{"id":4983,"date":"2022-06-17T00:03:17","date_gmt":"2022-06-17T00:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/?p=4983"},"modified":"2022-06-17T00:03:17","modified_gmt":"2022-06-17T00:03:17","slug":"decadence-and-denial-reflections-on-consensus-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/?p=4983","title":{"rendered":"Decadence and Denial: Reflections on Consensus 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\namzn_assoc_placement = \"adunit0\";\r\namzn_assoc_tracking_id = \"totafreearti-20\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_mode = \"search\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_type = \"smart\";\r\namzn_assoc_marketplace = \"amazon\";\r\namzn_assoc_region = \"US\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_search_phrase = \"crypto\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_category = \"All\";\r\namzn_assoc_search_bar = \"false\";\r\namzn_assoc_title = \"\";\r\namzn_assoc_rows =\"1\";\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"\/\/z-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/onejs?MarketPlace=US\"><\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<h3>Key Takeaways<\/h3>\n<p>Consensus 2022, CoinDesk\u2019s flagship crypto conference, took place last week in Austin, Texas.<br \/>\nThe live music capital of the world drew in over 15,000 crypto enthusiasts from across the globe.<br \/>\nHowever, the conference festivities were offset by the sharp decline in the crypto market during the event. <\/p>\n<p>Share this article<\/p>\n<p>Last week, <i>CoinDesk<\/i> hosted its flagship Consensus conference in Austin, Texas, the self-styled live music capital of the world, which drew thousands from around the globe to bake under the brutal Texas sun. Meanwhile, crypto market conditions showed just as little mercy, culminating in a calamitous few days for the industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Deep in the Heart of Crypto<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u201c<i>\u2026There\u2019s a lot of good people in town<br \/><\/i><i>They love to hear me holler, see me spend my dollar<br \/><\/i><i>And I wouldn\u2019t think of lettin\u2019 em down!\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><i>\u2014 <\/i>Willie Nelson<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">June 9-12, 2022. Austin, Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s nothing quite like a crypto conference.<\/p>\n<p>Consensus 2022, <i>CoinDesk<\/i>\u2019s flagship conference, took place last week in Austin amid the usual fanfare: VCs and whales surreptitiously circulated, cutting deals and scoping projects; recruiters buzzed by busy booths while job seekers barely missed them; and lavish parties packed every venue in Austin.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Bars and clubs and hotel lobbies percolated with players big and small, each one working an angle, each one schmoozing a client or an investor or a media contact, each one trying to one-up the party before. Drugs and booze and money and skin surged through the streets of Austin, undeterred by the scorching Texas sun. A walk down 6th Street during crypto conference time is like walking through a Dylan song\u2014<i>\u201cThere was music in the caf\u00e9s at night and revolution in the air\u2026<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Crypto enthusiasts like the language of revolution\u2014they want to see the world turned upside down. But revolutions, as a rule, tend to turn to bloodbaths before all is said and done.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The Cart Before the Horse<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>\u00a0\u201cA fool and his money are soon parted.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u2014English Proverb<\/p>\n<p>Like any other crypto conference, the name of the game at Consensus is confidence. If you harbor suspicion that the cryptocurrency industry is any less revolutionary or virtuous than its proponents make it out to be, beware of your potential ostracism, because these people do not want to hear it.<\/p>\n<p>But one doesn\u2019t have to look far at a crypto conference to see how the game works: Someone has a project that they need money to fund, and new users must give it to them. In return, they will receive a governance token, an NFT, or some other digital asset which the team will insist\u2014in writing no less\u2014has no monetary value, but will appear on exchanges and secondary markets all the same.<\/p>\n<p>There are many kinds of language that crypto folks use to dance with the devil while sidestepping the rules they ought to know perfectly well apply to them. <em>\u201c<\/em>What Ponzi scheme? We\u2019re \u2018bootstrapping a community\u2019!<em>\u201d<\/em> <em>\u201c<\/em>Security? Nah bro, it\u2019s a \u2018governance token\u2019!<em>\u201d<\/em>\u00a0<em>\u201c<\/em>What monetary value? We promise the token is not intended to have monetary value; we just keep 30% in a \u2018Treasury\u2019 because\u2014hey look, FUD over there!<em>\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n<p>Oftentimes a team will barely have a product yet, or possibly none at all. But few let that get in the way of raising capital to develop games, build ecosystems, issue governance tokens, or otherwise \u201cdrive value\u201d for the protocol and its token holders, Howey Test be damned.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll give an example. At Consensus, one of the more notable fundraisers of the event was a planned NFT auction to fund the production of a film version of Camila Russo\u2019s <i>The Infinite Machine<\/i><i>. <\/i>Billed as a \u201cfilm event,\u201d the evening drew only a handful of people, most of whom were expecting to see a movie only to be informed on arrival that there was none\u2014this was an NFT <i>auction<\/i> to <i>fund<\/i> the forthcoming movie.<\/p>\n<p>The NFTs themselves are of course not securities and represent no financial interest in the overall project. Instead, the they are associated with \u201cutility\u201d and \u201ccommunity,\u201d the NFT market\u2019s favorite terminology for avoiding securities regulations.<\/p>\n<p>These \u201cmeta movie traits,\u201d as they\u2019re called, offer predictable perks for randomly selected NFT holders, including the chance to attend the premiere, the option to be an extra in the film, and a listing in its credits. \u201cThis is real-life utility that we\u2019re talking about here,\u201d said the moderator, parroting the right buzzwords and leaving the rest to the imagination.<\/p>\n<p>But as Robert Burns tells us, \u201cthe best laid plans of mice and men oft go astray,\u201d and boy did this one ever. Russo herself was unable to attend in person, even if thanks to the miracle of technology she was able to join by video chat. It only took between four and five minutes to get the audio working, and the moderator only forgot about Russo\u2019s presence on the screen behind her for about 10 minutes before the guest of honor herself interjected. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The poor turnout was only exacerbated by misconstrued expectations, and enthusiasm was so low that the planned live auction\u2014ostensibly the whole point of the evening\u2014was scrapped altogether. Instead, the auction opened that night on OpenSea.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Judging by OpenSea activity metrics, <i>The Infinite Machine\u2019<\/i>s NFT drop has been an inarguable disaster. One source mentioned that the bidding was expected to \u201cstart low\u201d at 1 ETH, but they\u2019ve been lucky to fetch 0.2 at this point.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are creating a community and audience <i>first<\/i>, before there\u2019s even a film out,\u201d Russo said at one point, echoing a sentiment that pervades the crypto space. But if the idea is to \u201corganically\u201d bootstrap a community out of nothing, the effort may be an uphill battle. \u201cNothing will come of nothing,\u201d says Shakespeare\u2019s King Lear in the opening pages of his play: \u201cSpeak again!\u201d (I.i).<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The Gates of Eden<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><i>\u201c\u2026Paupers change possessions,<br \/><\/i><i>Each one wishing for what the other has got,<br \/><\/i><i>And the princess and the prince discuss what\u2019s real and what is not.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><i>\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter inside the Gates of Eden.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u00a0\u2014 Bob Dylan<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, as hustlers, operators, and grifters swam among the whales, life in the real world went on.<\/p>\n<p>On the third day I met a vendor selling flowers outside the convention center whose proceeds were to go toward helping the homeless. This gentleman, whose real name we won\u2019t print here but who had taken on the handle \u201cSam\u201d (in honor of the late, great Sam Cooke), wasn\u2019t having much luck with the conference crowd, despite the fat pockets moving freely about and the purported good will of the financial democratization movement.<\/p>\n<p>Having taken enough pity to spare five bucks by Venmo, I gently suggested that maybe flowers weren\u2019t the best approach to this crowd\u2014we were mostly from out of town, after all, with most significant others back home elsewhere in the world and beyond the immediate delivery range for fresh flora.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m curious, then,\u201d he said, \u201cIf flowers aren\u2019t the right play here, what kind of things would these folks be interested in parting with their money for?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell,\u201d I said, hesitantly, but knowing full well the answer: \u201cDo you know what NFTs are?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve heard of them,\u201d he said, \u201cbut I don\u2019t know much.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For the next few minutes, I explained the digital collectible phenomenon and together we began to hammer out what an NFT collection that directly benefits the homeless would look like. By the end of the day, we had a plan to release 10,000 NFTs, each one correlated to a particular homeless person, with healthy royalty fees on secondary sales going directly to each of them. So long as crypto folks want to be seen benefitting the social good, I reckoned, you could hope that those things would trade at least half as well as goblins.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">***<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, as Sam conceptualized his own project from a position of virtually zero capital, thousands circulated inside the convention halls to see what projects untold billions had flowed into in the last year. Tokenomics, liquidity pooling, bootstrapping, airdrops, I(any letter but C)Os, and all other manner of opaque cryptospeak dominated conversations while eager heads nodded along with enthusiasm.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, it was agreed\u2014mass adoption is on the horizon! Yes, it was agreed\u2014blockchain verification was the future of organizing property rights! Yes, it was agreed\u2014even court findings would be unable to trump the absolute certainty of the blockchain\u2019s records! Despite a prolonged bear market, the decisions of the crypto crowd have already been made. Blockchain is the real deal, and there\u2019s no way it will not underpin our lives. So it was agreed. Thus, despite the declines, the conference goers cried \u201cFUD!\u201d and kept on their grind.<\/p>\n<p>As my wife once told me, not incorrectly, \u201cThere are people on the streets with nothing to fill their bellies, and you guys are off trading Pok\u00e9mon on Mount Olympus.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Amid the parties and the drinking, the clandestine drugging and brazen flirting, the music and the dancing and the money, money, money\u2014prices slowly declined. Rumors of insolvencies that flittered about Twitter were dismissed as fear, uncertainty, and doubt\u2014which, I\u2019d remind the student and teacher alike, are all perfectly natural emotions whose purpose is to keep us safe.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And the bands played on.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The Writing on the Wall<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u00a0<i>\u201cMy friend, you\u2019re weighed in the balance and found wanting<br \/><\/i><i>Your kingdom is divided, it can\u2019t stand<br \/><\/i><i>Yes, you\u2019ve been weighed in the balance and found wanting<br \/><\/i><i>Your houses are built upon the sand.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u00a0\u2014Johnny Cash\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Sunday night, the music stopped.<\/p>\n<p>On Jun. 12 we received news that Celsius, a centralized service for decentralized finance (I know, I know), would pause all withdrawals and swaps indefinitely due to \u201cextreme market conditions,\u201d as if they couldn\u2019t have seen such a thing coming in what even normies know is the world\u2019s most volatile asset class. In doing so, it kicked off one of the most impressive meltdowns in the history of the industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ethereum and Bitcoin tumbled almost 15% over just 24 hours (about 37% and 32% over the last week, respectively), and the rest of the market has erupted into a wildfire. Tron\u2019s USDD stablecoin has depegged and is struggling to regain its intended price, while double-digit losses ranging from 25-40% dominate the charts.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Institutional players in the blockchain business have shown similar signs of buckling under the stress test as well. On Monday, BlockFi laid off 20% of its workforce in a move reminiscent of Robinhood\u2019s mass layoff almost two months ago, and yesterday Coinbase nearly matched it by firing 18% of its staff. Also yesterday, whisperings of liquidity problems at Three Arrows Capital flew around Twitter and seemed to garner credence when, early this morning, the firm\u2019s co-founder Su Zhu tweeted cryptically, \u201cWe are in the process of communicating with relevant parties and fully committed to working this out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s been said that bear markets exist to kill off bad projects while the fittest survive. And the killing, it would seem, has begun.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>\u201cO Death, O Death!<br \/>Won\u2019t you spare me away for another year?<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Well, what is this that I can\u2019t see<br \/>With ice cold hands takin\u2019 hold of me?<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>\u201cI am Death, none can excel<br \/>I\u2019ll open the door to heaven or hell.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>\u201cO, Death,\u2019 someone would pray<br \/>Could you wait to call me another day?\u2026<br \/><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>\u201c\u2026No wealth, no ruin, no silver, no gold<br \/>Nothing satisfies me but your soul.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u2014\u201cO Death,\u201d American Folk Song; Author Unknown<\/p>\n<p>Today, as rumors continue to circulate about insolvencies, margin calls, further sell-offs, and the great fear that Bitcoin will dip below its previous cycle\u2019s high, outright panic has gripped the markets. There are many, especially those who were around for previous cycles, who are taking comfort in the idea that this is business as usual, but for retail investors losing their shirts and for workers suddenly finding themselves out of jobs, the weekend was mostly devastating.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, the fact that liquidations are occurring and that overleveraged positions have put these institutional players in a tight spot should come as a surprise to exactly no one. If DeFi has anything in common with traditional finance, it\u2019s a propensity to periodically (and suddenly) lose large amounts of money very quickly as a result of overexposure to risk. If you remember 2008, you know exactly what I mean, and you\u2019ll recall that there were many cold years that followed.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>During that crisis, the United States government sprang into action with the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 and later the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which between them pumped almost $1 trillion into preventing the further collapse of any \u201ctoo big to fail\u201d financial institutions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But for DeFi and CeDeFi protocols, there will be no such cavalry to come to the rescue. Instead, federal agencies across D.C. are studiously crafting crypto policy while the hawklike gaze of Gary Gensler is trained on the space like the Eye of Sauron. It may be 101\u00b0 in the shade in Austin, but make no mistake about it\u2014June this year is the deepest shade of crypto winter.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><i>\u201cTu<\/i><em>rn out the lights<br \/>The party\u2019s over<br \/>They say that all good things must end.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Call it a night<br \/>The party\u2019s over<br \/>And tomorrow starts the same old thing again.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>\u2014 Willie<\/em><\/p>\n<p><i>Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned BTC, ETH, and several other cryptocurrencies.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Share this article<\/p>\n<p>The information on or accessed through this website is obtained from independent sources we believe to be accurate and reliable, but Decentral Media, Inc. makes no representation or warranty as to the timeliness, completeness, or accuracy of any information on or accessed through this website. Decentral Media, Inc. is not an investment advisor. We do not give personalized investment advice or other financial advice. The information on this website is subject to change without notice. Some or all of the information on this website may become outdated, or it may be or become incomplete or inaccurate. We may, but are not obligated to, update any outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate information.<\/p>\n<p>You should never make an investment decision on an ICO, IEO, or other investment based on the information on this website, and you should never interpret or otherwise rely on any of the information on this website as investment advice. We strongly recommend that you consult a licensed investment advisor or other qualified financial professional if you are seeking investment advice on an ICO, IEO, or other investment. We do not accept compensation in any form for analyzing or reporting on any ICO, IEO, cryptocurrency, currency, tokenized sales, securities, or commodities.<\/p>\n<p>See full terms and conditions.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"title\">\u201cBitcoin Is Freedom\u201d: Reflections on Bitcoin 2022<\/h3>\n<p>\nOnce every year\u2014barring pandemic, that is\u2014tens of thousands of Bitcoin enthusiasts descend upon the City of Miami to celebrate Bitcoin, the first true cryptocurrency and still the largest in the&#8230; <\/p>\n<h3 class=\"title\">\u201cCrypto Is Like the Eiffel Tower\u201d: Reflections on Paris Bl&#8230;<\/h3>\n<p>\nParis Blockchain Week 2022 focused on NFTs, the multi-chain future, preparing for mass adoption, and more. Paris Blockchain Week 2022 Reviewed This week, a few thousand crypto geeks, industry heads,&#8230; <\/p>\n<h3 class=\"title\">Where the Bufficorns Roam: ETHDenver Reviewed<\/h3>\n<p>\nETHDenver, one of the world\u2019s most celebrated Web3 conferences, took place from Feb. 11 through Feb 20 this year. Crypto Briefing was there to meet with founders, explore new projects,&#8230; <\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\namzn_assoc_placement = \"adunit0\";\r\namzn_assoc_tracking_id = \"totafreearti-20\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_mode = \"search\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_type = \"smart\";\r\namzn_assoc_marketplace = \"amazon\";\r\namzn_assoc_region = \"US\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_search_phrase = \"bitcoin\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_category = \"All\";\r\namzn_assoc_search_bar = \"false\";\r\namzn_assoc_title = \"\";\r\namzn_assoc_rows =\"1\";\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"\/\/z-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/onejs?MarketPlace=US\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/cryptobriefing.com\/decadence-and-denial-reflections-on-crypto-consensus-2022\/?utm_source=category_feed&#038;utm_medium=rss\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Takeaways Consensus 2022, CoinDesk\u2019s flagship crypto conference, took place last week in Austin, Texas. The live music capital of the world drew in over 15,000 crypto enthusiasts from across the globe. However, the conference festivities were offset by the sharp decline in the crypto market during the event. Share this article Last week, CoinDesk [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4984,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-market-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4983"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4985,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4983\/revisions\/4985"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}