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DeFi and Credit Risk

We just finished the first full day of public Consensus, and I've been asked to talk about what I've seen from the ground. But it's hard to come up with something more important to say than:

Wow.

Woah.

Dang.

CoinDesk held its first Consensus event in 2015, which is just under seven years ago. There were a whopping 500 people there.

This year's Consensus is the first time the conference has happened in person since the coronavirus pandemic started in 2020. The last number I heard about this year's event is that 17,000 people will be there.

So yeah. Wow. Woah. Dang.

Since 2016, I've been to most of the Consensus conferences. The infamous 2018 conference at New York's Marriott Marquis stands out as a point of reference. It was the height of the post-ICO craze, and even though the mood was starting to turn bad, nearly 9,000 people came to the event.

That seemed like too much for the space at the Marriott to handle. The registration lines still give people traumatic flashbacks. One reason we moved to Austin, Texas, was because of that awful memory. I'm happy to say that I haven't seen any traffic jams there yet, even though there are almost twice as many people.

The vibes, man, are an even more interesting thing to compare to 2018. The 2018 event came after a very bad market crash. During the event, bitcoin (BTC) was trading for about $6,600, which was 66 percent less than its local peak of just under $20,000 in December 2017. Things were pretty bad.

A market crash happened before this year's event, too. Bitcoin has lost 57 percent of its value since November, when it hit a record high of $67,000. But at Consensus 2022, it's hard to find a sad or angry face, which is different from 2018.

The convention center is full of curious people who want to learn more about decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO), scaling solutions for Ethereum, and all sorts of other things that don't have much to do with the current market but could be very profitable in the long run.

It's true that sentiment has a big impact on crypto markets, but the most dedicated people are starting to see that sentiment isn't completely tied to markets. This group is getting bigger.

Real, wide-spread, and in-your-face diversity is another new thing that stands out at Consensus. We've been talking for years about how making crypto more open would make it easier for a lot more people to use, and now we're starting to see that happen. As someone who grew up and still lives in a multiracial area, it made me feel great to see so many Black people in the audience, onstage, and backstage. The work of CoinDeskers and contributors like Isaiah Thomas, Tyrone Ross, and Spencer Dinwiddie has a lot to do with this.

Unfortunately, the growth of Consensus also means that there are more chances for people to act badly. If you want to keep your dignity and reputation, you might not want to have long conversations while watching a panel, sneak into unapproved areas to pitch journalists, or bring a loudspeaker to disrupt panels. I've seen all of these things in the last two days.

There's a lot to gain at Consensus, but there's even more to lose if you leave the industry thinking you're a jackass. We don't stop being nice to each other because we have fun and make up our own rules.

Even though I had a lot going on, I was able to run a few panels on Thursday at the Big Ideas stage, which was put together by the Layer 2 features and opinion team. I got to talk about DAO design with Ellie Rennie from RMIT and others, and I also had a very strange and fun conversation with Chris Gabriel, aka MemeAnalysis on YouTube. We'll probably have some clips and write-ups soon for those who couldn't go or watch the live streams.

Seeing it all in person would have been a lot more fun, of course. We hope you'll come with us next year.