Fwd: Call For Participation: Blockchains and the Web Workshop, 29–30 June

[This is an interesting workshop for the POE/ODRL community - See the Application areas below - RI]

W3C is pleased to call for participation in a workshop:
  Blockchains and the Web Workshop
  29–30 June 2016, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
  https://www.w3.org/2016/04/blockchain-workshop/

Thanks to MIT Media Lab for hosting the workshop and to Bloomberg for sponsorship.

Many projects and companies are looking at ways to use the Bitcoin blockchain or other public or private distributed ledgers, to record an immutable timestamped public record that can be independently verified by any stakeholder.

What does this mean for Web technologies, beyond payments? What emerging capabilities could blockchains enable for the Web, such as distributed identity management? Conversely, should features be added to the Web Platform and to browsers to enable blockchain use cases, such as a JavaScript blockchain API to write to blockchain nodes? What will help Web developers to take advantage of blockchains?

We invite participation from diverse players in the blockchain community: Representatives from communities such as Bitcoin, Hyperledger, and Ethereum; browser developers interested in adding support for blockchain APIs, identity systems, and other functionality; digital currency projects; financial institutions; developers of blockchain systems who want to improve interoperability; privacy/security researchers; and more.

Expected topics of discussion include:

Technical enhancements to blockchains, such as:
* Smart contracts and conditional execution contexts
* Blockchain APIs, such as JavaScript or REST APIs
* Decentralization primitives, such as transaction initiation, key signing, wallet management
* Ledger interchange formats and protocols

Application areas, such as:
* Identity systems, including privacy, security, and confidentiality factors
* Rights expression and licensing
* Decentralized processing, computing, and storage infrastructure
* Voting systems

Other considerations, such as:
* Optimal use cases for blockchains
* Surveys of existing blockchain software systems
* Testing mechanisms to increase interoperability, robustness, stability, and confidence in blockchain systems

For more on the workshop, including proposed session tracks to organize the discussion, please see the workshop details and submission instructions:
  https://www.w3.org/2016/04/blockchain-workshop/

The event is open to all; position statements will be required to participate, due by 27 May.

If you have any questions, please contact organizer Doug Schepers <schepers@w3.org> or Domain Lead Wendy Seltzer <wseltzer@w3.org>.

We look forward to seeing you there.


For Doug Schepers, W3C staff contact,
Wendy Seltzer, W3C Policy Counsel and Domain Lead;
Coralie Mercier, Head of W3C Marketing & Communications

Received on Thursday, 5 May 2016 00:03:22 UTC