The New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) has announced two blockchain initiatives aimed at position New York City as a hub for blockchain innovation.

The initiatives include the launch of the NYC Blockchain Resource Center and a public blockchain competition.

The center will focus on spreading public awareness for blockchain technology through education, and serve as “physical hub” to connect entrepreneurs to business support, mentorship, advisory services, and a community of peers to help them launch and scale new ventures. It will also bring together industry stakeholders, government, consumer advocates, and investors to begin a conversation around creating a regulatory environment in the city that will support both consumer safety and innovation.

“There’s no city in the world that’s better positioned to lead the way in blockchain,” said NYCEDC President and CEO James Patchett. “We’re a global leader in finance, real estate, media, and tech - all industries seeing incredible innovation from this new technology. The City is putting a big focus into blockchain to find out how we can grow the industry and make sure it’s creating great opportunities for New Yorkers.”

Blockchain Competition

The competition will feature a series of workshops aimed at educating those in the government about blockchain and identifying use cases to solve challenges like security, efficiency, and turn-around-times for government services. It will also include free educational workshops to teach the public about the technology and source ideas.

According to the official release, the city has released a request for proposals (RFP) for an organization to operate the public competition, which is expected to launch in late 2018.

Blockchain Job Fair

Coindesk has partnered with NYCEDC to launch Blockchain Week NYC to boost blockchain-related employment opportunities in New York, and establish the city as a growing center for the blockchain community. As part of Blockchain Week NYC, they will co-host a first-ever Blockchain Job Fair, a free event open to any member of the public. Taking place at the end of Consensus 2018 on May 16th from 2-5PM, companies exhibiting at the job fair include IBM, Accenture, Deloitte, ConsenSys, Ripple, KPMG and Ledger.

"We're excited that we get to kickoff our Consensus conference with this news, and are pleased to be partnering with the NYCEDC on the first Blockchain industry job fair as well as supporting their efforts to make NYC the next great hub of innovation," said Kevin Worth, CEO of New York-based CoinDesk, the leading global blockchain technology news outlet.