The British Blockchain Association (BBA) has been founded with the aim of supporting the technology’s adoption across public, private and the third sectors. Launched today at London Blockchain Week, BBA’s goal is to highlight the commercial applications of blockchain and demonstrate the benefits that it will have for UK businesses, government and wider society.
With a team made up of industry and academic experts in specialisms, including distributed ledger technologies, blockchain, information technology and computer science, organisers say BBA is set to be the biggest blockchain association in the world.
“The BBA has high aspirations,” said co-founder Dr. Naseem Naqvi. “We already have a growing network of partners and members from across the world and our goal is to work together to influence and connect policymakers, academics, businesses, entrepreneurs, investors and venture capitalists with the overall goal of increasing the awareness, understanding and adoption of blockchain technology in the UK.”
With members including the United Nations Development Programme GCPSE, Nordic Blockchain Association, Abt Associates and QADRE, the British Blockchain Association is already receiving international attention.
The BBA is unique in that they are a not-for-profit organisation, meaning that any financial proceeds will be invested back into the development of new initiatives that will achieve greater impact across the UK.
One such initiative is The British Blockchain Association Student Forum (BBA SF) which aims to increase awareness of blockchain, it’s development potential and the commercial applications to a younger audience. Research has shown that graduates looking for blockchain related jobs has risen by 223% in the last 12 months and the BBA now has university representatives in Edinburgh, Manchester, Leeds, Boston Massachusetts and Greece.
Dr. Mureed Hussain, BBA co-founder explained: “This is an exciting focus for us, if we can inspire students to engage in blockchain technology we are upskilling a workforce who can directly influence their future employers and implement blockchain technology into industry at a much earlier stage.”
As an organisation the British Blockchain Association is primarily a membership organisation, dedicated to developing a network that will work together to accelerate the understanding and adoption of blockchain solutions.
According to Dr. Hussain: “We represent professionals, both individually and collectively, from across the globe. All of our members have priority access to our advisory board, local and national events, networking opportunities, access to members-only content including the JBBA, which is Europe’s only peer reviewed journal dedicated to blockchain technology.”