Despite the country’s fragile political situation and an uncertain economic outlook, Bitcoin has many enthusiastic followers in Ukraine. This is why Kraken was particularly proud to co-sponsor ‘Blockchain Incredible Party’ (BIP 001), a conference held from July 1- 2 in Odessa. The conference’s organisational team consisted of members of Distributed Lab, a cryptocurrency incubator in Kharkov, Eastern Ukraine, and was headed by Kraken’s Lilia Vershinina.

The conference, the first event focusing on bitcoin and blockchain technology ever to be held in the Black Sea coastal city of Odessa, was kicked-off by a pre-party in downtown Odessa on July 1 and continued with a day-long series of talks and discussion sessions on July 2, held at Hub Odessa.

The event brought together 50 experts and professionals from 7 different countries, among them high-ranking regulators such as Timur Khromaev of Ukraine’s National securities and stock market commision and Yuri Vlasenko of Ukraine National Depository. The regulators emphasized the great potential for growth for Ukraine’s financial markets, both for cryptocurrency and fiat products.

Kraken was represented by both Lilia Vershinina, who gave a talk called ‘The role of Banks in peer-to-peer economy’, and by Johannes Schmitt, who walked the audience through opportunities and challenges for exchanges in a talk entitled ‘Kraken Bitcoin Exchange – Building a Global Trading Platform’.

The two-day event was extremely well received and ended with a lively afterparty at Odessa’s famous outdoor club Ibiza.