This morning the Federal Trade Commission held the latest event in its series of FinTech forums and it focused on Artificial Intelligence and Blockchains. The half-day workshop was designed to bring together industry participants, consumer groups, researchers, and government representatives, to examine the ways in which these technologies are being used to offer consumers services, the potential benefits, and consumer protection implications as these technologies continue to develop.
Coin Center director of research Peter Van Valkenburgh opened up the blockchain portion of the agenda with a talk that clearly defined of the term “blockchain,” taking care to clarify the distinction between open and closed blockchain networks, and highlighting the characteristics of various consensus mechanisms and what they mean for what different types of blockchains can do. He then joined a panel discussion with other experts from the space. More information about the event and Peter’s slides are available here.