Ben Lawsky to Deliver Bitcoin Keynote at Money20/20

New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) superintendent Benjamin Lawsky is to deliver a keynote speech at Money20/20, which bills itself as the world's largest event for payments and financial services innovation.

Lawsky will take part in the conference's (Bit)coinWorld section and will be one of the star speakers on the subject of cryptocurrencies.

Money20/20

’s organisers say they are big supporters of cryptocurrencies and their underlying distributed payment protocols. Additionally, as bitcoin generated a lot of interest at last year’s event, they decided to launch (Bit)coinWorld as a forum dedicated solely to the cryptocurrency space.

A number of industry leaders will attend (Bit)coinWorld and the event has been endorsed by Coinbase co-founder Fred Ersham, BitPay chief executive Tony Gallippi, Blockchain chief executive Nicolas Cary, the Ripple Labs team and investor Roger Ver.

“We believe that bitcoin is nearing a tipping point for broad consumer adoption and recognition worldwide,” said Ehrsam.

Gallippi said bitcoin companies need to work effectively with merchants, regulators and other established institutions if they want to realise bitcoin’s full potential, adding:

"As the premier payments event, Money20/20 is well positioned to make that happen and we're excited help by bringing our expertise and leadership to (Bit)coinWorld.”

Thanks to Lawsky, bitcoin's regulators will have their voice heard at the event too.

BitLicense – a mixed bag for bitcoin

Lawsky became a prominent figure in the world of bitcoin regulation in early 2014, after the NYDFS announced it would hold hearings on bitcoin. The hearings were held in late January and Lawsky’s department eventually announced plans for a comprehensive regulatory framework for New York State’s bitcoin businesses.

The NYDFS unveiled its controversial list of proposed rules and regulations in July and industry reaction has not been overwhelmingly positive.

The so-called 'BitLicense' scheme has been heavily criticised by a large number of bitcoin companies, both in the US and elsewhere. Some commentators have been more open to the idea, however.

Due to the large number of reactions and suggestions, the NYDFS decided to extend the comment period for the BitLicense proposal in late August.

Lawsky explained the need for the extension in a recent interview with CoinDesk, stressing that the NYDFS had to proceed with caution, as it could not risk getting bitcoin regulation wrong. The revised BitLicense proposal should be published by the end of October.

Money20/20 takes place 2nd-5th November at the Aria in Las Vegas.