Quick thoughts from Consensus (late posting):
- Builders gonna build (or should I say Buidlers gonna buidl?) The energy was palpable. It was my first time at Consensus, but even the folks who come to the event regularly said the overall energy level was higher than they had expected. Part of that could be the expectations were so low, after FTX and all the other stuff. Pretty much everyone I met at parties etc was excited to build new products; I haven’t met a single speculator and pump-and-dumper
- “Web3” was a great marketing term, but is blockchain really the next version of the web that will affect ~all internet users? I doubt it. AI looks poised to be the real web3 – chatGPT as the end service reached 100mm actives in a few short months and many (if not the most) apps are plugging into GPT APIs in a hurry
- But blockchain is and will remain a very important tech infra/stack that will add trust, verification, and community layer on top of the current web; no doubt about it
- Booths were honestly a little uninspiring to me as a relative outsider — got the feeling of “crypto people building for other crypto people”, i.e. inward focused products that might be super helpful for crypto trading etc but likely quite small in terms of real DAU/MAUs
- But the web3 people and community continue to be amazing. Someone I met said: Web3/crypto is a great equalizer, where the young and the old, the rich and the poor, all come together with genuine curiosity. That’s a great thing. Technology will come and go, but it’s the people and the community that will always remain at the center
- Austin is hands down the best city to hold conferences. Great food/bar scene, all the places are within walking distance, great weather, nice people, birds chirping, etc.