Positivity Flames Through a Bear Market: Blockchain Economy Istanbul 2022
The fourth iteration of the Blockchain Economy Summit 2022 (BE2022) was held at the Hilton Bomonti, a fancy hotel next to a renovated and repurposed beer factory in Istanbul.
The previous summit, BE2020, was held at the WOW Convention Center two years ago. In addition to being located in a more difficult to access part of Istanbul, the summit coincided with the COVID-19 outbreak, further affecting overall attendance. Since the sole purpose of that venue was to host large events, the crypto community of two years earlier was simply not large enough to fill the space. As a direct result of the aforementioned factors, BE2020 felt like a two-day trip to a ghost town.
Pictures before the screening: Great music and performances at @BEconomy_HQ.
Nice shirt too @ErhanKahraman; We wonder where you got it from. (Reap,)#BEinstanbul2022 pic.twitter.com/hZABaJhfso
— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) 27 July 2022
Participants at Blockchain Economy Istanbul 2022 described the summit as dense, vibrant and full of energy, drawing a stark contrast to BE2020 in almost every aspect. It was also the first international crypto and blockchain event to be held in the region ever since Turkey lifted travel ban restrictions. As a result, crypto community members – from Western and Eastern countries – could join in the celebration.
The event roster had a good balance between the local companies and global crypto players. While big shots like Binance, Huobi or FTX were visibly absent from the event, logos from big companies like KuCoin, Gate.io, Bitget, Bitmex and Uphold filled the main hall. Despite the recent problems, the Gari Network took on the main sponsor tag for the entire event.
For two days, the main hall never saw a dull moment: people were there mainly for networking purposes after two years filled with shutdowns and travel bans – and it’s hard to say they missed much by not attending sessions on the main conference stage.
Sure, some exciting names like MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor (although he joined via video call) or Davinci Jeremie, the “Please Just Buy One Bitcoin (BTC)” guy, were on the main schedule. But unfortunately the program saw a greater participation of more local or regional speakers than necessary for an international event of this scale – and the super-cooling in the conference room didn’t help either.
People got chills, lost interest in the simultaneous translation, and headed back to the main area where a giant samurai dog statue from the blockchain battle royale game Katana Inu welcomed them in a terrifying manner. The best part? Most keynote speakers made themselves available for a small chat in the main hall after the stage performances.
Cointelegraph reached out to several keynote speakers for some quick comments and in-depth conversations, including KuCoin Labs CEO Lou Yu and AAX Exchange CEO Ben Caselin.
The BE2022 event was most beneficial to the young and talented developers of the community, of which Turkey hosts a lot. During the event, Ali Dursun was able to present his blockchain gaming ecosystem Ratic to a number of global exchanges and venture capitals. Aybars Dorman introduced Metavest, a new version of decentralized finance (DeFi), to the attendees, and Yotta21 founder Yunus Cebeci made important industry contacts at the smoking area.
Two things were clear: First, the COVID-19 pandemic could not slow down the growth of the crypto ecosystem. For many attendees, Blockchain Economy Istanbul 2022 was their first networking experience with the rest of the industry, and they enjoyed making the most of it. And second, no matter how bearish a crypto market gets, the price swings cannot shake the positivity of the crypto ecosystem.
Considering everything that happened during the event, the Blockchain Economy Istanbul 2022 Summit confirmed that regardless of market conditions, the crypto ecosystem is ready to invest time, money and energy to stay positive.
