event recap

The view from Paris Blockchain Week 2023: Web3 builds while the city burns

It was champagne and optimism for Paris Blockchain Week 2023 despite Parisian protests and economic uncertainty.

Paris Blockchain Week (PBW) celebrated its fourth edition in spring 2023 against a backdrop of riots, protests and general civil unrest. The builders in the Bitcoin (BTC), crypto, and Web3 spaces were unfazed by protesters chanting and dancing on the doorstep of the conference venue.

The event occurred amid ongoing protests in Paris and worsening macroeconomic conditions in France. Many attendees expressed concern about the impact of these factors on the future of the blockchain and crypto industry, particularly in Europe.

Nevertheless, the overall mood at PBW 2023 was optimistic, with many attendees citing the recent surge in Bitcoin’s price as a sign of growing mainstream acceptance of the technology. As the CEO of Ledger, Pascal Gauthier, explained to Cointelegraph: “Bitcoin was designed for this.”

“Bitcoin was designed in reaction to Lehman Brothers in the 2008 crisis. It was designed because you can’t trust central authorities. And it’s designed because it’s clear that central authorities will fail. It’s not a question of if. It’s more a question of when.”

However, as protestors marched by the entrance of “Les Salles du Carousel” — the crypt in the Louvre where the event was held — there appeared to be a disconnect between the Web3 space and reality.

Denelle Dixon, CEO of the Stellar Development Foundation, explained that “It is a little bit like we’re not recognizing what’s happening with the builders and what’s happening with the protesters.” Nir Kouris, the founder of Creator Nations, told Cointelegraph that the work of Paris Blockchain Week is “super important,” but it’s important to speak to those in the mainstream world:

“We need to not live in a bubble to include, to embrace, to empower all these people from outside. They don’t have a clue about what is blockchain. So our goal is to use different and different terminology so we can include all of them into the conversation.”

Cointelegraph interviewed some of the protesters during the event; very few were aware of crypto, and some had not heard the word “Bitcoin” before.

*Cointelegraph speaks to protestors in front of the conference venue*

The streets of Paris saw fires, trash and fire extinguisher fluid — an apocalyptic scene for many of the tourists visiting France — but Parisians were unperturbed, and some called for calm. Gauthier, a Parisian through and through, shrugged his shoulders at the protests. It’s part of French culture to take to the streets, he explained.

Another key theme throughout the event was the risk that Web2 companies, including Google, Nasdaq and Facebook, and traditional brands, such as LVMH and Gucci, could be co-opting the Web3 vision. The headliners at PBW included established brand managers from the likes of Diesel and Fiat. What are established retail brands doing at a crypto conference? Animoca Brands CEO Robby Yung wades in:

“The reason that there is a place for them in Web3 is because brands themselves have power. You know, they resonate with consumers, whether it’s gaming brands or, you know, handbag and and luxury watch brands. Brands have resonance with consumers.”

Web3 provides new ways to innovate, Yung explained. Ryan Nix, head of solutions architecture at Coinbase, agreed, to an extent. He said that Web2 players want to get in on the action, but must also “obfuscate difficulty from their users.” Ultimately, Nix continued, to access a greater audience, simplifying the somewhat complicated crypto and blockchain tools could help.

*Cointelegraph speaks to Coinbase’s Nix*

An interesting omission for the 2023 iteration was the notable absence of the crypto exchange Binance. In 2022, Binance financed the largest stand at the conference, and Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of the crypto exchange, gave a keynote speech. This year, the world’s largest exchange is caught up in a lawsuit in the United States while the crypto bear market rages on.

As the industry evolves, events like PBW 2023 will play an increasingly important role in bringing together key players and driving innovation. However, the crypto space must begin to address more real-world use cases to reach the mainstream and catch the eye of those ordinary people taking to the streets of Paris.

Ethereum layer-2 solutions may focus less on token incentives in the future

Token incentive models may become obsolete as layer-2 networks focus on ease of functionality and low fees, but how will this impact decentralization?

Layer-2 networks continue to gain momentum as the Ethereum ecosystem advances. For example, data from analytics provider Token Terminal found that layer-2 scaling solution Polygon had 313,457 daily active users as of Jan. 17, 2023 — a 30% increase in activity since October 2022.

Moreover, the Polygon ecosystem recently announced the launch of its beta version Zero-Knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine. As a result, Polygon’s native token, Polygon (MATIC), maintains a bullish narrative.

While notable, some believe layer-2 networks offering token incentive models may soon become obsolete. For instance, Jesse Pollak — head of protocols and Base core contributor at American crypto exchange Coinbase — told Cointelegraph at ETHDenver 2023 that there are currently no plans to associate a token with Base, the Ethereum layer-2 network recently launched by Coinbase. He said:

“We think about tokens as a powerful incentive tool that can change user and developer behavior. At the same time, we have seen situations unfold over the last few years where tokens have been used as an incentive mechanism with a lack of product fit for the underlying chain. Tokens have also resulted in nefarious or risky situations in the past.”

According to Pollak, Base is a layer-2 solution that allows developers to easily build applications without requiring an incentive mechanism. “Our product will stand on its own. It will be very easy for developers to use to build applications and distribute those to real human beings,” he said.

Shifting focus from token models to user experience

Focusing on ease of use and distribution are important points, as Pollak pointed out that many of today’s decentralized applications have been used solely for trading cryptocurrencies. “Trading is not enough to make cryptocurrency the future of the economy. At Base, we are making it easy for developers to build useful applications that people actually want to use,” he added.

Pollak explained that Base is investing in core infrastructure, such as Ethereum Improvement Proposal 4844, which will make the network secure and low-cost compared with other layer-2 networks. “It costs about 10–15 cents to conduct transactions on layer-2s. We aim to bring that down,” he mentioned.

While Base launched its testnet in February, Pollak shared that the Base mainnet launch will take place in the coming months. Moreover, while no plans exist for Base to offer a native token, several ecosystem participants have already expressed interest in building on Base.

Recent: Next stop Shanghai — Ethereum’s latest milestone approaches

For example, Konstantin Richter, chief operating officer and founder of Blockdaemon — a blockchain infrastructure provider — told Cointelegraph at ETHDenver 2023 that Blockdaemon will serve as an official infrastructure partner for Base. Richter shared that he thinks Base shouldn’t have a token associated with the network, as he believes proof-of-stake (PoS) is an entirely broken system. “Blockdaemon runs more PoS nodes than anyone else, and I can tell you that proof-of-stake only works when token prices go up,” he said.

Richter further explained that Blockdaemon plans to use the Base network to determine how to allow network participants to run nodes while possibly earning a fixed U.S. dollar fee. “This may result in a different type of PoS mechanism, possibly around commitment of compute rather than a staked percentage of tokens that may not serve the network well,” he said. Richter added that such a model could result in a better user experience. He said:

“This could be the biggest paradigm shift within the cryptocurrency ecosystem since the invention of PoS. We are moving away from incentive models that reward users for using a product. We are now focused on ease of functionality and low fees.”

Yet it remains questionable how exactly Base will attract users and developers to the platform without a token incentive model. Given Coinbase’s vast understanding of institutions and decentralized finance (DeFi), Richter doesn’t think this should be an issue: “I prefer to work with Base given Coinbase’s understanding of institutions and DeFi. It’s remarkable that a public Fortune 500 company is committed to putting transactions transparently on Base.”

While it’s too soon to predict future outcomes, it’s important to note that Arbitrum, another Ethereum layer-2 network, also functions without a native token. This has certainly not stopped users from interacting with the Arbitrum network. According to data from the analytics website L2Beat.com, Arbitrum has about $3.35 billion total value locked, making up about 54% of the market share on Ethereum.

However, rumors have been circulating that Arbitrum may initiate a token airdrop in the future. While this may or not be the case, it demonstrates Arbitrum’s ability to determine product market fit before launching a token. Gil Rosen, president of the Stanford Blockchain Accelerator, told Cointelegraph at ETHDenver 2023 that finding product market fit is about ensuring projects acquire the right customers whose value is accretive to the ecosystem, which often isn’t the case with tokens. “Early projects that launch tokens are often locked into tokenomics models before finding product market fit and then are unable to pivot dynamically,” Rosen said.

“DeFi Dad,” a partner at digital asset investment firm Fourth Revolution Capital, told Cointelegraph that he believes the main driver behind layer-2 tokens is to ensure decentralized control over layer-2 networks.

For example, he explained that the upcoming launch of zkSync’s Zero-Knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine would use a PoS mechanism to allow zkSync tokenholders to act as stakers. “Layer-2 tokens are necessary for building the decentralized future,” he said.

Thanks to our community and the entire ecosystem for an energizing ETHDenver 2023. For the remainder of the week, we’ll share highlights from ETHDenver around ZK scaling and building a future-proof zkEVM. First topic, hyperscalability.

1/7 pic.twitter.com/qOVSQ475a2

— zkSync ∎ (@zksync) March 8, 2023

DeFi Dad thinks a layer-2 network without plans to implement a native token could be successful if users are willing to sacrifice decentralization and censorship resistance in the short term.

Recent: Banks with crypto services require new Anti-Money Laundering capabilities

He said, “Base could be successful as a network for transacting with a user’s crypto. However, make no mistake; Base will be a layer-2 (at least for the foreseeable future) that makes trade-offs. As DeFi users, we tend to deprioritize security and censorship resistance until we really need it.”

With this point in mind, Rosen mentioned that he believes token models will remain for many decentralized projects with large developer and user communities, but these will launch later. “A project may launch a token when the networks themselves are more mature and have found product market fit.”

Technical discussions take center stage at Advancing Bitcoin conference in London

Here’s a look back on the highly technical conference in London, where ordinals, silent payments and the Lightning Network were studied and discussed.

Bitcoin bear market builders convened in London for the Bitcoin-only conference Advancing Bitcoin, which ran from March 2–3.

Common Bitcoin (BTC) conference vernacular like “macro,” “shitcoin” and “debt spiral” was absent from the debate, replaced by computer science terms like “OP_return,” “nonce” and “ordinals” dominating the discussion. The two-day developer conference was technical and thoughtful — a space to get one’s hands dirty writing code.

*Fedi’s Leon Johnson organized and kicked off the conference. Source: Michaelayophotography79*

Leon Johnson, a conference organizer and the head of operations at Bitcoin company Fedi, told Cointelegraph that the conference is entering its fourth year and the profile of attendees has slowly evolved:

“In 2019, we had a lot of what I would call hobbyists, enthusiasts, tinkerers. And those same people have now kind of progressed to work for Bitcoin companies.”

True to its name, the conference has advanced Bitcoin hobbyists to Bitcoin companies. Gaming company Zebedee, for example, spun up from interactions at Advancing Bitcoin, Johnson explained.

Alex Leishman, CEO of River — a U.S.-based Bitcoin accumulation and Lightning Network company — told Cointelegraph that the event is a high-quality arena for builders:

“It’s nice to be in workshops and presentations that really dig into the weeds and the inner workings of the innovations happening in the space — whether it’s ordinals, Lightning Network, protocol upgrades — and what those then mean for user experience and for improving the actual products we’re all trying to build.”

True to form, developers and computer scientists pitter-pattered on their keyboards throughout the conference. Attendees as young as 10 constructed hardware wallets from scratch, spun up code, and interrogated the blockchain and Bitcoin mempool. An entire day was dedicated solely to workshops.

*Cointelegraph’s Joe Hall was conference compère. Source: Michaelayophotography79*

Echoing comments made by other developers and computer scientists, Johnson highlighted that progress is good, but the layer-2 Lightning Network is still in its infancy, and Bitcoin is just a teenager at almost 15 years of existence. So, what does Bitcoin need to mature?

“Bitcoin needs people. We need more than speculators. We need people that care about applications.”

Eric Sirion, co-founder of Fedi and maintainer of the Fedimint protocol, joined in: “Don’t gamble — it’s a bear market, and bear markets are for building.” It’s time to “get out there and inspire people,” he suggested.

Uncle Rockstar (not his real name), the brains behind some of Bitcoin company Strike’s inner workings concluded the first day of talks. Rather than delve deeper into technical specifications, as other talks did, Rockstar chose to chide, reassure and motivate developers, particularly those working on free, open-source software.

*Uncle Rockstar (who chooses to hide his features) gives a talk. Source: Alex Waltz*

Bear markets can burn out the best of us, he explained during his talk. “It’s OK to take a break and pick up a fiat job before returning to building.” Leishman agreed:

“I think Bitcoin is going to become the money of the world and is going to completely change everything. We can speed that up if we’re smart about how we approach it.”

With Bitcoin’s price continuing to wallow in the low $20,000s, the bear market continues to grind on. Advancing Bitcoin recently announced its intention to travel to Málaga, Spain with the concept in autumn. The Spain edition will focus on businesses and institutions and have less of a developer focus.

High sentiment in FTX’s shadow: event recap for Texas Blockchain Summit

Though the mood among many who showed up in Austin was bullish, most commented on the collapse of FTX and the drop in the price of Bitcoin.

Apparently, not everything is bigger in Texas. At least not in the days following a major crypto exchange declaring bankruptcy.

The collapse of FTX and the ripples former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried made in the crypto space were on many people’s lips at the Texas Blockchain Summit held from Nov. 17-18 in the state capital of Austin. Unlike at the Texas Blockchain Council’s inaugural conference in October 2021 held over just one day, there were many open seats at the 2022 event, which featured speakers on energy, crypto mining, regulation, and innovations in the space.

“Two years ago, this audience was packed,” said Chad Harris, chief commercial officer of crypto miner Riot Blockchain, at the summit — perhaps mistaking the year of the last event. “Today, this is an audience full of passionate people that believe that they can actually facilitate what they tell the public […] Every single time one of us fails in a disastrous way, it affects every one of us in this room.”

United States lawmakers and regulators including Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Commodity Futures Trading Commission commissioner Summer Mersinger were in attendance, as were household names in the crypto space like podcast host Anthony ‘Pomp’ Pompliano and former presidential candidate Andrew Yang. The October 2021 summit had three U.S. senators speak, including pro-crypto lawmaker Cynthia Lummis.

“Texas is a free state, and it’s attracted a lot of businesses […] I think we’re seeing the results of that,” Chamber of Digital Commerce founder Perianne Boring said to Cointelegraph at the summit.

Kelsey Pristach, a senior policy adviser to Lummis, attended the 2022 summit to speak on a digital assets policy panel. However, some speakers scheduled to appear on panels on Nov. 17 were not in attendance for reasons unknown. Minnesota Representative Tom Emmer, announced as a confirmed speaker for the summit in May, did not appear on the final agenda.

Although there were telltale signs of native Texans in the audience — a few cowboy hats and cheering whoop’s at bullish remarks — many attendees were dressed modestly in jackets, blazers, and slacks. Few sported attire like Bankman-Fried’s and other stereotypical “crypto bro” shorts and hoodies.

“This industry needs to change, and it needs to change rapidly,” said Harris. “I think what’s going on today is a clearer sign and message that this industry… it’s time for us to mature.”

He commented on the crypto market at one of its peaks:

“Bitcoin was sixty plus thousand dollars, and everyone was driving lambos and flying planes and hanging on their yachts. And let me tell you something: it’s a much different world […] that type of bad behavior creates a bad environment for the people that are doing it right.”

*Cointelegraph’s Rachel Wolfson moderating a panel on ‘Bitcoin for Good’ at the Texas Blockchain Summit. Photo by author.*

“It was interesting to hear insights from speakers about how the FTX fallout will shape the industry moving forward,” said Cointelegraph’s Rachel Wolfson. “While the event wasn’t as heavily attended as last year, there were a number of high level speakers that had valuable insights to share regarding the FTX fallout and how Texas will continue to advance the industry forward with strong support for Bitcoin mining and blockchain innovation.”

While Bitcoin (BTC), energy, and mining were largely the theme on Nov. 17, the last day focused on regulation and policy, with many speakers suggesting the fall of FTX could trigger a disproportionate response from lawmakers. Yang referred to a potential “appetite for regulation” among policymakers in the United States, while CFTC commissioner Mersinger suggested that the government may be “past the education stage” in crypto education and was moving towards action.

Many in the crypto space said that they see Texas as a regulatory-friendly environment for mining firms as well as blockchain-based projects, as Governor Greg Abbott has publicly said he was a “crypto law proposal supporter.” The Texas Blockchain Council reported roughly 1,000 people attended the 2021 summit, while a report from the Texas Tribune suggested there were “hundreds of investors, legislators, professionals and enthusiasts” at the 2022 event.

High sentiment in FTX’s shadow: Event recap for Texas Blockchain Summit

Though the mood among many who showed up in Austin was bullish, most commented on the collapse of FTX and the drop in the price of Bitcoin.

Apparently, not everything is bigger in Texas. At least not in the days following a major crypto exchange declaring bankruptcy.

The collapse of FTX and the ripples former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried made in the crypto space were on many people’s lips at the Texas Blockchain Summit, held from Nov. 17-18 in the state capital of Austin. Unlike the Texas Blockchain Council’s inaugural conference in October 2021, held over just one day, there were many open seats at the 2022 event, which featured speakers on energy, crypto mining, regulation and innovations in the space.

United States lawmakers and regulators including Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Commodity Futures Trading Commission Commissioner Summer Mersinger were in attendance, as were household names in the crypto space like podcast host Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano and former presidential candidate Andrew Yang. The October 2021 summit had three U.S. senators speak, including pro-crypto lawmaker Cynthia Lummis.

Kelsey Pristach, a senior policy adviser to Lummis, attended the 2022 summit to speak on a digital assets policy panel. However, some speakers scheduled to appear on panels on Nov. 17 were not in attendance for reasons unknown. Minnesota Representative Tom Emmer announced as a confirmed speaker for the summit in May, but did not appear on the final agenda.

Although there were telltale signs of native Texans in the audience — a few cowboy hats and cheering whoops at bullish remarks — many attendees were dressed modestly in jackets, blazers and slacks. Few sported attire like Bankman-Fried’s and other stereotypical “crypto bro” shorts and hoodies.

He commented on the crypto market at one of its peaks:

“Bitcoin was sixty plus thousand dollars, and everyone was driving lambos and flying planes and hanging on their yachts. And let me tell you something: it’s a much different world […] that type of bad behavior creates a bad environment for the people that are doing it right.”

The FTX collapse not enough to break crypto community’s spirit: IBW 2022

Istanbul Blockchain Week was held in Turkey, and Cointelegraph attended to experience the impact of the FTX collapse firsthand — the result was unexpected.

Istanbul Blockchain Week opened its doors on Nov. 14 to bring the crypto and blockchain ecosystem together in İstanbul, Turkey. Cointelegraph attended the event with a Cointelegraph Turkey booth and an İstanbul-based editor to experience the impact of the FTX collapse firsthand — the result was unexpected.

As an international hub housing more than 15 million people, İstanbul was shaken by a bombing attack in Taksim, the city center, on Nov. 13 evening. Yet, the following day, Istanbul Blockchain Week (IBW) opened its doors to more than 2,000 international attendees and over 100 speakers after consulting with local security authorities.

On top of a year-long bear market and the FTX collapse, IBW 2022 attendees also had to deal with the emotional stress of what occurred last night. Both events were ever-present topics on the main stage and in the event hall.

Merhaba!

Cointelgraph is in attendance at Istanbul Blockchain Week and bringing you all the latest updates live from Turkey.

Watch this thread… pic.twitter.com/DusFaf4xCT

— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) November 14, 2022

Erhan Korhaliller, the organizer of the event and the founder of EAK Digital, mentioned both topics during his opening speech. Excluding the people who barely managed to land in İstanbul hours before their stage time, the majority of speakers started by giving condolences to the victims of the terrorist attack.

However, Istanbul Blockchain Week 2022 managed to find a balance to keep a respectful tone to the worries of İstanbulites while maintaining the entertainment aspect of the show. Nothing stood out as too flashy, but the atmosphere was always vibrant and colorful. The next four days saw key names from the crypto industry taking the stage one after another in front of a fully focused and attentive audience.

*Cointelegraph Turkey had a splash at IBW 2022 thanks to a big booth overseen by the Kriptomeda team.*

IBW 2022 used the event area of the Hilton Bomonti hotel rather cleverly to provide break zones during crowded networking activities. Guests were presented with coffee, tea and water to refreshen during heated conversations.

The main stage, which was too big for a 2,000-person event, was divided into three parts, illuminated only with the light of kiosks that present cool-looking nonfungible tokens (NFTs); the NFT Gallery was neighboring the stage. The other side of the gallery was reserved for IstanHack, where the developers from neighboring countries competed to build a Web3 project.

Taking a stroll through the NFT gallery… pic.twitter.com/kCrrP4DP41

— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) November 14, 2022

The event agenda left no corner of the expanded cryptoverse unchecked: market makers, exchanges, decentralized finance (DeFi) providers, blockchain gaming and metaverse big guns filled the event area and the main stage to provide a comprehensive picture of what’s going on in the crypto world.

One thing that stood out during the whole show was the positivity and the “keep building” philosophy. It wouldn’t take a journalist to understand that the ecosystem truly believes in the bear market building.

During the event, Cointelegraph saw ambitious projects with young and talented teams joining the competition right after the biggest collapse in crypto history, global exchanges using the local aspect of the event to announce their expansion into the Turkish market, and industry veterans sharing wisdom and strategy to endure the negativity of the mainstream media.

Amazing view at the top floor. Bomonti, Istanbul.

Here for @IstanbulBlockWk check @Cointelegraph regularly for updates. pic.twitter.com/3Xsls4mfKI

— Erhan (@ErhanKahraman) November 14, 2022

The Cointelegraph ground team shot several video interviews with speakers at the Cointelegraph Turkey booth, most of which were published on Cointelegraph Turkey’s YouTube channel. Between a panel moderation and lots of booth-surfing, Cointelegraph editor Erhan Kahraman also managed to sit down with renowned cryptographer and Elixxir CEO David Chaum as well as blockchain security expert HashEx CEO Dmitry Mishunin. Both interviews will be published in Cointelegraph.

The first announcement of IBW 2022 dates back to early 2022, so it’s safe to assume that its details and agenda needed to be marginally updated due to the recent meltdown. However, the main message was unmistakable: Crypto is here to stay, and the crypto revolution is bigger than FTX.

Crypto Biz: A Futurist take on crypto

The 2022 Blockchain Futurist conference in Toronto, Canada wrapped up this week. DeFi and institutional adoption of crypto were high on the agenda.

You might not know it, but Canada is quietly becoming a major player in the blockchain and crypto scene: Ethereum has strong Canadian roots, Toronto-based 3iQ launched North America’s first physically-settled Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) and the percentage of active crypto holders in the country has increased steadily over the past two years.

Against this backdrop, I had the pleasure of attending this year’s Blockchain Futurist Conference in Toronto, where I got to moderate two panels on rebuilding the financial system through Web3 and onboarding the next wave of crypto users. The event served as another reminder that the industry’s brightest minds are still building amazing products despite current market conditions. Not to sound overly cliche, but it’s hard to be bearish on digital assets if you adopt a low-time preference.

*Blockchain Futurist Conference 2022 opening day, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.*

DeFi needs a ‘killer app’ to go next level, says Ripple exec

You can’t have a proper conversation about the future of digital assets without talking about decentralized finance (DeFi). One of the most stimulating panels at Futurist, titled “The Future of Decentralized Finance,” featured the head of DeFi markets at Ripple Labs, the founder of Teller Finance and executives from Aventus Ventures and FLUIDEFI. According to Ripple Labs’ Boris Alergant, the institutional adoption of DeFi is coming next — but not before the industry creates the next “killer app” to really pique interest.

Wealth managers and VCs are helping drive institutional crypto adoption — Wave Financial execs

The crypto bear market has instilled a lot of fear in retail investors. But, for institutions and venture funds, adoption has been ramping up. At Futurist, I had the opportunity to interview two executives from asset management firm Wave Financial, who explained that high-net-worth individuals and institutional investors are increasing their exposure to digital assets. During the last bear market, institutions were asking, Is this the end of crypto? Now, the question seems to be much more around, Is this the right time to get in?

Coinbase posts $1.1B loss in Q2 on ‘fast and furious’ crypto downturn

We all know the crypto exchange business got nuked in the second quarter due to the bear market. As it turns out, the performance of top crypto exchange Coinbase was worse than expected. The company booked a massive $1.1 billion loss between April and June, easily its worst quarter since going public in 2021. Revenues were also down 45.1% quarter-on-quarter and 153.1% compared with year-ago levels. Although crypto prices have rebounded modestly over the past month, retail interest and trading volumes remain low. That means there could be more pain in store for Coinbase in the short term.

Amid miner capitulation, Hut 8 maintained BTC ‘HODL strategy’ in July

Some of the world’s largest Bitcoin miners have been selling their bags to finance operations during the bear market — but not Hut 8. The Canadian mining company, which trades publicly on the Nasdaq and Toronto stock exchanges, maintained its diamond hands in July as its Bitcoin reserves grew to 7,736 BTC. Hut 8 maintains an active “HODL strategy” that involves depositing all self-mined BTC into custody. The company’s resolve is truly impressive given how fast and hard Bitcoin’s price has fallen.

Don’t miss it! Is your SOL safe?

Solana was the target of another coordinated attack this month after hackers stole roughly $8 million in crypto from ecosystem wallet Slope. Possibly due to its ambitious design and security trade-offs to achieve higher throughput, Solana has been the target of several exploits over the past year. This leads us to the vital question: Is your Solana (SOL) actually safe? In this week’s Market Report, analysts Marcel Pechman, Yashu Gola and Benton Yaun debate whether SOL investors should be legitimately concerned. You can watch the full replay below.

Crypto Biz is your weekly pulse of the business behind blockchain and crypto delivered directly to your inbox every Thursday.

Korea Blockchain Week, Aug. 9: Second-day takeaways from the Cointelegraph team

Discussions about the Metaverse dominated the final day of Korea Blockchain Week’s mainstage conference.

Korea Blockchain Week (KBW) 2022 wrapped up its two-day mainstage events this evening, which again saw a number of influential speakers take to the podium including Janine Yorio of Everyrealm, Yat Siu of Animoca Brands and Sky Mavis’ Jeffrey Zirlin.

Held at the Grand Intercontinental Seoul Parnas, the second-day conference saw thousands of attendees engaged across three conference tracks — Stage Seoul, Stage Busan and Stage Jeju.

The majority of the discussions on the second day focused on the future of the Metaverse, and the strategies that Web3 companies are taking to grow the industry. Given that the event was based in Korea, many were interested in the many exciting Web3 projects coming out of the Korean blockchain scene. The two-day event turned in a very large attendance despite Seoul experiencing some torrential rain over the last few days.

But, it’s not quite over yet for KBW 2022 attendees, who will continue networking throughout the night and the rest of the week over countless side events. From 7:00 pm KST, KBW and Upclub will be hosting an exclusive afterparty for KBW attendees at People The Terras in Gangnam-gu in Seoul.

Later in the night, the “KBW Official After After Party” will kick off at Club Oriental Jack in Seoul, with the festivities running from 11:00 pm KST to 6:00 am KST for the brave.

For those that couldn’t make it to Seoul for KBW 2022, the Cointelegraph team on the ground in Korea has highlighted some of the key discussions from the second day of the conference.

Ready Player One’ gave us the misconception that the Metaverse is VR — Everyrealm CEO

Everyrealm CEO Janine Yorio believes that Steven Spielberg’s film Ready Player One presents a myriad of misconceptions about the Metaverse, mainly due to the fact that “the protagonist is wearing a VR headset.”

*Pictured: Janine Yorio, CEO, Everyrealm*

In the presentation, Yorio highlighted that because humans like to “interact with technologically” which is historically 18 inches from our faces, VR headsets can present a number of adoption challenges.

Digital property rights key to thriving Web3 economy — Animoca’s Yat Siu

Co-founder of Hong Kong-based venture firm Animoca Brands Yat Siu believes that on-chain digital property rights are one of the main aspects of blockchain technology that will drive a more decentralized society.

Siu believes Web2 companies have had their day with “controlling our data,” and now blockchain-based applications can provide digital ownership to content creators themselves.

*Pictured: Yat Siu, Chairman and Co-Founder, Animoca Brands*

Axie Infinity to “double-down” on the Korean market

Sky Mavis, the firm behind play-to-earn (P2E) heavyweight Axie Infinity outlined intentions to “double down” in South Korea and ramp up adoption of the game.

Sky Mavis co-founder and growth lead Jeffrey Zirlin spoke to Cointelegraph and noted that despite the domestic ban on P2E games still being in place, the “Korean market is one of the most important gaming markets in the world, and we have tons of players in South Korea.”

Zirlin added that the company is currently looking at ways to tailor the Axie Infinity game to its cohort of Korean gamers:

“I think you know, we want to double down. We want to localize for example, Koreans don’t speak much English, right? So there are actually a lot of barriers to actually getting the game into the hands of Korean players.”

20 million JavaScript devs can now build applications on NEAR

Near Protocol founder Illia Polosukhin spoke to Cointelegraph after the protocol rolled out its JavaScript Software Development Kits (JS SDKs), effectively opening Near’s floodgates to 20 million global Javascript developers.

During KBW 2022, Polosukhin emphasized that the move will open up the niche field of blockchain development to a substantially broader audience, such as students looking to dip their toes into the blockchain and people in the commercial sector looking to accelerate their projects.

“There’s about 20 million JavaScript developers in the world. Probably like every developer one way or another wrote JavaScript in their life. And what we allow you to do is to write smart contracts in JavaScript,” said Polosukhin.

Positivity blazing through a bear market: Blockchain Economy Istanbul 2022

The Blockchain Economy Istanbul 2022 summit made one thing clear: The positivity of the crypto ecosystem remains unfazed by the turbulent market shakeouts.

Held at Hilton Bomonti — a fancy hotel next to a renovated and repurposed beer factory in Istanbul — the fourth iteration of the Blockchain Economy Summit 2022 (BE2022) proved to be a significant step-up compared to its pre-pandemic predecessors.

The previous summit, BE2020, was held at the WOW Convention Center two years back. In addition to being situated in a harder-to-reach part of Istanbul, the summit coincided with the COVID-19 outbreak, further impacting the overall attendance. Since the sole purpose of that venue was organizing large-scale events, the crypto community from two years prior was just not big enough to fill the space. As a direct result of the aforementioned factors, the BE2020 felt like a two-day trip to a ghost town.

Pre-show pictures: Great music and performances at @BEconomy_HQ.

Also, nice shirt @ErhanKahraman; We wonder where you got it from . (Cough, https://t.co/OmCXzstsi5 )#BEinstanbul2022 pic.twitter.com/hZABaJhfso

— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) July 27, 2022

Attendees of Blockchain Economy Istanbul 2022 described the summit as dense, vivid and full of energy, drawing a stark contrast to the BE2020 in almost every aspect. It was also the first international crypto and blockchain event held in the region ever since Turkey revoked travel ban restrictions. As a result, the crypto community members — from Western and Eastern countries — could join in on the celebration.

The event roster had a good balance between the local companies and global crypto players. While big shots like Binance, Huobi or FTX were visibly absent from the event, logos of major companies like KuCoin, Gate.io, Bitget, Bitmex and Uphold were filling the main hall. Despite its recent troubles, Gari Network donned the main sponsor badge for the whole event.

For two days, the main hall never saw a dull moment: People were there mainly for networking purposes after two years filled with lockdowns and travel bans —and it’s hard to say they missed much by not attending sessions at the main conference stage.

*The Cointelegraph ground team enjoying a special goat milk-based Turkish ice cream called “Maraş dondurması.”*

Sure, some exciting names like MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor (although he joined via video call) or Davinci Jeremie, the “Please Just Buy One Bitcoin” guy, were on the keynote schedule. But, unfortunately, the program saw greater participation of more local or regional speakers than necessary for an international event of this scale — and the supercooling in the conference room didn’t help either.

People got chilled, lost interest in the simultaneous translation and headed back to the main area where a giant-sized samurai dog statue from the blockchain-based battle royale game Katana Inu welcomed them in an intimidating way. The best part? Most keynote speakers made themselves available for a little chat in the main hall after their stage performances.

*KuCoin Labs head Lou Yu explaining latest trends in Web3 development*

Cointelegraph reached out to several keynote speakers for some quick commentary and in-depth conversations, including KuCoin Labs head Lou Yu and AAX exchange executive Ben Caselin.

The BE2022 event was most beneficial for the young and talented developers of the community, of which Turkey houses plenty. During the event, Ali Dursun was able to pitch his blockchain gaming ecosystem Ratic to an array of global exchanges and venture capitals. Aybars Dorman introduced Metavest, a fresh take on decentralized finance (DeFi), to the participants, and Yotta21 founder Yunus Cebeci made important industry contacts at the smoking area.

*Zignaly co-founder Abdul Rafay Gadit explaining their project to Cointelegraph business development executive Anton Kabatov and editor Erhan Kahraman*

Two things were clear: First, the COVID-19 pandemic could not slow down the crypto ecosystem’s growth. For many participants, Blockchain Economy Istanbul 2022 was their first networking experience with the rest of the industry, and they thrived in making the most of it. And second, no matter how bearish a crypto market gets, the price fluctuations can’t shake down the positivity of the crypto ecosystem.

Considering everything that transpired during the event, the Blockchain Economy Istanbul 2022 summit solidified that no matter the market conditions, the crypto ecosystem is ready to invest time, money and energy to stay positive.

The UK ‘Bitcoin Adventure’ shows BTC is a family affair

A family-friendly day out in the southwest of the U.K. got the kids, adults and grandparents on their feet, learning about magic internet money and dancing to Bitcoin tunes.

Bitcoin (BTC) is for everyone: toddlers, kids, hard rockers and even racing pigs. At the “Bitcoin Adventure” held in Avon Valley, near Bristol, Bitcoiners and hobbyists shared their knowledge, quips and personal journeys down the Bitcoin rabbit hole despite the predictably wet United Kingdom weather. Better still, Bitcoin’s “toxic maximalism” was MIA.

pic.twitter.com/7IOtpYuSDh

— The Bitcoin Adventure (@TheBTCAdventure) July 3, 2022

A world-first for a Bitcoin meetup, the “Adventure” took place at a wildlife park. So while some of the U.K.’s household name Bitcoiners headlined the main stage, the 250 attendees who bought tickets, (payment in BTC, naturally) could also play with the park’s furry Bitcoiner mascots: petting goats, cuddling rabbits and spectating pig racing.

The day’s adventure laid out. Source: Cointelegraph

Organizer DB told Cointelegraph that the “Aim was to create a family-friendly Bitcoin event to bring people together from across the U.K., to share ideas and learn in a relaxed, family environment.”

“Although confident it could be a success, this was stepping into the unknown in many ways. However, the positive feedback from all involved has been incredible and the event exceeded our expectations.”

From Zoomers to Boomers—and with a gender balance that most Bitcoin meetups can only aspire to—the Bitcoin Adventure was a grassroots display to compliment the decentralized movement. There were zero corporate sponsors, “shadowy super coders” or bad actors using Bitcoin to bewilder the banks — there were only “people giving up their time to educate others.”

In fact, the slipperiest customers were probably the mob of mischievous meerkats:

We’re ready to go…#Bitcoin accepted here. Thanks to @CoinCorner and @CoinCornerDanny . Fun for all the family #TheBitcoinAdventure! pic.twitter.com/ay8BPw02Ul

— The Bitcoin Adventure (@TheBTCAdventure) July 2, 2022

For some punters, the Bitcoin Adventure was a day to lose their Lightning Network virginity. Bars accepted Bitcoin over the Lightning Network using CoinCorner point of sale (PoS) devices—of Bitcoin #LightningLunch fame—while QR code stickers with “free sats here” were hidden around the wildlife park. Plus, Bitcoin stickers, novelty socks and even cufflinks could be bagged for a few Satoshis.

Be like @SophieNakamoto.
Buy me pints with #bitcoin over the #lightningnetwork pic.twitter.com/G2Wouom7zD

— Joe Hall (@JoeNakamoto) July 2, 2022

Ben Arc of LNBits, a self-proclaimed Bitcoin FOSS (free open sourced software) hobbyist, delivered a stimulating presentation on open source tools. He could be found tinkering away on LN hardware devices and QR code readers, on hand to answer questions no matter how dippy or detailed.

The day’s talks ranged from lessons on multi-signature wallets, thanks to Neil Woodfine of Unchained Capital to the risks and rewards of Bitcoin mining from analyst and miner, Jason Deane; and popular podcaster Daniel Prince and Nathan Day topped off proceedings with a discussion about Bitcoin, homeschooling and travel. Their kids then “stormed the stage” to answer questions.

“World schooling for Bitcoiners” talk. Source: Cointelegraph

Jordan Walker, CEO of the Bitcoin Collective (the U.K.’s first Bitcoin conference) and event MC, mingled among those new to the digital, decentralized currency. And while the over 18s congregated at the bar to pay for pints using the Lightning Network and discuss the day’s finer details, kids had a wealth of Bitcoin-themed activities to keep them occupied and entertained. Organizer DB explains:

“Learning through play for children is important and Bitcoin Ballers, Zebedee, Gamertron and Robotechy gave children the opportunity to have fun and learn about Bitcoin.”

Coach Carbon, the Bitcoin football coach behind Bitcoin Ballers was helping toddlers to teenagers “get off zero” with an inflatable football goal. Elsewhere, Bitcoin gaming and even “explaining Bitcoin using playdoh” were featured as child-friendly Bitcoin presentations. Education for kids is a growing subset of Bitcoin learning as more and more authors and educators create content with their offspring in mind.

The team from Bitcoin Racing showcased one of the fastest-moving advertisements for Bitcoin and El Salvador. Bitcoin “minors” took to the driving seat of the Citroen C1 adorned with an El Salvador flag that will be racing around the United Kingdom in the coming months:

The #bitcoin racing team were at the @TheBTCAdventure at @AvonValleyPark

Flying the flag for #bitcoin and #ElSalvador !!@bitcoin_racing @jessicabukele @VanessInteriano pic.twitter.com/C37CeOxm8c

— Daniel Prince (@PrinceySOV) July 3, 2022

Arguably, the Adventure’s highlight and the hidden gem was Roger 9000, a vivacious Bitcoin musician. The one-man band rounded off the day by rocking out to Satoshi-inspired songs. Lyrics included “Bitcoin is the love machine,” while the song “Alle Canada,” is a battle cry for the Bitcoin-backed trucker protests in North America.

As the sun set on the inaugural event, many attendees pitched tents in the campgrounds. For organizer DB, the plan is to “let the dust settle, sit down in the coming weeks and run through the day—what we could have done differently and what we could improve on.”

“We will then put the wheels in motion for The Bitcoin Adventure 2023″.

Let’s hope that by next summer’s Bitcoin Adventure, there will be no more signs of a bear meerkat.