By
Bhushan Akolkar
April 24th, 2024
The Blockchain Week, started today, is expected to host a series of events all concentrated in the global financial capital of New York.
A lot of blockchain industry experts and attendees are expected to flood New York this week to visit the ‘Blockchain Week NYC’ event, which is run in partnership with the New York Economic Development Corporation. The blockchain technology is said to be at the heart of the next-generation technological revolution and this event is expected to boost projects’ development and jobs creation opportunity in the blockchain space.
All eyes are set on the CoinDesk’s Consensus 2018 Conference – a three-day conference starting today, May 14, which is expected to have more than 4000 attendees. Attending this three-day conference can roughly cost the attendees around $2000 where they will get to hear some prominent industry leaders like Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard, Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey, and FedEx Corp. CEO Frederick Smith.
This euphoria shows that even though the crypto-market valuations have halved since the beginning of 2018, it has not deterred the confidence of industry players and giants. In fact, Robert Sluymer, managing director and head of technical research at Fundstrat Global Advisors, believes that the Consensus event can help to clear the regulatory clouds hovering crypto space and could prove to be a stepping stone for the next bull-run in the crypto market.
In an interview with CNBC Fast Money, Sluymer said:
“Bull-bear scenario developing where folks are arguing it’s getting lower. Our view is this is a much bigger bottom that has developed. If that’s the case, this pullback will be relatively shallow. It’s already pulling back from the 200-day. It’s sitting just above the 50-day moving average. So, between the $8,800 and $8,200 – and I know it’s a big range – but that’s where we will see support and we think Bitcoin continues higher from here.”
Sluymer believes that Bitcoin and other digital currencies are currently in the recovery phase and the ‘Blockchain Week NYC’ will provide a big catalyst for the next bull-run. He also points to the data and movement of Bitcoin after the Consensus events of the last three years – 2015, 2016, and 2017. Every time after the Consensus events, the crypto markets have responded with a bullish momentum.
Apart from CoinDesk’s 2018 Consensus Conference, there are many other blockchain events scheduled this week like the two-day Ethereal Summit run by ConsenSys, “Women on the Block” conference held on Mother’s Day, TokenSummit on May 17, NYC Blockchain Tech & Invest Summit on May 18 and The ADI Cryptocurrency Mining Summit.
Bill Barhydt, CEO of a mobile-based cryptocurrency storage app ‘Abra’ said:
“Clearly there’s a lot of money to be made in the enterprise IT world, and blockchain seems to be the flavor of the month.”
He further added:
“This represents an opportunity for companies that are trying to jump on that bandwagon to take advantage of that confluence of factors at the same time. Obviously, there’s a lot of money moving around in terms of sponsorships. We’re getting requests every day to sponsor.”
Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin to Boycott CoinDesk’s 2018 Consensus Conference
Although there’s a lot of euphoria surrounding the ‘Blockchain Week NYC’, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is seen locking horns with CoinDesk as he has announced his intention to boycott the event and even asked others to do so. In a series of Tweets, Vitalik Buterin has accused CoinDesk of being casual at their end and misrepresenting things.
On his Twitter handle Vitalik Buterin goes to mention four reasons why he is boycotting the Consensus conference.
I am boycotting @coindesk's Consensus 2018 conference this year, and strongly encourage others to do the same. Here is my reasoning why.
1. Coindesk is recklessly complicit in enabling giveaway scams. See their latest article on OMG, which *directly links* to a giveaway scam. pic.twitter.com/WDr9uZ8XOw
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) April 26, 2018
However, CoinDesk has responded to the first charge of Buterin by saying that it was “disappointed to learn of Vitalik’s tweet today regarding a CoinDesk reporting error, for which we apologize. One of our reporters included an unverified link in an article; we quickly identified the error and fixed it. We strive to maintain the highest level of unbiased, ethical journalism in order to provide the best possible coverage of the blockchain industry.”
On the other hand, OmiseGo has also supported Buterin by announcing that they will not attend the conference. In a Tweet they wrote:
We have decided to join @vitalikbuterin in not attending #Consensus2018. We can’t in good conscience support a publication that puts its readers at risk through careless reporting and reacts with hostility rather than humility when the error is brought to its attention. https://t.co/mXjCj0g5IW
— Boba Network 🧋 (@bobanetwork) April 26, 2018
The second reason not to attend the conference is an improper coverage by CoinDesk for EIP 999.
Ethereum developer Peter Szilagyi has also accused CoinDesk for not including his feedback, which the publication had sought on the issue of EIP 999.
. @coindesk asked me a few questions about EIP-999, but for some reason didn't add even one of my answers into their piece. Maybe they preferred a more apocalyptic piece, maybe my answers were too late to incorporate. Either way, I spent time writing it, so here ya go. #Ethereum pic.twitter.com/kDVuklNiLU
— Péter Szilágyi (karalabe.eth) (@peter_szilagyi) April 25, 2018
Buterin is seriously not happy on this. He tweeted:
Seriously, is speed really that much more important to you than accuracy?
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) April 26, 2018
As the third reason for not attending the conference, Buterin has posted the screenshot of CoinDesk’s “off the record” policy page and said that it is completely riddled with “traps” and “gotchas”.
3. Their reporting policies are designed to trap you with gotchas. Did you know that if you send them a reply, and you explicitly say that some part is off the record, that's explicitly on the record unless you go through a request/approve dance first? pic.twitter.com/8in6ZYSPbR
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) April 26, 2018
He has also accused CoinDesk of overcharging the conference attendees saying “The conference costs $2-$3k to attend. I refuse to personally contribute to that rent-seeking.”
4. And by the way, the conference costs $2-3k to attend. I refuse to personally contribute to that level of rent seeking.
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) April 26, 2018
Well, although Buterin has his own reasons for not attending the conference, Amber Baldet, former head of blockchain at J.P. Morgan agrees with him on the point of high-cost events stating that the irony of high-priced conferences is they’re the ones least likely to be paying speakers within the community, who care the most & need the platform to share new work. “Corporate expense accounts subsidize people who rarely say anything novel, ‘celeb keynotes’ extract high fees,” he summarized.
