It was standing room only for the Houston Blockchain Alliance’s kickoff event held at the Houston CPA Society in Houston’s Post Oak district.
The HBA is newly-formed and dedicated to advancing the adoption and use of blockchain technology. It counts a number of Zintel PR staff among its earliest members.
As attendees heard from expert speakers, one of blockchain technology’s biggest challenges as it matures is to differentiate itself from the scammy initial-coin-offerings that have been so derided among the public and the press, often for good reason.
Blockchain technology is, at its core, a decentralized ledger. This ledger can of course be used to track cryptocurrency transactions.
But as medical and technical expert Dr. Aman Quadri, CEO of AMSYS Blockchain and AMCHART shared, the broad and powerful tech can be applied to completely unexpected use cases like securing and enabling universal yet controlled access to sensitive medical records.
As emerging blockchain products often struggle to demonstrate core functionalities, Dr. Quadri also described a digital sandbox he helped develop and the free software and counsel his team offers to prove the value of the latest cutting edge tech without massive risk and expense.
Mark Koeppen, principal at Deloitte Consulting LLP’s Strategy and Operations practice, shed light on how organizations are auditing the blockchain, a major concern for institutions who want to leverage this tech.
The speakers also addressed the ongoing skepticism around the blockchain and how it can be used to feed higher quality data into AI data lakes for deep learning.
One thing’s for sure: the most innovative applications of blockchain technology have yet to come, and it has significant implications for the future of cybersecurity and computing as a whole.