Inside Consensus 2024: Crypto and the Vision of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. | S4 E11

Hello everyone and welcome to the Web3 CMO Stories podcast. My name is Joeri Billast and I'm your podcast host, and today is a special episode as I just came back from Consensus 2024. And I wanted to give you some feedback, some stories of the past week. But first a bit about Consensus. So ConsenSys 2024, it's hosted by Coindesk, the sponsor of this podcast, and actually they welcomed over 350 of the most influential figures in the digital asset space and this year, 15,000 attendees were invited to attend a series of groundbreaking presentations, panel discussions and exciting networking sessions showcasing the latest developments and trends across payments, NFTs, Web3, Defi, regulation, investment, ai and the metaverse. Consensus was first established in 2015. It gathers all sides of the crypto industry, offering a host of groundbreaking presentations, workshops and panel discussions across nine separate stages, featuring discussions around end-to-end tokenization, ai, blockchain and the creator economy, cryptocurrency and the US elections, the Global Regulatory Market, cybercrime. Consensus aims to cover every aspect of the blockchain and Web3 community. The event attracted over 50,000 crypto-passionate attendees. It was in Austin and actually is the first year that the conference has seen such heavy attendance and support for digital assets from political figures. The environmental lawyer and now Maverick presidential candidate, Robert F Kennedy, drew hundreds of additional attendees to the conference, from investors to media to startups. He has been a vocal advocate for cryptocurrency and recently proposed putting the entire US budget on the blockchain.

During his onstage panel, he was asked about his thoughts on the Trump verdict. He commented I think this is the weakest case people brought against him. My belief is that it will end up helping President Trump among a large part of the American public. I'm not a fan of Trump's. I'm running against him On the debt. He ran up $8 trillion more than all presidents combined. He shut down our country after promising he was going to run America like a business. He embroiled our country in foreign war. The division in our country is largely down to him and Biden, and it's not a good thing for our country. Quote finished. He also spoke about the issues currency facing cryptocurrency and, in an earlier press conference, announced he owned Bitcoin and that he gifted the digital currency to his children. Open quote. I think transaction of freedom is one. We need sovereignty over our own wallets, transactional freedom and currency that is transparent. We need to make sure America remains the hub of blockchain technology. I'm going to make sure cryptocurrency is regulated in a way that protects the customer from deceptive schemes. I purchased 21 bitcoins since I started this campaign. I also bought three coins for each of my kids. End of quote. So this was memorable to be there when a presidential candidate like RFK Jr gave his vision.

It's always good to hear people speak live. You're not reading it in the press or on television or something like that, so I love to hear the man speak, answering questions and, yeah, live for the audience. Next to that, I went to a lot of network cocktails, from the Inner Circle multi-chain mixer to the unstoppable VIP partner meetup. I connected with a lot of industry leaders, also other media people, to discuss the latest trends and innovations in Web3. Also, I did Two podcast interviews on site and I also planned a few podcast interviews for after the event. During the event, I had in-depth discussions with Christina, the new CMO at Cookie Tree, and also with Dominique Caroz from Hivello. He provided valuable insights about Deepin. If you don't know Deepin, stay tuned for this episode.

What I also love about these events is catching up in real life with people, like with former podcast guests like Sandy Carter from Unstoppable Domains, the influencer Crypto Megan, and also good to see Jeff Kaufman again from the Jump community. I was, by the way, also at Jeff's breakfast event, which was really cool, and so, in general, I just love these meaningful connections within the Web3 community. I have not attended so many talks, but two talks at the end of the event that were inspiring were the one with Yed Siu of Animoka Brands, an OG in the NFT space, and also the session with Neil Stevenson, the OG of the metaverse, and his talks shed light on emerging trends and the future of crypto and Web3. So networking connecting is an important part of the event or every Web3 event I'm going to, part of the event or every Web3 event I'm going to. There will be two episodes with people from Circle actually, that will come out very shortly. Recently, I recorded podcast episodes with Marcina and with Sanja, After I connected with Jeremy and Jared from Circle during Paris Blockchain Week. Now in Austin, I connected with Pierre, also from Circle, and he offered valuable insights into stablecoins and blockchain technology, paving the way for future collaborations. So, as a conclusion, it was an exciting event.

Consensus was amazing. There were a lot of really good side events. One of the events I didn't mention was the Galaxy Lunch. Stay tuned because, also with Galaxy, I will have a new podcast episode, and there was an amazing cocktail at the end with Somnia an amazing cocktail at the end with Somnia Also. Stay tuned because there will also be a podcast episode recorded with them. They have amazing things going on.

It would take me too long to mention everyone I've met and every session I went to and everything I've learned. I just wanted to give you some highlights of Consensus 2024. And if you are going to HCC in Brussels or the European Blockchain Convention in Barcelona or the Web Summit in Lisbon, please let me know. I would love to meet you there. Take care and see you back next time. This was a different episode. I hope you liked it. Be sure to give me feedback about it. I would also love to get a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify or on another platform where you can find me. This would help me reach even more people and, of course, I would like to see you back next time. Take care.