Au Revoir #PBWS2022!

Published in

Concordium

6 min readApr 20, 2022

Summing up a great week Paris Blockchain Week Summit

Last week the industry got together in Paris, and the latest Paris Blockchain Week Summit 2022 (#PBWS2022). And what a week it was! All the movers and shakers in the industry, as well as, a wide variety of investors, developers, use cases, platforms and service providers got together to discuss the hottest topics in the sector.

And the good news, at least for me, is that the industry is at a very interesting stage. You could feel the heat from the veterans, some of whom have been around since the ‘early days’ (2013–2014). On the other hand, it was clear that a wide range of newbies also took the time to circulate, ask questions and better understand where the industry is going.

So while the industry is nearly a decade old, it is still in its infancy — and as some would say — ready to take on the world and drive a change for the better. The old timers would easily tell those willing to listen about the ups and the downs, the bull market of 2020–2021 versus what some are calling today’s ‘bear market’. Others would talk about the greater acceptance of blockchain amongst the more ‘traditional’ investors , VCs and even the enterprise segment. Although no doubt that the ‘bad’ wrap attributed to blockchain as a source of money laundering and cryptoterrorism did have a negative effect, that seems to have slowly dissipated.

I think the organizers expected something like 2000 visitors, and were quite happy with the over 3000 that turned up. And France, like France, vigorously tried to reinforce its place as the crypto ‘capital of Europe’ — although between you and me, I am sure that a variety of other countries would lay the same claim. Veuillez m’excuser:-(

So with the beautiful weather (ok so it rained on Day 1), the great food, and the interesting people, how could anything go wrong? It couldn’t and the Concordium team had a great time meeting, speaking and learning together with our community about the topics of interest to the sector as a whole.

If you haven’t yet, our very own CCD Channel team was there too, interviewing and summarizing the playing field for us. Have a look for yourself.

Check out our Special PBWS2022 Edition @cryptochanneldirect

So what were the movers and shakers talking about? Other of course than how lucky they were to have joined the game early on? In our opinion there were a number of topics which were clear headliners at the event:

Regulation is coming to cryptocurrency — Duh!

You didn’t need to attend #PBWS2022, to know that. We knew there was a reason for the ‘Public Policy Track’ sponsored by Concordium. With topics such as: * Regulation of digital assets — How to protect Stakeholders, *Blockchain — How the technology could be used for privacy, *Practical Implementation of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and *Why regulators should embrace DeFi — the audience heard an earful about the new MiCA rules, the vote a few weeks ago in the EU, Biden’s crypto-centric executive orders and the FATF’s Travel Rule. Even Binace’s CEO ‘CZ’ had quite a bit to say about regulation and where the industry is going. (Watch here).

For Concordium, Kare Kjelstrom, CTO/CPO took the lead and talked about how Concordium is balancing between the need for privacy and accountability with our ID by Design. In a 20 minute keynote, Kare explained the need for measures to ensure trust, accountability and responsibility in the metaverse, and how we at Concordium are tackling this need with our ID stamp, and independent IdP (Identity Providers) and Identity Revokers. Learn more here.

Concordium Kare Kjelstrom, CTO/CPO on stage at Paris Blockchain Week Summit

DeFi and CBDCs are all in

Yes, and so is the city of Lugano:-). Here the organizers held a variety of panels including: * Process and Procedures to Bring Financial institutions to DeFi, * VC in Blockchain and Digital Assets, * The role of Stablecoins in a Decentralized Ecosystem, *Smart Money Moving In: Institutional Investments in Digital Assets and more. It was clear to all that finance’s ‘bad boy’ (a.k.a. crypto) has received a seat at the table.

Anyone who was anyone, talked about the growing interest of VCs and ‘traditional investment firms’ in cryptocurrency. Are we going to see here what other industries have seen with a major surge of financial backing? We think the best answer is — maybe. What is clear is that this industry is shaking its ‘bad boy’ exterior and growing up with some great presentations, conversations and debates.

Advisor Michael Jackson on stage Paris Blockchain Week Summit

Security is key

And securing your crypto assets is not to be taken lightly. A variety of presenters talked about the growing threats in the cryptoverse from wormholes and bridges, to rug pulls and coding flaws. From the old world to the new (just listen to Fireblock VP Product’s analogy to the fortresses of old), from current implementations to the next. There was definitely a lot of talk (and also a fair bit of work in the background) to make sure that going forward the industry would build a stronger multi-tiered security strategy that not only protects assets, but the people who hold them (and their privacy — Hello GDPR).

Enterprise applications are just around the corner

Once again, a wide range of panels and discussion around some interesting topics included: *Blockchain as a tool towards a carbon neutral ecosystem, *Why companies should offer crypto as a payment option, *Process and procedures to implement blockchain solutions in a corporate setting, *How blockchain is changing the retail customer experience and more. Obviously, enterprises are jumping on the blockchain bandwagon quickly, and trying to keep up with the ever changing technology trends.

It was interesting to learn how blockchain technology is helping in areas such as ESG reporting and tracking, like in the panel we hosted which included guests from Arivu, Hadera and Concordium:

Sergey Metelin, Matthew Nelson, and Maria Eisner Pelch discussing ESG

Last, but not least, at least to me

The Metaverse and Web3? Just what are they and what will they enable?

Unfortunately, here the answers were less clear. There were those who talked about the new features and functionalities of Web3, others talked about decentralization, while others got into the open-source aspects. What does seem clear, is that everyone is going at this from their own perspective. Don’t get me wrong — they were all ‘gung ho’ about the future possibilities. But if you were looking for some concrete answers as to how to develop with the capabilities of Web3 in mind, I guess you’ll have to come back next year:-)

Looking for more take-aways from #PBWS2022? Have a looksee at what our CEO, Lone Fonss Schoder had to say CCD Special — Paris Blockchain Week Highlights and trends — YouTube.