Organization: TechChange
Registration deadline: 15 Sep 2020
Starting date: 02 Oct 2015
Ending date: 15 Sep 2020
Join us on September 15, at 10:00 am EDT to join this virtual fireside chat with some of the leading practitioners using bitcoin in development. Register now!
Digital currencies, such as bitcoin, have the potential to transform the way we think about development. Though still new, global leaders are beginning to discover the power of bitcoin’s underlying technology, the blockchain, to revolutionize the way we:
- Deliver humanitarian assistance and track foreign aid
- Streamline charitable giving and reduce barriers to donations
- Strengthen local institutions, enhance transparency and accountability, and expedite tax collection or bulk payments
- Improve records collection, and title and deed registry
- Overhaul national identity and advance voting systems
- Lower the cost of international money transfers and extend financial services to the unbanked
We’ll take a look at this technological breakthrough and some of the real-world applications for digital currencies today.
Speakers
Sarah Martin, Digital Currency Council
Sarah Martin is the Vice President of the Digital Currency Council, the leading professional organization for executives in the digital currency industry. Previously, she worked for the US Department of Defense, United Nations (UN), and US Agency for International Development (USAID). She graduated cum laude from Cornell University and holds an MA in international economics from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
The Digital Currency Council is the leading executive association in the digital currency industry. We provide training, software, certification and an expert network of peers and clients in the digital currency economy. Interested professionals may join the Digital Currency Council at digitalcurrencycouncil.com!
Fereshteh Forough, Code to Inspire
Fereshteh is an advocate of using bitcoin and the first to formally promote its use in Afghanistan, where she was born. Code to Inspire serves as a launchpad for females in Afghanistan to get involved in entrepreneurship and technological innovation. Fereshteh is also a founding member of Women’s Annex Foundation. Previously, she was a professor in the computer science faculty of Herat University.
Code to Inspire is a 501c3 filed non-profit that is committed to educating female students in Afghanistan and improving their technical literacy by teaching them how to code so that they can find future employment as a freelancer and get involved in entrepreneurship and technological innovations.
Connie Gallippi, BitGive Foundation
Ms. Gallippi is the Founder and Executive Director of the BitGive Foundation, which was established in mid-2013. Through her work with BitGive, Connie has built a positive philanthropic representative foundation for the Bitcoin industry, bridging the gap between an innovative technology and its practical applications for nonprofits and humanitarian work in the developing world. Connie is a well-known industry spokesperson for the social impact of Bitcoin and advocating for more diversity and equal opportunity in the digital currency community. Prior to founding BitGive, Connie worked with environmental organizations in California for over 14 years, specializing in consulting, strategy development, policy and advocacy, funding assistance, and program management. Most notably, her work included the development and implementation of multi-million dollar programs in public funding for the environmental sector. She remains involved as a Board Member for California Urban Forests Council.
BitGive is the first Bitcoin 501(c)(3) nonprofit, giving it tax exemption status at the federal level in the United States. The vision of the organization is to benefit charitable causes worldwide, providing a platform for the Bitcoin community to give back with an organized and professional representation. BitGive has built partnerships and raised funds with large nonprofits including Save the Children, The Water Project, TECHO, and Medic Mobile. BitGive recently announced its Bitcoin Charity 2.0 Initiative, which includes a variety of projects aimed at leveraging Bitcoin and blockchain technology to benefit charitable organizations worldwide.
Chelsea Barabas, DCI
Chelsea leads development of collaborations between the MIT research community and other institutions to build blockchain applications that serve the public interest. Previously, she worked on civic technology and international development projects in Africa, South America and the Middle East with a variety of organisations and research institutions including MIT’s Center for Civic Media and Nuru International.
The MIT Digital Currency Initiative (DCI) brings together global experts in areas ranging from cryptography, to economics, to privacy, to distributed systems, to address key issues that digital currencies like bitcoin are poised to make on people’s lives in the next decade. Digital currencies offer tremendous possibilities for growing the global economy and enabling developing nations to leapfrog the tech of developed nations. The DCI works across the MIT campus and collaborates with experts around the world to research the issues and challenges for this nascent technology.
Peter Kirby, Factom
Peter Kirby is the Chief Executive Officer of Factom, the first usable blockchain technology to solve real world business problems by providing an unalterable record keeping system. A pioneer in his field, Peter works with leaders in financial services, government and law to address the most complex data security issues around the globe.
The Factom Foundation is the first usable blockchain technology to solve real-world business problems by providing an unalterable record-keeping system. By creating a data layer on top of the blockchain, Factom’s distributed ledger technology secures millions of real-time records in the blockchain with a single hash. Businesses and governments alike can use Factom to document their information so that it cannot be modified, deleted or backdated. Their technology decentralizes record keeping. Factom provides transparency, while at the same time maintaining user privacy. To learn more about the project, visit http://www.factom.org.
How to register:
