Conference
Consensus 2024: Memes, Regulations, and Bitcoin
Consensus, Coindesk’s flagship event, returned to Austin, TX for the last time (reports are that the Convention Center is about to undergo repairs). They announced upcoming events in Hong Kong and Toronto after the past three years in Austin (pre-COVID times it was in New York City).
With the predicted bull run underway, there was optimism in the air and money being spent:
We’re back at @CoinDesk Consensus for 2024! Where we’re going, we don’t need roads! pic.twitter.com/mPiAHrg3q5
— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) May 29, 2024
Day one featured a lot of brands and commerce, with companies like Adidas discussing how they’re viewing web3:
Adidas is now looking for ways to use web3 in revenue generating ways. Recently, they used a token to enable an allow list for a sneaker drop. They used a dutch auction for price discovery, which they knew web3 natives would be comfortable with – @heyerikaws @consensus2024 pic.twitter.com/fxtutIG4Ng
— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) May 29, 2024
And how blockchain data is finally becoming important to artists and creators:
Artists and Creators don’t have access to any data, even if they’re being “told” how high on charts they are ranking. They don’t even know how much data they don’t have and blockchain can give it to them – @OnlywithMITH #Consensus2024 pic.twitter.com/PedHaiSYGw
— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) May 29, 2024
Then ARK’s Cathie Wood said some negative things about the FED and made an announcement about her funds:
BREAKING: @ARKInvest will be giving a % of the private fund’s revenue to #BITCOIN developers @consensus2024 @CathieDWood pic.twitter.com/2vHSK4r2Eh
— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) May 29, 2024
Magic Eden’s head of marketing made an interesting suggestion that chains don’t have to matter. Why shouldn’t someone be able to buy and Ordinal with Solana rather than Bitcoin?
Do chains matter? @MagicEden would like to see their collectors buy a Bitcoin Ordinal with Solana coins @Nsantoma #Consensus2024 pic.twitter.com/u3TGtv1sUI
— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) May 29, 2024
Day two began with a debate between Messari’s Ryan Selkis and Uniswap’s Marvin Ammori. Ammori made points that the Democrats were turning to favor crypto and that it doesn’t need to be a partisan issue. Selkis disagreed in the clip below and has initially been proven correct after President Biden’s veto of the SAB21 repeal:
In response to @ammori’s partisan case, @twobitidiot thinks that Democrats are not committed to Crypto the way the Republicans are #Consensus2024 pic.twitter.com/VJd1m2WsjF
— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) May 30, 2024
Switching over to a16z’s Chris Dixon, he tried to explain how blockchain is just open source software and then lamented that it’s ok to make a memecoin, but that builders will get shut down if they actually try to build something that’s has any utility:
Want to understand crypto and still not getting it? @cdixon says start by understanding open source software. “Linux doesn’t have a CEO either”@a16zcrypto #Consensus2024 pic.twitter.com/frSZfYsL51
— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) May 30, 2024
Next investor Nic Carter and Elizabeth Olsen (formerly of Xverse) both shouted out OP_CAT as the next Bitcoin frontier:
It’s Bitcoin time! With @nic__carter, @ElizabethOls0n, and moderator @wsfoxley #Consensus2024 pic.twitter.com/6Hv8gRerWf
— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) May 30, 2024
To finish the day, presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. discussed how Bitcoin could stop wars, that transactional freedom is as important as freedom of speech, and that he’d like to see blockchain voting for elections:
Even if it is politically motivated, @RobertKennedyJr is happy that other politicians are starting to support cryptocurrency, the #FreeRoss movement, and possibly moving to a base currency to avoid spending on future wars that the country does not support #Consensus2024 pic.twitter.com/SyWIE7BB3i
— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) May 30, 2024
Finally, Ordinals and Runes creator Casey Rodamor talked about why he did it all!
Ordinals and Runes are for fun (and also to support the real mission of Bitcoin per Casey @rodarmor #Consensus2024 pic.twitter.com/WHTTrinqoy
— Blockchain Beach (@blockchainbeach) May 31, 2024
Although next year will have a different feel being in Toronto, rather than Austin, I’m sure we’ll be back to give you the latest coverage!
