Binance Blockchain Week 2022: Day 1 Highlights
What’s crypto going to look like after mass adoption? How can we build a better Web3? How can we truly create a blockchain for good? These and other pressing topics were among the many tackled by the leading industry speakers that joined us on day 1 of Binance Blockchain Week.
Blockchain Binance Week 2022 is taking place right now from 28th March to 30th March 2022.
More than just a conference, the annual Binance Blockchain Week gathers the brightest and most influential minds in the blockchain ecosystem and beyond for three days of thought-provoking panels, intimate firesides and impactful keynotes all held at the Dubai World Trade Centre.Visit the official page for more information.
Missed the first day of the conference? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Check out some key highlights below.
Key Highlights at a Glance
Opening Keynote by His Excellency Helal Al Marri
“This forum definitely represents the next connector: Digital, open, secure.” – His Excellency Helal Al Marri
Gracing the stage to open the ceremony was His Excellency Helal Al Marri, the Director General of Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism and the Dubai World Trade Centre Authority (DWTCA).
In line with Expo 2020 Dubai’s main theme, ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’, market-leading events like Binance Blockchain week work to cement Dubai’s drive to be a city for innovation, a city for the future.
His Excellency Helal Al Marri also stressed the importance of regulators and governments in enabling the right ecosystems for innovation to flourish and to always foster new ideas and new ways of empowering people.
And as His Excellency Helal Al Marri says, “Let us remember that our agenda is to design a solution that spans generations.”
Fireside Chat Session: Roadmap to Global Adoption
The question of global blockchain adoption is still central to any conversation on the subject. In order to shed some light on this fundamental question, Tim Grant, Head of EMEA at Galaxy Digital Holdings and Richard Teng, Regional Head of MENA Binance, worked to shed some light on what key industry stakeholders could do to move the needle forward.
“We should educate them to bring them ahead of the curve.” – Richard Teng, Regional Head of MENA Binance
Approaching the subject of blockchain acceptance with his own experience in the traditional regulatory landscape, Richard mentioned that a key point to note was that policy-makers are being increasingly more prudent in approaching blockchain.
With risk and opportunity as two sides of the same coin, it is a delicate balance to uphold, especially when it involves building the foundation in preparation for massive adoption.
Hopefully, when regulators dedicate more resources to exploring the potential of the space, understanding on-chain surveillance, compliance monitoring, and other ways blockchain can help enforce security, more barriers to blockchain adoption can be knocked down.
“We’ve got so much evolution left to get to” – Tim Grant, Head of EMEA at Galaxy Digital Holdings
The stablecoin concept is now pervasive in dialogues among policy-makers worldwide. But beyond the use case of CBDCs, blockchain technology, as compared to cryptocurrency, is poised to disrupt more industries.
With the world sitting up and taking note of the potential of crypto and blockchain, it’s likely that more people will be trained in analyzing the subtleties of the latest technologies and consensus mechanisms, optimizing tokenomics and pushing the known boundaries of what crypto and blockchain can do now.
Keynote Speech: Soo-Man Lee, Founder & Chief Producer of SM Entertainment
“We plan to inspire human’s instinct to create through the play-to-create model, so that anyone can make killer content and receive incentivisation.” – Soo-Man Lee, Founder & Chief Producer of SM Entertainment
Would you like to take part in a world where you can create songs, dance routines, fan art and more for SM artists? According to Lee Soo Man, founder of Asia’s leading entertainment company, SM Entertainment, anyone can discover their capacity as a creator through the SM Metaverse.
In a few short years, Kpop has gone from a niche industry to a global phenomenon, spawning some of the most popular music acts in history. At the center of this revolution is Lee Soo Man and SM Entertainment.
SMCU (SM Culture Universe) , a virtual destination where fans and artists converge, will use a Play-to-Create ecosystem to encourage creation by rewarding creators. Within the P2C ecosystem, user-created content can be converted into NFTs, allowing users to earn profits and gain recognition for their creations.
Before leaving the stage, Lee Soo Man shared his dream with viewers of Binance Blockchain Week, and fans of KPOP all over the world: “My vision is this: If you want to create songs or dances for SM artists, you can do it through the SM Metaverse.”
Keynote Speech: Charles Hoskinson, CEO and Founder of IOHK
"We’ve arrived at a point where we have the attention of the world, just like in the 90s, where the Internet did." – Charles Hoskinson
In his speech, Charles Hoskinson, CEO and Founder of IOHK, expounded on the founding principles of Bitcoin and what a future powered by crypto and the blockchain would look like.
“Each and everyone has the same access (to crypto) as the most powerful amongst us,” said Charles. And he believes that what’s at stake is not just the user’s crypto.
It’s everything that we think we own and interact with, including our identity. With blockchain as the sandbox for building a decentralized ecosystem, perhaps other aspects of our lives will in time be impacted in the same way.
He summarized this ethos, saying that: “I believe the future will be decentralized.”
How far away are we from a true Web3 experience?
What does the journey from Web2 to Web3 look like? Bruce Pon, Founder of Ocean Protocol, Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon and Jagdeep Sidhu, Co-Founder & CTO of Blockchain Foundry (SYScoin) sought to answer that pressing question.It seemed evident that incentivization and user experience are key to mass adoption of Web3. More than technology itself, the benefits of participating in Web3 need to be made known.
Fortunately, one draw of Web3 is being able to introduce value to things that we couldn't before, as mentioned by Bruce Pon, Founder of Ocean Protocol.
“You are the true owners in a web 3.0 world.” – Sandeep Nailwal, Co-Founder of Polygon
Another big part of a Web3 future is a secure environment where users are in full control of their own data and assets.
Of course, no one knows what the perfect Web3 looks like yet. For Jagdeep Sidhu, Co-Founder & CTO of Blockchain Foundry (SYScoin), the industry is still working on solving issues like scalability and standardization of Web3.
As for a time frame? It’s all speculative at the moment but 2 to 3 years is the earliest before we see any noticeable changes.
Keynote Speech: Eowyn Chen, CEO of Trust Wallet
"Users should pass through us (wallets) as seamlessly as possible to get to the fun part, web 3.0."
How can we empower crypto users to ready them for Web3?
For Eowyn Chen, CEO of Trust Wallet, the answer to that question lies in a mix of technology, methodology and hope.
The key, for Eowyn, is to use the nexus of the wallet as a vector to enable key improvements.
In particular, an open-source wallet that is transparent, available to all and truly consumer-first.
Another key element is to offer tools and educational resources to both users and developers.
Wallet service providers offering a plug-and-go solution with a unified standard can allow anyone to always tailor-make solutions for themselves–the ultimate form of empowerment. At the end of the day, what form Web3 will truly take is still very much a work in progress and it will take an effort from across the ecosystem to codify this new paradigm, one that could truly be a force for good.
Free NFTs for online and offline attendees!
During the event, we’ll be providing NFT Mystery Boxes from Binance NFT. Proof of Attendance Protocol (POAP) NFT Mystery Boxes are exclusive to on-site attendees. Simply scan the POAP QR code using your Binance App at one of our booths to claim.
Our "Back to Blockchain Future'' NFT Mystery Boxes are available to online and offline participants. Randomly throughout the event, QR codes displayed on-screen will let you collect up to four "Back to Blockchain Future'' NFT Mystery Boxes. Collect a complete set to share in a $15,000 BUSD Token Voucher prize pool!
For more information, check out our Back to Blockchain Future NFT announcement for details on how you can claim.
Stay tuned for Days 2 and 3
We’ve got more exciting panels lined up for the next two days of Binance Blockchain Week!
Check out our lineup of topics including blockchain acceptance, fundraising models, and the metaverse, with some of the biggest names in the industry. Don’t miss out on the biggest blockchain event of the year!
Tune in here at 6AM UTC to catch Day 2 of Binance Blockchain Week.