India's first Blockchain Congress in Hyderabad

The three-day inaugural edition of the International Blockchain Congress will be held on August 3 and 4 in Hyderabad and on August 5 in Goa.

The first-ever such event is expected to attract over 3000 regulators, experts and technology innovators. The event is being organised in collaboration with NITI Aayog, state governments of Telangana and Goa, and Nucleus Vision.

Addressing the media on Thursday, Abhishek Pitti, CEO of Nucleus Vision, said that the offshoot of cryptocurrency, blockchain technology, is nothing but a tool that lets the end user to have control over his/her data and to monetise it, unlike other technologies that benefit from the data of the user.

“There are rumours about digital currency, hence the blockchain technology creates trust by keeping all the transactions under the control of the user,” he said.

Answering a question on the issue of cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin, Jayesh Ranjan, the principal secretary IT, Government of Telangana, said that the state government doesn’t recognize the digital currency as per the guidelines of the Union government.

“But blockchain technology is not cryptocurrency, it is the technology behind it which can be put to use in several sectors. Few people in India even tried to use the technology to keep a tab on chit fund companies, thereby allowing each member to know about the other member in the chit group,” he said.

The three-day congress will have over 80 speakers, five workshops and over 10 panel discussions, which will be attended by Tim Draper, founder of DFJ Ventures, Amitabh Kanth, CEO, NITI Aayog, KT Rama Rao, IT minister of Telangana, Rohan Kaunte, IT Minister of Goa, CP Gurnani, CEO Tech Mahindra, and others.

Several MoUs between the technology providers and government of Telangana and several engineering colleges will be inked during the three-day congress.