Crypto and blockchain event organizers adapt to the Covid-19 lockdown by going virtual
Crypto and blockchain events have boomed worldwide, and although they’ve been significantly affected by the global Covid-19 pandemic, many of them have adapted and are now taking place online.
It is tough to say when the first such event took place, but in 2020, over 60 blockchain, crypto, and FinTech events where scheduled in tens of countries around the world, according to report by Finder.
If you’ve never been to one of these events, you’ve been missing out on the excitement and the energy that one can breathe as the buzz and the hype rise to levels rarely seen elsewhere.
The crypto meetings are interesting because of all the fantastic projects that are present explaining their mission, concept, and objectives. Many of them are unique projects such as the Basic Attention Token (BAT), aimed at getting people paid for looking at advertisements. And Electroneum, the award-winning crypto developed to empower the unbanked and enable people in developing countries to access to the global digital economy to help them break the cycle of poverty.
It is also interesting to be there because one cannot help wondering if the person you meet or bump into is a Bitcoin or Altcoin-made millionaire or even billionaire. The first question is always, “how long have you been in crypto, and do you have assets or do you hodl?” When someone replies they’ve been in it since 2017 or before, one tends to believe, that person has made millions with cryptocurrency.
But that’s not all. You immediately know that most people there have their own very interesting take on blockchain and crypto. Blockchain can resolve many of the word’s issues, such as corruption, as it makes government processes more transparent and because it is a distributed ledger, it is open for anybody to see. It can improve supply chains, reduce counterfeiting as it can track provenance of products. These, just to mention very few of the solutions it offers.
The evolution of currency
Crypto is the future, there is no denying that, and all the evidence is there for all to see. Several countries, including China, Estonia, Cambodia, Turkey, and Japan, are on the brink of issuing their very own Central Bank Digital Currency. Facebook is also about to launch Libra. So many more institutional and corporate crypto projects are in the pipeline indicating where the evolution of currency is headed.
The summits, conferences, and meetings are where you can meet the actual people behind the cryptos you like. And to be able to speak to the people behind that particular digital asset is a privilege you can relish during these events. However, attending these conferences can be expensive or involve travel.
That is why online events such as the ANON Summit this 18 and 19 May are such a unique opportunity to live the exhilarating experience. The event features personalities such as Andreas Antonopoulos, the author of Mastering Bitcoin, Maxilimian Marenbach, Kraken Head of Banking, Jonas Lamis of Staker DAO, Electroneum’s Richard Ells and many more speakers.
Electroneum, the UK-based, award-winning crypto, has taken that one step further by becoming one of the first crypto projects to enable thousands of their community members access to the entire event and virtual exhibition area. By following this link, you can purchase your free €20 VIP ticket.
At the event, Electroneum and AnyTask CEO Richard Ells is scheduled to deliver the keynote and participate in a panel discussion on the future of digital banking and financial exclusion along with Kraken Head of Banking Maximilian Marenbach and StakerDAO CEO and Founder Jonas Lamis. Mr. Ells is also scheduled to be the first entrepreneur to address the online summit with a speech entitled “Does crypto adoption drive the market or does the market drive adoption?”
Lack of diversity
An interesting fact — albeit concerning because of the lack of diversity — is that over 80% of attendees are male, according to a report from Bizzabo, who analyzed thousands of the world’s largest events spanning across 23 countries.
They took a look at the 60,000 speakers that participated in those events between 2013 and 2018. They found that almost 70% of the speakers were male, and the remaining 30%, female.
In a Forbes article, Bizzabo CMO and Co-Founder Alon Alroy is quoted saying, in one cryptocurrency event, in particular, 84 men were on stage versus only three women. “This has to change,” he said.
“Yet even crypto events focused more on blockchain education, where the majority of registrants tend to be students, also attract more male attendees than women,” the article adds. “For example, the TRON niTRON summit held last year in San Francisco brought in close to one thousand people from across the globe, many of whom were students and technologists. However, findings from TRON’s event team show that about 70% of attendees were male, while only 30% were female.”
As the world changes dramatically amid the Covid-19 pandemic bringing the global economy to a grind halt, the show must go on as there is no stopping the evolution of currency.
Originally published at https://news.electroneum.com on May 1, 2020.
