Consensus 2022: Crypto Takes To Texas

After being canceled the past two years due to COVID, CoinDesk relocated its signature conference, bringing Consensus 2022 from New York City to Austin, Texas. It was a action-packed half week with panels, events, and parties and it sounds like Austin will be the new home for the conference moving forward (albeit earlier in the year to avoid 100+ degree temperatures).

See some of the highlights below and go to the Blockchain Beach Twitter for a full roundup of tweets from the conference.

To kick things off, we checked out everyone’s favorite “Crypto Dad,” former CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo, talked about China’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC):

Former CFTC chairman @giancarloMKTS thinks that a quarter of the world may want to use the digital yuan due to the strong censorship. He challenges the free world to create a kind of “freedom coin” to counteract @consensus2022 #consensus22 pic.twitter.com/lsrt6LthJ8

— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) June 9, 2022

Thinking about joining DAO’s instead of companies? To avoid burnout, Zora and Friend’s With Benefits’ Yana Sosnovskaya recommends keeping it to a few key ones:

If you’re trying to keep from getting burnt out, you should limit yourself to 2-3 DAOs maximum, based on @YanaSosna’s experience @ourzora @consensus2022 #Consensus2022 pic.twitter.com/iinfxHYURL

— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) June 9, 2022

Can’t we all just get along? Art Blocks creator Eric Calderon said he built his reputation as a “nice” Discord moderator:

Eric Calderon @ArtOnBlockchain was a Discord moderator for CryptoPunks and that built his reputation for being a nice person. He thinks that definitely helped when launching @artblocks_io @consensus2022 #Consensus2022 pic.twitter.com/Ky76NOLyph

— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) June 9, 2022

Are you interested in Digital Fashion? Red DAO’s Megan Kasper says the next twelve month’s could be your time to shine:

Megan Kaspar saw that fashion would be disrupted in 2015, but the technology has not kept up with the use cases. However, there are some big advancements on the horizon @consensus2022 #Consensus2022 pic.twitter.com/bgPKlgbyZo

— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) June 9, 2022

The panelists giving us a Web3 “school” agreed that creators may be hesitant to launch projects if failure is not an option:

Agreement between @DrewAustin @RedBeardVC @jasmaietta @weareround21 that creators need to make sure that they have an engaged community before launching NFTs. A “failure” looks a lot like a “rug” and that can be scary. pic.twitter.com/uoKTdfLhUs

— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) June 9, 2022

Our friend Jarrod Dicker is now at TCG Crypto and thinks we’re still early:

“It’s the first mile for #NFTs.” When @jarroddicker ran Poet, the world thought he was crazy for trying to put IP on chain. Now that’s the hot innovation! He’s looking deeper into it at @tcg_crypto @consensus2022 #Consensus2022 pic.twitter.com/f9vm8gD2kj

— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) June 9, 2022

What’s the difference between audience and community? nft now CEO Matt Medved had a great answer:

To continue, “audiences know you exist, where communities want you to win” – @mattmedved @nftnow @consensus2022 #Consensus2022 https://t.co/z2LnTlnoyr

— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) June 9, 2022

Friends with Benefits Mayor Alex Zhang on leadership structures of DAO’s:

“DAOs should be leaderful, not leaderless”

— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) June 10, 2022

Two of the longest running investors in the space, Pantera Capital’s Dan Morehead and Galaxy Digital’s Mike Novogratz share their knowledge and predictions:

Blockchains are the first private property on the Internet. Not sure why that’s important? Read John Locke per @novogratz

— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) June 10, 2022

Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Cynthia Lummis were joined on stage by Senator Pat Toomey and Rep. Patrick McHenry to discuss their new crypto bill:

The @SenLummis / @SenGillibrand Bill addresses the full crypto ecosystem with important “definitions” that help put crypto under the current financial regulatory regime @consensus2022 #Consensus2022 pic.twitter.com/hqA689Hk7k

— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) June 10, 2022

Messari’s Ryan Selkis believes that Bitcoin and Ethereum maybe bottoming, but had a number of other concerns during his quick mid-year investment outlook:

BTC and ETH may be near the bottom (almost time to “sell a kidney” to buy more BTC), but everything else is not looking good, according to @MessariCrypto Founder @twobitidiot @consensus2022 #Consensus2022 pic.twitter.com/JZu9UZCwby

— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) June 11, 2022

And no, NFTs are not dead:

Are #NFTs dead? No, just early per @twobitidiot. They should continue to take market share from the traditional art market over time @MessariCrypto @consensus2022 #Consensus2022 pic.twitter.com/t5wiKxEaMV

— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) June 11, 2022

At least rapper 2 Chainz, is still having FOMO:

2CHAINZ!!! With crypto, he’s “true to this, not new to this.” He has had some major FOMO buys like we all have! @2chainz @consensus2022 #Consensus2022 pic.twitter.com/hsCV5iWgro

— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) June 11, 2022

Still having trouble understanding crypto (or explaining it to friends, family, or strangers on the internet)? Use this quote from Serotonin CEO Amanda Cassatt:

“Crypto’s parents were technology and finance… Now we’ve brought in artists and entertainment… Next I’m thinking things like supply chain and the environment” – @amandacassatt @serotonin_hq @consensus2022 #Consensus2022 pic.twitter.com/9VJAXHvbTi

— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) June 11, 2022

The father’s of the Metaverse closed out the day:

He also thinks that people make dystopian content because it’s easier to “throw dirt” on something we have now than it is to envision a new, positive future (first done in the original Planet of the Apes) @nealstephenson

— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) June 11, 2022

See you next year!