2019 NYC Blockweek Reflection
This weeks Web3 Weekly Hack was refocused to reflect on the recent Austrade Mission to the 2019 Blockweek event in New York City. Blockweek being a festival of events held in NYC, drawing over 6,500 people in 2019 from around the world to discuss the latest developments of blockchain and web3, and headlined by the Coindesk Consensus Conference.
Having attended the 2017 and 2018 NYC blockweeks but not being able to attend 2019, I was eager to learn about how this years event was received by the Melbourne community. This curiosity partly driven by the craziness of last year’s Blockweek as 2018 was an incredible year, highlighting the extremely good and extremely bad aspects of the industry via the fundraising efforts of inspiring entrepreneurs against a backdrop of the peaks of the previous cryptomarket bull run.
What I heard from those who attended was Blockweek continues to be a strong indicator of the global state of blockchain and web3 technology. 2018 was dominated by investment pitches and party’s fit for a movie highlighting the extremes of Wall Street affluence. 2019 seems to have been a more sober conference, with a strong focus on regulation and enterprise adoption: a sign that the technology continues to mature and be taken extremely seriously on the global stage.
This message was delivered strongly from Simon Harman (Loki) and Prof Jason Potts (RMIT Innovation Hub). According to Simon from Loki, the conference was over represented by government (regulators), corporate firms, and service providers compared to entrepreneurs or those building blockchain or web3 products. Prof Jason Potts took this as an optimistic signal, pointing out that this attendance is a strong indicator of technology maturation and adoption.
Overall the message is clear: Blockchain and Web3 technology continues to see extremely strong global uptake. And it’s great to see so many Australian’s front and centre on this technology wave.
Well done to the Flex guys (Alex and Tom) who continue to bring the community together in fantastic ways: And well done to those who spoke, including Austrade, Jason Potts, James Simpson, Simon Loki, Bec Martin.
