Jack Dorsey met with cryptocurrency experts at Imperial College London to discuss the future fintech.
Dorsey, the CEO and founder of both Square and Twitter, met with academics and researchers to discuss issues around cryptocurrencies such as regulation, sustainability and adoption by mass markets.
Dorsey was welcomed by Imperial's Nick Jennings, Vice Provost (Research and Enterprise) and Professor of Artificial Intelligence.
Professor William Knottenbelt the Director of the Centre for Cryptocurrency Research and Engineering presented his research into Bitcoin transactions. Professor Knottenbelt showed live transactions on the Data Observatory.
Dorsey met student entrepreneurs Annika Monari and Alan Vey who co-founded Aventus – a blockchain-based event ticketing solution that practically eliminates fraud and unregulated touting.
Aventus launched the token sale of its AventCoin (AVT) - "the Bitcoin of ticketing" – in 2017. They sold out within seven minutes, receiving over 60,000 Ethereum – then equivalent to around $20m – from investors.
The Director of the Data Science Institute, Professor Yike Guo, explained the Institute's multidisciplinary mission.
The entrepreneur and technologist was visiting the capital as part of London Tech Week. At the Data Science Institute, Dorsey joined a roundtable of academic experts on cryptocurrency from Imperial, UCL, LSE and other London institutions, chaired by Professor Jennings.
Dorsey said: "I've been curious about crypto since I was 16. We've recently kicked off the Square Crypto initiative. We would love to help make a native currency for the internet. It's something I've been passionate about. Bitcoin is very powerful, it reminds me of the early days of the internet: wacky, weird and edgy."
Cryptocurrency research at Imperial
Imperial's Centre for Cryptocurrency Research and Engineering aims to become a leading international centre for ongoing research and its application related to cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.
It conducts research directed at designing and engineering improvements to the protocols underpinning blockchain technology. The Centre also to gain insights into the dynamic operations of blockchain and associated markets.
It is exploring novel blockchain-based applications across multiple domains, aiming to lead the global development of ''killer apps'' for the blockchain.
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