Beyond Crypto: Blockchain for Urban Development

12 - 1:00p.m. (PT) | Link to register.

Nonprofits in Oakland are planting trees to help with carbon sequestration to address climate change with the help of blockchain technology—a system in which a record of transactions are maintained across several computers linked in a peer-to-peer network. Blockchain provides an effective mechanism to codify process steps, enables any qualified individual or entity to easily participate in the delivery of those services, removes the need for single entity contracts, and also effectively tracks execution of those services. The process of selecting trees, getting permits to plant those trees in the right spot, planting the trees, and verification of proper planting all happen on the blockchain, and because activity is broken down and managed at discrete transaction level, anyone can participate in the effort as long as they follow the rules set out in the blockchain. This expert research investigates and develops specifications for using blockchain and distributed organizations to enable decentralized delivery and finance of urban infrastructure and the potentials of blockchain to empower everyone to improve transportation systems and their communities. Webinar will end with Q&A.

*1 AICP credit available

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About the Presenters

William (Billy) Riggs, PhD, AICP, LEED AP is a global expert and thought leader in the areas of automation and future transportation, clean technology, and urban development and city planning. He is a professor and program director at the University of San Francisco School of Management. He has worked in venture capital and management consulting and been an advisor to multiple companies and start-ups on technology, engineering, smart mobility and urban development. He has over 100 publications and has been featured in multiple global media outlets such as the Economist, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Atlantic. Billy is the author of the books End of the Road: Reimagining the Street as the Heart of the City and Disruptive Transport: Driverless Cars, Transport Innovation and the Sustainable City of Tomorrow. Dr. Riggs has been a fellow with the National Science Foundation, sits on the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Committee on Policy and Law and the Committee on the Landscape and the Built Environment, and is a Trustee of Horicon School District.

Vipul Vyas is a professor of management at the University of San Francisco, and has been a serial entrepreneur in Silicon Valley for the past 20 years. He is the Senior Vice President of Vertical Strategy at Persado, an AI platform that uses and transforms language into a growth lever for business, and the co-founder of healthcare start-up SymphonyRM. Vipul has led multiple departments including business development, sales, and products. His teams have engaged clients on strategy, change management, operations, and metric achievement using technology and business process improvement.  He values developing close relationships with clients in order to drive real and lasting change. Vipul has been responsible for creating over $4B+ in trackable benefit for his clients over his career and is named on 10 US patents. He has a BS in management information systems from the University of Virginia and an MBA from the Tuck School at Dartmouth College.