Speakers

Dilip Asbe has been the Managing Director and CEO of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) since 2018, following his tenure as the Chief Operating Officer. A pivotal figure in the payments industry, he has significantly contributed to the design, development, and management of major payment platforms including Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS), the RuPay card network, and the highly acclaimed Unified Payments Interface (UPI). Under his leadership, NPCI processes over 18 billion financial transactions monthly, showcasing his exceptional team mentorship and operational expertise.

Title & Abstract: TBA

Jun Watanabe is the Chairman of Sony Block Solutions Labs Pte. Ltd. He joined So-net Entertainment Corporation (now Sony Network Communications Inc) in 2011. After serving as President and Representative Director of the company, he assumed his current position in 2023. With over 20 years of experience in business development and expansion, he now focuses on exploring new business opportunities in the Web3 infrastructure sector within Sony Network Communications Labs Pte. Ltd., now Sony Block Solutions Labs Pte. Ltd., and leads the development and operation of the “Soneium” blockchain.

Title & Abstract: TBA

Kazumasa Omote received his Ph.D. degree in information science from the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST), in 2002. He worked at Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. during 2002-2008 and was engaged in research and development for network security. He was a Research Assistant Professor during 2008-2011 at JAIST, an Associate Professor during 2011-2016 at JAIST, and an Associate Professor during 2016-2022 at the University of Tsukuba. He has been a Professor at the University of Tsukuba, since 2022. His research interests include applied cryptography, network security, and blockchain security. He was the General Co-Chair of ACNS 2023 International Conference. He received the WISTP 2019 Best Paper Award. He also serves as a board member of the Japan Virtual and Crypto Assets Exchange Association (JVCEA).

Title: Towards Malware-Resistant Signature Generation for Blockchain Systems

Abstract: With the growing adoption of blockchain systems, including crypto assets and smart contracts, users are increasingly required to sign their own transactions. At the same time, serious risks such as private key leakage and malware-driven manipulation are becoming more prominent. This talk explores how to ensure that only valid signatures are generated in blockchain systems under two constraints: (1) smart contracts cannot hold private keys, and (2) user devices may be compromised by malware. Furthermore, as concrete examples, we present our research on two approaches: an incentive-based off-chain delegated signing scheme, and a cold wallet system that integrates TrustZone, Trusted UI, and eID cards.

Hidenori Nakazato received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaing in 1993 and is currently a Professor at Department of Computer Science and Communications Engineering, Waseda University. He has experience in industry for more than 15 years and joined Waseda University in 2000. His research interest includes converging networking and computing, network protocols and algorithms, and their performance issues.

Title: Cooperative and Decentralized Digital Twin Ecosystem

Abstract: A digital twin is a critical enabling technology to construct smart city services that help improve city life. To provide services in good quality, the digital twin must reflect up-to data state of the city. Keeping digital twins up-to-date requires massive effort potentially involving many IoT devices, human resources, and organizations including municipalities, companies, other organizations, and even individual citizens. We pursued a project called “Decentralized Digital Twin EcoSystem” and D2EcoSys for short which develops the ecosystem to make digital twins up-to-date by cooperation of many entities through an incentive mechanism. In other words, we exploited sharing economy concept to maintain digital twins. This talk introduces D2EcoSys project and its outcomes. It also introduces the current activities of our team.

Suvendu Pati is the Chief General Manager of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), heading the FinTech Department. The key responsibilities include Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), FinTech – regulatory approach / framework, FinTech Innovation, Regulatory Sandbox, RegTech, Suptech, account aggregator, P2P lending, policies relating to virtual digital assets, emerging technologies, and other activities of the RBIH. He represents India in the Financial Stability Board, Basel’s Working Group on Unbacked Crypto Assets.

Title: Application of Blockchain technology: Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract: TBA