Denver Startup Week events focus on the blockchain

Heaven helps undecided.

The seventh edition of the Denver Startup Week is underway on Monday and will offer more than 350 free programs covering almost all elements of the business business from the moment it ends on Friday. Those who consult the Monday program may notice a set of events covering the newly widespread technology known as blockchain.

Blockchain – a decentralized digital ledger able to track bitcoins and other cryptocurrency transfers and potentially a whole mess of other stuff – it's so hot right now the governor has appointed special advice this summer to explore the paintings laws necessary to advance technology in the state by protecting consumers. The co-sponsor / co-organizer of the Downtown Denver Denver Startup Week certainly would not mind seeing the city and the state grow its reputation as a blockhouse block.

"Denver Startup Week has become a platform for the introduction of new technology.The last year we held a couple of sessions on the blockchain that were really well received" , said Friday Randy Thelen, vice president of economic development of the partnership. " How do we continue to promote an environment that attracts businesses, talents and customers – the commercial community that will use technology?"

This year, the launch week will have nine blockchain-only events on Monday, most of which is centered around a "Blockchain Hub" set up in Booz Hall RiNO, 2845 Walnut St. A major attraction there will be a "food trucks and libations" station, a market where hunger and thirsty consumers will have to visit an ATM to change their money in bitcoins if they want to eat or drink. Thelen, for example, is all for this.

" I think this is an opportunity for people to go and participate in this and get a more practical experience and a deeper understanding," he said.

Bill Sinclair is the chief technology officer and interim president and CEO of Salt Blockchain Financial Technology, a Denver-based company that since 2017 has been providing traditional loans leveraged by cryptocurrency holdings. He will present a keynote speech focused on the blockchain at Booz Hall Monday with Stephanie Copeland, head of the Office for International Economic Development and Trade of Colorado and Erik Voorhees, CEO of the cryptocurrency company Shapeshift.

"The whole day Salt sponsors events, trying to break down those barriers" to people who use cryptocurrencies, Sinclair said. "We will all be there from the developers to the marketers, it's all hands on the bridge to make people as comfortable as possible and help them understand how it works."

Senator Angela Williams, D-Denver, will be at the center to help visitors to create digital bitcoin wallets that, with the help of an app will allow them to make purchases without cash or cards.

The way Sinclair describes it, blockchain is a technology that adds transparency and security to our existing database-driven money system. Instead of using a debit card in a grocery store and trusting that the database of the private bank holding the money is transferring the right amount to the right destination, blockchain checks through its public register that a consumer actually has $ 20 and that $ 20 was given to the store.

"I think we could see all kinds of property moving to blockchain," said Sinclair, using an example of a home or vehicle title as an example.

Not only startups embrace cryptocurrency and blockchain transactions. It has accepted bitcoin since 2014, but Denver's own Dish Network announced in August that it will now allow customers to pay cash with Bitcoin derivatives. The company also uses BitPay, a blockchain payment service provider.