[REPORT] NEAR representative at the 2022 European Blockchain Conference in Barcelona

[Kemal]

Hey Near Community,

I hope you had a nice weekend and are doing well!

I would like to share with you my report from the European Blockchain Convention. I had already posted the report in the proposal, but I thought for the overview it would be good to share it again separately.

As part of the Project Ops team (which is a sub-team of the NEAR @ConciergeTeam), I was a NEAR representative at the European Blockchain Convention from June 26-28. The largest blockchain convention in Barcelona with about 1,500 visitors, over 60 sponsors and 200 media partners.

The first evening was organized especially for VIP guests, so I already had the first conversations and made great contacts.

June 27 and 28, on the other hand, were filled with talks on various topics such as Legal, CBDCs, NFTs, Metaverse, Self-Sovereign Identity and much more.

Instead of 20 contacts as planned, I made a total of 54 new contacts from various industries over the 2.5 days.

Some of these contacts work for companies that I would like to onboard on Near or as partners of the Project Ops team and introduce to you herewith:

Sidenote: I got Covid the day I came back from Barcelona, so I had to postpone many appointments because I was sick for more than 3 weeks.

Onboarding on Near

» QPQ
QPQ is a layer 0 blockchain solution that allows you to leverage the best features, services and capabilities of any networked protocol.

➥ Status:

1. Schedule a meeting
2. Review Project
3. Send grant application details
4. Apply for a NEAR grant

» Betopia
Betopia is a betting platform that combines the traditional betting industry with blockchain technology. It is the blockchain betting dream world for Esports, international sports and virtual casinos. Currently the platform is still in development and the launch has been postponed a bit due to poor market conditions, but I had an appointment today with Tanja and Max who are very confident to launch Q4 and have great interest to develop on NEAR.

➥ Status

1. Schedule a meeting
2. Review Project
3. Send grant application details
4. Apply for a NEAR grant

» Farm.xyz
Farm.xyz is a farm aggregator where users have the ability to purchase farms from pools of different providers and blockchains. The company is currently seeking funding to launch the platform later this year.

➥ Status:

1. Schedule a meeting (July 19th)
2. Review Project
3. Send grant application details
4. Apply for a NEAR grant

» Satoshi.Art
Satoshi.Art is an educational NFT platform that aims to differentiate itself from other marketplaces by partnering with influencers who in turn educate their users about NFT through educational content, building a better connection rather than just selling.

➥ Status:

1. Schedule a meeting
2. Review Project
3. Send grant application details
4. Apply for a NEAR grant

» SchnoodleDAO

Schnoodle is a truly trustless and progressive DeFi DAO that bridges key cryptocurrency concepts including meme, yield farming, NFTs, and multichain interoperability.

As an investor in Schnoodle, there are many opportunities for you to gain SNOOD tokens. Simply buy and hold (BARK algorithm), farm via the Moon Farming Platform, or earn via Dework.

➥ Status:

1. Schedule a meeting
2. Review Project
3. Send grant application details
4. Apply for a NEAR grant

Business partner

» Satoshi Club
Satoshi Club is one of the largest crypto communities with over 105k active members on Telegram alone. Satoshi Club has agreed to work with NEAR in exchange for media exposure.

➥ Status:

1. Review Project
2. Schedule a meeting
3. Onboard as Media Partner for AMAs, Announcements, etc. (Maybe also interesting for your Stars Guild, @Zhunda?)

» AhoyConnect
AhoyConnect is a marketing tool that allows you to aggregate all of a community member’s data across all platforms. We at ConciergeTeam could use such a tool, because we want to reward the most active members with airdrops or future incentives and this is possible with this tool. I have asked if it is possible to include NEAR Wallet activity in the user’s valuation and we will see if it is possible.

➥ Status:

1. Review Project
2. Schedule a meeting with NF Marketing Team
3. Schedule a meeting with AhoyConnect
4. Get approval for integration

» CLS Global
CLS is an agency that specializes in consulting crypto companies. They provide service in the areas of marketing making & treasury building, marketing & branding, and blockchain consulting.

As we from the Project Ops team get requests from projects this would be a helpful partner to refer projects to.

➥ Status:

1. Schedule a meeting
2. Review Project
3. Send grant application details
4. Apply for a NEAR grant

In hindsight, I would have liked the panels to go into more depth on the topics. In addition, the panels were very tightly scheduled, so that there was little time for doing QAs, which I also found a pity.

But overall, the event was a great success. I made 116% more contacts than planned, am in talks with several projects to launch on Near, and also promoted NEAR by wearing my NEAR hoodie.

Fun Fact: Afterwards, I learned from @shreyas that even Near employees were at the event.

Check out the comments for my panel insights, if you’re interested and also, if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

I’m already planning the next event.

Thanks again to everyone who made this initiative possible!

Cheers!

[Kemal]

09:15 Institutional Welcome

• Barcelona 4th biggest crypto Hub in Europe
• More than 2,000 startups are in Barcelona
• Second most attractive city for founders
• Digital industry makes up 30% of the GDP in Barcelona
• 30bn in revenue was generated by Startups last year
• Barcelona is building a token-based loyalty program

[Kemal]

09:25 How to navigate the legal landscape in digital assets

• We need an insurance like in TradFi, where your funds are safe under the law until 100k
• Why is Lichtenstein a good place for crypto Startups?
  ○ Lichtenstein ACT
  ○ Comprehensive legislation
  ○ The secondary market for community token
• There are about 50,000 Blockchain patents
• There is also a patent risk problem with open source software
• Open Source
  ○ Copyright from the community of creators
  ○ Open Source doesn’t mean that you don’t have to care about copyright
• FATF
  ○ About 300 companies in the network
  ○ Travel Rule regulations will come
  ○ EOY 2023 most exchanges will go live with the Travel Rule
  ○ Travel Rule is not a crypto-specific legislation

[Kemal]

10:15 The Metaverse: a $1 trillion revenue opportunity

• Wallet becomes your identity
• In the physical world, money is abstract
• All human activity will be in the Metaverse

[Kemal]

10:45 Stablecoin, stability and CBDCs

• Currently all money supply has a 40 trillion marketcap (Without invested money included)
• What is a stablecoin?
  ○ Aimed to peg to the $USD
  ○ Fiat backed USDC/USDT
  ○ Crypto-backed $DAI
  ○ Overcolletarelized
  ○ Algorithmic stablecoin
  + Modify supply as demand
  + Easily can lose the peg
• Stablecoin mcap around $150 billion
• 90% of Central Banks are working on a Stablecoin
• 3 CBDC are already live
• In 5 years
  ○ Regulation is key
  ○ Hybrid Stablecoins
• CBDC and Stablecoins will coexist

[Kemal]

14:20 Crypto is finding its way into traditional multi-asset portfolios

• Inflation is a problem but also a catalyst for crypto
• Bitcoin is an inflation hedge
• With crypto for the first time, we have true price discovery bc the market works 24/7
• Don’t try to buy market bottoms or sell tops

[Kemal]

14:55 Building DeFi Protocols & DAOs

• Most DAOs are not autonomous, actually there is no real DAO today
• Community is KEY
• True decentralization is not possible, because people will always look for leadership
• Decentralization means trustless and trustlessness?
• Security is KEY
• Risk: People and on the product side
• Crypto is about people

[Kemal]

15:40 NFT: The next Generation tool for content creators

• Community > Play > Monetize
• How to start to build a community?
  ○ First you need a market
• Membership is KEY

[Kemal]

16:20 Moving from Web2 to Web3

• Changing from content creation to value creation
• Evolution from physical to digital
• Web1-3
  ○ Web1 Monetize Traffic
  ○ Web2 Monetize Traffic, Data
  ○ Web3 Monetize Everyone and Everything
• Everything that can will be tokenized in the future
• Wallet will be the key identifier
• Data is the new oil but now everyone will be able to make profit
• Winners → Bridges
• Only 0.15% illicit money activity in crypto

[Kemal]

12:00 What’s next for Play-to-Earn

• There are only 3 mn P2E players worldwide
• The main problem is the ecosystem that doesn’t exist at the moment like it does in the traditional gaming sector
• There are more people with crypto wallets than credit cards in the Philippines
• Asian market will lead the growth in P2E
• Incentives are very important
• People will make a lot of money with the NFTs
• Younger generation will have a wallet before they will have a bank account
• Value of the community is key to build a successful and valuable game
• Still need 2-5 years to get the technology properly for games

[Kemal]

09:15 Volatility vs. Stability: Indexes in Crypto

• How do you guys see the volatility in the market?
  ○ Existing funds love the volatility, they are actually doing good
  ○ There will be more structured products which will bring adoption, which will lead to stable volatility
  ○ Volatility creates opportunities but it also creates risks
• Would I still be able to have my assets in safe custody
  ○ MPC is the safest way to cold storage assets
  ○ Multi-Layer security
  ○ Compliance
• Why we need an index when the market is already following Bitcoin?
  ○ The way they follow now is because Bitcoins is the evolution, and everything else follows
  ○ You will see more sector-based indexes

[Kemal]

09:55 A new Era for financial Services

• Without lending and borrowing nothing will go far
  ○ We have to learn to handle the risks
• Long-term APY will go down
• Cryptocurrencies have to become interoperable
• Real-time settlement doesn’t prove trust in the market
• Especially in times of crisis the instant settlement will be KEY

[Kemal]

11:25 User Sovereignity: The Web3 promise

• Web3 will create a new society
• "Web3 is just recycling the P2P vision we had for the internet, but somewhere along the way Silicon Valley hijacked that and glorified parasitic value capture.”
• User Sovereignity and Internet Sovereignity
• Sovereignity is the solution if there is a war in your country
• Web3 is about promising and letting go of the EGO
• People trend toward convenience, that’s what people want
• For us to win is not to sell self-sovereignty but more to sell “cool”
• In 10 years even communities will work self-sovereign without any platform can intervene

[Jloc]

Congratulations @Kemal, great job as always

[FritzWorm]

Love your report!

[Kemal]

@Kemal

➥ Status

1. Schedule a meeting
2. Review Project
3. Send grant application details
4. Apply for a NEAR grant

Stauts Update Betopia

➥ Status

1. Schedule a meeting
2. Review Project
3. Send grant application details
4. Apply for a NEAR grant

[rahulgoel007]

Amazing and detailed report @Kemal. Great Job.

[Kemal]

@Kemal

➥ Status:

1. Schedule a meeting (July 19th)
2. Review Project
3. Send grant application details
4. Apply for a NEAR grant

Stauts Update Farm.xyz

➥ Status:

1. Schedule a meeting (July 19th)
2. Review Project
3. Send grant application details
4. Apply for a NEAR grant

[Zhunda]

@Kemal

» Satoshi Club
Satoshi Club is one of the largest crypto communities with over 105k active members on Telegram alone. Satoshi Club has agreed to work with NEAR in exchange for media exposure.

➥ Status:

1. Review Project
2. Schedule a meeting
3. Onboard as Media Partner for AMAs, Announcements, etc. (Maybe also interesting for your Stars Guild, @Zhunda?)

Hey Kemal, sure can do.
Just drop admins link to promo form. ))

Submit your NEAR project or guild to be advertised by Stars Guild

Goooooood, nah, best day for every NEAR community members. Stars Guild wants to step bit further and ease up advertising for your NEAR projects. How process goes? Pick up Youtuber from the list that we got. Fill out our form so we know more details about your guild or NEAR project. Have a beer or cup of coffee. We will get back you shortly to discuss ongoing processes. To raise your karma and support NEAR Stars Guild. Follow us: On hottest Telegram: Telegram: Contact @nearstars…

[Kemal]

@Kemal

➥ Status:

1. Schedule a meeting
2. Review Project
3. Send grant application details
4. Apply for a NEAR grant

Stauts Update CLS Global

➥ Status:

1. Schedule a meeting
2. Get Service Documentation
3. Negotiate ref fees
4. Make partnership official

PS: I had accidentally applied the wrong description for the bullet points before and adjusted it with the update.