Cryptocurrency and AI excite at tech confab Slush Tokyo

Cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence technologies took center stage this week at Slush Tokyo, one of the nation’s largest tech conferences and an annual event that brings together startups, investors and more established businesses.

This year’s conference featured many speakers, panel discussions and startups moving into the rapidly growing world of cryptocurrency and AI.

Cryptocurrencies, or virtual currencies, can usually be traded without the intermediation of a central authority, with the most famous being bitcoin.

But the underlying technology has spawned a number of other similar virtual currencies and other new funding mechanisms.

“This is the fourth time we had the event,” said Antti Sonninen, CEO of Slush Tokyo. “In 2015 we had more gaming companies, in 2016 more virtual reality, but this is the year of artificial intelligence and blockchain,”

One of the most active presenters at the conference was San-Francisco-based Ripple, the creator of its own cryptocurrency and payment technology. Ripple has gained traction in the Japanese market, signing up 61 banks in a consortium that will allow companies and consumers to send money both domestically and internationally using Ripple’s payment technology.

“There are some companies in cryptocurrencies that are maturing, but there are also some based on speculation. At Ripple we have always taken a long-term approach by keeping things simple and trying to focus on our payment system,” said Stefan Thomas, chief technology officer at Ripple.

A number of the keynote speakers and companies also discussed initial coin offerings, a popular new funding method based on cryptocurrency technology.