Earlier this month, IQ Protocol had a chance to travel to Austin, Texas, where we attended two fantastic blockchain conferences.
While our dev team is hard at work, preparing the launch of our NFT rental marketplace, events like these are the perfect place to make new connections, and spread the word about our platform.
Simon Harmgardt (Senior Account Executive) was representing IQ Protocol at these events, and was kind enough to share some details about his time in Austin. Have a look below to see what he had to say!
Tell us about your time at Consensus and NFT connect! How were these events?
Simon: This was my first time at Consensus and NFT Connect — in fact, it was my first time in Texas and Austin! The environment was really great. There was a good mixture of builders working on protocols and also institutions that are already in the space or are looking to get into the space. There were also lots of networking events, which was amazing to talk to a variety of teams and get them excited about our tech.
Overall, I thought it was a really good community of people and atmosphere. The highlight for me at NFT Connect was speaking on the panel about the future of web 3 gaming and NFTs.
It was great! Really good community and atmosphere. The highlight for me at NFT Connect
There were lots of great discussions around what we need in order to get mass adoption and onboard non-crypto natives as well as renting use cases.
What was the most exciting thing you saw happening with NFTs (or Web3 in general)?
Simon: These events really impressed upon the fact that institutions are coming into the Web3 space! Although some may not agree with CeFi, I believe large organizations and regulations need to come to really make the entire industry take off. The good thing is regardless of regulation, since we are infrastructure we are not competing vs centralized players, we can work with them.
Another super interesting thing I learned is that Michael Wagner with Star Atlas is focusing on a complex in-game economy that can help employ people who might not have access to work IRL. I think we will start to see more P2E games adopt this kind of a role.
Also, just the general sentiment of everyone was exciting to take in. If all you have to go off of are discussions on social media or online, you might think the industry is in a bad state — with the hugely volatile market being what it is. However, from the looks of these conferences, this really isn’t the case! Builders keep building and Web3 continues to push forward with adoption. Really a resilient group of people we’ve got here.
Did you speak with any projects that were interested in working with IQ Protocol, or ones that were excited about what we’re up to?
Simon: Lots! Everyone loves to hear about the NFT renting model we’ve set up. I’m always told that something like this is a necessity to move the space forward. They also really like our approach and our collateral-less model.
It seems like adoption for our solution will come all at once. When we have our products ready, our investors, community, and team will have an easy, but important, job to do.
Honestly, I wish I could name names — but of course, I can’t for the time being — but I got the chance to talk to a really big Avalanche game about IQ. The conversations will definitely be continued…
But next up is New York City! I’ll be at NFT.NYC, along with others from the IQ Protocol team. Tom Tirman (Co-founder) will be giving a talk at that event, so we’ll be sure to update you after it’s all happened!
About IQ Protocol
IQ Protocol is a blockchain project providing a decentralized money market for digital asset renting and on-chain subscriptions. The next money lego that allows users to rent wrapped expirable versions of digital assets without collateral, while allowing holders to earn by providing liquidity without risk.
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