Impressions from the European Blockchain Convention 2022

Did you know that you are reading this text on the Web 2 page, and before that (if you are following us) you learned about it through social networks – also on Web 2?

It is the Internet that we already know well and use every day, but still, we will not talk about it in the text. We will reveal to you firsthand what the new, revolutionary era of the Internet brings (which is already greatly changing everything, and it is called) – Web 3.

About how determined we are to find out everything about Web 3, also speaks the fact that, following its tracks, we even went to Barcelona!

But let’s start in order.

Our agency was created in the infancy of social networks when the market was highly young and at the beginning of its journey. Then it was necessary to educate clients and explain to them the advantages and power of everything that Web 2 provides – basically, it is two-way communication with the target group, far more direct than was the case ever before.

Today, 10 years later, we live in a time when the Internet is developing rapidly, and that is in the direction of decentralization, that is, everything that Web 3 entails, which already greatly changes the things we are used to and introduces significant novelties. As before, our goal is to understand all the changes and develop in accordance with them, to support our clients – again at the right time, introducing them to all the possibilities that the new Internet revolution brings us. That is why the next step in the development path of our creative digital agency is the transition to the Web 3 sphere.

In this regard, part of the Homepage team visited the European Blockchain Convention 2022, which took place at the end of June in Barcelona, with 1,500 participants from all over the world and 130 lecturers and speakers. There are many impressions, but let’s start in order. Of course, we’re sure your first question is simple:

What new did we learn?

Our interest and research on the topic of blockchain, crypto, NFT projects and in general Web 3 as a new era of the Internet began long before going to the conference, so we left quite prepared and willing to hear new insights first-hand.

What is obvious, but also what we confirmed at the conference itself, is that the market is very young and that the entire community is still learning through projects, one can say – by the learning by doing method. Therefore, there are no proven recipes and safe solutions, but this is exactly what represents unlimited space for new ideas and dedicated people who will stand out and make a difference (it also leaves room for failures, but they are also an integral part of the learning process ☝️).

We know that the future is in the blockchain and that further development of the Web 3 internet revolution will follow, but what will that development look like? It seems to us that none of the lecturers had a completely clear answer to this question, because the market is quite unpredictable, which by no means means that it should not be dealt with. On the contrary.

Coming back to the question of what we learned at the conference, we would present it through the following items, which for us were the most interesting information and thoughts from #EBC22:

• Web 3 is the internet of value.
• In Web 3 everyone can monetise their contribution to the internet.
• In Web 3 we have more trust in the community than in the traditional system. 
• People have the same needs in the Web 3 as before – security, simplicity and profit. 
• People want convenience. But they want privacy too. So let’s combine  those two in Web 3. 
• It is necessary to attract people to Web 3 through social media – infrastructure and system of Web 2  – because now Web 3 is what Web 2 was in 1998. 
• Remember that young generations are more likely to have wallets before having bank accounts. 
• 71% of adults in the Philippines don’t have a bank account. Even before the pandemic, one in five people lived below the poverty line. By 2019, 10% of the population was already using cryptocurrencies to make payments. 
• NFTs and tokenization enabled us to monetize content and (inter)actions.
• Just because we can tokenize everything does not mean that we should. Let’s make it useful and meaningful. 

The last is actually one of the ideas from a very interesting panel discussion on tokenization. There is no definitive answer here either, but we will closely monitor how the situation develops and how NFTs will find their place under the sun – in the long run.

Another controversy in crypto circles is the issue of regulation. According to many, some sort of regulation must exist, even though crypto is based on the idea of ​​decentralization. So that there would be no regulations that would make the idea pointless, but would provide even greater security to users.

Another important topic is also uncertain, which concerns not only the development of the blockchain but also a major global problem that opens a new discussion.

Can Crypto Go Green?

The cryptocurrency mining process uses a procedure known as “proof of work”, where it is necessary for a large number of hardware resources to work constantly, in order not to “mine” cryptocurrency, which is actually a reward for invested resources. The more resources, the greater the chance to mine something, which nowadays represents entire mining farms of thousands and thousands of computers running constantly, which consume huge amounts of electricity.

However, there is a possibility to prevent this, as the excessive energy consumption of the outdated blockchain technology can be avoided by using a process called “proof of stake”. On this topic, we heard from representatives of the Canadian company in Sweden “Hive” and the Danish company “Concordium” who spoke, among other things, about the ways in which crypto can be sustainable.

One of the proposals is the so-called “Play to earn” games that involve following the protocol, which is quite different from the known games. All that is expected from the players in order to get the reward is to follow some procedure, in order to get the reward, which is not sustainable in the long run, and on the other hand, it does not satisfy the gamer’s appetite either. On the other hand, making a game that would meet the expectations of gamers is a big challenge, and additionally requires community building.

Recap

The general impression is that a new Internet revolution is not coming – it is already happening in a big way. Changes are daily, the market is young and for this reason agility, constant learning and research are crucial.

In this phase of Web 3, all efforts are focused on expanding the market and presenting ideas to new people and investors in the existing market. In this regard, there is also a trend of building new services on the blockchain with this very goal in mind.

Most businesses are still in the initial stages of development and are looking for their direction and their place in the crypto market. Currently, a few big names and brands that have already gained a reputation and built an image are recognised, but it is still a small number and there is a lot of room for expansion and enormous development.

In addition to large companies, the public is also very interested and wants to be educated on this topic, so the recommendation of a large number of lecturers was to create as simple applications as possible and simplify the process of entry of ordinary people into the crypto world.

In the end, all of us who have been in the blockchain for a long time can contribute to the development of the crypto market by imparting knowledge and educating those around us, which we will also do, so follow us! 😉

If you are already planning to launch your NFT project and need support for a good start, you can contact us here. 📥