Crypto takes the stage at Web Summit
Lisbon’s Web Summit at 70,000+ attendees is arguably the largest global gathering of big tech companies and start-ups in the Western Hemisphere.
This year’s summit featured many interesting speakers and events, but far and away the most relevant to IOV was Cryptoconf, the first such event in Web Summit history.
The topics at Cryptoconf revolved around growing pains in the space, the future of the crypto market, and whether blockchain indeed has the promise to become the Internet of Value.
Most attendees were bullish on the space long-term, though remained cautious about the short term.
“As cryptocurrency becomes more accessible, it will be used more and become more valuable,” said DeCred CTO Marco Peereboom.
How cryptocurrency becomes more accessible was left open for debate, but Da Hongfei, founder of NEO, tied it to more transparency and compliance.
“It is inevitable that we will have identities on blockchain,” he said.
Da also pointed out that the existing major cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.) already had a good footing in legal terms, both in China and elsewhere. This situation was likely to become more clear, not less as time goes on.
Some speakers pointed out that depressed prices were nothing new.
“We have gone through multiple boom and bust cycles,” said Litecoin Foundation Director Franklyn Richards. “Every bust has a bigger market cap than the one before.”
IOV made some valuable connections at Web Summit outside of the CryptoConf. Besides meeting fellow blockchain startups, we managed to meet many interesting projects that we could help IOV succeed and vice versa. The openness entrepreneurs have towards one another is the only way for new ways of doing things to replace the old ways. Many solutions require collaboration and a diverse set of experience and expertise.
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