Next week’s conference will draw diverse stakeholders to address crypto’s thorniest challenges |
April 21, 2023
Exploring transformation of value in the digital age
By Michael J. Casey, Chief Content Officer
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It’s that time of year again. At CoinDesk, the days before we start Consensus, our annual conference, are filled with anticipation. This week’s column draws on some of that energy to reflect on why this year’s event seems especially important.
In this week’s podcast episode, my co-host Sheila Warren riffs on a startling exchange that occurred between Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler and Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, during the former’s testimony before that committee that week. The politics of crypto are just getting weirder.
Have a listen after reading the newsletter.
The Most Intense Consensus Ever Seeks Everyone’s Voice
(Stephen Lovekin/Shutterstock/CoinDesk)
I’ve attended eight out of nine Consensus events since 2015, when the first one was held at the Times Center in New York.
Looking back on all of them, I would say that no Consensus has felt as weighty as the one we will kick off next Wednesday at the Austin (Texas) Convention Center. Trading losses, along with slimmed-down marketing and travel budgets, will ensure a somewhat smaller turnout than last year, which drew a record 20,000 attendees from more than 130 countries.
What makes this one so important is not attendance per se, it’s the topics that will be discussed.
Alongside this year’s unprecedented regulatory crackdown, there’s also the background promise and anxiety stoked by the rapid encroachment of artificial intelligence into the broader digital economy.
Meanwhile, there’s the quiet but progressive engagement of traditional finance (TradFi) with digital asset technology, and the fact that, whether we like it or not, governments continue to build central bank digital currencies.
This year, we’re taking advantage of the Consensus audience’s cross-sectional representation to bring stakeholders from different perspectives together to hash out their differences and try to collectively resolve some of crypto’s thorniest challenges, the results of which will be part of our inaugural Consensus @ Consensus report.
But while I’m excited for the in-depth, forward-looking conversations in those workshops and, more publicly, on eight different stages, programming this event has brought home the challenges in dealing with a technology that fosters such a wide range of opinions and emotions. People from a number of government agencies, financial institutions and mainstream consulting firms withdrew their previously agreed-upon speaking assignments in response to pressure from their internal public relations officers. This reluctance, it seems, reflects concerns about the image associated with this technology.
What bothers me about this is that if one side of the debate is absent, they cede ground to the extremists on the other side. Not turning up is the best way for those who want a more regulated industry to allow the “crypto bros” to dominate the conversation. A more intensified echo chamber is hardly what we need. Now is the time for people to come together and address their differences, to advance the global conversation around this technology. It’s not the time to hide under a rock.
The good news is that, thanks to the engagement from regulators and businesses in non-U.S. jurisdictions, Consensus 2023 definitely will not feel like an echo chamber. In a number of sessions we’ll be highlighting the regulatory approaches and industry developments in Japan, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, the U.K. Bermuda, the Bahamas, South Korea, Switzerland and other countries, as well as from the International Monetary Fund.
At this pivotal moment, when regulation could drive innovation around one of the most important technologies of the century either into the shadows or toward people, companies and governments who can harness it and engineer systemic change, it is important that people are free to speak their mind. That’s what we plan to do in Austin. I hope to see you there.
Some have pointed out that although Ethereum has made staking available in limited form for two years and has been fully proof-of-stake since September, the percentage of total ether (ETH) locked into the staking contract is very low compared to other proof-of-stake chains. For Ethereum, the ratio is around 15%, significantly lower than other POS chains, such as BNB Chain, Cardano, Solana and Avalanche.
This chart, between January 1 2023 to April 11 2023 (the day before the Shapella upgrade), shows that the ratio has been steadily rising over the past year to more than 18.15 million ETH before Shapella, around 15% of the total supply.
One should not judge a four-hour testimony by a single four-minute video clip, but that, unfortunately, is the social media world we live in.
In the case of SEC Chairman Gary Gensler’s testimony before the House Financial Services Committee this week, it’s fair to say that it was the chairman of that committee, not the chairman of the SEC, who won Crypto Twitter this week with a recording of him trying to get Gensler to take a stance on whether ether is a security. Here’s the Republican Financial Services Twitter account making hay of a moment that went viral.
Relevant Reads: Projects to Watch in 2023
Cryptocurrency has come a long way since 2008 when Satoshi Nakamoto first published a paper via the Cryptography Mailing List and released the first version of Bitcoin’s software a year later. This week, our Consensus Magazine team showcased 19 projects to watch in 2023. You can check out the full list here. What follows is a small handful of those fascinating projects, which aim to solve problems within crypto ecosystems and the world as a whole.
Bitcoin Beach: Frederick Munawa highlighted how this project aims to increase bitcoin adoption in a Salvadoran coastal community. Given that Salvadorans earn an average of only $400 per month and that 70% of them don’t have a bank account, bitcoin adoption there could provide much needed relief to the burden of banking fees.
Immutable Passport: Toby Bochan shared how a few Australian co-founders are working to improve onboarding to multiple metaverses through an idea similar to single-sign-on (SSO) systems like Google. That’s huge, given the long-held belief that gaming could attract the next billion Web3 users.
Regen Network: Eliza Gkritsi explains how a group of sustainability consultants created a layer 1 blockchain that incentivizes more ecologically friendly behavior by minting ecological assets and helping monitor the environmental impact of manufacturing and commercial enterprise.
Sempo: Cheyenne Ligon wrote about how this project provides relief to disaster victims through cryptocurrency, which can be more helpful than cash in these scenarios, given the possibility of corruption and currency devaluation.
Gridless: Loyal Money Reimagined readers know I’m a big fan of real-world use cases for crypto, such as energy. This writeup by George Kaloudis explains how African crypto miners can power rural homes, which otherwise lack access to electricity.
There’s still time to save on the most important conversation in crypto and Web3! Register before tonight at 11:59 p.m. ET to save up to $500 on walk-up prices. Plus, take an extra 15% off with code MR15. Register for Consensus 2023 today!
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