- Ireland has won the bid to host the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Conference.
- This is a deliberate effort by the country to establish itself as a blockchain hub.
- Ireland is already home to a number of blockchain businesses.
Following this month’s news that blockchain technology could be used to settle the Britain-Ireland border issue following Brexit, Ireland is taking new steps to establish itself as a blockchain hub of sorts.
It has been announced that Ireland will host the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) conference. The meeting, which will take place next year is seen as a major coup for the newly blockchain-centric Ireland as it will bring a large number of blockchain-based businesses to the country.
The announcement was made by Minister of State at the Department of Finance Michael D’Arcy at the “Blockchain for Finance” event.
About the ISO
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is a non-governmental organization based in Switzerland which aims to create uniformity in standards regarding the implementation of blockchain across the world.
With 162 member countries, the organization carries a lot of weight in the DLT world and hosting the event in Ireland could be a first step in truly establishing the country’s place in the blockchain industry.
“We’re expecting about 200 people to attend and are planning several outreach events to coincide with it to share expertise with policymakers, small enterprises and so on,” said Terry Landers, chairman of the National Standards Authority of Ireland’s ICT consultative committee , who is also chief standards officer for Europe Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at Microsoft.
Ireland and Blockchain
Ireland is currently home to a number of blockchain-based companies such as Aid: Tech, ArcNet, Circle First Data, and ConsenSys, a company established by Joe Lubin, co-founder of bitcoin rival ethereum.
Ireland, probably observing the efforts made by other countries to make blockchain a part of their economy, is hoping to attract even more distributed-ledger technology based businesses.
It is almost ironic that blockchain, which was looked at with some suspicion some years ago is now being clamored for by countries of the world.
Mai Santamaria, a senior financial director at the Department of Finance in Ireland, recently published a paper on digital currency and blockchain and has expressed her support for the upcoming conference.
Just how much blockchain business will be brought to Ireland as a result of the conference is speculated but only time will tell.
