How Blockchain Took Over the WEF
Why one of the most important weeks of Davos required a blockchain-dedicated space for the like-minded individuals.
It’s Friday, December 21 and it’s my last working day before the Christmas holidays. The CV VC team gets hit with an unusual request — we are taking CV Labs to Davos during the World Economic Forum. The goal is — to bring the lively Crypto Valley community to the world’s most important economic and political gathering in small alpine village of Davos.
With little to no sleep, missed Christmas and New Year celebrations, 4 weeks and 320 work hours later my team and I built out a blockchain-dedicated space. For a whole week the CV Labs Davos Pop-Up’s schedule is packed with meetups, panel discussions and expert talks.
Everything is loaded up in the truck and we are headed to Davos. Sit back, relax and let me show you how our community and us rocked the WEF!
We arrived at Davos on Sunday. Our Pop-Up is located in the center of Davos, right in front of the Casino. Once everything is set and done, we set up Bity’s one and only Bitcoin ATM. The crypto community should be pleased — it’s the only fiat-crypto ATM in town!
We camp out in Klosters — a near-by village, getting our thoughts and strengths together before the Davos madness begins.
Monday morning is chilly and slow. We do last prep before the official opening of the Pop- Up at 1 p.m. Since the WEF starts on a Tuesday, I feel like it’s calm before the storm. We took this opportunity and interviewed interesting startup founders and corporates.
As the night falls Davos comes alive with various side events and afterparties. Everyone knows that networking becomes second nature once you had a couple of glasses of vino. The night I attend the neighboring “Caspian Week”, where I met several investors, blockchain startups and politicians from different countries. Not too bad for an easy-going Monday eve.
It’s Tuesday and our schedule is packed. We kicked things off with an insightful talk about “10 Years Bitcoin” at the Hotel Europe. With spaces limited to 70 attendees, over 100 folks show up. Roger Darin, Board Member of the Bitcoin Association Switzerland, delivers his keynote on. Next, Alexis Roussel, the co-founder of Bity, Josh Harvey co-founder of Lamassu, David Johnston, the founder Mastercoin, world’s first ICO joined Roger for a panel discussion.
The panelists discussed privacy and scalability of blockchains, by sharing their extensive experience. In addition to the main event, founders of witty works held a meetup on “Why women in tech are a growth factor for tech companies” at the CV Labs Davos Pop-Up. We also hosted 12 female alumni from Chicago Booth, who joined us our special welcome event — Glühwein & Vision. The spicy mulled concoction was accompanied by the Swiss raclette cheese.
It feels like the nightfall accentuates the networking in Davos. I manage to get into “The Wall Street Journal Annual Davos Drinks” at the Hotel Belvédère. That night I got to meet more folks. One fellow talks to me about his lucrative business — he trades partial ownership of private jets.
All of a sudden, the crowd comes alive with whistles and claps! I turned around and see Wyclef Jean. As a tongue-in-cheek gesture, he opens with: “I am so famous that I made Beyoncé famous”. To close of the night, I join one of the WEF’s at the “ex-bar”, where last night-crawlers of the Forum come together for a night cap.
It’s Wednesday and it’s cold, though it doesn’t deter a crowd from attending a meetup called “Future of Blockchain and AI for the Public / Private Sector” organized by Fetch Blockchain. Dan Patterson, the Senior Producer of CNET and CBS News, moderates the panel discussion, and is joined by:
· Carmen Benitez- CEO Fetch Blockchain
· Frank Ricotta- CEO BurstlQ
· Gert Sylvest- Cofounder Tradeshift
· Ling Qing Meng- CEO DECENTRAL
· John Cronin- President BuildCoin Foundation
· Cecily Mak- Partner ConsenSys
The afternoon talk is entitled “Blockchain in Finance” and the Piano Bar is packed. We had a keynote from Daniel Rutishauser, Head Blockchain Services and Head Financial Services at inacta, where later the following people joined for a panel discussion:
· Roger Darin, Head of Blockchain Advisory at inacta AG
· Andreas Kalteis, Head of Marketing at Novem
· Sushil Prabhu, CEO at OpenCrowd
· Philippe Naegeli, CEO at GenTwo Digital
· Alice Hlidkova, Cofounder at New Economies
That night I saw how Don Tapscott becomes Klipspringer, while playing jazzy tunes in a room packed with Blockchain entrepreneurs. Meanwhile, I was chatting to a fellow who apparently bought 50k Bitcoins back in 2014.
Thursday and it seems that I am getting less and less sleep. On that day we had one event going on in the morning and two events in the afternoon. The first event was done under the umbrella of the “Switzerland Global Enterprise” where we, other corporates and various Swiss State Secretariats discussed the “Crypto Winter in Davos”.
Moreover, CV VC, in collaboration with the PwC Strategy & and inacta, has presented its new quarterly “The Crypto valley’s Top 50” report at the House of Switzerland.
‘Crypto winter’, as 2018’s severe market reversal has been nicknamed, has affected the valuation of participating companies but not their number. The report’s findings are:
- Market cap of the Top 50 dropped from $44 billion to $20 billion in Q4 2018, a decrease of 55%.
- Most cryptocurrencies worldwide lost value during this period.
- The Crypto Valley Top 50 accounts for nearly 20% of the Crypto/Blockchain market.
Mathias Ruch, Founder and CEO of CV VC said: “This new report clearly reflects the market correction that started in early 2018, which is significantly based on cryptocurrencies. However, it also shows that companies developing blockchain-based applications and infrastructure solutions have been able to keep up, while an impressive number of new startups with innovative use-cases have risen to the top.”
In addition, we had the “Blockchain Ecosystem” event where Joe Lubin, founder ConsenSys, and Mihai Alisie, Cofounder Ethereum, talked about the Blockchain Ecosystem in Switzerland. Since CV VC is building a Blockchain Incubator it was an incredible opportunity for our community to meet the OGs of the Crypto Valley.
Our biggest event — the Cardano Foundation’s panel discussion, entitled “From pit to bit: Gold is old and bit is hip! What will be the future guarantor of financial stability?” draws a large crowd.
In parallel, we ran several interview sessions where we discussed Blockchain and Real Estate. This topic is relevant to our CV Competition where startups have a chance to win $100k (no strings attached) during our CV Summit on 27th of March.
To close off the last night, we host another Glühwein & Vision, where startups, investors and corporates chat till the late.
It’s Friday morning and we closed things off music and a lovely Crypto breakfast. This week was truly epic, packed with exciting happenings. I can proudly say that after a total of 15 hours of sleep in 5 days, that CV Labs Davos was a complete success and we were “the cool kids on the block”.
There is a saying that “a picture is worth a thousand words”. Imagine how much this video is worth then! This is my first video appearance; it’s our weekly vlog and it’s all about CV Labs Davos Pop-Up. Hey Guys, for me it’s bitter sweet. We will be back. No doubt!
It would not be possible without our team and partners, therefore thank you all: Cardano, inacta, Bity, Coreledger, cryptix, furrerhugi., Gentwo Digital, Gentwo, Narwal-Blockchain PR, tokengate.io, Zulu Republic, 4ARTechnologies, Bank Frick, Betterhomes, Bitcoin Association Switzerland, Brand Leadership Circle, lite.im, Novem, opencrowd, Zarattini & Co Bank, AgAu.io
Nicolai was involved with various startups for the past 10 years. He completed his Bachelor’s degree in International Business Administration with a major in International Entrepreneurship. Eager to learn more about the blockchain industry, startups and companies, Nicolai joined CV VC, where the cutting-edge blockchain technology meets traditional venture capital. In addition to leading certain events, his duties include overseeing the CV Labs Incubation and CV Competition process, as well as startup scouting activities. Nicolai contributes to the building up of the Swiss blockchain ecosystem and promotes the CV VC ecosystem among the global startup community and wider business partners. He is also interested in investments and trading of (crypto)currencies.
