Hello and let's get steemy!

My name is Preston and last summer I fell down the crypto rabbithole that a lot of you are probably familiar with. I now fantasize about these alternate economies. Where value -- and the parameters regarding the transaction of that value, the way to earn that value, and its future inflationary properties -- are clearly defined in open-source code. There, it uses distributed ledger technology to validate each participant's proof of value and compensate them with the economy's native token. The "real" value of these cryptocurrencies in the US Dollars that we all know and love is thus determined by the market forces of supply and demand.

Ideally, the dollar price of these tokens reflect the functionality of it's blockchain and the ability of its token economy to monetize value in a decentralized way. Realistically though, distributed ledger technology is in its infancy and we have yet to see what works at scale. At the moment most of these projects have just started up in the past year and don't have much more than a whitepaper and a team to show for it. In turn, hype and speculation mostly fuel this volatile new market that is exploding exponentially and has yet to be regulated. This is the Wild West of Web 3.0

Recently, I co-founded Texas Blockchain at UT Austin. We are a student-run organization that is dedicated to the R&D and education of blockchain technology, while exploring the exciting world of cryptocurrencies. This January, I'm attending The North American Bitcoin Conference in sunny Miami, Florida to learn from experts in distributed ledger technology and pioneers of the blockchain application industry. This year they're having top notch speakers like Halsey Minor, Brock Pierce, and Charlie Shrem to name a few that I'm pumped to see. I'll use the insight I gain to help foster a vibrant blockchain community here in Austin.

Here's their website and Facebook if you want to check it out:

https://btcmiami.com/

https://www.facebook.com/events/875375279292079/