Announcing the 2nd Annual 2020 Enterprise Blockchain Awards Gala

Join us in celebrating the community’s achievements during this live virtual event.

On July 7th, the blockchain community will be honoring the 2020 finalists and winners of the Enterprise Blockchain Awards (EBAs), sponsored by the City of Toronto. These innovators, advocates, and researchers are making a measurable difference within their organizations and across industries ripe for blockchain disruption. Now in its second year, the EBA gala recognizes their stewardship of this technology.

Now is the time to champion blockchain solutions. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the cracks in legacy healthcare, education, and financial infrastructure. These systemic problems require systemic solutions. Saving lives at a global scale, tracking infections, inventing vaccines, and making the best policy decisions often depend on hordes of reliable data and the ability to interpret them. But we can’t trample the rights of millions in a stampede for data.

Some of our finalists are working on projects that directly address the challenges we face as the world recovers from COVID-19. For example, to break down healthcare data silos, the people behind BurstIQ have created a HIPAA-compliant blockchain solution for interdisciplinary collaboration. In the fight against counterfeit drugs and devices, the folks at SigmaLedger have devised a means of tracking and tracing members’ assets across the supply chain. And the team at Workwolf has developed a platform for hiring managers at, say, medical facilities to verify the credentials of prospective healthcare employees quickly.

These solutions are welcome ones. Since the emergence of COVID-19, every country around the world has dealt or is dealing with healthcare talent shortages, gaps in data, fraudulent supplies, and an economy on the rocks. Ultimately, each finalist of the EBAs has demonstrated what blockchain technology can do for enterprises and their ecosystems as they look to recover from the economic downturn or to strengthen their resolve, resilience, and responsiveness amid crises.

The 2020 awards cover four broad categories: enterprise transformation, innovative entrepreneurship, blockchain leadership, and new frontiers in research. Given the large number of high-quality submissions in each category, the judging committee decided to split these into subcategories. Here are the finalists in each.

Enterprise blockchain transformation

• Industry solutions: Access Copyright/Prescient Innovations, BOMcheck, GuildOne Inc., and Solve.Care
• Financial services: Interac Corp., Provenance (Figure Technologies), and Toronto Royalty Exchange
• Technology and platforms: IBM Blockchain, Quantstamp, Reliance Industries, and Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd.

Innovative entrepreneurship in blockchain

• Industry solutions: Bookchain by Scenarex, BurstIQ, Mavennet, and Ownum
• Supply chain applications: AgriLedger, Chainyard, and SigmaLedger
• Technology and platforms: Aurachain AG, Chronicled, ICONLOOP, and Workwolf

Blockchain leadership

• Ecosystem leadership: Debbie Hoffman of Symmetry Blockchain Advisors, Frank Ricotta of BurstIQ, and Victoria Lemieux of the University of British Columbia
• Enterprise leadership: Fatema Pirone of CIBC, Marley Gray of Microsoft, and Michael Fulton of Nationwide
• Entrepreneurship: John Ainsworth of CULedger, Laura Bailey of Qadre, Leemon Baird of Hedera Hashgraph, and Randy Knutson of DynaQuest

New frontiers in blockchain research

• Academic research: Atefeh Mashatan of Ryerson University and Wendy Charles of BurstIQ
• Enterprise research: Brightline Initiative and Fujitsu

Similar to the 2019 awards, our 2020 finalists represent a remarkable cross section of talent and leadership from around the world. We received submissions from organizations in India, Ireland, Japan, the Philippines, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. Submissions also spanned industries, from healthcare and public services to supply chain and telecommunications.

Those of you who joined us in Toronto last April for the 2019 awards ceremony will remember our divine emcees Colin Mochrie and Deb McGrath, an amazing performance by Imogen Heap, plenty of food and drinks, lots of great conversations, and the musical debut of the BeatCoins featuring Ron Resnick, Diana Alvort, and yours truly.

Thanks to generous support from the City of Toronto, this year’s awards ceremony will be no less festive and community focused, but it will be virtual so that you can join from the comfort and safety of your own venue. We will livestream the event, mixing live speakers, recorded video segments, a beatbox musician, and more!

So please mark the date—Wednesday, 7 July 2020—and join us in celebrating these achievements in enterprise blockchain technology. Stay tuned for the specific time and a link to register.