Don’t understand blockchain? Events will help you master the technology
Heaven help the indecisive. The seventh annual Denver Startup Week gets underway Monday and will offer more than 350 free programs covering just about all elements of the entrepreneurial business by the time it wraps on Friday. Those consulting Monday’s schedule might notice a bundle of events covering the recently ubiquitous technology known as blockchain.
Blockchain — a decentralized, digital ledger capable of tracking bitcoin and other cryptocurrency transfers and, potentially, a whole mess of other stuff — is so hot right now the governor appointed a special council this summer to ex plore legal frameworks necessary to push the technology forward in the state while protecting consumers. Startup Week cosponsor/coorganizer Downtown Denver Partnership certainly wouldn’t mind seeing the city and state grow its rep as a blockchain hotbed.
“Denver Startup Week has become a bit of a platform for introducing new technology. Last year we had a couple of sessions around blockchain that were really wellreceived,” Randy Thelen, the partnership’s vice president of economic development, said Friday. “How do we continue to foster an environment that attracts the businesses, the talent and the customers — the business community that will use the technology?”
This year, Startup Week will have nine blockchaincentric events on Monday alone, most of them centered on a “Blockchain Hub” being set up at Booz Hall RiNo, 2845 Walnut St.
A big attraction there will be a “food trucks and libations” station, a marketplace where hungry and thirsty consumers will need to visit an ATM to change their cash into bitcoin if they want to eat or drink. Thelen, for one, is all for it.
“I think this is an opportunity for people to go and attend this and get a little more handson experience and a deeper understanding,” he said.
Bill Sinclair is the chief technology officer and interim president and CEO of Salt Blockchain Financial Technology, a Denverbased company that since 2017 has been providing traditional loans leveraged against cryptocurrency holdings.
He will host a blockchainfocused keynote talk at Booz Hall on Monday with Stephanie Copeland, head of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, and Erik Voorhees, CEO of crypto exchange company Shapeshift.
“The entire day Salt is sponsoring educational events, trying to break down those barriers” to people using cryptocurrencies, Sinclair said.
“We’ll have everyone there from developers to marketers. It’s all hands on deck to make people as comfortable as possible and help them understand how it works,” he said.