CoinSummit London Announces New Speakers, Startup Winners

CoinSummit London, the upcoming, two-day digital currency conference scheduled to run from 10th-11th July, has added new speakers to its already exciting lineup and announced the winning companies in its 'startup showcase' feature.

Organised by husband-and-wife team Pamir Gelenbe and Gulnar Hasnain, CoinSummit London will take place at the East Wintergarden venue in central London, aiming to connect entrepreneurs, investors, hedge fund professionals and others with an interest in the growing digital currency ecosystem.

"The bitcoin space has changed tremendously since our first conference last year. We went from a somewhat fringe libertarian movement to venture capitalists investing $200m in bitcoin companies in the last 12 months and the US government auctioning bitcoins," Gelenbe told CoinDesk, adding:

"There is a long and challenging road ahead, but it's heartening to see so many smart entrepreneurs joining the adventure."

Lineup additions

Along with the many speakers already appearing at the event are a number of significant additions covering a wide range of backgrounds.

These include Jeff Garzik, bitcoin core developer; Emin Gün Sirer, professor at Cornell University, author of the 'hacking, distributed' website and creator of the term 'selfish mining'; and Jeffrey Smith, from cex.io and ghash.io, who will be making his first public appearance to discuss the 51% issue.

Also now confirmed to appear are bitcoin core developer Peter Todd; Gavin Wood, Ethereum co-founder and CTO; Jeremy Liew, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners; Mathias Kröner, CEO of Fidor Bank; and Geoff Lewis, partner at Founders Fund.

Garzik, who will take part in a panel discussion titled 'Will Bitcoin last the distance?', told CoinDesk that CoinSummit London offers an "exciting lineup of business all-stars".

Startup showcase

Alongside all the speakers and panels, CoinSummit will also feature a 'startup showcase', in which new companies in the cryptocurrency space will have the opportunity to pitch their product in front of the entire conference audience.

A number companies competed for the chance to appear, judged by a panel of experts that included entrepreneurs Jimmy Furland and Ben Davenport; Firat Ileri, an investor at Hummingbird Ventures; Martin Mignot, an investor at Index Ventures; Jez San, an angel investor and the founder of PKR.com; and conference organiser Pamir Gelenbe.

All 15 winning startups have now been decided, said Gelenbe. These include companies from across the cryptocurrency spectrum, such as BitPesa, which is taking digital currency into Africa; Holy Transaction with its multi-currency 'universal' wallet; Skyhook, the maker of low-cost, open-source bitcoin ATMs; Coinffeine, a decentralized peer-to-peer digital currency maketplace; and XBTerminal, maker of point-of-sale solutions for bitcoin.

The full list of winning startups can be found on the CoinSummit website.

Crypto and cocktails

The conference has also released new details about its entertainment offerings. To round off the opening day of the conference, all CoinSummit participants will be eligible for a free cocktail from 6pm to 8.30pm.

Furthermore, CoinSummit sponsor Swarm is hosting a conference afterparty on the same day at The Battery Club in Canary Wharf, which starts at 8.30pm.

All are welcome and can sign up here.

The CoinDesk team will be covering CoinSummit London in full, so keep an eye on the home page for all the latest news and updates.

You can follow CoinSummit London on twitter via @coinsummit and, if you can't be there in person, view the event via the live video stream.