Tales from Token 2049

Let me tell the Tales from Token 2049: “Web3 is getting ready to shine again!”

1. The new wave of entrepreneurs and product specialists aren’t stopping at anything. This wave is bringing fresh ideas (more copycats however) into the space.
   
   Social is the name of the game. Galxe (earlier Project Galaxy) and Cyberconnect seemed to be spoken about the most in this category. (Disclosure, Draper Dragon is an investor in both).
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2. Arbitrum and Axelar clearly outshined everyone at the conference. It was particularly difficult to miss the technical depth of the point people tinkering at zkSync and Scroll.
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3. Even though the ONCHAIN SUMMER was hyped up a lot, it still seemed to be “BASE”d offchain or rather sidechain i may say.
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4. Talking about side chains, it seems like the tech, limited treasury of Polygon and tokenomics of polygon 2.0,  were the most criticized at the conference. Not to forget, the BD strength of Polygon was again at show with Grab(Singapore cab hailing app) and Astar Network(Polkadot parachain) moving/expanding to Polygon.
   
   There were mixed feelings about the firm, but as they say, if a subject polarizes people so much, then it sure is worth keeping tabs on.
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5. There seemed a lot of interest but at the same time, there were equally as many skeptics around interoperability. The idea of atomicity when it comes to transactions shared by one of the moderators was something developers found relatable at least some of the ones that attended the interoperability panel.
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6. Sui builder house is full of excitement with strong believers but limited in number for now united to network and explore synergies.
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7. A lot of VCs were seen utilizing the down time well to raise capital. While it did seem tough for the ones who were at it. Those who already had money with them to deploy couldn’t find anything exciting at the moment in the market to be setting eyes when it comes to investing in them.
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8. The conference seemed to have folks that seemed to care the least about AI in recent times. It could also be because many that were interested in Ai have already left the Web3 industry.
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9. Founders seemed to be having a tough time raising capital. So, the right ones were seen to focus on partnering up with projects instead of running after VCs.
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10. Token 2049 seemed to bring many fresh minds into the conference, which was a positive signal for the future of the industry.
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11. As someone who did not know Arthur Haze at all, I realized the man was difficult to miss after his Sentosa party invitation to what was apparently called “the naked pool party” at first. 

All in all, an event full of drama and positive sentiment but the moral of the story is “Crypto is here to stay”.