Geneva, Switzerland, 21 March 2017
Contact: tsbworkshops@itu.int
Introduction
The International Telecommunication Union is organizing a "
Workshop on Security Aspects of Blockchain" at the ITU Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland on 21 March 2017.
The workshop will be followed by ITU-T Study Group 17 (Security) meeting (22-30 March 2017) at the same venue which usually receives 120+ government officials, telecom/ICT industry and academia experts from 30+ countries from all over the world. More information on ITU-T SG17 can be obtained on the
SG17 website.
Recently blockchain has become the buzzword for disruptive innovation with great potential to change our economy, culture and society. As a specific distributed database technology, blockchains are inherently resistant to modification of the data - once recorded, the data in a block cannot be altered retroactively. This prominent feature of blockchain is well known after the success of its early digital cryptocurrency applications known as Bitcoin. Nowadays more and more innovative applications are using blockchain to explore many new innovative digital financial applications and various decentralized applications that eliminate the need for 3rd party intermediaries, such as identity management, credit management, distrusted/public/shared ledger, crowd-funding, P2P insurance, smart contracts, supply chain management, online voting, medical records etc.
Objectives
The objectives of this workshop are to:
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Better understand blockchain technology and its implication to security;
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Analyze and evaluate the current status of blockchain technology and its maturity;
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Discuss security and privacy aspects related to blockchain applications;
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Examine means for extending on-line trust using blockchain technologies;
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Provide a platform to share findings and for dialogue on policy and regulatory implications of blockchain between enterprises working on blockchain applications and regulators from various industrial-/economic sectors;
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Identify potential items that SG17 needs to analyze or review in the future, and
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Identify stakeholders with whom SG17 could collaborate further on and potential collective action and specific next steps to advance.
Target Audience ITU Member States, ICT Regulators, Financial Service Regulators, Policymakers, Mobile Network Operators, Digital Financial Service/Platform Providers, International Standards Organizations, NGOs related to global trade and Academia.
