Digital Catapult welcomes Vinay Gupta as Blockchain Fellow

Vinay Gupta will bolster expertise in blockchain and smart contracts.

LONDON, UK 11 October 2017 – Digital Catapult today announces that Vinay Gupta, co-founder of Mattereum, has been appointed as Blockchain Fellow of the prestigious UK Government initiative Digital Catapult, a company based in London’s Euston Road but with centres in strategic areas across the country. The appointment marks the centre’s ongoing focus on demonstrating just how the evolution of blockchain is helping to empower companies and individuals to perform secure financial transactions without third party intervention.

Vinay Gupta is a leading figure in the blockchain space. He co-ordinated the release of the blockchain platform Ethereum in July 2015 and was strategic architect for ConsenSys, a technology hub focusing on the Ethereum blockchain and related applications. He was the designer of the National Blockchain Strategy for Dubai and is a partner at Hexayurt Capital, the technology-focused VC firm behind the Internet of Agreements. He has been involved in commercial software development since 1992 and his experience as a programmer and visionary has covered fields as diverse as medical imaging, flight simulation, computer graphics, cryptographic applications and the web.

This week, Digital Catapult is also to be a venue for the Internet of Agreements Conference hosted by Mattereum which will bring many of the key players together for an important global conversation on the implications and applications of smart contracts.

Dr Jeremy Silver, CEO of Digital Catapult said: “We are absolutely delighted that Vinay Gupta has agreed to take on the newly created role of Digital Catapult Blockchain Fellow. Vinay’s credentials speak for themselves as one of the leading voices around the world, developing the application of distributed ledger technologies and smart contracts beyond the confines of fintech. We hope that Vinay will spend one or two days a month at Digital Catapult, bringing the ecosystem of innovative businesses in the space together and helping envision the future for blockchain and smart contracts across industrial sectors.”

Mr Gupta comments on his appointment as Blockchain Fellow, “The UK is at the top of list as the blockchain capital of the world especially in the primary market for legally enforceable smart contracts with recourse to arbitration, in which the City of London is already a global leader. Technology is key to the UK’s economic growth, productivity and competitiveness and as blockchain Fellow with Digital Catapult I am pleased to do my part in facilitating greater understanding and take-up of the blockchain in all its applications.”

As part of his extended CV, Mr Gupta was also on the editorial team of ‘Small is Profitable’, the winner of the 2003 Economist Book of the Year, and has contributed to US Department of Defence research, advised Arup on urban resilience and was associate fellow at the UCL Institute for Security and Resilience. He is co-founder of Mattereum, a startup which brings legal enforceability to blockchain smart contracts.

He has long had a humanitarian concern with the condition of the poorest in society and disaster relief. He invented the cheap, simple, non-patented and open source hexayurt refugee shelter which has gone on to become iconic in the Burning Man counter culture. In his techno-realist view, technology and engineering, including blockchain, can contribute to positive social and commercial transformation and help deal with resource scarcity.

About Digital Catapult’s involvement in blockchain

Digital Catapult is designed to help drive the development of the British economy through encouraging digital innovation and culture by supporting organisations such as, in this case, Mattereum.

Mattereum considers the UK to be at the top of the list as the blockchain capital of the world especially in the primary market for its platform, legally enforceable smart contracts with recourse to arbitration, in which the City of London is already a global leader.

Technology is acknowledged as key to the UK’s economic growth, productivity and competitiveness. In 2014, former Business Secretary Ed Vaizey spoke at Digital Catapult’s opening about the importance of the Internet of Things. Three years on, the UK now has an opportunity to lead the world in the Internet of Agreements.

To find out all of the ins and outs of smart contract technology and the legalities of applying smart contracts in the real world, in areas like managing intellectual property and real estate, get your tickets to the Internet of Agreements Conference taking place at Digital Catapult from 13-16 October.

 

For more blockchain tech news, read Vinay Gupta’s programmable blockchains in context article