Last Friday, June 10, Bit2Me was present at Consensus 2022, the crypto world’s most important event held annually in Austin, Texas.
This year, the event gathered more than 15,000 attendees and 500 speakers, including our CFO, Pablo Cassadio, and Bit2Me’s CSO, Abel Peña, who participated in the panel “Winning the Trust of Web 3”.
Our colleagues exposed the importance of education and training to understand the crypto world, as well as the priority of establishing a favorable regulation at a global level for cryptocurrencies and the need for exchange companies to bet very strongly on security and cyber protection mechanisms.
This year’s Consensus may be one of the most complex due to the current climate of tension caused by the bad news that hits us daily. In this context, it may be difficult for many to be optimistic.
However, if we focus on strategic events such as the one that took place in Austin, we can see that the industry continues to move forward and that, despite everything, it is in good health.
Today, we want to share with you some of the key trends and lessons learned at Consensus 2022:
1. The quality of the projects will become higher and higher
In 2017, the “ICO bubble” left behind all those projects created by unknown users whose only objective was pure and simple speculation.
From that crisis we understood that the best projects are those that are sustained by a community and that it is not easy to develop a sustainable protocol, it requires work, commitment and listening to users.
The teams behind the projects are increasingly interested in allocating tokens only to those who have shown real interest in the project and who have contributed value.
Project launches now rely on stakers who secure the network, developers who improve the protocol, voters who participate in governance decisions, degens who provide liquidity and other active members of the community.
Any quality project wants only one thing: engaged users who can set in motion the positive feedback loop of the protocol’s growth.
2. Protocols such as Agoric, Cosmos and Osmosis will lead the industry
Protocols that are able to connect multiple blockchains or that allow users to create marketplaces between different protocols will become increasingly important.
For example, one of the best features of Cosmos is precisely the fact that it creates an ecosystem that connects projects of all kinds, whether they are dedicated to finance or not.
Blockchain interoperability has been a topic of discussion among crypto experts from the beginning and has also been present in the Consensus 2022.
As blockchain technology becomes more sophisticated and increasingly complex blockchains appear, it is only natural that bridges appear between them that allow the user to jump from Solana to Ethereum and from there to Cosmos, without having to go through an exchange.
Interoperable blockchains are necessary to allow users to easily create marketplaces. Smart contracts can be programmed to be compatible, making tokens like Lego pieces that can be joined or separated, facilitating the creation of new decentralised applications and the generation of much larger communities.
As cross-chain bridges and interoperable blockchains evolve, operability between different isolated blockchain ecosystems will increase. This will ultimately lead to an increase in an improved user experience, being able to connect P2E games with AMM protocols or NFT marketplaces.
3. Building and maintaining your community is more important than ever
Crypto communities are also evolving and developing new core values.
These groups now focus on social capital, authority and common edification, working together to improve the protocols and projects that develop within them.
Those projects that are able to integrate and sustain these new values, to transfer them to their community through communications and interactions, and that are able to do so over the long term, will stay and grow.
Those that are not able to adapt to the values of their communities and cannot transmit their message will disappear.
4. Liquid staking is going to be a big thing in the future
Liquid staking not only gives owners of a blocked token the ability to continue using it, but also allows them to earn higher profits through a simpler method than conventional staking.
Furthermore, by giving users an easier option for staking, it not only increases adoption but also helps to strengthen blockchain networks in general.
Liquid staking provides owners of blockchain tokens with a derivative that they can use in other performance activities, such as DeFi. It is an innovation that could completely change the world of staking.
One of the main advantages of liquid staking is that it allows us to stack returns, meaning that we can make profits in other activities, while at the same time generating staking rewards.
Thus, the more people participate in liquid staking protocols, the more secure and stable they are. This is because they are Proof of Stake networks, so the strength and resilience of the network will be proportional to the number of validators and the amount of capital they have staked in the network.
5. No matter how bad things get, blockchain and crypto are here to stay
Crypto and blockchain have far more value than the sum of their products. It is a disruptive technology that has transformed society and the way we understand finance.
Crypto is a very powerful movement, Bitcoin has become legal tender in several countries, and blockchain technology is being applied to many sectors, such as art, education, identity verification, public spending records and even healthcare.
Bad news about market crashes or failed projects is just that – bad news. This does not mean that the technology behind crypto has failed or is worthless, nothing of the sort.
Some projects fail because of mismanagement by those in charge, but the same is true of large companies in the traditional world. When Lehman Brothers went bankrupt in 2008, no one thought that fiat money had failed or that traditional companies would disappear forever. We simply knew that a company had engaged in speculation and failed.
The blockchain and the crypto world will move on, as it has gained a very important trust space within the world and modern society.
What will happen now? Bad times are hard, but they also serve to demonstrate the strength of projects, how deep their roots are. Those projects whose roots are weak will perish, while the rest will go on, strengthened.
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