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The blockchain is often touted as a solution to many existing problems in the world, with applications in a wide range of fields. In this event, however, we want to go back to where it all started and take a closer look at how blockchain facilitates payments.


We'll be hearing from a range of industry experts on how the blockchain enables a new age of peer-to-peer payments and remittances that leverage a global distributed ledger to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and put value back in the hands of the average person. The original blockchain, Bitcoin, was conceived as a global 'peer-to-peer electronic cash system', and 10 years after its inception this goal remains the same. However, there are many different facets of this goal that entrepreneurs and companies in Wales, the UK, and the rest of the world are working to develop and further.


This event features a series of 15 minute talks from industry leaders:


  • Building a Blockchain Payments Ecosystem - Lorien Gamroff, CEO at Centbee
  • The Role of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) - Simit Naik, Director of Business Services at nChain
  • Simplifying Blockchain Payments - Paul Harwood, CEO at Wallets


In these talks, we'll be learning more about the benefits and challenges associated with blockchain payments, and how these companies are looking to leverage or overcome these aspects.


There will be a chance for the audience to submit questions to our speakers, each of whom will be taking a short Q&A session after their talks.


The speakers will then be invited to take part in a panel session, where the audience will be invited to submit questions to the panellists on the wider topic of 'blockchain for payments'. We hope that this will stimulate a discussion between our speakers on the utility of blockchain for payments systems.


More detailed descriptions of the talks are given below:


Building a Blockchain Payments Ecosystem

Bitcoin as cash is a nice idea but how do normal people get access to it and use it?

Speaker: Lorien Gamaroff

Centbee has closed the loop and created an ecosystem that allows people to acquire, hold and spend Bitcoin without having them change their habits.


The Role of CBDCs

Shaping the future of tokenized fiat currency on the blockchain.

Speaker: Simit Naik


The term 'Central Bank Digital Currency' (CBDC) has grown more and more popular over the last few years. We are seeing central banks around the world, from China to mainland Europe, investigating the potential of digitising fiat currencies in a myriad of different ways. In this talk, Simit Naik, Director of Business Services at nChain, will be giving an overview of CBDCs, and what their role in the future of blockchain might be.


Simit hails from a career in financial services and public sector, holding senior roles in consultancy, strategy and product across organisations such as Visa and Logica. He established the Business Services division at nChain and works with enterprises to take advantage of blockchain tech.


Simplifying Blockchain Payments

Making cryptocurrencies convenient for the rest of us.

Speaker: Paul Harwood


The experience of buying, using, spending and interacting with cryptocurrencies is one encumbered with many aspects that are less than 'user-friendly'. In this talk, Paul Harwood, CEO at Swansea-based startup Wallets, gives us an insight into the existing challenges to gaining mainstream adoption of digital assets, and how companies like Wallets are working to overcome them.


Paul is a co-founder of Wallets: a naming system for blockchain services. Paul has an entrepreneurial twenty year background in web technologies and distributed, highly available systems. He built and sold internet companies, built successful communities around big data and startups, and helped fund, found and build one of the first Ethereum based blockchain remittance companies.


Paul started Wallets in 2018 as a response to the unacceptable user friction that he saw from developing with cryptocurrencies and public key based systems. He is now focused on disrupting traditional financial systems to bring billions of people to distributed ledger systems, in order to make a better and fairer global monetary system.

Event Agenda

Building a Blockchain Payments Ecosystem

Bitcoin as cash is a nice idea but how do normal people get access to it and use it?

Speaker: Lorien Gamaroff


Centbee has closed the loop and created an ecosystem that allows people to acquire, hold and spend Bitcoin without having them change their habits.


The Role of CBDCs

Shaping the future of tokenized fiat currency on the blockchain.

Speaker: Simit Naik


The term 'Central Bank Digital Currency' (CBDC) has grown more and more popular over the last few years. We are seeing central banks around the world, from China to mainland Europe, investigating the potential of digitising fiat currencies in a myriad of different ways. In this talk, Simit Naik, Director of Business Services at nChain, will be giving an overview of CBDCs, and what their role in the future of blockchain might be.


Simit hails from a career in financial services and public sector, holding senior roles in consultancy, strategy and product across organisations such as Visa and Logica. He established the Business Services division at nChain and works with enterprises to take advantage of blockchain tech.



Simplifying Blockchain Payments

Making cryptocurrencies convenient for the rest of us.

Speaker: Paul Harwood


The experience of buying, using, spending and interacting with cryptocurrencies is one encumbered with many aspects that are less than 'user-friendly'. In this talk, Paul Harwood, CEO at Swansea-based startup Wallets, gives us an insight into the existing challenges to gaining mainstream adoption of digital assets, and how companies like Wallets are working to overcome them.

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