Speakers
Garrick Hileman
Dr Garrick Hileman is one of the world's most-cited cryptocurrency and blockchain technology researchers. He is the author of the first University of Cambridge "Global Cryptocurrency Benchmarking Study" and the follow-on "Global Blockchain Benchmarking Study". He also authored the CoinDesk “State of Bitcoin” and “State of Blockchain” reports from 2013-2016 and published two major empirical stablecoins research studies in 2018-19. He created and taught the first UK class on blockchain technology at the University of Cambridge. Garrick was ranked as one of the 100 most influential economists in the UK and Ireland and he is regularly asked to share his research and perspective with government organizations and media, including the FT, BBC, CNBC, WSJ, and NPR. He was previously head of research at Blockchain.com and a visiting fellow at both the University of Cambridge and London School of Economics.
Tara Annison is the Head of Technical Crypto Advisory at Elliptic, the leading crypto compliance company. Here she leads internal and external education on web3 topics as well as being an SME for the wider business and customers. Tara has been in the industry for 8 years and became obsessed interested in blockchain after studying a cryptography module at university. She frequently writes about web3 topics, focussing mainly on crypto crime and the technical aspects of the technology, and speaks internationally on a wider variety of crypto topics. She is also the author of The Bitcoin ABC Books, creator of The Game Against Cryptocurrency card game and creator of The Bitcoin Advent Calendar.
Tara Annison
Mark Morton
Artur Sepp
Artur Sepp is a Statistician who loves to connect financial applications with science and technology. He is Head of Quantitative Strategies at Clearstar in Zurich, specializing in arbitrage strategies for crypto assets, options, and DeFi. Prior, Artur led quantitative research at a crypto manager (Sygnum) and a systematic hedge fund (Quantica Capital) focusing on data-driven investment strategies. Previous roles have been as front office Quant Strategist on the implementation of systematic solutions in private banking (Julius Baer), and on the full-cycle development of quantitative solutions and derivatives in investment banking (Merrill Lynch/BofA).
Artur has a PhD in Mathematical Statistics from University of Tartu, an MSc in Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences from Northwestern University, and a BA cum laude in Mathematical Economics from Tallinn University of Technology. His expertise covers quantitative investing and asset allocation, modeling of financial markets and instruments, statistical and Machine Learning methods, modern computational and programming tools. He is the author and co-author of several research articles on quantitative finance published in key journals.
Mark Morton is the co-founder and Managing Director of Scilling Digital Mining, Ireland's first and only Bitcoin mining company.
Scilling Digital Mining focuses on harmonising energy and mining. Mark and the team place particular emphasis on showcasing how the strategic use of Bitcoin mining can make a positive contribution to Ireland's emission targets and renewable goals.
Jiahua Xu
Dr. Jiahua Xu is a Lecturer in Financial Computing at UCL, where she teaches Blockchain Technologies and Machine Learning in Finance. She is an award-winning researcher at the university's Centre for Blockchain Technologies, and serves as the Programme Director of the MSc Emerging Digital Technologies under the Computer Science Department. Dr. Xu teaches FinTech courses at various institutions, including EPFL, London Business School, EDHEC Business School, and Center for Latin American Monetary Studies. She visited and has ongoing research collaboration with Harvard Business School, Imperial College London, and Vienna University of Economics and Business. Her research interests lie primarily in blockchain economics, behavioural finance, and risk management. She has published academic papers in top tier conferences in computer science as well as renowned journals in economics and finance.
Thomas Erdösi is a Senior Product Manager at CF Benchmarks, the leading provider of cryptocurrency benchmarks and indices. Thomas’ main remit is creating indices with a focus on derivative instruments, including the CF Bitcoin Interest Rate Curve, CF Rolling Futures and CF Volatility Indices. Previously, Thomas held roles as a Structurer and Trader of FX and Interest Rate Exotics at BNP Paribas. Thomas holds an MSc Finance degree from Imperial College Business School and a BA in Economics from the University of Zurich.
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Thomas Erdösi
Dr. Alexander Freier is research professor of International Relations at the Catholic University of Cordoba (Argentina), Research Associate at the Centre for Blockchain Technologies at University College London (United Kingdom), and the person in charge of Strategy & International Affairs at the renewable energy development company Energiequelle (Germany). His research focuses on the nexus between renewable energy and climate change policies. Since 2019 he is exploring the opportunities to implement blockchain-based solutions to the energy sector as well as their potential to serve as climate technologies. His most recent research focused on the usage of renewable energy to enhance the sustainability of Proof-of-Work mining.
Alexander Freier
Juan Ignacio Ibañez is Chief of Staff at the DLT Science Foundation, and holds lecturing and research positions at the UCL Centre for Blockchain Technologies, the Cahtolic University of Argentina and the Catholic University of Córdoba. His work focuses on blockchain and sustainability, with a focus on cryptocurrency energy consumption, energy grids and blockchain, renewable generation and mining, and token-based carbon offset markets.
Juan Ignacio Ibañez