Consensus Conference Illuminates Cryptocurrency, DAOs, NFTs, Metaverses, and More in Austin

Consensus 2022 kicked off in Austin this week.

It’s a convention placed on by media firm, CoinDesk, which focuses on Internet 3, cryptocurrency, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, often called DAOs, Nonfungible Tokens, or NFTs, Metaverses, and extra.

Just a few hundred individuals attended the primary Consensus in 2015, and this one has greater than 17,000 registered ticketholders. A basic admission ticket is sort of $1,600 and the dearer ProPass and Piranha Passes are each offered out.

Consensus options greater than 600 audio system on 23 levels and is unfold all through the Austin Conference Middle, Hilton, Fairmount, and numerous different venues downtown. It has a really feel of South by Southwest on a smaller scale.

There’s a particular feeling of FOMO with all of the programming and exhibitions happening without delay together with dozens of glad hours, events, gallery reveals, DJs, bands, and even a on line casino evening.

The occasion can be going down throughout a unstable time within the U.S. economic system with the COVID-19 pandemic nonetheless lingering, inflation hovering, skyrocketing fuel costs, and tensions created from the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, mentioned Michael Casey, Chief Content material Officer for CoinDesk, throughout his Friday opening remarks. Cryptocurrency, just like the inventory market, can be experiencing some turbulence. Bitcoin is hovering round $29,333, down from its all-time excessive of $68,990 in November of 2021. And Ethereum is right down to $1,676, from its all-time excessive of $4,865, additionally in November of 2021.

On high of that, there have been cryptocurrency failures and scams, Casey mentioned.

Lately, the collapse of the Terra mission, “led to mixed losses of about $60 billion between the stablecoin, often known as UST, and its sister cryptocurrency luna,” based on CNBC. Just a few periods at Consensus study what went fallacious.

“For the reason that begin of 2021, greater than 46,000 individuals have reported dropping over $1 billion in crypto to scams,” based on the Federal Commerce Fee.

However regardless of the large volatility, failed firms, and scams, cryptocurrency has gained a robust foothold globally and more and more within the U.S. In September of 2021, the Republic of El Salvador turned the primary nation to undertake Bitcoin as authorized tender.  Consensus has some members of Congress and the Biden Administration in attendance and as audio system discussing regulation and client safety. However they’re additionally speaking about establishing a stablecoin and making a digital greenback.

Lately China unveiled its digital yuan or e-CNY, a digital model of its sovereign forex that’s not a cryptocurrency however is as an alternative issued and managed by the Folks’s Financial institution of China, according to CNBC.  

And NFTs have opened a complete new method for artists and creatives to generate income within the digital age. Some main manufacturers together with Mastercard, Anheuser-Busch, Pepsi, and the NBA have additionally embraced NFTs as a method to interact with their audiences.

There’s additionally a whole lot of discuss on the convention in regards to the Metaverse, which wasn’t actually a subject when Consensus held its final convention in New York in 2019.

Consensus organizers determined to maneuver the occasion to Austin as a result of it has the infrastructure to deal with massive crowds,  Casey mentioned.

“It was a giant determination to go away New York. However Austin made it a easy transition,” he mentioned.

Mayor Steve Adler mentioned Austin is named a metropolis with a tolerance for risk-taking and that’s what creates innovation and drives progress.

“It is a metropolis that’s modern, artistic, and entrepreneurial to its core,” Adler mentioned.