Blockchain Economic Forum 2018: How It Was

The forum was held in the panel discussion format, so more than 100 speakers could exchange their views and answer questions of the audience. In our opinion, the most valuable part for all participants was well-organized business-networking.

In addition to standard speeches, the forum organized “speed dating”. This is the format of presentation when representatives of the ICO come to the platform every 20 minutes in the common room and talk about their projects. The idea seemed interesting: it was assumed that the passing by participants would be interested and would stop to listen. In practice, it turned out that everyone was engaged in networking and was not distracted by the presentations.There was an impression that this event was not effective enough for ICO projects to find partners and stands of these projects attracted not a lot of attention.  

The forecasts and the speeches were vague and ungrounded, although the discussion unveiled the current situation in the industry and market sentiments.  

What was interesting to us:

1. Gabrielius Bilkstys’ advice to startups:  think about communication with the bankers and regulators during the very first stages (before ICO). It is proper to invest not only in marketing but in “bank compliance department” as well.
2. Soon we will see significant progress in the regulators’ participation. Today, a lot of bills are being drafted.
3. The majority of entrepreneurs who conduct ICO do not have a clear idea of why they are conducting it and whether their business needs a blockchain. Just a few think about the future after receiving investment and how they will earn profits.
4. Alex Mashinsky considers the problem that now blockchain serves to improve existing systems (in healthcare, banking, etc.) and instead suggests creating innovative systems based on the blockchain. For example, he suggests replacing the banking system, rather than modifying. The main value of tokens will be in their utility. This is what you need to focus on when developing an ICO. Alex sees the token not as an object of sale in the market, but as a mirror of the community that issued it.
5. John B Kaplan stated that the blockchain was such a new technology that there was not even a boom in demand for blockchain developers. It can not be said that the blockchain will capture the whole world at the same time: for one industry it can take 5 years, for another 10.