The 2018 Year of Cryptocurrency Challenge – Week 19

At the beginning of 2018, I wrote an article outlining a New Year’s resolution that I thought could help boost cryptocurrency adoption and awareness in 2018, as long as enough people were doing it. Last week was the eighteenth installment of my challenge. This week coincided with Consensus in New York City; let’s get into it.

TRY TO SPEAK TO AS MANY PEOPLE ABOUT CRYPTOCURRENCY AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN

This past week I was at Consensus 2018 in NYC. The energy I saw there was great, and there were over 8,000 people in attendance - so many, in fact, that it was really annoying to wait in line for my badge at registration the day before the conference even began. The conversations were lively and numerous. Many people were looking to explore new projects or tell me about their own. I was surprised by just how many non-crypto people were also at this event. I found this to be encouraging for the future of the industry. Consensus made one thing very clear: even if the tourists start going home (and I feel many have after Bitcoin’s all-time high this past winter), blockchain technology is here to stay. I also had the great fortune to see a friend of mine perform with his band this past weekend. While my friend is pretty sold on blockchain and cryptocurrency, his brother (who works for a financial institution) remains fairly skeptical of it. In particular, he wondered why a bank would not just create a private blockchain and cut out public chains altogether. I explained why game theory is really what drives a strong, decentralized ledger - you need to incentivize individuals to run nodes, mine, validate transactions, and so forth. I would never run a Big-American-Bank-Blockchain node unless I were compensated for the computational effort that went into securing the chain. We did both agree that 1) greater regulation is needed, and 2) it’s coming. By the end of the night, we both had a better perspective on the topic.

LEARN SOMETHING NEW ABOUT CRYPTO

There were innumerable opportunities to learn at Consensus, and one in particular really stood out. A project called Decenturion is actually trying to become a blockchain state. They were accepting 'applications' for citizenship (though I can’t imagine they actually denied anyone) and were issuing what looked to be pretty legitimate passports to their new citizens with all the bells and whistles of a regular passport - minus the recognized statehood, for which someone told me they were petitioning the UN. It’s an interesting idea, and it challenges our ingrained notions of what and where a state can be, but I do doubt that the UN will recognize it.

BE GENEROUS – GIVE AND USE YOUR COINS

This week, I sent some Dogecoin as a tip to a friend for having done an absolutely awesome Photoshop job under strained conditions. I was impressed by her speed and ability to add someone else into a photo and make the edit barely noticeable. Who doesn’t deserve some Doge for that?! Do you often attend industry conferences? How do you feel about them? Think that Decenturion will take off, or that blockchain states are a possibility? Tweet at us or comment below!