The Wall Street Blockchain Alliance Announces New Blockchain Assets Working Group

Trade Association Appoints ARK Investment Management’s Blockchain Products Lead Chris Burniske to Chair Group Focused on New Asset Class

New York, New York (February 1, 2017) – The Wall Street Blockchain Alliance (WSBA), a non-profit 501 (c)(6) Trade Association, announced today a new working group that will focus on native assets riding upon public blockchains, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Zcash, and more. The Blockchain Assets Working Group is chaired by Chris Burniske, Blockchain Products Lead at ARK Investment Management LLC (“ARK”), and will explore a number of facets of this emerging asset class, including underlying technologies, development teams, economics, and market behavior.

Blockchain assets ride upon public blockchain protocols, providing the global population access to decentralized digital resources. These resources can include digital currencies, commodities like compute power and digital storage, and more novel forms of value, like prediction markets or attention economies. Beyond providing access to such resources, traders and investors can actively utilize the blockchain asset markets to augment their existing strategies and portfolios.

Chris first joined ARK Investment Management as a Next Generation Internet analyst in 2014, covering big data, cloud computing, cybersecurity, and cryptocurrency. After ARK became the first public fund manager to invest in bitcoin, he transitioned to Blockchain Products Lead. He now collaborates with the ARK business development team and performs deep dive research on the blockchain space. In this respect, Chris regularly speaks at conferences and has been featured on CNBC and Bloomberg, as well as in Forbes, USA Today and the Guardian, among other media outlets.

Notes Ron Quaranta, Chairman of the Wall Street Blockchain Alliance: “Chris Burniske has been a member of the WSBA almost since inception and is no stranger to providing thought leadership to our members as well as the wider marketplace. We look forward to our global membership benefiting from his expertise and leadership in this increasingly important aspect of blockchain platforms.”

Chris Burniske adds: “Instead of focusing on how blockchain technology can be employed within existing financial architectures, this working group will return to the genesis of the blockchain movement that saw the need for native assets to keep decentralized and open systems in economic balance. The working group will emphasize that the assets are just as important as the technology, providing participants the environment they need to stay on top of the latest developments in public blockchain networks.”

The first Blockchain Assets Roundtable is scheduled for February 23rd – agenda to be announced shortly. The roundtable is open to WSBA members and select guests, with members receiving a substantial discount.

About The Wall Street Blockchain Alliance

The Wall Street Blockchain Alliance (WSBA) is a 501 (c)(6) non-profit trade association created for financial market professionals, by financial market professionals. Our mission is to guide and promote comprehensive adoption of distributed ledger technology across financial markets. It does this by engaging with industry leaders, policymakers and technology innovators through direct communication, comment letters, best practice recommendations and more to guide the industry dialogue about this important technological innovation that the financial markets can realize the full potential of these capabilities.

For information about the WSBA, including membership, visit www.wsba.co or email info@wsba.co.

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