Only one conference can claim a speaker lineup featuring the CEO of Pudgy Penguins and the Under Secretary of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Described as The Super Bowl of blockchain meets the Cannes Film Festival of Web3, Consensus 2024 is a three-day event in Austin, Texas from May 29-31 organized by CoinDesk.
A Canadian delegation of more than 150 corporate, startup, and ecosystem leaders is heading south, with more spots available.
The event is known for bringing together the most influential members of the cryptocurrency, blockchain, and Web3 communities, from Wall Street titans and AI innovators to ecosystem builders, protocols, and startups.
A Canadian delegation of more than 150 corporate, startup, and ecosystem leaders is heading south, with more spots available.
Representatives from Air Canada, KPMG, TELUS, and RBCx will join Canadians working at crypto companies including Balance, Chainlink Labs, Dune, Dandelion, Kraken, Coinsquare, and Berachain, which recently closed a $100-million raise.
Canadian technology ecosystem champions Destination Toronto, DMZ, MaRS Discovery District, Toronto Global, University of Waterloo, TMX Montreal Exchange, and Waterloo Blockchain will also be a part of the Canadian delegation, signalling some exciting conference news to come.
Here are five things the Canadian delegation will get to do in Texas.
Meet Bitcoin’s most controversial developer and influential investor
The conference mainstage is a who’s who of decentralized finance, from Casey Rodarmor, the Bitcoin developer who created Ordinals, Inscriptions, and Runes to Chris Dixon, founder and managing partner of a16z crypto, who will lay out his thesis for how blockchain networks can re-decentralize the online economy.
Other headline speakers include some of the most powerful women in global finance including Hester M. Peirce, Commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Lynn Martin, President of the New York Stock Exchange and Patricia Haas-Cleveland, U.S. President of the Official Monetary & Financial Institutions Forum.
Hear from the woman who’ll bring you the sneakerverse
Big name brands will have a presence at Consensus, with legacy companies including BMW, Time Magazine Walmart, and Mattel forecasting their focus on product and technological evolution.
Among the crypto converts is Erika Wykes-Sneyd, who leads the legendary shoe company’s dedicated Web3 team as Vice President of adidas /// Studio. Wykes-Sneyd refers to her team as “DeGens” and built the brand’s pioneering Web3 roadmap, ‘Into the Metaverse,’ focusing on the convergence of sport-inspired culture, blockchain, collectibles, and emerging tech.
Listen to decentralized thinkers debate AI
Some of the most interesting conversations are likely to be found at the AI Summit, which will tackle questions including “What Does It Mean to Be Human in an AI World?” “How Blockchain Can Keep AI Accountable,” and “Will AI kill us all?”
The Summit will feature insights from Guillaume Verdon (aka Beff Jezos) a former research scientist at Alphabet X & Google Quantum AI, originator of TensorFlow Quantum, and the thinker behind the Effective Accelerationism movement, which ignited a techno-optimist counter-cultural renaissance. Verdon will be joined by tech legend Brendan Eich, former CEO of the Mozilla Corporation and inventor of JavaScript, the Internet’s most widely used programming language.
Demo a decentralized smartphone
Big ideas meet big fun in the Gen C Demo Area, where Consensus attendees can get their hands on emerging technology, DePIN, gaming and blockchain-connected hardware.
The demo zone will feature networked products from Dimo, Foam, FutureBit, HeatBit, Helium Mobile, Nodal, Roam, WeatherXM, and Aphone, the first decentralized DePIN cloud smartphone, which claims to be “unconstrained by any physical device limitations.” And for the gamers in the crowd, the Demo Area will also feature experiences from Lamina1, Gaia.net, Parallel, Atlas AI Mona, Nifty Island, Forgotten Runes, and more.
Watch an MMA fight, ringside
Of course, there’s an MMA fight. Consensus will feature the 46th Karate Combat event and the second “Influencer Fight Club.” Bitcoin will be represented by Nic Carter, co-founder of data analytics leader Coin Metrics and VC fund Castle Island Ventures (sadly not also a former Backstreet Boy). David Hoffman, the founder of media platform Bankless, will fight for Ethereum.
MMA legend George Saint Pierre is expected to attend, and Bill McFarland of Fyre Festival is also on the ticket, for anyone who would like to see that guy get voluntarily punched in the face.
There are less than 20 spots left for the Canadian delegation to Consensus 2024. For your free tickets, register here through CoinDesk Canada.
The post Five things you’ll want to do at the world’s most interesting crypto conference first appeared on BetaKit.