NYC Blockchain Week: Three Takeaways
Mid-May, New York City incubated a week-long conversation on — and for many, a celebration of — the transformative potential of blockchain-powered innovation. It extended an ongoing, worldwide project to answer a pivotal question: What should a decentralized future look like? Technologists, traders, creatives, lawyers and doers of all types, enthusiasts and skeptics alike, nimbly converged to contribute to this collaborative vision. Just like its participants, dialogue was eclectic, spanning countless industries and accounting for all shades of the socio-political spectrum.
From fairer credit scoring and creating carbon marketplaces to ethical journalism, blockchain’s disruptive capability poses many solutions to society’s most complex issues. While not all fixes are created equal, there are some fundamental (quasi-)truths that we can distill from the discussions and panels at NYC Blockchain Week.
Fixing finance
On May 11th, folks gathered at Fluidity Summit at former site of Williamsburg Savings Bank, once named “the bank of the people”, to discuss what lies ahead in finance. A talk justly titled Finance is Broken shed light on crisis of equal financial access. In response, a Tools of the Trade panel offered a multi-perspective solution on expanding market participation while reducing risk: true decentralized trading.
- Trade directly using your wallet
- No centralized settlement counter-party
- No withdrawal or deposit fees
- Protection from exchange hacks
An assortment of panelists cited wallet-to-wallet protocols as the next big infrastructural step in token exchanges… with the caveat that the entire ecosystem needs to evolve.
“It’s time we moved blockchain assets to the blockchain, but not by sacrificing execution and transparency.”
Non-custodianship poses incredible benefits but also entails many moving pieces: wallet solutions, settlement and most importantly, user experience. On that note, 0x subsequently presented their Version 2.0 to showcase the incredible adaptability and continuous improvement of the DEX community.
By expanding support to ERC-721 tokens through a modular smart contract architecture, the 0x Protocol can now swap your Cryptokitty collectibles and Decentraland parcels AND accommodate future token standards. The latter point paves the way to the peer-to-peer trading of tokenized assets, e.g. gold, stocks, bonds, derivatives. This empowers both everyday investors and institutions to trade risk-free on the blockchain — 0x is potentially “the protocol to trade everything”.
Collaboration is key
Bitcoin’s genesis block was the realization of the cyberpunk vision. Individuals could trade peer-to-peer, free of banks, governments and misaligned interests. At Ethereal, neon light fixtures and industrial installations paid homage to these cryptographic roots. A magical word enciphering station stood before a towering shrine to Vitalik and Satoshi — complete with a command-line ‘prayer’ stool.
The implementation of blockchain solutions, however, has told another story. As more and more startups burgeon and develop, purely decentralized systems are not exactly realistic or practical. Settlement times, governance, user adoption and security are still in the nascent stages. Thus, the time for maximalism of all kinds is over.
Discussing privacy on decentralized networks, Amber Baldet draws a pragmatic picture on the premise of blockchain-agnosticism. She touts the hybridity approach, including public/enterprise blockchains and institutions in a grander vision of creating an integrated Internet, each project with its own strengths, weaknesses, and innovations. Even more importantly, Baldet recognizes that there is no one right answer.
“People have different problems. And it’s okay to arrive at different solutions rather than win an argument on the Internet.”
Cryptocurrency might take awhile to dethrone fiat, but it’s certainly done its part to create a borderless framework for technological innovation. Collaboration and by that logic, interoperability, will be the guiding thesis as the blockchain space matures. Consequentially, open-source projects and enterprise teams are both equally important to generating multi-tiered dialogue and contributing the minds, money, and ideas to create a better, more equitable future.
Regulation is healthy
In the heart of Manhattan, many said goodbye to the sundresses and khakis at the end of Ethereum’s two-day festival and donned more formal attire at the week’s premier event, Consensus. There, business, finance, and law collided, painting a holistic picture on the practicalities of industry-level blockchain (as while mock protests and promotional lambos sat parked outside).
Its jam-packed agenda featured panels on energy conservation, intellectual property management and the token economy, bringing experts of all fields together. Bermuda’s own Premier, David Burt, took the stage to detail the island’s plan to attract fintech innovators.
“Bermuda’s vision is to be a well-regulated jurisdiction… a future where blockchain & crypto innovation is accelerated.”
This open-arms strategy to blockchain-powered companies is symptomatic of a larger shift in sentiment concerning regulation. For countries like Bermuda and Malta, explicit laws are set concerning exchanges and tokens. Compared to the ambiguity or downright ambivalence of the rest of the world, legal certainty incentivizes technologists to set up shop and plan for long-term growth. In return, the generation of jobs and economic activity means a healthy, symbiotic relationship for nations who adapt and accommodate quickly — a point that EU Parliament Member, Eva Kaili, spiritedly emphasized.
“We’re trying to create more regulation to support technology infrastructurally [and] harmonizing to provide legal certainty.”
At Consensus, panelists — developers, government officials, lawyers and bankers — concurred that regulation is not necessarily the antagonist of innovation. On the other hand, there is an immense opportunity to foster a greater connection between technology and law. Regulators are potential collaborators and advocates, and at the end of the day, it’s up to the community to represent the best of what blockchain has to offer.
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