Hey cypherfans we love ya! and here at a L-town crypto conference there are a lotta yer sweaty (alky-smelling, cause it's Little Britain) geek b.o. arses to love!
wait let's start again. TOKEN 2049 is one ambitious title - where WILL we be in another quarter / third of a century? Hopefully alive and well and living in paradise. DCA / stack that crypto in interest bearing accounts and pray.
We spent the last quarter century doing fintech events around the world. So our first reaction to going to a crypto conference was, predictably "meh."
Second reaction? this is awesome. actually loving/ caring about the topic makes a huge difference, who knew. not working for anyone, freedom! Maybe too much freedom! Excited to see newly rich people we can actually admire and respect on multiple levels!!! e.g. ex MP of Bulgaria, Antoni !!
Alas, some fat guy on his panel hogged the mike for the Q & A, we could have used a woman MC...
London is still pretty beat down, only yesterday did they take another 30 countries off the mandatory hotel quarantine list. Not much foot traffic, a confused mix of masks / no masks. The show opened with some silly LED marching band poseurs, with matching drumsticks and drums, loud fun for hangovers so points on for style there.
What was the theme of the conference? probably "Enter the dragon", where wall street / the city finally start running the clampdown on all things crypto because hey it's financial. And crypto rolls over, shows belly and worries about show topics like "Institutionalizing crypto capital markets" and " the intersection of crypto and tradfi" and "what do institutions look for in crypto?" To which our first reaction is "oh hell no" and " eff you tradfi, crypto is coming to eat your obsolete dinosaur ass" and "who cares?"
So, bad food ( from a NYC POV) good beer, and truly many very shaky fashion statements, much of which was admired. The fries are lovely.
Overall verdict? there IS a lot going on, hard to stay on top of it all, great to retreat for a couple of days and try.
Like what? well, NFTs can now be transferred across some gaming ecosystems, news to me. Some panelists said Vitalek his own pony boy self started ETH just because he got rugged out of his sweat equity in some game he was playing, that's pretty dang cool. Gaming is super huge in solving / evolving crypto issues. On the other hand, we know gaming is cool, but then some folks feel that legalized weed, hookers, gambling, and 24 hour tattoo shops open to minors are cool too ( who knew old NYC and many states were so conservative until so recently ?). Are games evolving as fast as they can to take as much money as they can from hopelessly hooked kids? Ya know they are.
Other hip stuff? well, who is your favorite Anon? what's your fave stable? ( JK) It is enlightening to see many smart guys on a panel agree that some teams will win some important sector races., but really none of them can even try to pick which one.
Mikey Novogratz, the self proclaimed "oldest guy in crypto" at 56 (rofl) was supposed to show, 
but was still facing the hotel quarantine in the UK since he had been to one of the 30 countries, despite his 80 tests and full vaxes. He did show on the big screen, getting up at 4:30 and sucking coffee to zoom us. Fave quote? noone over fifty understands NFTs. He said he was lining up to buy some NFTs for around five grand, got distracted, came back in a few months and realized they were now available for 5MM. He remains a trader, so he is telling is friends who spent 50K on an NFT now worth 25MM to sell and take some freakin money off the table. But they won't. Emotion? belief? he can't believe it. Well we agree with Mikey Novo about cheering on DOT to flippen DOGE, goddamnit, crypto should be, has a chance to be a meritocracy ( sorry my Wall Street is showing) not just yet another mere GD meme stock perversion caused by real negative interest rates. And XRP, Mikey, ya know how many people get offended when we call Ripple a chit coin? Tho Letitia the DA and all the feds kinda agree it's a chitty security. A chitcurity???
Overall, conferences like this just ain't what they used to be. Once there was the golden chance to hear people speak who only speak their high net worth clients. Now? well we have heard better ( tho none more recent) videos of Novogratz. On the other hand, a guy like Nexo's Antonio Trenchev was there, and spoke a bit ( Trenchev said people say don't worry about regulation, but he watches it like a freaking hawk.) Antonio does not give a lot of interviews, so that was a thrill and good to look him in the eye.
Other impressions? A lot of very boring guys moving in corporate stye. Still not a lot of women in Europe in crypto, and those that were there were in mommy roles - compliance, legal, etc. Oh, ok, one woman spoke on hip gaming topics - but she was tall, fit, and wore a backless dress with a ring pull zipper going all the way down the front.
This guy Tarun s super freaking cool - so cool he is not yet on Wikipedia
also refreshing as he is a Yank, we reckon. Trust the Brits to make tech boring and classist/ slightly racist.
And a ton of stinky, nearly all white, aggro young dudes packing in there. Standing in the aisles during intermission, not moving, shoulders bumping. In the stage one room, some cufflinked twit banker was busy making phone calls during the presentation. We finally stood up and gave him stinkeye, so he scurried to the back of the room and stepped out, but was still audible. Then he stepped back in to loudly finish, then pulled a chair back to create his own row and sat. By this point we were so tired of being elbowed and guys not letting you pass that we took it out on him, went and stood right in front of him, blocking his view, hoping he would say "that's irritating." Being smarter than us, he just left, omg too much freedom! we pray we did not just stick our arse in Charlie Shrem's face, no we don't think Charlie dresses like that.
Love n fish n chips
Dave
