Vietnam blockchain gathering to unleash ‘unlimited future’

An international blockchain conference called “Near APAC” held September 9-10 in Ho Chi Minh City will be a platform that reveals the latest advancements in blockchain technology, organizers said Friday.

More than 100 sector blockchain executives would speak at the two-day event, Pham Van Huong, founder and CEO of Vietnamese firm Golden Financial Innovation (GFI), said at a press briefing.

Developers and startups in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region and beyond will join the event, he said.

Apart from GFI, the conference’s organizers are the Near Foundation, headquartered in Zug, Switzerland; and the Vietnam Blockchain Innovation (VBI), a sector forum.

The Near Foundation is responsible for contracting protocol maintainers, funding ecosystem development, and shepherding core governance of the NEAR protocol, which is a contract-capable, public proof-of-stake blockchain aiming to act as a community-run cloud computing platform.

Themed “Unlimited Future”, the conference will offer a diverse range of activities designed to engage and inspire participants beyond traditional panel discussions and keynote presentations, the organizers said.

It aims to provide a dynamic and interactive environment that fosters networking, collaboration, and the exploration of emerging technologies, they added.

The event will host a Web3 hackfest, Web3 code challenge and builder stage with a prize pool $110,000, providing developers the opportunity to showcase their skills and engage in collaborative coding sessions.

Of interest for venture capital (VC) businesses and start-ups, the Greenhouse Program at Near APAC will have venture capitalists as speakers, partners, and judges for the hackathon.

To serve the blockchain community, IT students and start-ups, the conference will host the Web2 and Web3 career fairs in collaboration with TOP CV, a leading recruitment platform in the country.

The Near APAC Vietnam 2023 conference will be held at the Thiskyhall Convention Center at No. 10, Mai Chi Tho Boulevard, Thu Duc city.

Vietnam currently has more than 200 blockchain projects operating in many fields including: GameFi (a combination of gaming and finance); DeFi or decentralized finance (an emerging financial technology based on secure distributed ledgers similar to those used by cryptocurrencies); non-fungible tokens (NFTs); Web3; infrastructure and wallets, according to sector data.

Vietnam’s blockchain-related market could be worth nearly $2.5 billion by 2026, a five-fold increase over 2021, according to a forecast by MarketsandMarkets, a service market research company and consulting firm.