Consensus 2022 will take place from June 9–12, in Austin, Texas. Presented by cryptocurrency news site CoinDesk, the festival will revolve around showcasing the best that blockchain technology has to offer. Previous iterations of the Consensus festival have shed a spotlight on all sides of blockchain, crypto, Web 3, and the Metaverse.

The conference attracts some of the best and brightest minds in the blockchain industry, igniting discussions and debates on the future of the decentralized world and all it has to offer. All of this is why there’s much speculation as to what Consensus 2022 will be about.

Below are topics we expect to gain traction during the event.

DeFi’s buzz

Decentralized finance, or DeFi for short, centers around enabling people to safely and efficiently transact with each other without the need for third-party bodies like banks or remittance centers. Cryptocurrency, which people buy, sell, and trade, is considered part of DeFi. Blockchain, which secures and allows ledgers of transactions to be kept, is considered the backbone of DeFi.

DeFi is only growing. Apart from cryptocurrency’s rising popularity, the overall value of transactions through DeFi as a whole reached over $200 billion USD in the beginning of 2022. The steady rise of various developments upon the decentralized networks, including 

Function X, contributes to DeFi’s overall buzz. As people look for alternatives to the traditional financial system, you can expect Consensus to dedicate more attention to DeFi and all the projects behind it.

Making the Metaverse

With Facebook changing its name to Meta last year, the Metaverse is more popular than ever. In short, the Metaverse is an upcoming virtual reality space intent on replicating everything we do in real life — hang out with friends, meet with colleagues, etc — and make it virtual. Instead of splurging on airfare to fly to Paris and see the Eiffel Tower, for example, the Metaverse allows you to see it in virtual reality right at home.

Even big corporations such as J.P. Morgan are getting in on the Metaverse hype, launching their own Metaverse lounge just last year. Even Microsoft has announced that it has begun work on launching its own Metaverse tools, focused on fostering better workplace collaboration from around the world.

As big businesses pay increasing attention to the Metaverse, expect Consensus 2022 to be an interesting resource for insights on its future development.

More on crypto

The first half of the year hasn’t been kind to crypto. Recently, the Terra USD stablecoin lost its peg, prompting a selloff that eventually made its way to other cryptocurrencies, even sinking overall cryptocurrency market’s value by as much as 25%.

Yet the recent disastrous events in the market is why it’s crucial for Consensus 2022 to focus on crypto. Not only is it the entire reason behind Consensus 2022, but the event is a good chance to gather insights on crypto’s future, especially amidst tightening regulatory scrutiny.

Although not all of us will be able to attend Consensus 2022, there’s no doubt that the event is crucial for anyone concerned about the future of cryptocurrency and adjacent technologies such as the Metaverse and blockchain.

The good news is that despite the setbacks, crypto still seems closer than ever to mainstream adoption. As more and more countries stand firm on their use of Bitcoin as a legal tender and open for crypto transactions, many crypto companies have even begun collaborating with governments to help facilitate the use of crypto in daily life. Pundi X has launched blockchain-based point of sale XPOS devices to make transacting in digital assets as easy as buying a bottle of water. We will be there to meet our partners and look forward to engaging more developers and ecosystem partners to continuously build this space. Contact us if you want to schedule a face-to-face meeting in Consensus 2022.

As technology still evolves to make room for crypto and the like, it will pay attention to the developments that come out of Consensus 2022. At the very least, the event will provide a comprehensive snapshot of the future moves of some of the most exciting new technology around.