Java House Sessions Wrap Up 2024 with Lloyds Banking Group

By Gareth Pike.

To close out 2024 on a high note, ECOM partnered with the Manchester Java Community for the final Java House Sessions event of the year. This time, the session was hosted by Lloyds Banking Group, one of Manchester’s leading employers in Java technology.

Let’s dive into the key takeaways.

About the Panel

The session was moderated by David Underwood, a key organizer of the Manchester Java Community, and featured two fantastic speakers from Lloyds Banking Group:

• Chris Jackson, Software Engineer.

Chris Jackson is a software developer in the Core Banking System in Lloyds Banking Group. Chris has a strong interest in Java (OCA), Mainframe COBOL and C. Chris also organises the Bitcoin Manchester Group.

• Asif Nazir, Lead Engineer.

Asif has been an on/off Java (SCJP/SCD/SCA) geek since 1995. Asif is the Retail Lead for Integration and Verde, keen motorcyclist and newly converted Yoga enthusiast. Currently enjoying life again as an engineer.

Java Virtual Threads

By Asif Nazir.

Asif kicked off the evening with his talk on Java Virtual Threads, and I have to say, I was hooked from the start. His talk covered the history of Java's threading model, including green threads and OS threads. We discovered that Virtual Threads marks a new era allowing the Java runtime to efficiently manage millions of lightweight threads, reducing complexity and resource cost, especially in containerised applications. Asif received a rousing thanks from the audience following his talk and some engaging questions

After a short break and some more Pizza and refreshments we went onto our second discussion of the evening:

Duke's Bitcoin Bank (plus Lightning Payments :D)

By Chris Jackson.

Chris demonstrated he is a natural in front of a large audience and added a practical and live demo as part of his talk! He took us through Spring Boot implementation managing multi-user access and Lightning payments on the Bitcoin network.

He gave an engaging architectural overview of Spring Boot connectivity to the Bitcoin Network and how user specific accounts and payments can be managed and with user connectivity via a React SPA to make and receive lightning payments (QR/NFC). The proposal is targeted for use by enterprises / financial services providers looking to offer custodial Bitcoin payment services using Open Source software.

Following his talk, we again had some engaging Q&A and we all came away with some new knowledge around Bitcoin!

What’s Next?

The November event was a fantastic way to wrap up 2024 and ECOM’s continued partnership with the Manchester Java Community. We are excited to expand our Java House Sessions events next year, so watch this space in early 2025!

And if you ever want to chat about Java engineering practices or making sure your next hire aligns with your core values, I’m all ears. Feel free to reach out anytime.