TOKEN2049 Dubai "Essay Collection": Lower than expected, hot spots are highly similar to the HK conference

TOKEN2049 Dubai was held in Dubai from April 18 to April 19. Dubai has positioned itself as a global crypto innovation center. The event aims to bring together the global Web3 industry and provide a platform for interaction and communication for entrepreneurs, investors, developers, industry insiders and global media, including various independent peripheral activities such as gatherings, seminars, hackathons, dinners and parties.

Unfortunately, the conference encountered a rare rainstorm in Dubai, and the desert city was forced to become a large pond. Flight cancellations, traffic stagnation, water accumulation in houses followed... Reference reading: 《Dubai flooded into the sea, and this group of people entered "survival mode" as soon as they landed》

Although there were some twists and turns, the activities in Dubai have now ended successfully. BlockBeats editor has compiled several TOKEN2049 Dubai "essays" for everyone. Take a look at the experience and feelings of these VCs and KOLs at the on-site conference, so as not to miss the cutting-edge hot spots.

Dacong Fred (crypto investor):

Dubai Token2049 essay:

Summary in one sentence: below expectations, quite disappointing

1. No difference: almost no difference from the hot spots in Hong Kong

If you have already been to the activities in Hong Kong, then the gains from going to the activities in Dubai are relatively small. Overall, Dubai  Token2049 is more like a Hong Kong Web3 Festival with diverse ethnic groups.

The more popular topics and activities are still AI/DePIN+BTC ecosystem, and Ethereum has almost no voice:

1) There are many people in AI/DePIN activities, and several activities I went to were overcrowded. Various types of DePIN projects are emerging in an endless stream, and VC peers are basically paying attention to this track.

2) There are also many activities in the BTC ecosystem, and it is obvious that the Chinese dominate, with one-third to one-half of them being Chinese (including but not limited to those from mainland China, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, etc.)

3) SOL has a booth at the main venue, and Western builders are generally bullish on the SOL ecosystem.

4) The most active are still exchanges, Binance’s club house for several consecutive days, Bitget, HTX, Gate and other exchanges’ activities took turns to show off their muscles, and CoinW, Kucoin, BingX and other institutions can also be seen at the main venue.

2. Disappearing America: Mainly European and Asian projects

Basically, the project parties I met are all Asian and European projects.In Europe, there are many teams in Italy and Russia, and in Asia, there are mainly teams in Southeast Asia, China, and Dubai.

There are relatively few project parties in the United States. I wanted to focus on getting to know the Base and Blast teams and ecological projects. At present, I have only occasionally encountered a Dex team on Blast, and I also ate all-round gossip about Blast (I will share it with you later). I met fewer people from Coinbase. There was only one very small event in Dubai. The activity is still higher in the United States.

3. Other thoughts: Heavy rain and culture

The heavy rain in Dubai this time brought many people unexpected events. Many side events were cancelled, as well as the "Token2049 sub-venues" that were born in Doha, Oman, Abu Dhabi and other places. In addition, I was trapped in Doha for two days and had an unforgettable experience of sharing hardships with my friends in the mutual aid group at the airport. In fact, it also shows the fragility of a modern city built quickly by money under the scouring of heavy rain.

In addition, the weather in Dubai is too dry, which is not very friendly to southerners born in humid and hot areas. I felt that my throat started to hurt from the first day. In addition, the driver's service attitude is very good and he is very friendly to Chinese people. Almost every time a taxi driver hears that you are from China, he will say Oh Chinese are my friends.

The whole city is very similar to Shanghai, with diverse ethnic groups, doubled prices, and dry Shanghai.

In addition, I found that people are more willing to show up at overseas events than in Hong Kong. I found many familiar faces in Dubai, including He Yi from the Binance Clubhouse event and Justin Sun who I met at the main venue. I met Mr. Kong on the same flight back to China and talked about my feelings about Dubai. I resonated with the diversity of ethnic groups at this conference.

In addition, I also felt the enthusiasm of my Twitter friends in Dubai this time. When I participated in side events offline, I met them several times and they mentioned: Oh, you are Dacong, I have been following your Twitter.

In an instant, I felt a sense of familiarity with my family members who seemed to have been connected with each other for a long time even though we were in a foreign country. Indeed, insisting on output and sharing often brings unexpected surprises.

——At Dubai Airport

Original link

Fiona (crypto KOL):

Finally leaving Dubai! So happy! Missing home every day

The project party is indeed a yacht model, and many activities are indeed crazy. The builder came and the scammer came. I met many old friends and talked about many newcomers who just entered the circle.

Dubai is a big mess. It is true that every round of bull market activities is like this. The crowds are surging, coming and going, and not many can stay.

Let me talk about my first trip to Dubai:

1. Dubai is indeed very pro-China. Cainiao Station and Alipay are unimpeded, and even the musical fountain plays a lot of Chinese songs. Even some service staff can speak Chinese

2. Experienced Emirates Airlines' A380, the first time to ride a double-decker

3. It is worthy of being a major oil-producing country. There is still a clear gap in service and Singapore Airlines.

4. Poor emergency response capabilities. Of course, it is highly likely that they have never thought that there would be a chance of a heavy rainstorm flooding the city. Both drainage and subsequent rescue are not up to par.

5. Secularization and internationalization. As an ordinary tourist, I cannot feel the Muslim part. There are people of all skin colors everywhere on the road.

The last thought about Dubai, and then I will get back to the track of discovering Alpha.

I met many people in Dubai. They just entered the circle, with ambitious eyes, and their goal is to make tens of millions of dollars in this round.

I do know people who have made enough money in one cycle, but they are indeed few and far between.

The capacity of this market is so large, and the total market value of blockchain is only one trillion, and the actual liquidity that can be sold is one-tenth. Many so-called overnight A8A9 stories are just their personal narratives, which are used to collect money and cheat money.

The currency in our currency circle is also real money, which is the banknotes issued by the bank in Monopoly. Be rational in cryptocurrency trading and distinguish between boasting and reality.

Original link

LiamWang (Partner of MIIX Capital):

Heavy rain, compliance, AI and discourse power - a brief talk about the Token2049 conference

This is my first time to participate in the Token2049 event. As a Web3 learner (yes, I always think this identity is the most suitable for me), I have two purposes for attending the conference:

1. Feel the atmosphere of Web3 up close. In Web3, atmosphere is something that is hard to explain but particularly emphasized.

2. Understand the cutting-edge topics or narratives being discussed in the industry, which is especially important in a fast-changing industry.

The main Token2049 conference was held on April 18-19, but there have been various side events, small events and parties since April 15. As someone who used to work in a Web2 Internet company, the atmosphere of this conference is completely different. In general, Web3 events are conferences, but more like parties to meet friends. You can listen to the speakers share their insights in the venue, or you can grab a drink and find a place to communicate with people from different countries and regions in the world. Of course, if you have time in the evening, various organizers will have different parties, and you only need to grab a beer to meet new friends. The casual and free atmosphere runs through the entire Web3 event.

In addition to casualness and freedom, when it comes to my feelings about the city of Dubai and this Token2049 topic discussion, I think it can be summarized with a few keywords:

Keyword 1: Heavy rain

If you are a participant in this industry, you must have seen the news of this rare heavy rain in Dubai from social media/friend circle. On April 16, Dubai experienced the largest single-day heavy rain since 1949. A large number of luxury cars were submerged in the accumulated water and the public transportation system was paralyzed.

Dubai has always been known for its luxury and prosperity. Until April 18, the entire city was still partially or completely shut down in public functions. A heavy rain tested the sewers of this city that brings together the rich material life of mankind, and also exposed the fragility of wealthy cities.

If extended to the Web3 industry, this rainstorm is also very inspiring:

A sound system needs to take into account any low-probability risk and make plans for it, even if the probability of occurrence is really low. For example, when we are working on a Defi project - will we be aware of a risk with a very low probability, but because of its low probability of occurrence, we choose to ignore it with a fluke mentality?

A sound system must also be prepared for the emergence of black swans at any time. Now in a bull market, the overall atmosphere and sentiment will tend to be optimistic, but we need to be vigilant at all times, because in this industry, it is impossible to determine when the black swan event will come and how it will appear. Cautious optimism is always better than blind optimism.

Keyword 2: Regulation and Compliance

Regulation and compliance are the words I heard most in Dubai this time. The first panel event at the main venue on April 18 was about regulation and compliance. Guests such as Binance CEO Richard Teng and Bloq co-founder Matthew Roszak discussed their views on global regulation of the crypto industry. At the same time, when I was communicating with different project parties, I could also feel their emphasis on industry regulation and compliance. For project parties, the issues they are generally concerned about are: ① Which countries/regions have friendly regulatory and compliance policies; ② How to obtain corresponding compliance licenses in these countries/regions, etc.

My feeling is that everyone has a consensus on the need for regulation and compliance in this industry. The difference in the discussion is nothing more than the way and rhythm of regulation. After all, the regulatory policies of each country and region are different.

At the same time, this also makes me think about a question: Is there a contradictory relationship between obtaining high returns and the industry becoming more and more compliant? For example, in the early stages of blockchain, due to the lag in regulation and compliance, there are many projects and individuals who have obtained rich returns. As the industry develops and becomes more standardized, will there be myths of individuals or projects making fortunes quickly like in the past?

Keyword 3: AI

In addition to regulation and compliance, AI is another hot word I heard at this Token2049 event. At the main conference of Token2049, guests including IIIia Polosukhin, co-founder of Near Protocol, Ahmad Shadid, founder of io.net, and others discussed what can be done in decentralized intelligence by combining AI with Web3. Similarly, about half of the projects I discussed outside the venue and at the party were related to AI, including AI distributed storage and computing, decentralized GPUs, intent-based AI applications, AI social and creator economy, etc. The popularity of AI+Web3 narratives is evident.

An interesting discovery is that in the past, when discussing Web3 mass adoption, people generally placed their hopes on GameFi and SocialFi, but this time, my feeling is that now everyone thinks that if Web3 is to be mass adopted, AI has a greater chance of success.

Keyword 4: Chinese discourse power

The Token2049 event was held very close to the Hong Kong Web3 Carnival Summit. The comparison between the two events has also become an interesting topic. After communicating with some Chinese practitioners, I found that everyone has two common feelings: ① The concentration of Chinese participants in the Token2049 event is not as high as that in the Hong Kong Carnival event (this is understandable, after all, Dubai is far from Greater China); ② There are differences in the focus of the discussion topics. For example, in the Hong Kong Carnival event, the topic of Bitcoin ecology was very popular, but in the Token2049 event, the discussion of this topic was relatively less popular.

Everyone is curious, is this like two different worlds?

This question is difficult to answer, and there is no way to determine it now. My opinion is:

From a practical point of view, Chinese people will definitely have their own discourse system in Web3.

On the one hand, many Chinese project entrepreneurs and investors now have good backgrounds, can speak fluent English, study and work abroad, and have a global mindset. At the same time, Chinese people themselves have the gene of "daring to take risks", so in the next ten years, I believe that more and more Chinese people will be active in the global technology competition arena.

On the other hand, there are many Chinese entrepreneurs in the Bitcoin ecosystem now, which is itself an effort and proof of building a discourse system.

From the perspective of vision, I think the Web3 industry should not be divided into any country/region, skin color or background. Because this industry emphasizes consensus, when consensus is reached, we are like-minded people, and we will not set restrictions on where you come from, your skin color, education/work background, etc. So from this perspective, whether Chinese or non-Chinese, we should weaken the differences in identity. After all, the emergence of new things like Bitcoin itself is breaking the barriers of traditional sovereign state boundaries.

The above keywords are my stronger feelings when participating in the Token2049 event this time. It should be noted that this is just my personal feeling, which will be subjective, so it cannot represent the thoughts of every participant. Secondly, at this Token2049 event, there are many topics that are discussed very enthusiastically, such as Depin, RWA, Bitcoin ETF, Restaking, etc. My above feelings cannot cover these topics one by one. But overall, activities like Token2049 can reflect the current trend of Web3 industry hot narratives. Regardless of everyone's subjective feelings, I believe that through participating in the conference, a common judgment will be formed on the industry's hot tracks and narratives.

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