Expo hall at DCentral 2022
Over 3,000 DeFi and NFT builders and fans showed up to celebrate the growth of Web3 at DCentral, a two day conference in Downtown Miami. Despite the bear market, the event carried a positive sentiment. Although there were fewer attendees compared to years prior, we witnessed more diverse voices even more passionate and focused on creating real value and achieving Web3 mass adoption.
As we navigated through the expo hall of DCentral, we noticed a variety of DeFi and NFT projects that were eager to share what they’re building. Everything from fashion, gaming, and education – you name it, we saw it. With 2022 being a hard year for cryptocurrencies and Web3 projects, it was definitely heartening to see people committed to building and pushing the industry — cutting away some of the noise and leaving those focused on delivering real value to their communities. We had the pleasure of connecting with a couple projects who generously shared their thoughts and insights.
MetaBoy co-founder Robert Ta speaking with DCentral Miami 2022 attendees
At the back corner of the expo hall, we ran into MetaBoy, the first NFT project to sell out its pixel collection on the GameStop marketplace in July 2022. Metaboy is currently starting up their MetaFam Technologies entity. This organization is focusing on building open-source, extensible tooling and frameworks that help other NFT creators immediately deliver value to their communities, with offerings such as Metaverse-as-a-Service, enabling anyone to build and manage their own metaverses.
Here’s what Probert, co-founder of Metaboy had to say about the opportunities in and his hopes for Web3, and building in a bear market:
“We really believe that Web3 brings more equity to the world in many ways. With more equity, comes more innovation and diversity of solutions to solve bigger systemic issues. Bear markets also are the best time to build – there are less consumer expectations, and the people that are here with us are the true believers of the products and technologies. That’s an awesome place to be as a builder.There are different people out there with different levels of understanding, and therefore confidence about the technology. Some of the solutions here are to educate people. More of the solution here, I believe, is to vastly rethink and improve what is possible, to deliver the easiest and most elegant user experiences for any Web3 solution.In addition, we recognize mass adoption means centering on the users who are NOT in the room, nor have the privilege of knowledge on these emerging technologies. We get creative and get loud in finding those users and bringing them into our space to educate them, and create feedback loops. We are doing this right now by centering on our holders who identify as she/her, or are non-binary, as we recognize those voices are underrepresented right now.We believe this focus on Inclusive design practices will ultimately be better for Web3 in the future, and better for business as a lagging result!– Probert, co-founder of Metaboy
OverThe Reality co-founder and COO Diego Di Tommaso
“If you have the right vision and get ready for the new bull waves, the market will recognize the value of your project.– Diego Di Tommaso, co-founder and COO of Over The Reality
“2022 was the greatest year yet for DAOs, not just in the growth of their popularity but also the advancement of DAO tooling. DAOs as a use case, once the tooling has better UX for non-Web3 natives, will help drive more mass adoption of blockchain in general.”– Adam Miller, CEO of MIDao
Secret Network team members at DCentral, courtesy of Secret Network
Web3 is a powerful concept, but without data privacy, we can’t build sustainable decentralized apps and reach global adoption. Secret Network provides the missing piece that allows us to cross the chasm from building speculative toys into building truly useful and empowering products.”– Tor Bair, Founder of Secret Foundation
Theirsverse NFT avatars
Agoracles founders Chiara and Enzo Yee on “How Can We Make Web3 Mainstream?”
On Day 2 at the Mainstage, we attended the “How Can We Make Web3 Mainstream?” panel by Agoracles founders and siblings Chiara and Enzo Yee. “Mass adoption happens through education,” said Chiara ”For us, mass adoption means evangelizing the market. Web3 belongs to the people and not only to the core group of people we have now.” AgoraLearn, Agoracles’ Web3 learning platform, is a Web3 learning platform coming in Q1 of 2023. This learn-to-earn platform is intended to help people learn about Web3 and earn money doing it, similar to Coinbase’s learning rewards program.
“2022 was a year full of twists and blunders. But despite the shortcomings, the community of builders and believers are strong as ever. Attendees who came to DCentral and [Art] Basel week were those who were not price conscious of the market, but instead are focused on the future.If this was the bear market like in 2018 then the events would be fully empty. Instead there's still a strong vibrant community that is looking to build the future.”– Justin Wu, CEO of DCentral
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