Consensus 2018 by CoinDesk brought together captains of industry, government regulators, and bitcoin millionaires. The event, which took place last week at Hilton Midtown Manhattan, demonstrated a crucial fact about the state of blockchain: the community is reaching the critical mass needed to penetrate the mainstream.
The enthusiasm, the talent, and the wealth of experience that have been attracted to the blockchain industry in the nearly ten years since the technology was introduced by Satoshi Nakamoto in the bitcoin white paper was clearly put on display at Consensus 2018.
The 8,500 attendees at the event included crypto-OGs, pioneers in blockchain development, experienced C-Level executives (including from outside the industry), and many-a-government regulator, as well.
There were suits and pink-haired cypherpunks in cutoff shirts at the conference, which speaks to the diverse nature of industry participants.
The speakers at Consensus attested to how far the industry has come. FedEx CEO Fred Smith said that crossing borders is the shipping company’s biggest pain point. CFTC Commissioner Brian Quintenz said regulations should not be the deciding factor in what crypto-companies succeed and which fall to the wayside.
Monday carried many of the attendees into evening events. The LEXIT team attended numerous gatherings on the first night of the conference, including the BitSane party at the Sky Room in Manhattan. There, we continued our business on the 50th floor surrounded by views of NYC’s skyline.
Tuesday morning started off a bit more mellow than the previous day, presumably due to the many evening events on Monday. By mid-morning, however, things were buzzing again and a packed lineup of speakers and networking opportunities invigorated the attendees.
Enterprise use cases for blockchain technology were a dominant theme throughout Tuesday. The demand by enterprise for blockchain and its benefits could be seen in the lineup of Title Sponsors at the event, which included IBM, Deloitte, Bloq and many others.
Vinny Lingham’s company, CIVIC, put blockchain-based ID verification on display with a beer dispenser that only dispensed beer if the user was age-verified through an ID scan.
Of course, while the LEXIT team did its best to learn from the dozens of hours of content from speakers across multiple industries (including the car industry), our focus was on business development, and more, in a packed schedule of private meetings that lasted throughout Blockchain Week NYC.
Towards that end, we are preparing a flurry of announcements. Many of the seeds for these announcements were planted at Consensus.
We discussed our idea for a blockchain-powered M&A marketplace and startup IP-rights management system with founders at hedge funds, mutual funds, venture capitalists, hardware manufacturers, exchange founders, proof-of-existence innovators, blockchain ID verification startups, blockchain communities, and press members at both mainstream and crypto outlets. Since many of them are founders themselves, the idea of making it easier for IP-owners to profit from the creations of their minds was met with great excitement.
One notable founder– who will be featured in our YouTube Founder’s Series– even discussed how this idea could help technological advancements make a quicker impact than ever before thanks to a more efficient mergers and acquisitions and IP-rights management process.
The LEXIT public token distribution is right around the corner. Be sure to stay up to date at Lexit.co.