Blockchain Hub | Day 3 Recap

Day three is a wrap – and with it, the Blockchain Hub 2022!

Today’s focus was on the future – specifically, the growing role that NFTs are playing in bridging the real and digital worlds as unique stores of value and badges of ownership. Make no mistake: the applications for this technology go well beyond bored apes. Speakers showcased a diverse and growing array of cases where NFTs are being creatively employed to unlock new value. If there was one overarching takeaway above all to be had, it’s that we have barely scratched the surface when it comes to NFT applications. 

While digital art and collectibles have been the most well-known NFT applications to date, there’s a lot of innovative work emerging that suggests a much broader suite of applications that can positively impact the way we communicate and transact with one another. 

This is already happening in fields as diverse as patent management – as IPwe demonstrated when discussing its patent trading marketplace’s embrace of NFTs as a more efficient way to track and prove ownership – to the pioneering work DMusic is doing to reimagine how musicians can capture maximum value from their work. 

Thanks to Casper’s enhanced security standards – further bolstered on the NFT front via collaborations with projects like Seal Storage and Veritic – and scalability, it is emerging as one of the most popular layer one blockchains for businesses initiating NFT projects. 

The afternoon sessions shifted to a more explicit focus on the metaverse – and why it’s not as new as some may think and also such a difficult topic to universally define. What speakers did agree on was that gaming is emerging as the key portal to bringing more people to the metaverse. 

As James Woolley of Metavest Capital pointed out, there are currently 1.5M daily active gamers that play blockchain-based games – and more than 3B active gamers worldwide. Thanks to the novel features and incentives unlocked by NFTs and decentralized, he pointed out, the potential for growth is massive. Pocketful of Quarters’ Michael Weiksner followed up with a strong example of how this growth is already happening, courtesy of the hugely popular, blockchain-based “Pocketful of Quarters” game, which he co-founded with his 12-year-old son. 

Programming carried on with a series of talks dedicated to how NFTs are democratizing the long insular global fashion industry, and empowering independent creators. And with the rise of the metaverse, people are increasingly empowered to develop different identities than their real-world counterparts that allow them to express themselves in new and unique ways. 

The day wrapped with a series of thoughtful discussions on the importance of keeping the metaverse open and multi-dimensional (read: avoid letting centralized parties step in to unilaterally dictate its direction). CasperLabs CTO and Co-founder Medha Parlikar concluded festivities with a farewell keynote, which you can view here. 

3 days. 100+ speakers representing some of the world’s most renowned institutions. What a week it has been – see you next year!