The first official Forum on blockchain technologies held in Kazakhstan

On December 9, the capital hosted the first forum on blockchain technologies Kazakhstan Blockchain Day. The event was organized at the initiative of the Kazakhstan Association of Blockchain Technologies (KABT) in partnership with Astana Hub, MOST Business Incubator and Paxaro.

The forum had attended by associations, government agencies, venture investors, experts, and startups in the field of blockchain technologies. The platform brought together industry professionals and those who just breaking new ground. The following experts and investors had been participated: Vladislav Martynov (Advisor at the Ethereum Foundation, co-founder of Yotaphone), Denis Smirnov (Blockchain evangelist, consultant and teacher at the HSE RF), Evgeny Galiakhmetov (Venture investor, DAO VC, co-founder of Angels Deck ) and other speakers.

" We believe that projects based on blockchain technologies will change the future for the better and ensure transparency, fairness and equality for all citizens. Kazakhstan already holds a leading position, which should not be lost. Therefore, we want to support domestic developers and provide them with the opportunity to improve their products and present it to the whole world. ", ー said Sapar Akhmetov, Chairman of the Board of the Kazakhstan Association of Blockchain Technologies.

“Astana Hub - the area for IT- talents and the global epicenter of technological innovations. Interest in blockchain technologies is growing every day, both among large companies and among startups. This is one of the most promising areas. For our part, we are always ready to support IT projects developing in this direction. ”, – emphasized Arkady Seleznev, Managing Director of the «Astana Hub» International Technopark for IT-startups.

According to data for October 2021, our country ranks second in the world in bitcoin mining. There were about fifteen farms in Kazakhstan two years ago, and now there are about 50 mining farms, the largest of which are concentrated in the Northern and Western regions of the country.  Our goal is to turn Kazakhstan into a promising platform for the development of blockchain technologies in the field of public administration, economics and business.

“ A very timely and necessary initiative ー to gather under one roof of Astana Hub  the Blockchain emerging history representatives. This is a great opportunity for our country to start a good dialogue between government and business. Colleagues from KABT have already done a lot of work towards the development of mining and made a great contribution to this direction. But I would like to say that we can also take leading positions in the world both in the development and implementation of such technology as Blockchain. The event will feature some of the strongest speakers who will highlight the future of the world and its new economy. And this future, believe me, is closer than you can imagine ” ーAndrey Kokov, co-founder of the Paxaro.com cryptocurrency asset management platform

The planners have selected 10 of the most promising startups from Kazakhstan that use blockchain technologies in their project. A pitch session with a prize fund of 1,750,000 tenge was organized especially for them.

According to one of the forum plannersーAlim Khamitov, Director General of the MOST Business Incubator and Managing Partner of MOST Ventures, the Kazakhstan Blockchain Day platform will become an important link between the state and blockchain enthusiasts.

“ We are organizing this forum together with partners, as we have long seen the active growth of blockchain technologies in the world as a whole, we see the high interest among Kazakhstanis in this market. As a venture capital fund manager, I can say that startups that use this technology, with the right business model, can attract good investments. Will be looking forward to the pitch session to listen to the guys ” - added Alim Khamitov.