American Banker’s third annual Blockchains + Digital Currencies conference is scheduled to be held on July 28 in New York, which will bring together bankers, technologists, entrepreneurs and regulators to discuss the rapidly evolving digital currency and blockchain industry.

“In a few short years, blockchain technology and digital currencies have gone from far-fringe to almost-mainstream,” said Marc Hochstein, Editor in Chief of American Banker. “Major financial institutions, tech companies and others are now actively experimenting with distributed ledgers for everything from payments to securities settlement, from notary services to identity management. Yet for all the energy and capital (more than $1 billion from angel and venture investors) that has congregated in this young fintech sector, there’s a lot of uncertainty about the future.”

The event will focus on the “hard questions” currently facing the blockchain sector. This includes:

• Do open networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum offer the most value to commercial enterprises or are they better off using their own proprietary blockchains?
   
• What can a “permissioned” blockchain do that a traditional database can’t?
   
• Will regulatory initiatives at the state and federal levels and around the world hold back innovation in this space or give it room to flourish?

In addition, the conference will explore what banks have learned from their pilot projects, how the perception of regulators about cryptocurrency has evolved and assess the direction where innovation is headed.

Industry experts will address the regulatory and risk questions that continue to swirl around digital currencies, the challenge of satisfying competing demands such as privacy versus transparency, and the prospects for financial inclusion and data standardization.

According to the press release, the event will feature a diverse range of speakers from traditional banking and regulation to bleedingedge crypto, and includes Bill Barhydt, Founder and CEO, Abra; Jeff Garzik, CEO and Co Founder, Bloq, Inc.; Allan Mendelowitz, president of ACTUS Financial Research Foundation and former board member of the Federal Housing Finance Board; Eddy Ortiz, vice president of solution acceleration and innovation at Royal Bank of Canada; Elissa Shevinsky, CEO of Stealth Crypto Company; Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn, founder of Zcash; and Hank Uberoi, Chief Executive Officer of Earthport.

The conference will be held at Convene Conference Center, located in the heart of New York City's Time Square.