Highlights from the Malta A.I and Blockchain Summit

Last week, the Coin Rivet team arrived in Malta for the biannual AI and Blockchain Summit. Whilst there, we were able to network, explore, and most importantly interview a wide variety of attendees from various sectors of the AI and blockchain world.

The event took place at the Hilton hotel in the picturesque town of St Julian’s. Attended by over 5,000 people, bustling crowds and excited faces were aplenty throughout the conference halls. The conference didn’t stop after the sun went down either, with many dinners and parties allowing attendees to network through the night.

Plenty of interviews to come!

In the coming days and weeks, you will see all of Coin Rivet’s interviews show up on our YouTube page. On the morning of the first day, I managed to grab Tone Vays to discuss the recent cryptocurrency price action, his debate with Roger Ver, and whether they would ever go for a beer with each other nowadays considering the animosity between the two Bitcoin camps.

Coinpaprika was another attendee. We discussed the issue of spoofed volume on cryptocurrency exchanges as well as the company’s very exciting plans for the near future.

My colleagues were also working flat out grabbing high profile attendees to question them on the big issues facing society today. Jorge Sebasteo, CTO of Huawei Technologies – a company that has been in the news a lot in recent months – spoke to chief reporter Oliver Knight, as did Michael Nye, who discussed some of the recent criticism directed his way from members of Crypto Twitter.

Crypto writer Jordan Heal also managed to grab time with Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger to discuss the issues facing his platform, as well as the founder of SingularityNET Ben Goertzel. The conversation with Dr Goertzel turned to how AI could make humans obsolete in terms of jobs within 20-30 years.

Keep your eyes peeled on our YouTube channel and the Coin Rivet website for these interviews and many more coming soon.

Speakers

There were many interesting talks and debates held at the conference as well. Once more, Roger Ver and Tone Vays duked it out in a battle of the Bitcoins. A $10,000 bet was made regarding a Bitcoin transaction on stage. Tone Vays appeared to win the bet, but Roger Ver has accused him of manipulating the transaction through Vays’s friends at Slushpool, so don’t expect it to be handed over any time soon.

Tim Draper appeared via video and gave a bullish statement regarding the future of Bitcoin and AI in general. There were also numerous start-up pitches and competitions taking place, although not everyone was impressed by what was on show.

Room for improvement

No conference is ever going to be perfect, and the Malta AI and Blockchain Summit is no different. Unfortunately, there are still many businesses in the cryptocurrency market that are unnecessary or misunderstand how cryptocurrencies and blockchains can be utilised. Instead, they see the vast sums of money entering the market and create a product to try and capture some of it.

The conference also suffered from its own popularity as well. Having expected 30 media attendees, the conference was overwhelmed when 120 turned up. With a packed conference hall, there was limited access or filming space, meaning many interviews were conducted on a crowded roof terrace.

Whilst we enjoyed our time in the sun, bear a thought for our cameraman Billy Jackson, who spent eight hours each day in extreme heat! Access to more filming space for media partners would be a great step forward for the conference taking place in October.

Conclusion

Having attended a variety of conferences in the UK and the Netherlands in recent months, it is fair to say the Malta AI and Blockchain Summit outshone them all. The quality of attendees – whilst not perfect – was a huge step up, covering a wide variety of the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry.

Should you ever get the opportunity, not only is Malta a beautiful setting, but the conference provides the perfect networking and education environment for you to attend.

Overall, we at Coin Rivet truly enjoyed our time at the Malta AI and Blockchain Summit and give it a rating of 5/5.