As economies digitalise, over-centralised platforms create systemic cyber, operational, and climate risks - while many blockchain experiments remain speculative and poorly governed. This session brings together global research and regional industry perspectives to examine how blockchain can overcome these challenges and serve as the best foundation for organising decentralised mainstream societies.

In the first part, Bill Roscoe, Director of the University College Oxford Blockchain Research Centre, draws on his new book Understanding Decentralised Systems and the work of his Digital Civilisation project. He addresses the inefficiencies and governance challenges that have kept blockchain from mainstream adoption, and makes the case that the very qualities which make it ideal for cryptocurrency also make it the best way to organise decentralised mainstream societies.

The second part, presented by members of the Australian Computer Society (ACS) Blockchain Committee, offers a timely snapshot of where blockchain stands today in Australia. The panel explores adoption across finance, supply chains, digital identity, and the creative economy, alongside regulatory developments, ecosystem challenges, and opportunities for innovation and growth.

Together, both parts provide attendees with a practical and forward-looking view of what is needed to strengthen capability, collaboration, and global competitiveness in this rapidly evolving technology sector.

Speed & convenience mean nothing if systems are fragile, surveillant or easy to break. Discussants will explore how to design digital infrastructures that remain secure, resilient & privacy-safe even under pressure, the safeguards that must be built in from Day One & approaches that are mature enough to deploy now. 

Tokenisation is moving from experimentation to industrial advantage - but only for organisations that can translate pilots into real workflows and profitable business models, compliant  structures & interoperable cross-border trade corridors. From critical minerals & energy to carbon credits, inventory, invoices & high-value goods like art, tokenized assets can reduce friction, accelerate settlement, improve provenance & unlock new financing models. 
 
This roundtable focuses on execution: where tokenization truly beats current systems, how to start with the right use cases, how to design compliant structures & how to build pilots that scale across borders. Western Australia’s position in critical minerals, resources, agriculture, First Nations art & energy makes it a natural launchpad for Indo-Pacific tokenized trade corridors.