainy and cold out there. But I love the energy in this room. I'm on adding you. I'm the chief strategy officer for New York City Economic Development Corporation, which is the economic development arm of the city of New York. So I get to think about where the jobs of the future going to come from, whether it's biotechnology or cybersecurity or

blockchain or artificial intelligence and then think about how do we make investments in this industry? Is that support the girls while at the same time making sure that people aren't being left behind and so There's no question that. Shane is going to be a key jobs generator for New York City and for the world inside it is already an engine for economic activity in New York City. We have about 60 startups headquartered in New York that last year received $500 or $500 in venture capital investment. That's 5x what we saw the year before which speaks to how

the industry is growing and evolving very quickly. We have large corporations here or large Anchor Industries are has be making their bats are making Investments, whether it's that companies like IBM or financial services company is like American Express order or MetLife. If you are somebody looking for a job in blockchain in New York last year, you would have seen that there's / 2200 job postings in the city that's almost four hundred percent growth since 2 years before so all of that is great for blockchain week on this conference last year generated

over 20 million and economic impact unsupported 6000 jobs. So we love it. It's a it's a very promising beginning but we care about the most idtc and in the city of New York is to make sure that this industry evolves in a way that is open to everybody that is accessible to all and that is farther democratize this technology in a way that really shows how Innovation and Technology can benefit the average person and the average New Yorker. So that's why I earlier this year. We open the New York City blushing Center is the physical space in flatiron.

What's the number of programs and activities support and Innovation? I need his first and foremost a space that's open to anybody to walk in understand the fundamentals of the technology understand how this technology is going to impact jobs in the city. And also what are the opportunities that the technology percent as part of our efforts to the most high-tech. We're bringing programming to Neighborhood that cost me or say to the hot traditionally been excluded from Tech at Bushwick in Brooklyn on Harlem and doing programming in several languages. In

government in New York City Government. We also reject the notion that we're going to be the last ones to adopt the Innovations and the possibilities that come with blockchain. So we've been leaving a series of workshops across agencies with staff to release or swear potential applications and use cases of the technology in city government is going to lay the groundwork for implementation and also be the foundation of the foundation of an Innovation Challenge. We're going to be doing over the next few months. And when we look around New York on the various neighborhoods, we're starting

to see how residents and businesses are using the technology into there and incorporating it into their daily lives in this is what I'm most excited about and so for example of group of residents and businesses in Park Slope, which is a neighborhood in Brooklyn are leveraging technology technology to Pilot a Marketplace for buying and selling local solar power. So this not only obviously benefits the environment reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support economic activity, but it really provides and gives people agency and

control over how they Source their energy and that's the type of examples. I'm most excited to see I am very excited about this week's the energy in this room and how we can harness it to show how regular people will benefit directly from the technology. Welcome everybody to New York City. I encourage you to visit the sensor. I'll turn it over to Kim Quinones who is are here, and we're very excited to have her and she'll tell you more about it. Enjoy your time in New York right now, Anna. Avana said the blockchain Center

opened earlier this year and since we opened 650 people have come through our doors. We're very very excited to reach an even wider audience now with blockchain week. Our mission is very very simple connecting entrepreneurs building community and demonstrating leadership and blockchain in New York City and Beyond the center of the place where entrepreneurs can meet with corporations consultants, and the clients were going to help them grow their businesses in New York City. I need diversity side. We have a real mission to as Anna said Reach people Beyond just

the the watching Community here to have everyday New Yorkers understand how blockchain can impact their life how the job potential can change and have students and and people in all five boroughs participate in our blockchain 101 classes and and paddles to learn more about how blockchain will be affecting child development in New York City. It is very very obvious that blockchain will be implemented and some major sectors. Financial Services real estate Healthcare

government gets his New York City Financial Services real estate Healthcare in employment. So it's going to mean a lot for everyday New Yorkers, and it's going to be a lot for government officials. So the last thing that we want to do is create a dialogue between the public and the private sector to have the entrepreneurs that people in the space speak openly with with government officials. Not just when legislation is being passed not just when regulation is being implemented, but on an everyday basis so that the potential changes and the benefits can be

maximized. So I encourage everyone to check out the blockchain center. Please come visit us were in the Flatiron District. Look at our website look at the programs enjoying and help us build a larger blockchain community in New York and Beyond. Thank you.