Keynote Speech Asoc. Prof. Alex Norta (Tallinn University) – Global Development Trends of Blockchain Technology

 Blockchain technology has evolved rapidly over the past decade, from the launch of Bitcoin in 2009 to the emergence of programmable blockchains like Ethereum. This keynote speech will provide an overview of the global development trends in blockchain technology. It will cover the evolution from Blockchain 1.0 focused on cryptocurrencies to Blockchain 2.0 enabling smart contracts and decentralized applications. Architectures like directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) have also emerged to address scalability and other limitations.

The speech will highlight major public blockchain infrastructure projects and applications like decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), decentralized metaverses, and blockchain games. It will also discuss enterprise blockchain adoption with use cases, Blockchain-as-a-Service offerings, and alliances like the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance. Government initiatives around blockchain will be covered, including the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI) and central bank digital currency (CBDC) projects.