Speaker

Chris BATES

Chief Security Officer - Bitland Global

Chris Bates is a telecommunications and cyber-security specialist. He received a B.S. in Psychology from Indiana University in 2007 and a M.S. in Telecommunications in 2009 with a focus in immersive mediated environments.  During the first M.S. he worked on creating digital algorithms that generated music with human interaction.

He will receive M.S. in Cyber-Security for enterprise scale organizations in July, 2016 from Colorado Technical University.

Currently he is Chief Security Officer for Bitland Global.  The project focuses on utilizing blockchain technology to register land titles and record new plots of unregistered land with the larger goal of settling land disputes and unlocking land capital in developing countries.

With the aim to help bring transparency to governments and bring development to disenfranchised areas around the world, Chris wants to bridge the gap between technology and the people, in order to realize the economy of the future.

In addition to technological pursuits, Chris composes music and performs in his free time and his name can be found on the roster of the music label Strong Roots Records.

Chris Bates on Twitter: @bitland_project ; @tabali_tigi

Company Profile: Bitland is an organization that aims to provide services to allow individuals and organizations to survey land and record deeds onto the Bitcoin Blockchain.  As the pilot project is working out of Kumasi, Ghana the team is looking to expand their reach further into the African continent.  As the organization grows, they look to build infrastructure in developing countries to potentially unlock billions of dollars in untapped property rights.

Bitland has been building the team over the past year under the leadership of Narigamba Mwinsuubo.  While the current team is making connections locally in Ghana, the company looks to have their services available globally within five years.  With a combination of remote workers and key partnerships, Bitland is looking to assist governments in solving land disputes in areas that are currently beyond their reach.