Former Estonian primer minister to attend Stockholm Blockchain Forum event

The former Prime Minister of Estonia, Taavi Rõivas, is confirmed to be attending the upcoming Stockholm Blockchain Forum event.

The conference is being organised by Techbook and will be held on April 11th 2019 in Älvsjö, Sweden.

In a press release, the organisers stated the aim of the conference is to “bring together blockchain experts from across the globe to the network, forge new business relationships, and educate traditional industries on how to implement blockchain technologies.”

The event is designed to resemble an online forum but brought into a physical location – championed by the former CEO of Optimizer Invest Carla Maree Vella, who has since been appointed director of content for the event.

What is a ‘forum’ conference?

The concept behind the event is to redefine the manner in which conferences are conducted.

A ‘forum’ is an online thread where people can communicate to share insights and ideas. But conferences often do not provide an opportunity for anybody but the speakers to partake in the discussion.

“The idea here is to be able to not only listen to panels and keynotes, but to strategically involve delegates in the discussion through structured networking events and specialised exercises to pull questions out of the audience,” Carla Maree Vella notes.

It will be a one-day event, with topics ranging from regulation, decentralised governance, banking and blockchain, centralised vs decentralised exchanges, and investing in blockchain to name a few.

Delegates will be able to learn how blockchain can be implemented in particular business cases, ways it can enhance customer and consumer relationships, and how it can improve operational efficiency.

Estonia – an emerging European blockchain hub?

It is positive to see Estonian inclusion, particularly when the country has recently been praised for innovations such as e-residency and its high level of digital integration in public services.

Estonia now looks to be establishing itself as a leading country in the EU in terms of blockchain implementation.

X-Road is an open source technology upon which Estonia’s entire digital infrastructure runs. It is rooted in a blockchain known as KSI, which is incidentally used by both NATO and the US Department of Defense.

X-Road is a distributed ledger that cannot be rewritten. In Estonia, it enables citizens to have more control over their data, and weakens central authorities that control the data.

All outgoing data from X-Road is digitally signed and encrypted, with all incoming data authenticated and logged as well. This helps X-Road ensure transfers are secure.

X-Road isn’t just implemented in Estonia either – it has also been implemented in Finland, Azerbaijan, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands.

With this in mind, it will be interesting to see what Taavi Rõivas has to say at the Stockholm Blockchain Forum event.

Interested in reading more about European blockchain hubs? Discover how Malta has become the first country to roll out educational certificates on the blockchain here on Coin Rivet.