The cryptoindustry is in a maturing phase - the Bitcoin crash has sobered the masses and reduced interest in the industry, which has to prove its own worth again. True, the rates are now much higher: blockchain, tokens and ICOs have become the subject of study not by ordinary guys in crumpled T-shirts, but by analysts and top managers of large investment banks who make decisions about where to invest their next billion. The prospects for the scandalous industry were discussed at the main crypto event of the year - the third Blockchain Cruise, organized by Coinsbank. Cocaine, hot girls, cryptocurrencies and a bit of blockchain - Lenta.ru has been on a giant liner and tells how a young industry is trying to mature.
The four-day crypto-intensity followed the route Barcelona-Monaco-Ibiza-Barcelona. It was possible to assess the scope of the event even when approaching the capital of Catalonia - when approaching the landing one could clearly see a huge cruise liner, which was waiting for more than 1,5 thousands of guests of the crypto cruise to board. At the airport, the guests were met by girls who helped the forum participants to get to the eleven-deck airliner. In the transit bus, the novice’s ears could be surprised by the presence of Russian, while compatriots enjoyed the fervent pronunciation of profanity on the whole bus, in addition there were discussions about where to get the crap and how best to spend the evening. The participants of the high-profile discussion also gave a brief description of the upcoming event: “******** (courtesan) ferry”.
The evening of the first day was spent in the hassle of settling, waiting for late guests, casual acquaintances with people and the ship, as well as an urgent call to register at one of the cryptoskirts, the owners of which offered “free air”. The details of the proposal were immediately thrown into the general chat of the cruise participants, which caused claims of spam and jokes about blocking the guest. Nevertheless, the chat participants were very friendly and did not ban the spammer. Closer to the night, crowds of people dispersed across the decks of the ship, preferring leisure to their liking: from networking to live music, which was represented by the once-promising Russian group Pompeya.
"******* the road"
The morning of the first official day of the Blockchain Cruise turned out to be difficult: many could hardly find where to pour fresh coffee and recover after the evening get-together. On the upper deck, where the running tracks were located, there were only a few people, a couple of whom still riched after a stormy night. There were a few more people in the gym. Among them is the former "kickboxing champion of Riga", who "sniffed cocaine before the night" and went to the gym, apparently, to cheer up.
The athlete dug up several times to the guests of the cruise, until he received a comment on the appearance from the local instructor - the hero had only swimming trunks that the rules of the gym were forbidden. Pretending to understand the claims, “Kickboxing champion of Riga” went to the exit, where he found a new victim, “training” which he created for those around him the feeling of not being in the Mediterranean on the way to Monte Carlo, but in some sort of rocking near Moscow. The hero swore that he is still in shape and “will work for anyone in this room,” and at the end of the angry speech he decided to return to the cabin and “******* (wrap) another way”.
The opening remarks and the first panel session were supposed to start at 9 am, but the hall did not want to fill up, and the speakers were late. The start was delayed by 30 minutes, which caused outrage among a small group of young people who loudly outraged, noting that it was a "fucking shame". The majority still waited for the beginning and the opening speech from Vitaly Andrusevich. Coinsbank co-founder immediately called the third cruise the coolest, because it is for "real people who finally see each other in person and can discuss the problems of the industry, make new acquaintances and just have a great time." After the opening remarks, the headliner of the first day - the founder of one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges BTCC and a member of the board of directors of the Bitcoin Foundation Bobby Lee - was invited to the stage.
"They hold us by the balls"
Bobby Lee kicked off with a couple of jokes, one of which really reflected the harsh reality for everyone on the cruise: fast, free internet that didn't exist. The speed of the free Wi-Fi was reminiscent of the sounds of the dial-up era, and the page could load for five minutes. No less funny was the fact that only real currency was accepted on the ship - it was impossible to pay for services with cryptocurrency, only some representatives of the companies participating in the forum accepted crypt. But buying a ticket to the forum with the help of cryptocurrency was easy - the organizers provided such an opportunity.
Having won the attention of a sleepy audience, Bobby Lee turned to the main topic of the lecture - anonymity. In his opinion, the ownership of any asset in the 21st century is impossible without identification - any purchase or disposal of property is controlled by classical institutions: states, banks, stock exchanges, etc. Lee insists that control is evil. “They control everything. In China, for example, you will not even be able to buy movie tickets if the favor is sticking up for you, ”says Bobby, whose main message of speech is reduced to a simple thesis:“ They hold us by the balls. ”
The problem of total control by the authorities is also bad because they can directly influence the financial situation of citizens. As an example, Lee cites the actions of the authorities of Venezuela, which is suffering from the economic crisis. Li insists that the authorities themselves orchestrated hyperinflation in order to ruin their own citizens. He is also confident that developed countries such as China, the USA and EU members do not hesitate to use these methods. For some reason, Lee calls the proof of such an economic policy not the quantitative easing program in the EU, which the European Central Bank has been carrying out for several years, but the issue of souvenir banknotes denominated in zero euros. “They even issued a zero - zero - euro note that costs two euros! Just think about it! This is genius!" - Lee amuses himself, who for one hour of personal audience asks for some reason 1,5 thousand euros.
The arrogant and dishonest policy of the authorities will ultimately lead to the disappearance of fiat (classical) money, and the whole world will switch to cryptocurrencies. Lee insists that states will become extinct, as the authorities regularly cheat and rob their own citizens. The crypt, according to him, can and must be trusted, because its work is based on mathematical algorithms that are not interested in robbing people. Moreover, victories of cryptocurrency over classical money will finally establish in the world “freedom to manage money”. “With Bitcoin, we have already ten years of freedom to manage money,” says Bobby, noting that when you buy Bitcoin you vote for “monetary freedom.”
The audience applauded the speaker approvingly, someone shouted something like, "Bobby, you're damn right." However, not everyone was interested in the speech: there were a lot of “hot chicks” in the hall - young girls in revealing outfits who sat with their heads buried in their phones and did not listen to the speaker at all. One of the girls examined her own breasts, buttocks and legs for a 30-minute lecture, choosing a filter before sending a photo to Instagram. After the sexy masterpiece was uploaded to the social network, the girl just got up and left. Later it turned out that a smart Wi-Fi was working in the hall during the lectures - perhaps the presence of such a large number of girls in the hall was due precisely to this fact.
And Bobby Lee did not stop and already with might and main criticized the criminal liability for money laundering, in his opinion, no financial operation should be prosecuted in principle. “It is necessary to completely decriminalize remittances,” Li insisted. For persuasiveness, he gave an example from personal experience, when in Las Vegas he wanted to withdraw 20 thousand dollars in cash to play at the casino, but representatives of the bank for a long time refused to give him such a large amount, asking him about the purposes for which the money will go. True, when asked about what was considered a crime, in the case, for example, of the same corruption schemes or illegal withdrawal of funds abroad, Lee didn’t find what to say - the answer was so vague that no one seemed to understand it.
But Lee ended up on a stilted and terrible note, calling for preparation for "the war of liberty." This, of course, was about financial freedom from any influence of the state or a third party. At the same time, Bobby admitted that he believes in democracy and does not speak from anarchist positions, despite all the anti-state pathos.
“Pain is good”
Bobby Lee's chaotic lecture and presentation in the best traditions of student creations in PowerPoint was replaced by the main panel session of the first day - "Pains and Fears in 2018". The discussion began with a thoughtful speech by Miko Matsumura, co-founder of the crypto exchange and crypto wallet Evercoin. “Pain is good, fear is good. Fear and pain are what helps you not to harm yourself, ”he shared his knowledge. Miko insisted that any shock for the industry is good, it grows up that way. The co-founder and president of the Hosho project Hartei Soni agreed with Miko. According to him, the young industry should keep its "hand on fire" - that is, make mistakes and learn from them. “There is no experience without mistakes,” he summed up.
Managing Director at Blockchain Advisory Ltd., Maltese Cryptocurrency Advisor to the Government of Malta, Jonathan Galia was the first and probably the only one who identified the real problem of the industry. In his opinion, the key complexity of the cryptocurrency market in the coming 5-20 years will be based on regulatory issues from the state. The key mistake of the authorities, he called the desire to centralize a decentralized system - officials simply do not understand that this is impossible.
The brother of the main speaker of the first day - Charlie Lee - expressed the opinion that the key task of the industry continues to be in popularizing and educating new members of the community. “People look at the ICO market and are disappointed in the world of cryptocurrencies, but this is an important and rewarding experience,” he said from the stage. Charlie insists that people do not understand how to save their money - they keep their savings in new and incomprehensible instruments.
“We need to offer them tools that are simpler and more modern than usual,” he said. But Bobby Lee was not so interested in the problems of society, quite the contrary. “People have to learn to swim, although some will have to drown for this, in the sense of going bankrupt. I think it will take one or two generations before the market is completely settled, ”Bobby said.
The representative of the BigX project Khalid Dianov supported Charlie: the cryptoindustry needs to use all methods of popularization. As an example, he cited the advertisement of the bank Merrill Lynch, which 80 bought a small strip on the front page of newspapers years ago, where he talked about the simplicity of earning with the help of an exchange account. “This has led to the fact that almost every American is now an investor,” Khalid said. He is sure that ordinary people need the same thing - they want to understand how the cryptobranch works. However, he is waiting for a real popularization of the crypt only after multibillion-dollar spending from truly large players - their money will give a fundamentally new impetus to the development of the industry, Dianov is sure.
The panel ended with an unexpected question from the audience - a representative of Puerto Rico asked: "What if the whole industry is not needed by humanity at all, and future generations will simply abandon it?" Hartei Sonya volunteered to answer, who in a rather daring manner sent the speaker "to read Satoshi's notes" - according to Sonya, they already "have answers to all such questions."
The sect of the witnesses of the White Paper Satoshi Nakamoto
The new day of the forum was opened by the already well-known part of the audience Miko Matsumura. He opened his theses about the "usefulness of pain and fears" somewhat broader: pain helps you to learn, and fears force you to think and make the right decisions, minimizing your risks. The speaker himself spoke about his main mistake in life - investing in Apple shares. Miko admitted that he bought them at a local peak and sold them when they fell - he panicked and decided to get rid of them. Now Apple shares are among the most expensive in the world. Miko does not regret the mistake, on the contrary, she taught him a lot, especially to invest.
The pain-fears dichotomy quickly bored Miko, and he moved on to a rather bold thesis: “the capitalization of cryptocurrencies will in general surpass all existing money on the planet.” At the same time, he immediately put this thesis into question: in his words, the main mistake of all cryptonomy is the return of the “third party” to the chain. “You and I are idiots, we again gave everything to a third party - crypto counters and wallets, which destroy the very idea of decentralized exchange of coins without the participation of a third party,” said Miko Matsumura, who also owns one of the exchanges.
The speaker’s speech didn’t correspond to the stated topic “New fundamentals: a look at the state of cryptocurrency infrastructure” - not a word was said about the infrastructure and operation of the systems, but the discussion began again about which of the cryptocurrencies is Bitcoin (BTC) or BCH (Bitcoin cache). ) - closer to the ideas of White Paper Satoshi Nakamoto. Miko said that BCH, in his opinion, is much closer to the ideas of the original. A similar opinion, by the way, was also held by Bobby Lee, answering a similar question on the first day. The presentation of the next speaker Roger Vera, an ardent fan of BCH, was devoted to the same topic.
Advertising instead
Roger Ver began his speech with a sweet story about how he read about the types of cryptocurrencies in science fiction books in his childhood, so when he learned about their existence in 2011, he “was blown away” - he spent a week totally immersed in the topic, emaciated and even went to the hospital. From the history of growing up, Verus turned to general words about the importance of economic freedoms, but quickly slipped into comparing two cryptocurrencies. For about 30 minutes, the speaker tried to prove to the audience the advantages of BCH over BTC, using a PowerPoint presentation that many freshmen would have done better. The general message of Vera is very simple: “Bitcoin has degraded and lost all its advantages, which Bitcoin-cache now embodies” - and so almost all the performance with the stated topic: “How electronic money will change the world”.
The odious Vera on stage was replaced at times by the less charismatic, but no less modest Charlie Lee. He began his session with a quote from US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell that cryptocurrencies have no fundamental value. On the next school-level slides, Charlie Lee did not hesitate to quote himself: “Cryptocurrencies have a fundamental value” - after making such a banal statement, the audience in the hall burst into applause, and Charlie began to criticize fiat money. Lee walked on the US dollar for "infinity", namely for the Fed's ability to endlessly print new bills and, as a result, for the dollar's ability to depreciate.
However, Charlie quickly moved away from the topic “The value of cryptocurrency” he declared and quickly fell for advertising his own coins - Litecoin. From the presentation, we learned that Roger Ver is wrong, and his BCH is inferior to the Charlie Lee cryptocurrency in all respects, like the Ethereum cryptocurrency and the classic bitcoin. At the end of his speech, Charlie Lee looked a little pathetic - the main hall was filled with people waiting for the headliner of the day, John McAfee, and audience interest in explicit advertising of Litecoin plummeted.
Steep presentations are not needed
John McAfee was announced as the main speaker of the entire forum - the name of the Scottish-American founder of the McAfee company was remembered everywhere: from casual acquaintances during breakfast to smoking on the ship. Someone even said that he spent his evening "in the company of young girls and a mountain of cocaine in front of them," judging by the number of nose touches in one of his interviews on the ship, such theories have a right to exist.
Nevertheless, the figure of McAfee was not known to everyone - for example, a crypto activist from Germany, during the return transit to the ship from Monaco, confessed to Russian men that she did not know at all who it was. According to her, she ended up on the ship simply out of interest in the topic of cryptocurrencies. True, the speaker's ignorance did not prevent the Russians and the German woman from establishing contact: the parties discussed the pros and cons of French and Swiss cuisine.
Most of the main guest of the forum was still familiar - McAfee became the only speaker who managed to gather a full audience even before the start of his speech. However, the cryptoguru's speech turned out to be trite and short - McAfee began by explaining the concept of "permission". In his opinion, in the modern world it is impossible to dispose of anything without permission - for example, it is impossible to buy a house without the approval of the state and the bank.
“With cryptocurrency, I don't need permission to send or spend money. States and classical institutions are afraid of cryptocurrency, it is a threat to their influence. We are on the threshold of a new, possibly free, era. Freedom from state control, cryptocurrency is a way to return freedom, ”said McAfee under the applause boom. He is convinced that the state is concerned about anonymity primarily because of taxes - the authorities are afraid of losing revenues to the budget, because taxes are the blood system of the state. “Taxation is theft!” McAfee said, under a new wave of applause. The businessman is confident that intimidation by terrorists is just a cover up and a reason for putting pressure on the industry. “A real war is going on between us, striving for freedom, and the state,” the businessman continued.
McAfee also did not refuse free advertising: during the monologue he announced his project - a decentralized cryptocurrency exchanger that will be resistant to attacks. “Our weakness is that we can be cut down - to cut off the office from electricity or come with searches, disrupting the work site. We are working on the creation of a decentralized exchanger, whose work will be impossible to break. When we finish - we will be free! I have only one question for you: are you ready to support this? ”McAfee addressed the audience, who unanimously supported the businessman.
Security for suckers
The development of the industry contributes to the creation of subclusters in related industries, for example, for the same cryptoindustry, one of the most important issues is cybersecurity, to which at least three forum panels were devoted. However, as one participant pointedly remarked: “So many people came to hear about the money and the market - and so little came to hear about security. One should even take a photo, otherwise they won't believe it ”- only a couple of dozen people sat on the cyber security panels. The representative of the Ukrainian project Hacken, Dmitry Butorin, admitted that the low demand for lectures on cyber security resembles a real market - “nobody pays enough attention to cyber security, and then they are hacked”.
Dmitry's lecture came out terribly boring and was more like a presentation of their own project. Hacken attracts hackers to their side who are testing security systems, for example, many cryptoshomes and a crypto-burg. Dmitry finished his speech with the phrase: "The best way to keep your data and money safe is to have hackers on your side."
Continuing the theme of cybersecurity, the Italian hacker Raul Chiesa entered the scene - charismatic, with vast experience working for government agencies, including the European Commission. It would be useful to listen to it to anyone who, for example, is confident in the safety of the blockchain system as such, or that two-factor authentication is a reliable way to protect your account, for example, on a crypto exchange. Actually - no: both, according to Chiesa, are easy to hack. Raoul complained that the cybersecurity literacy rate was close to zero.
“I regularly communicate with representatives of business, and often large ones. Even here, on a cruise, I ask advanced people what is your security, to which they proudly answer that “we have two-factor authentication” - just not knowing that SMS messages can be easily intercepted, ”the Italian is indignant, who compares safety to good boots - you can't skimp on them. Chiesa himself could not meet the time given to him, the desire to tell resulted in the fact that he flipped through about 20 slides with real cases and industry problems, which made the speech energetic, but too crumpled.
One of the few participants in both sessions on crypto security, product manager at Bitlish Limited, Max Grain, said that he did not agree with Chiesa's words - the security of the project differs from case to case. Among the key reasons for the problems with cybersecurity in projects, he singled out: the immaturity of the industry, the dampness of projects and the hype - startups are in too much of a hurry, making mistakes. At the same time, there is simply no ideal recipe for “how to recognize a weak project”.
“We need to learn and understand, read and understand. The paradox is that it can shoot a completely stupid project. You can invest in beautiful packaging without an understanding of the essence and in time to go, decently earning. At the same time, there are serious ideas and projects on the market that hardly collect funds. People don’t invest because it’s difficult to understand, ”said Grein. He recommends collecting the maximum possible amount of information about the project in order not to lose your own investments, if you are not sure, then invest the money that you are not afraid to lose.
We have already been through
The highest quality performance took place on the last day of the cruise. On the upper deck under the scorching sun by the pool, analyst Ton Weiss spoke about where the industry is now and where it will go next. A decent amount of people gathered to listen to Bear Stearns and JP Morgan Chase, a former employee of investment banks, given that the lecture began during breakfast, and on the eve of the cruise guests had finished hanging out in the middle of the night, plus everyone who wanted to leave the ship could leave for a walk Ibiza
Weiss argued that the collapse of Bitcoin is normal, and the crypto market is going through a stage of maturation. The closest example, according to Weiss, was the dot-com boom at the end of 90-x - the beginning of zero. Moreover, he even found an old commercial with Wuppi Goldberg, who called for investing in an analogue of electronic money at the end of 90's. Unlike most speakers, Weiss’s presentation was full of good examples, market analytics, graphs and a lot of interactivity, which even a lazy person would be drawn into the topic of cryptoindustry, finally, the presentation was not made in PowerPoint, which added advantages to karma to the speaker.
The cryptocurrency boom is explained by the simplification of the entry of newbies into the market - by analogy with the dotcom boom, when electronic exchanges appeared and for trading stocks, bonds, derivatives and other exchange products, there was no need to lift asses from the chair. “Remote access to trading led to the fact that every American who had extra 20 bucks in his pocket turned into an investor with his own portfolio in one evening,” says Weiss.
It was the influx of new, uneducated investors that provoked a boom, and later on a fall in the technology market, which was rapidly developing in those days. Moreover, another parallel is the bankruptcy of many companies and startups, and then the regular failure of new crypto projects after the ICO is now. All this testifies to the banal immaturity of the market, which simply must pass this stage. Similarly, with ICO - Weiss is convinced that this form of raising capital appeared simply because of the complexity of the IPO, which means that the states will eventually bring it to a single standard, that is, they will adjust it.
Weiss criticized those projects that conduct ICO and issue tokens only for the sake of attracting investment. He is convinced that for most startups, the issue of their own coins is simply not needed, and it is possible to attract investments without ICO. Finally, Weiss is sure that in any crisis, those who invested their money, and only then the institutions, that is, the banks and the states, are to blame. So, in his opinion, it was in the dot-com boom, it was in 2008-2009, and it is happening now. The problem is that people simply do not admit their mistakes. “When the crisis broke out, the state and banks interfered with the crap, but no one cursed himself. No one blamed himself for taking a mortgage at exorbitant real cost or investing in company shares with an unreasonably inflated price, ”Weiss cheerfully concluded.
Satoshi is not god
Probably the most constructive speech in the entire forum was replaced by dialogues about the prospects for specific cryptocurrencies. To add spice to the discussions and piquancy of the event, the cruise organizers decided to hold something like a talk show, inviting ideological opponents: a BTC supporter, a representative of Blokchain Capital LLC. Jimmy Song and BCH supporter Roger Vera, already known to many forum guests. It was assumed that each of the speakers will have the opportunity to speak, after which the second will answer the theses of the first. However, Roger Vera had enough patience for just 47 seconds, after which he jumped off his chair and began to argue with his opponent, who had not really said anything.
Song tried to explain the rules of the debate, but Vera was not satisfied with the fact that Song was talking about them. The speakers started arguing with each other on stage, after which a second microphone was found for Roger, which did not suit Song, and he simply left the stage. Song was eventually returned, and Vera's second microphone was taken away. Viewers of questionable debates received 40 minutes of mutual accusations, jokes, arguments and practically zero constructiveness. The discussion often boiled down to very dubious level questions: "Have you read John Maynard Keynes?"
Supporters of the Bitcoin cache, headed by Vere, argue that the usual Bitcoin betrayed Satoshi Nakamoto’s principles. Song to similar charges retorted: "Satoshi is not a god, and the advantages and disadvantages of the system will determine the market." A few minutes later, Song admitted that he “hesitated” to participate in this “competition, who is smarter because he read more books or in the analogue of some political show”, and left the stage.
Blockchain hangover
The discussion of the leaders of the two opposing camps best demonstrates the current level of community development, which is simply unable to influence the state. Four days of the cruise demonstrated the total failure of the community as an industry - it has no leaders, no single vision and understanding of how the industry should develop, finally, it is fragmented so that it looks like some kind of league in which there are teams with fans.
The forum organizers were extremely pleased with the outcome of the event, and there were no complaints against them, with the exception of the very slow Internet - they were able to gather representatives of various currents within the crypto-world, as well as industry inspirers, such as McAfee. “We really feel that a strong community is being built, and we are at its center. The goal is absolutely achieved. There is a huge motivation to do more, higher, stronger, ”Coinsbank representative told Lente.ru. Nevertheless, half-empty audiences demonstrate that first of all the audience came to have fun and relax, and not to discuss prospects and plans for the future.
In fairness, the organizers did not seek to fill the halls, on the contrary, even on the first day, Coinsbank representatives insisted that the main purpose of the forum was new acquaintances and networking. The event remains largely local, “for its own” - it does not contribute to the expansion and attraction of a new audience.
John McAfee, in his speech, admitted that he believes in the success of cryptocurrency, which should already lead humanity to freedom. Faith is generally the end-to-end attribute of almost all speakers: where the speaker lacks arguments, he urges the audience to take words on trust. Speakers lack analyticity, often do not even have some elementary base, and the same terms are used by speakers in different contexts - the industry has not even established a professional language.
Tusovka on the ship is stylish, fashionable and youth, just like a pregnancy test and a pair of condoms in a gift set from the organizers, but if the industry wants to be taken seriously at last, you need to grow up and not argue on stage like offended schoolchildren . Expensive costumes do not save either. If a community seeks recognition, it will have to “build muscle”, otherwise it will remain a “marginal sect of random millionaires”.