About a week ago I got a message from a friend saying he had a free pass for me for a Blockchain conference that happened in my hometown of Cebu. Tickets cost about $200 dollars, so hell yeah I would go, I didn't even mind the heavy traffic I knew there was going to and from the event. Crypto bigshots like the controversial Brock Pierce of EOS, Jeff Mcdonald, former head of NEM foundation, and Nicholas Merten of DataDash was there. But I was most looking forward to @jeffberwick / @dollarvigilante. Unfortunately he didn't make it for some reason. Would have wanted him to spread some his anarcho-capitalist message here in the Philippines.
The event was sponsored by Loyalcoin, which is the first Filipino ICO. They raised 15 million dollars in their ICO, which is a huge deal for a Filipino company. I guess with their funds they could now sponsor huge events like this which was held at Movenpick hotel in Mactan island in Cebu.
sometimes I forget I live in tourist destination
Brock Pierce started the conference with a talk about starting movements. How movements not only need leaders but the first followers are really important as well. His talk featured Burning Man heavily and it kinda reminded me of this funny youtube video about Burners.
I feel though that his talk would be a net positive especially for us Filipinos just to see a different way to look at things. Filipinos are naturally lateral thinkers, another speaker, Tony Herbosa said, Filipinos love chaos. But at the same time we have a rigidity, and a conservative nature in us, maybe being a primarily Catholic country that needs to open up to the weird concepts Burning Man can offer.
Other concepts he talked about were kaizen and ikagai, two Japanese productivity concepts. Kaizen is the concept of continuous improvement. Ikagai is a way to find ones true meaning. A Venn diagram shows this concept well:
The lower part of that diagram is about getting paid and Brock says that he would get rid of that part. Well, that's easier to say when you're a bitcoin billionaire. Would be amazing to reach a point which philanthropy would be you main goal since you have all the money you need, much like Bill Gates. For the rest of us, we have to deal with paying the bills, so while money should not be a main focus in life, it's a big part of it. Which is why Tony Herbosa's talk on the second day was my favorite because it was the only one that was actionable for me cause I'm not a crypto developer, I'm an enthusiast and a lazy trader, so his tips for trading were invaluable.
Other talks I enjoyed were @rafaelpadilla's talk on crypto rules and regulations around the world. Also Nicholas Merten's talk which talked about the the future of crypto and problems facing crypto right now.
Overall I like the conference because I learned quite a bit. Often in these sort of things, people just use it as an excuse to network. However since I wasn't part of the crypto development system and merely an enthusiast I was able to focus on learning as much as I can.
I'm happy the a Filipino company showing early signs of success and was able to sponsor an event like this. I do think it can be a huge player in the industry because they seem to be really competent at what they are doing. It's amazing to see this worldwide decentalized venture funding happening infront of our eyes. If nothing else will happen in the blockchain/crypto world, at least this decentralized capital raising with ICOs has shown to create a more level playing field for us living in the third world.