Singapore Consensus
I rate cities on how good a Friday night out is. I also rate Crypto conferences on how good the Parties are. This may sound pretty shallow but the fact is there are only so many crappy ICO pitches you can listen too. The food is usually pretty good and the wine usually above the standard of most other industry events especially in Tech, Fintech and the like.
At many events, a good bottle of wine has tasted bad, as I know where the money that bought it likely came from, naive investors.
Singapore Consensus raised the bar! It was part of a wider event called XLR8 where we Crypto people were alongside the Telco, IT and AI communities. Firstly this event was very welcoming to the likes of myself as no restrictions were placed on our ability to report on it. I have seen Crypto media kicked out of events before, as organizers seemed worried about what might be reported. Would we say something shitty about their star ICO scammer who funded the event! Big tick there to the organizers of XLR8 and Consensus and thanks for having me, you did an excellent job.
Secondly, the industry seems to be settling down a bit. Brands are emerging, maybe a better way to put that is the crap is getting weeded out. Companies are doing something real HOOORAAAHHH, certainly not all but many are. Mini Crypto celebs are appearing and while the sharks are still around they need a much better pitch now, even then, they are likely to get tripped up these days selling nonsense. People are starting to understand what a Blockchain actually is. Gone are the days of using the term Blockchain to have people throw money at you, well nearly gone.
I wrote an article on this a while back. https://www.hardforking.com/blockchain-facts-and-forkery/
Bitcoin Cryptocurrency and Blockchain are maturing
People, in general, understand this space better and I think the industry is doing a good job of making the fakes feel like they are in the wrong place. We are a small community and you better have a good pitch now to be taken seriously.
I really like what I saw at this event. There is nothing better than getting silly drunk until the wee hours to really see what someone is about. I had the chance to do that with quite a few people, many of whom I have followed in the press or seen on what we still accept as media, youtube. Mainstream press still is a waste of space when covering our industry with the exception of CNBC’s Crypto Trader. That team does a pretty good job and it was nice to have a good talk with them. In general, I came away with a big smile, liking this industry much more than I have in the past, much more.
Whilst I was inebriated for the later stages of the evenings I did, however, enjoy some excellent conversation with some super smart impressive people during the day, and at the many events in the early evenings. I probably had some excellent chats while drunk also.
Crypto People and Blockchain Projects
I can’t list all the great people and companies I met but some standouts were the people at https://www.liquid.com/”>Liquid.com</a> highly professional, a great product and they threw an excellent party. It was a pleasure to meet C Z from Binance and his talk was very good.
Tom Maxon from Coolbitx had me pretty convinced the Coolwallet really is cool and after using it he is correct. Alejandro De La Torre from Bitmain is a great guy and we had some excellent conversation on the industry and what is happening with mining.
It was a pleasure to meet IILYA Bere form Changelly a company we like, Amaury Sechet the lead developer from Bitcoin Cash is a real gent and a great guy to have a beer with. We had an excellent chat about the Hardforking battle for Bitcoin and the perceived hatred between the communities. Pool side nonsense on the Coinsbank cruise aside, it is not as bad as I thought, calm down Roger.
I am a Bitcoiner but the Bitcoin cash people I met turned out not be the devils I thought they might be. Sorry Tone, maybe I have watched too much of your channel. I think the community is hopefully heading back to being a community….sort of. There was certainly a strong feeling that no one wins when we sling shit at each other. I hate to say it as my Bitcoin Maximalist friends won’t be happy, but the Bitcoin cash people didn’t sling as much as others. Food for thought. Let’s see how the potential Hardfork of Bitcoin Cash is reported and discussed.
It can be easy to poke holes in other peoples projects. It might be time to poke holes in the hole pokers. Let the market decide who the winners are and stop making the market think Crypto is a bunch of squabbling kids. It has gone from a fun exciting debate to embarrassing and we all lose if those outside of Crypto don’t take us seriously. Enough of the forkery.
More Crypto People and Projects
Back to crypto people and projects that I was impressed with. The team from Coincast were great to meet and to see the standard of media they are making. While there is no monetary payment or incentive from anyone mentioned here or anywhere on our media bar some affiliate links you should have a look at Lambda, a guy called Manu is very passionate about his privacy project and I liked his attitude, knowledge and passion. Check him out he is looking for funding. It was good to see a really passionate Crypto guy backing himself and out selling something he really love and I suspect is very good at, helping retain some privacy.
Tony Simonovsky was a great guy to have a beer with as he doesn’t drink and I always get caught paying for the extra round. Tony is involved with K.im. Kim Dot Coms venture. Kim is having some issues at the moment and we look forward to interviewing him very soon about this project and the possible extradition to a country I don’t think he has ever been too!!!. I like this project and I see real application for it. Being a media man and content creator this is a space in our community I will be exploring in detail. I have seen quite a few companies ICO and this one has sparked my interest.
Staying on the media theme it was great to meet Rostik from Marzipr, Meredith Daren, Shill NYE again, the CNBC guys and lastly the guys from TuneToken. I meet them the day after Consensus. I was invited to a pitch event and it was a really cool moment to see Erik Mendelsons face when they won 200k worth of prizes in a contest he and his partner, Grammy award-winning producer DJ Blackout, didn’t actually know they were in!!! Check out the video.
So that is a recap of an excellent event. Really impressed and I look forward to meeting more of your at the many upcoming events. This one made me feel very good about being all in on Crypto. We are really improving as an industry, let’s keep that up people, the world is not exactly watching right now, but we are really close to that happening.
Obviously this event was not designed for the person who wants to learn about Crypto, it was an industry event. I think we need to think about how we can engage with a wider audience with more on boarding content. Some of the Hardforking team, myself included are producing a TV show with plenty of coverage of Bitcoin and Crypto. It is about people living their dream life on a tropical island. It will help introduce a wider audience to Crypto so please support it and if anyone is interested in investing or sponsoring this get in touch and we will send you the full pilot.
Yes, I have been designated as our ‘go to every event in Asia’ guy. The rest of the team are up to some pretty awesome things so please check them out. We are pretty proud of Didi and the Bitcoin Family efforts on their European tour and Kris has launched, Satoshi House in the North of Thailand. This is the place for Bitcoiners to go and work on open source projects. If you are going to Thailand, go stay at Satoshi House in Chang Rai. As a team, we are doing something we are very passionate about and that is getting as many people into this space as possible. Let’s do this!
