Greetings all, and sorry I haven't posted anything in such a long time. Things have just honestly been very busy for me. Mostly that is because of the success of our Blockchain Gaming Investment Fund, which has been great news for the Hive games in our Accelerator Program. One of the other reasons, though, is CoinFest, a non-profit project which I founded years ago.
CoinFest is one of the world's oldest cryptocurrency conventions, and the first to be completely decentralized. Starting in 2013, all funds have been held in multi-signature wallets by participating organizers worldwide, who host events simultaneously about once a year. This makes it geographically decentralized, as well, and it has already been hosted in over 30 cities.
Although attendance remains free as it has always been, the traditions of CoinFest have undergone some modifications during the COVID era. New restrictions forced event postponements such that CoinFest could no longer be held at the same time in April each year. Other restrictions have also been loosened on an as-needed basis.
The international CoinFest organization distributes funding from global sponsors to local organizers in need. This has been a huge blessing for developing countries, spreading crypto knowledge to places where it would be otherwise inaccessible. CoinFest Ghana (depicted above) attracted 500 attendees this November thanks to the hard work of Philip Agyei Asare and Blockchain Foundation Africa.
Botswana is also home to a history of CoinFest celebrations, all organized by Alakanani Itirileng (AKA the Botswana Bitcoin Lady, who is worth a Google search). She has been working to build Satoshi Centre, and hosted an event this year along with the others.
CoinFest UK has reigned for a few years as the largest CoinFest event, and with Vancouver on extended hiatus, it currently has no competition. Held over 4 days, November 25-28, this year had all the usual excitement. Unfortunately, the combination of COVID and Brexit was too much for many sponsors, who were to fly in from abroad. The CoinFest UK organizer also became esick with COVID himself, and they wound up with a huge funding shortfall.
Thankfully, the success of our Blockchain Gaming Investment Fund allowed us to close that shortfall almost single handedly. In return, we got our logo in way more places, and got to give an extra presentation about the wonders and beauty of blockchain-based video games. This is in addition to the booth of our own we had already planned, which helped introduce passerby to the subject.
Of particular interest was BlockRaiders, a guild for the metaverse created by Blockchain Gaming cofounder Isaac Nandgavkar. With the support of our Fund—which has lent members powerful gaming NFTs—they are poised to conquer and attracting many players.
We also invited some friends to join us at our booth or booths nearby. Some of them were from the Xaya team, whose token we've invested in heavily. They're building a fully decentralized blockchain gaming platform, with MMOs that don't require central servers to operate. Soccer Manager Elite is coming out soon!
Perhaps more exciting to fans of the Hive blockchain would be Jux from Rising Star, who found plenty more music game fans. We hope to get more people involved and have a big blast together once the COVID era is over.
The festivities have not concluded, however. Online events have always been a big part of CoinFest, and this has only become more true in the COVID era. For anyone feeling left out because they were unable to attend any physical CoinFest events, you can still participate in our virtual finale.
Just sign up on Zoom! We're gonna have another blockchain gaming panel, and you can bet some familiar names will be there. This will include Hive games in our Accelerator Program.