One new thing I’m noticing this bull run of the Bitcoin cycle is the huge number of crypto conferences. I’m not new to the scene, and I know there’s definitely a lot of grifters that adopt the bitcoin banner during a bull run, so some of this is expected. If you’ve noticed, both US presential nominees have announced a pro-crypto stance, which is immaterial to what they will actually do for the ecosystem, but it’s a signaling mechanism for this community that they’re a friend.

I feel quite similarly about a lot of these highly produced, high ticket price conferences. I guess there is some utility to them when you account for the publicity it results in and there will be at least some valuable networking at these events. But otherwise, I’m not a fan of the expensive hotels, the DJ parties, the big banner sponsors and the same rota of speakers (I’m sure they can be replaced by a fine-tuned LLM at this point). I’ve considered flying down to the nearest crypto hub, which considering India has effectively killed any ecosystem domestically, means Singapore or Dubai, for one of these spectacles. But the value proposition seems so bonkers to me, I haven’t dared yet.

I’m hoping there are new crypto conferences that evolve more aligned with the original grassroots ethos of the community: decentralised, free to participate (or near to free as possible), radically inclusive (especially to unearth new speakers) and highly technical (either computational or financial, ideally both).

However, as they say, “sell shovels during a gold rush”, and given that these bigger conferences are earning revenue from the marketing budgets of VC funded startups, it’s unlikely they will cater to any other markets for the time being (which I’m guessing is until we hit bear market cycle again).