Regulation stole the show at Barcelona’s European Blockchain Convention
Some 2,500 crypto-curious blockchain believers descended on Barcelona’s Hyatt Tower conference suites last week in a networking bonanza. The eighth edition of the European Blockchain Convention, and the fourth instance in Barcelona, also coincided with Bitcoin (BTC) falling below $25,000.
Despite a crypto decline of over 60%, the conference was packed, with reportedly 2,500 attendees from banks, blockchain companies and crypto drinking in the sights and sounds of the cosmopolitan capital of Spain’s Catalonia region. Nevertheless, the crypto scars of 2022 are still tender and raw; many participants raised real concerns about regulation and rules.
Among the calls for regulation were bankers from major European institutions: Santander, HSBC and Société Générale shared stages and rubbed shoulders with crypto-natives and blockchain maximalists.
Contrary to expectations, however, it was the crypto-native camp that was quick to acknowledge the problems in 2022, and was the first to call for clearer instructions from regulators.
Stef Wynendaele, a crypto-native who leads the commercial strategy for KeyRock, told Cointelegraph that he is “madly in love with Bitcoin” and that “questioning the establishment” is an important tenet of crypto. That said, a collaborative environment between institutions and disruptors may be the most productive way forward:
“Everyone says, ‘We don’t want to talk to the banks, we don’t want to know what they’re doing, etc.’ But they have actually been around for 300 or 400 years. They have a lot of experience with how to actually do things, or how not to do things.”
In such an environment, Wynendaele explains that it is no longer a matter of “us vs. them”, i.e. crypto vs. established, especially as the market will ultimately decide the best outcome.
Patrick Heusser, Chief Commercial Officer at Crypto Finance, echoed his comments. He told Cointelgraph: “I would say that not everything done in traditional finance is wrong. Regulation is not always wrong.”
Cathy We, Investment Associate at NGC Ventures, offered a contrary view on regulation, at least in the short term. She told Cointelegraph that “The kind of scrutiny we’re seeing in the market from regulators is something that’s obviously not a good thing to see in this bear market in the short term.”
“In the long term, it will actually create such a much better environment for everybody, for liquidity, for many of the new ideas to form safely and for talent,” she added.
“You want your best talent to work in a very compliant environment so they don’t get caught and end up in jail or something like that. So I think I think regulation in the long term is going to be very helpful.”
In light of a bear market where the likes of FTX, Luna, Celsius and BlockFi tarnished the reputation of the crypto industry, John Murillo, who spent decades in traditional finance, succinctly summarized the industry’s needs:
“Regulation provides transparency. Transparency ultimately gives credibility, and credibility is what everyone is looking for.”
While regulation was the mod du jour, innovation and disruption of the traditional financial space was excitedly talked about.
Related: Market Makers in the Crypto Industry: Party Planners or Bartenders?
A new phrase was coined during the conference, “recycle to serve.” The phrase is the slogan of the blockchain company Circularr, which participated in and subsequently won the CT accelerator award.
Circularr is a blockchain-based recycling pioneer that hopes to bring trust back to recycling. The team won a $35,000 value grant thanks to Cointelegraph after a smooth one-minute pitch on stage during the start-up pitch competition. The kick-off pitch brought the conference to a climax, reminding the audience of the Web3 industry’s roots, disruption, innovation and ownership.
