People might not be able to gather in groups for conferences right now, but that isn’t slowing R3 down because CordaCon is back!

Going digital for the 2020 edition of the conference, CordaCon featured a series of virtual sessions set across three days. It brought together industry leaders and technology specialists to explore the key trends in blockchain, digital transformation, and some of the impressive applications being built on Corda.

Three insights from the virtual conference

As well as hearing the latest news from the R3 teams, we enjoyed insights from leading organisations like Citi, Amazon and the World Economic Forum. So, what caught our attention?

With so many panels to choose from, here are some of our key takeaways from the event from the event:

1. Embedded Finance is creating opportunity for banks

A panel that caught our eye was the one focused on Embedded Fintech, featuring guests from ING, HSBC and Mastercard. They discussed the idea that Embedded Finance could become as valuable as payment services are today, while exploring how customer expectations for real-time transactions are driving a major need for speed.

It’s clear that banks and financial institutions are looking to take advantage of this space. Expect to see them rapidly embedding their services into the different ecosystems their customers interact with in the near future.

2. Responsible AI will shape the future of machine learning

Responsible AI is a favourite topic of ours. In fact, we explored it ourselves as part of our Big Data & Ethics panel at TechCity Connect in May 2020. So, it was fascinating to see it discussed in the context of blockchain – another area in which building trust is critical.

A key point this session highlighted was the need for further work in the area of Explainable AI. Too often, firms focus on predictive power when choosing algorithms. Instead, explainability should be the top priority – allowing companies to fully explain the impact of the algorithms in use. However, the panel also emphasised that we’ll soon see machine learning technologies that are inherently more transparent than many of those in use today.

3. Start-ups will push the boundaries of blockchain and 5G

It’s clear that 5G represents a huge opportunity for firms – going far beyond the simple benefits of speed and connectivity for consumers. One major question at the conference revolved around autonomous connected devices. How can these (increasingly intelligent) devices start to not just share data and communicate with each other, but transact in a secure and scalable way?

The question was posed as part of R3 launching its Corda Challenge 5G competition encouraging start-ups to compete to create solutions in this area. It’ll be fascinating to see the winning entries – especially as it’s a topic we covered in detail during our Smart Cities & Smart Citizens session at TechCity Connect.

A virtual conference that still connects

CordaCon 2020 was certainly a different experience this year, but no less insightful for its digital delivery. We’re delighted to have ‘attended’ the new-look virtual conference that will hopefully be back live and face-to-face for 2021.

You can discover further expert insight into Responsible AI, blockchain, 5G and more with TechCity Connect, our virtual day of Tech, Art & Culture.

Watch all 12 sessions on-demand, here.