The speaker will explore the following questions:
* How does blockchain work?
* What claims are made for blockchain and are they valid?
* What criticisms are raised against blockchain and are they valid?
* What claims are made for Bitcoin and other "cryptocurrencies"? Are they valid?
* What criticisms are raised against Bitcoin and other "cryptocurrencies"? Are they valid?
* What is Facebook planning for its own "cryptocurrency" - Libra?
* Why is the US government worried about Facebook's Libra?
* Should we be worried about Facebook's Libra?
If people are familiar with how blockchain works, that part will be abbreviated. Some lively discussion is expected
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Speaker: Ron Ballard
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Speaker Bio:
Ron Ballard studied Computer Science (with some other subjects) at Manchester University, graduating in 1973.
He worked on a the development of a bibliographic database for the British Library and then spent 15 years working for database vendors, building database products, supporting them, building transactional applications and data warehouses using them, and teaching others to use them. Since 1996 he has been an independent database consultant working with big databases in large organisations.
Ron has now retired but keeps himself occupied by volunteering with some major charities to assist them with agile development of data warehouses and migration to new systems.
Copies of Ron’s book – Relational Databases For Agile Developers – will be available at the talk.
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18:30 Start. Refreshments and networking from 18:00. All welcome.
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For more information about this group, go to - https://www.bcs.org/category/18344
For overseas delegates who wish to attend the event please note that BCS does not issue invitation letters.
