London Blockchain Conference 2023: Slow but steady wins the race

Let me take a contrasting view of last week’s London Blockchain Conference (LBC). It wasn’t how fast things moved that impressed me, but how slowly. Remember that in the end it was the tortoise that beat the hare.

LBC took over a large, prestigious venue in central London and boasted two floors of exhibitor stands and two stages for the first time. There were new ideas and new people to meet. Things visibly progressed compared to previous conferences.

But beneath the surface, it was the sense of building momentum that was most striking. Here was IBM – technically “blockchain agnostic” – but working with BSV blockchain companies and seemed ready to recommend the blockchain to new customers where appropriate.

Here was mintBlue with the Nowatch partnership, collecting health data and storing it on the BSV blockchain – a real BSV startup working with a real commercial business to provide a product with real commercial value.

Here was BSV serial entrepreneur Stephan Nilsson, who announced his blockchain-based version of Docusign and assured me that he already has customers ready to use it.

And here was James Belding with his Tokenized – which I had first interviewed back in 2019. A couple of weeks before the conference I had been able to register on the product he had described then – and it works flawlessly and elegantly.

It’s taken a few years and James has had to endure some slings and arrows on social media because of it, but here it is – and will be for the future.

It all gives a sense of doing things right, even if it takes time. When I interviewed Calvin Ayre just before the conference, he reiterated what I had heard him say before, that he is in this for the long haul.

So while the larger world of crypto lives in a state of constant crisis – volatile prices, financial scandals, new coins emerging, old ones imploding, LBC highlighted a steadier scene. The message at the end of the conference was “we’ll be back here, same time next year.” And no one doubted that.

We have by no means reached the end of this race yet, but it does not feel unlikely to identify with the victorious tortoise, rather than the faster but ultimately overconfident hare:

Just in time, the turtle touched the tree with its nose. He had done it. The Tortoise had beaten the Hare fairly.

“Not fair,” said the hare. ‘I slept. We have to run the race again. It is not fair.’
But no one listened to the hare.

The first of Charles Miller’s new series of CoinGeek Conversations, recorded at the conference, will be published next week – with Jerry Chan, discussing blockchain and AI.

See highlights of Day 1: Monetization with blockchain technology

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See highlights of Day 2: Reduce risk and improve trust with blockchain

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See highlights of Day 3: Driving innovation, competitiveness with blockchain

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