#WomenInTechPK &; Blockchain Meetup Roundup!

Blockchain is one of most buzzing terms you can hear in the tech industry these days and people are showing interest in getting to know the underlying technology and its applications. We have been seeing a lot of questions about it in our community so we decided to do a session on 20^th January, 2018 and invited Anam Hijab as a speaker, she works with Nordic Blockchain Association and came all the way from Denmark.

The talk was about the fundamentals of blackchain and its applications and Anam kept her focus on three main applications, Cryptocurrency, Digital Identity and Smart Contracts. She spoke about the ways in which cryptocurrency can help empower women by making them a part of the international trade. It can help give access to the women who are in areas where banking hasn’t reached or the process is really complicated, it is also way faster than the conventional banking procedures and is exceptionally secure. If you want to know more about cryptocurrencies, especially bitcoin, here is something that can help. 

Creating secure digital identities is also an incredible application of this fast spreading technology. Anam mentioned a project where a social startup is creating digital identities for refugees which is helping them in getting better employment and educational opportunities.  The identity is managed by the person itself (better control over personal data) and can’t be compromise by any institution. This can further be used for creating an e-voting system for a corruption free democratic process.

Smart Contracts are the future of work and will eliminate the need of most of the work done by lawyers and middlemen. The contracts are self-executed, are part of the public Blockchain and the parties involved can be kept anonymous. It can further transform into smoother land reforms and will disrupt the legal system entirely.

The talk was followed by a Q&A session and the speaker took a lot of questions and also spoke about her experience of working and studying in Denmark. She also spoke about the Crypto Kitties, a blockchain based game and the scope of this technology in asset ownership. You can see her presentation here. 

The meetup ended with some good tea and snacks and all of us got a chance to network with each other. As usual, Anam Kamran was an amazing host and facilitated the meetup which happened at the beautiful campus of IBA, Karachi.

Are you a Women in Technology and want to be part of our community? Tweet at @WomenInTechPK and we will send you an invite.