New York’s Times Square was the backdrop to NFT NYC
From 25–29 July we will be attending Singapore Blockchain Week. As the industry is weathering a storm, our experience at recent conferences has been quite different from the current bearish narrative. Perhaps we were in the eye of the storm, but what we found at Consensus 2022 and NFT NYC was a confident, powerful industry with incredible vision and countless inspiring individuals. It is clear that many of the world’s finest minds in finance and technology are moving from major traditional industries into the world of crypto and Web3 and it doesn’t seem likely that ‘crypto winter’ will change that.
Consensus 2022 Overview
Austin, Texas was host to Coindesk’s Consensus 2022
A sweltering hot Austin, Texas was the venue for Coindesk’s first in-person Consensus since 2019, following two years of a COVID-19 affected online format. This was a 17,000-strong event, beating CoinDesk’s previous biggest in-person event, the 9,000 attendees of Consensus 2018.
This year’s Consensus happened with the backdrop of a big sell-off in both crypto and traditional markets, most notably the collapse of TerraLab’s UST stablecoin. However heavyweight names like Edward Snowden, Dan Schulman (Paypal), US Senator Cynthia Lumis, Changpeng Zhao (Binance), Sam Bankman-Fried (FTX) presented a bright vision for crypto. Alongside the headline names, organisations and projects were notably focused on DAOs, self-custody solutions, payments, DeFi, NFTs, and gaming projects.
DAOs, DeFi & Metaverses
The DAO House, in particular, allowed attendees to explore the world of Decentralized Autonomous Organisations through featured sessions. Another topic that was never far from people’s lips was accessibility. Alchemy Pay’s Ecosystem Lead, Robert McCracken, gave a workshop on the subject and explained how crypto on/off ramps hold one of the keys to mainstream adoption as well as the most practical methods yet for crypto payment acceptance.
Crypto Winter is BUIDL Time
As many experienced names such as Vitalik Buterin have pointed out, these down periods are when crucial development is done on projects and valuations perhaps begin to reflect more accurately a project’s potential. It is when, as many joked at Consensus, we move away from “number go up” speculation and hype towards product engineers and developers.
During crypto’s last winter, following the boom and bust of 2017, huge advances were made in DeFi, NFTs and layer 2 scaling solutions that moved the industry forward in a huge way.
NFTs in NYC
NFT NYC at the Marriott, Times Square
Times Square was the central hub for NFT NYC’s sprawling, city-wide conference. A colourful affair with hundreds of official and unofficial parties with the main aim of exploring the world of NFTs that has rapidly grown into a multi-billion dollar industry. Whereas Consensus was perhaps more DeFi and finance-led, NFT NYC was focused on artists and the excitement surrounding the ‘creator economy’. Tron and Polygon’s presentations and booths stood out for their vision and scope while even the likes of Pussy Riot were there to bring the headlines.
NFTs have the potential to unlock the key to providing artists, fashion designers, and musicians with entirely new ways to build community following and monetise their work. At the same time, of course, NFTs are still being explored for their use in ticketing, personal identity and data ownership. NFT NYC was a testament to the excitement surrounding this blockchain sector.
Alchemy Pay (ACH) Demonstrates On/Off Ramps at Consensus 2022 and NFT NYC
For us, we sent members of our team to Consensus and NFT NYC for a number of reasons. Most pressing though, was that our crypto on/off ramps are now going through their final stages of testing. We are now optimising payment routing to offer the lowest transaction rates possible, improvement of the interface, and overcoming some initial issues with KYC and AML processes. At Consensus and NFT NYC we were able to demonstrate to existing and potential partners the capabilities of our ramps. We are able to sell crypto and on board users directly to platforms such as NFT marketplaces, DeFi protocols, and Metaverse virtual worlds with the possibility for exit back to fiat currency via remittances to bank accounts in 50+ fiat currencies.
Screenshot of Alchemy Pay’s on/off ramp
Singapore Blockchain Week 25–29 July
Singapore Blockchain Week 2022 aims to build a clear image of digital evolution and develop Singapore as a premier blockchain hub.
Alchemy Pay’s CMO Karmen Tang will be speaking at Singapore Blockchain Week on July 27 at 16.15pm Singapore Time (8.15am UTC). The panel discussion is entitled ‘Web2 to Web3 — How Should Companies Get Involved?’
To watch, register at blockchainweek.com.sg.
Alchemy Pay’s CMO Karmen Tang will be speaking at Singapore Blockchain
