BLOCKCHAINSEMINAR

Board of InvestmentMauritius

Conference Hall 1st Floor Cyber Tower 1

Ebene Cybercity

15TH SEPTEMBER 2016

Overview

Blockchain is a technology which offers the possibility of eliminating third-party intervention for the processing of a transaction digitally – for example, we generally require a bank or a credit card firm to act as a financial intermediary that approves an online payment, records the corresponding transaction and establishes identity & trust. With blockchain, individuals can exchange money or purchase any product or asset securely without a bank account and do so even across national borders.

Blockchain is increasingly being considered as one of the most promising areas that will shape the future. It is reckoned to be one of the most valuable technologies because of its capacity to deliver high-quality, reliable information to a wide group of interested parties.

What it enables

What it is

Its impact …

… across industries

• Meta technology on the Internet• Decentralised database• Decentralised computers• Peer-to-peer network• Shared, distributed ledger• Trust layer for the Web• Software development environment

• Creation and real-time movement of digital assets

• Embedding trust rules inside transactions and interactions

• Time-stamping, rights and ownership proofs

• Identify ownership and representation

• Resistance to single points of failure or censorship

• Creation of crypto-currency markets• Self-execution of business logic with

self-enforcement• Running decentralised services• Selective transparency and privacy

• Reengineering processes• Rethinking roles of intermediaries• Bundling of services• New flows of value• Decentralised governance• New legal and regulatory frameworks

• Financial services• Healthcare• Government services• Energy markets• Supply chains• Smart things• World trade

Blockchain explained

Source: Internet

PROGRAMME

Thursday 15th September 2016

08:15 - 09:15 Registration of Delegates

09:15 - 09:20 Welcoming Remarks by Mr. Atma Narasiah, Head, Innovation, Technology and Services, Board of Investment, Mauritius

09:20 - 09:30 Opening Address by Mr. Gérard Sanspeur, Chairman, Board of Investment, Mauritius

09:30 - 10:15 Demystifying Blockchains By Mr. Sébastien Couture, Co-Founder Stratumn

This session will explore the blockchain technology and also provide an explanation on how the system works. The evolution of various applications as well as the benefits and challenges associated with the implementation of the technology shall also be highlighted.

10:15 - 10:30 Q&A

10:30 - 11:15 Developing the Blockchain ecosystemBy Mr. Carlos Creus Moreira, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, WISeKey SA

While on the one hand, blockchain will bring disruption, it is also expected that for early movers, it will bring opportunity and growth.

This session will provide an overview of the blockchain ecosystem covering numerous features such as the potential cost of developing and maintaining the blockchain network, the lack of a regulatory framework and concerns over the capacity of blockchain. It will also aim at identifying the issues that are worth considering when applying this technology.

11:15 - 11:30 Q&A

11:30 - 12:15 Case study: Demonstrating the potential application of BlockchainBy Mr. Anuj Das Gupta, Head of Research at Stratumn

This session shall identify the potential of cryptocurrencies/bitcoin as an alternative form of payment while highlighting how underlying blockchain technologies can be applied in the established financial services world as well as other industries.

12:15 - 12:30 Q&A

12:30 - 13:30 Networking Lunch

13:30 - 14:30 The regulatory framework in the Blockchain AgeBy Ms Primavera de Fillippi, Researcher at the National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS), Paris

This session seeks to explore some of the fundamental regulatory issues that may arise out of the development of blockchain technology that market participants and industry players should consider, including the type of compliances that need to be implemented, in particular with regard to legal ramifications and tax issues, and the potential benefits of blockchain architectures in regulatory reporting.

14:30 - 14:45 Q&A

14:45 - 15:00 Networking Break

15:00 - 15:45 Using the blockchain technology as an automation process for land registrationBy Mr. Larry Christopher Bates, Chief Security Officer at Bitland

This session demonstrates how the Ghana-based non-profit organisation, Bitland, uses blockchain technology to secure information and tackle fraud and other problems arising from a lack of land registries.

15:45 - 16:00 Q&A

16:00 - 17:00 The Potential of Blockchain for Mauritius

Moderator: Mr. Rajnish Hawabhay, Chief Technical Officer at Ministry of Technology, Communication & Innovation

• Mr. Sébastien Couture, Co-Founder Stratumn• Mr. Carlos Creus Moreira, Chairman, CEO & Founder

of WISeKey SA• Mr. Anuj Das Gupta, Head of Research at Stratumn• Ms Primavera de Fillippi, Researcher at CNRS, Paris• Mr. Larry Christopher Bates, Chief Security Officer at

Bitland

This roundtable for exchange of ideas will be a unique platform for providing insights regarding the adoption of blockchain technology within the financial services industry, the potential the technology represents for the industry in terms of payments, partnerships as well as the optimisation of certain processes. The future of Blockchain technology and its impact on other business sectors shall also be discussed.

17:00 - 17:15 Q&A

17:15 - 17:30 Closing Remarks by Mr. Atma Narasiah, Head, Innovation, Technology and Services, Board of Investment, Mauritius

17:30 - 18:30 Networking Cocktail

Mr. Gérard SanspeurChairman of the Board of Investment and the State Land Development

Company Ltd

A strategic thinker abreast of the latest managerial trends and technological applications, Mr. Sanspeur was solicited in 2015 to leverage his proven leadership capabilities and broad hands-on experience to orient the Board of Investment with a view to maximising the agency’s operational efficiency.

Mr. Sanspeur’s competence in the fields of finance, business innovation, project management and creation of new sectors of business will have a significant bearing on BOI’s performance at a time when FDI inflows are crucial for the country to embark on a high-income growth path.

Mr. Sanspeur is also the Senior Advisor to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development. He has successfully developed the Mauritius Finance portal to promote and facilitate inclusive citizen engagement in the preparation process of the 2016-2017 national budget.

In the wake of the budget, Mr. Sanspeur is now spearheading the merger of parastatal organisations to effectively address the country’s growing needs in the area of modern infrastructure through the judicious management of national assets.

Speakers’ Profile

Ms Primavera de FillippiResearcher at the National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS), Paris

Ms Primavera De Filippi is a permanent researcher at the CERSA / CNRS / Université Paris II. She is a faculty associate at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, where she is investigating the concept of governance-by-design as it relates to distributed online architectures, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc. Primavera is also the co-founder of Backfeed, a decentralised governance model for blockchain-based applications.

Ms Primavera holds a PhD from the European University Institute in Florence. She is a member of the Global Future Council on Blockchain Technologies at the World Economic Forum, as well as the founder of the Internet Governance Forum’s dynamic coalitions on Network Neutrality, Platform Responsibility and Blockchain Technology (COALA).

Mr. Sébastien CoutureCo-Founder Stratumn

Mr. Sébastien Couture is Co-Founder and Director of Community Relations at Stratumn. Stratumn provides enterprise-grade blockchain solutions, allowing their clients to integrate proof systems to business processes when trust is needed between partners.

With over a decade’s experience in digital strategy, Mr. Sébastien Couture has worked with a diverse set of companies from various industries to better embrace and utilise digital technologies. Having discovered Bitcoin in 2013, he is also the Co-Founder and Host of Epicenter Bitcoin, a leading podcast covering the blockchain ecosystem.

Mr. Carlos Creus MoreiraChairman, CEO & Founder of WISeKey SA

Mr. Carlos Creus Moreira began his career as a UN expert in IT, e-security and trust models. From 1983 to 1998, he worked for ILO, UN, UNCTAD, ITC/WTO, World Bank, UNDP and ESCAP. He was an early stage pioneer in the field of digital identity. From 1995 to 1999, he served as Adjunct Professor and Head of the Trade Efficiency Lab at the Graduate School of Engineering, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. In 1999, he founded WISeKey.

Currently, he is the Chairman and CEO of WISeKey. He is a member, UN Global Compact and of Global Clinton Initiative. He is a Founding Member of the World Economic Forum and Global Growth Companies. From 2007 to 2015, he worked for New Champion. From 2012 to 15, he served as Vice-Chair for Global Agenda Council on Illicit Trade and Partnering Against Corruption Initiative. He is the Founder of Geneva Security Forum and Geneva Philanthropy Forum. Mr. Carlos Creus Moreira was recognised as one of the 300 most influential people in Switzerland for 2013.

Mr. Anuj Das GuptaHead of Research at Stratumn

Mr. Anuj Das Gupta has over a decade’s experience in Financial Technology, in engineering and research positions in India, New York City and Paris. Having worked with a range of technologies from IBM Mainframes to Java Enterprise Systems, over the last few years, he naturally gravitated towards blockchain for building scalable and trusted systems.

Currently as the Head of Research at Stratumn, his work focuses on improving the way businesses, individuals and organisations transact and collaborate. From the results of this work, Stratumn has architected an enterprise-grade solution to secure workflows and processes by utilising blockchains, called Trusted Workflows.

Mr. Larry Christopher BatesChief Security Officer & President for Bitland Global

Mr. Chris Bates is a telecommunications and cybersecurity specialist. He received a B.S. in Psychology from Indiana University in 2007 and an M.S. in Telecommunications in 2009 with a focus in immersive mediated environments. During the first M.S. he worked on creating digital algorithms that generated music with human interaction. He received his M.S. in Cyber-Security for enterprise scale organisations in July, 2016 from Colorado Technical University. Currently he is Chief Security Officer/President for Bitland Global. The project focuses on utilising blockchain technology to register land titles and record new plots of unregistered land with the larger goal of settling land disputes and unlocking land capital in developing countries. To help bring transparency in governments and bring development to disenfranchised areas around the world, Chris wants to bridge the gap between technology and people, in order to realise the economy of the future. In addition to technological pursuits, Chris is a composer and music performer in his free time. His name appears on the roster of the music label Strong Roots Records.

Mr. Rajnish HawabhayChief Technical Officer at Ministry of Technology, Communication & Innovation

Mr. Rajnish Hawabhay began his career as an Analyst/Programmer at Blanche Birger Co Ltd. From 1996 to 1999 he served as Assistant Manager at the Industrial and Vocation Training Board. From 1999 to 2003 he was IT Manager at the Cargo Handling Corporation Ltd. From 2003 to 2006 & 2007 to 2008, he acted as Project Manager at Central Informatics Bureau and was on secondment at the SADC Secretariat under the Young Professionals Programme from 2006 to 2007. From 2008 to 2014, he served as acting director at the Central Informatics Bureau and in 2014 he was appointed the Chief Technical Officer at the Ministry of Technology, Communication & Innovation. Mr. Rajnish Hawabhay holds a PGD in Leadership development in ICT and the Knowledge Society from the Dublin City University and a Master’s degree in Business Administration with Specialisation in Finance from the University of Mauritius.

Board of InvestmentMauritius

10th Floor, One Cathedral Square Building 16, Jules Koenig Street

Port Louis 11328 Republic of Mauritius

T: +230 203 3800 F: + 230 210 8560

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