Blockchains LLC’s Ethereum City
All You Need To Know
Prior to Prague Devcon, Blockchains LLC was an unknown player. That did not stop people on the internet from speculating. What we had known before their announcement on November 2 was that they’d purchased 67,000 acres (or 271 km2) of land in Nevada, close to Reno. The purchase made only a small headline on local news media, and nothing else besides that.
The Reveal
Blockchains LLC and its Founder, CEO, Jeffrey Berns, chose Prague during Devcon 4 to unveil his plan. The event invitation was a mystery. It was to be hosted at a secret location. The guests were picked up from a pre-determined spot. The topic of revelation was not included in the invite.
And then it happened. Jeffrey Berns, assisted by his hologram ‘assistant’, revealed his grand plan to turn what appears to be a barren land into a blockchain city, designed with the potential of the blockchain technology from A to Z. It is a smart city built on the Ethereum blockchain. According to Berns, the city is designed with four technologies in mind: nanotechnology, 3d printing, artificial intelligence, and all these will be integrated into the blockchain technology.
As you got older, you let the world change you. You attach yourselves to the corporations, the rule makers, and the status quo. When everyone else got to change the world, while you watched. But now it’s our turn to make a new system, new security, new banks, and new interactions.
Beyond the Hype and Buzzwords
Conference-goers admitted that the announcement had flairs. There were mysteries, secrets; the show stage was carefully constructed; the usage of hologram girls added a touch of futurism and wtf-ness. But one large question remains. Will Berns’ pitch work?
One need not venture far to find scepticism and criticisms. Under one trending subreddit regarding Berns’ Ethereum city headline, one Reddit user says “After this talk, I have more questions than answers. A lot of buzzwords and very little substance, which is what I expected. The tween hologram really added a crazy level of “what the fuck am I watching” to this talk. I think if I heard the phrase “change the world” one more time, I’d jump off a bridge.”
Another user seems to agree. “ This sounds the like the product of some random person receiving a ludicrous amount of money and really having no idea of what he’s doing. His heart may be in the right place (we can’t really know) but he is just blabbering buzzwords and getting carried away — I wouldn’t go near a project like this.”
Others are more open-minded, by defending the hype with clear reasoning: events like these are meant to entice developers. r/antifactual says “ I understand peoples scepticism because there are a lot of bold claims. I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt because I think I need to believe that there are still people out there that really don’t care about only acquiring wealth and power.”
For now, the air of scepticism remains, but there has been more support for Blockchains LLC more than ever. It is only up to Jeffrey Berns and his team to show the world what they can do, and if they can, indeed, put their money where their mouths are.
