Binance Blockchain Week: Conference Highlights

In the midst of the cryptocurrency market downturn––a bearish market some have compared to the lowest point of Bitcoin in 2014––Binance Blockchain Week brought together more than 1,500 movers and shakers from around the world to discuss the state of the blockchain industry.

Held in Singapore, January 19-22, the Binance SAFU Hackathon and Conference gathered 87 blockchain thought leaders from more than 30 countries under one roof, for two days of rapid prototyping and a two-day symposium. You can read more about the SAFU Hackathon here.

Emceed by award-winning journalist and former Bloomberg TV’s key anchor, Angie Lau, the conference program saw global speakers, including: Yoni Assia (eToro), James Radecki (Cumberland), Da Hongfei (NEO), Justin Sun (TRON), Eric van Miltenburg (Ripple), Sam Bankman-Fried (Alameda Research), Michael Arrington (Arrington XRP Capital), Emin Gün Sirer (Ava Labs), Dovey Wan (Primitive Ventures), the Binance leadership team and more.

Four days of stimulating conversations, speakers, meetings, and announcements, provided insight into the different segments of the blockchain ecosystem, with Binance leading the way.

“Most people think of Binance as an exchange. That is our main business, but we are more than an exchange,” Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said during his closing remarks for the conference. “We’re trying to build a healthy ecosystem.”

Here’s a look at the announcements Binance made throughout the conference on what we have in store:

Binance Highlights

1. Trust Wallet, Binance’s official decentralized mobile wallet, announced support for all major coins, including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, and Dash, with many more blockchain integrations to come. With the new update, users will continue to have 100% control over funds and private keys, while having access to more coins, tokens, and decentralized apps (dApps) than ever before. More than just a storage app for cryptocurrencies, Trust Wallet will further the use cases and benefits of digital assets for financial access, applications, and payments––all within one application.

2. Binance Chain and Binance DEX will go live with a testnet in a couple of weeks. The DEX will be able to handle the same volume we can handle today on Binance exchange. Binance DEX will run natively on Binance Chain, which will have one-second block times and one-second confirmations. Eventually, instant transactions will allow us to integrate with e-commerce and many other solutions.

3. Binance Charity launched a donation channel to support children in Africa. With 1 BNB, donors can provide a child in African with lunch for an entire month. The Binance Lunch for Children donation channel is now open on Binance Charity’s website, where donations are transparently tracked on the blockchain from donor to beneficiary. Donate here to support Binance Charity’s Lunch for Children program.

4. Finalists from the SAFU Hackathon met with CZ and the Binance leadership team. They discussed how to better identify scams and build a safer crypto environment. During the closing keynote, CZ announced that Binance intends to work together with the finalists to create a new platform to fight fraud, incorporating many of these ideas.

5. CZ and Binance CFO Wei Zhou revealed that Binance has launched a crypto OTC desk to providing additional liquidity to our exchange users. Find out more about it here.

Memorable Quotes During the Conference

“We are connecting the dots of blockchain innovators, and by doing so, we’re not just working for ourselves. We’re working with a lot of leaders who share the same mission, the same value that blockchain can truly change the world.” - Christy Choi, Binance Labs Director

“Future success of digital assets will be driven by each asset's use case and regulatory clarity. We don't need thousands of coins—each must have a legitimate reason for existing." - Eric van Miltenburg (center), SVP of Global Operations at Ripple

"The most important slogan that the UN has come up with is 'to leave no one behind. But to be able to leave no one behind, we need to embrace and leverage technology in the [blockchain] space." H.E Ammenah Gurib-Fakim (left), Professor at Ammenah Gurib-Fakim Foundation and former President of Mauritius

“We're going to continue to build, and we're going to see a lot more builders in 2019. We plan to host more hackathons, more incubation programs, to help the builders build. We want to build the industry, one by one.” - Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao

Special thanks to:

- Our hackathon sponsors: PwC Singapore, Qtum and Arbor Ventures, and our hackathon mentors, judges and volunteers.

- Our conference sponsors: Tron, Alameda Research, Bloq, Xeonbit, Ultrain, Signum Capital and Mars Blockchain, and our partners.

- Our friends, volunteers, staff, and team members behind the scenes,

- Our 87 speakers who flew in from around the world to share their knowledge with our community.

- More than 80 media people who covered our event.

- And the 1,500 of you who attended and supported us. This wouldn’t have been possible without you.

One more quote from CZ...

“We plan to make this a regularly occurring event.”

Thank you, everyone, for making Binance Blockchain Week possible. See you again soon!

Cryptocurrency investment is subject to high market risk. Binance is not responsible for any of your trading losses. The opinions and statements made above should not be considered financial advice.