Last week, the Giant team has attended to the Blockchain Life 2018 conference with founders and Project Manager Maria as representatives. It’s time to tell about how it proceeded and what it brought us.
To be fair, we must give organizers their due and highlight the high level of organization. The conference has been held in the ExpoForum exhibition complex in which the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) has previously been held. There were two showrooms for speakers and a large exhibition hall in which each team could present its project. The conference has been visited by over 5000 people with different goals and background. We have written about this in a separate Giant Insight.
Our Goals
Firstly, it was curious for us to see beyond the curtain of such events. To see first-hand and assess the competence level of the blockchain community on the part of the users, investors, as well as the cryptocurrency and blockchain endeavors themselves.
Just as it was anticipated, the today’s level of competence is insufficient. It’s no secret that many speakers are trying to provide the newcomers with a simplified image of the crypto industry, pushing their own projects forward at the same time.
Secondly, we have been pursuing a goal to establish new contacts which will help us to develop our project. Despite the problems noted above, the conference has been visited by actual professionals able and ready for cooperation.
Thirdly, we deemed important to understand the sentiment dominating in the crypto industry to keep our agenda in touch.
Results
Gentarium
Quite soon, in an exhibition hall, we’ve found a stand of the project we know about very well. The Gentarium team is openly declaring its goals, acts in accordance with the roadmap and shares our view on the work transparency. We were committed to the long-term cooperation, as both of our projects are using the masternodes technology and take steps in making the crypto community more familiar with it. Even more, they have developed a service which may prove interesting for the Giant users. We are certain that our projects can become mutually supportive.
As we’ve found out, the Gentarium team is sharing our position and knows a lot about the Giant project. After the teams representatives became acquainted, we’ve started to discuss mutually interesting issues and exchange our experience. Now we can call Gentarium a friend of Giant. We are certain that there will be far more than one interesting collaborative initiative. Soon we are going to develop a tutorial video on how to launch a Giant masternode using the Gentarium platform. We were even promised to make a discount for all Giant users. Once again, we express our respect to their team!
Exchanges
We had several pre-agreed meetings with the representatives of cryptocurrency exchanges. The Giant team has also established new contacts in this field as well.
For example, we have met the delegates of EXMO and discussed potential listing variants. EXMO aside, we have also became acquainted with the managers of SIMEX, a platform with Las Vegas headquarters, and with a young exchange called Coindeal.
ICO Rating Agency
We were lucky and had an opportunity to become acquainted with Anastasia Blake, the representative of the assessment agency called ICO Rating. She has quickly demonstrated her expert understanding of the crypto market, exchanges, and has expressed interest towards our project. We have swiftly exchanged contacts and agreed to meet the next day. It was exactly this level of expertise we were searching for on this conference. We had quite a meaningful conversation. The Giant team members especially appreciate the direct and practical approach of our interlocutor. Anastasia spoke in a substantive manner which is quite a rarity in the crypto industry these days. In short, we have raised the following topics:
- Giant strengths and weaknesses for market participants;
- Moderate and large exchanges policy;
- Potential allies for our project in the crypto industry.
At a first glance, our project seemed like an overly-ambitious idea with an unprecedented approach. But the more we clarified the details, the more understanding about the chosen path we have received. As a result of the meeting, we have exchanged contacts again and continued to communicate online.
Soon we have received an expert review from ICO Rating and valuable advice on our next development steps. Many marketing tactics we have underestimated before are now becoming a top priority. We are going to continue the work with Anastasia on listing on new exchanges, the final Giant.Exchange product presentation and on the promotion Giant technology itself. What’s most important is that it allows us to get the job done in such a way that the Giant technology release will receive a maximum coverage and get the appreciation it deserves. Popular online platforms, high-level international conferences are necessary for us to reach several audiences at the same time: brokers, traders, blockchain developers, JavaScript coders. Thanks to ICO Rating and Anastasia personally for this acquaintance and support!
Speeches
While Pavel was busy doing networking in the exhibition hall, Mikhail and Maria selectively listened to some discussions and speeches. Although most of them were targeted at the blockchain newbies, we have managed to find several gems.
One of such gems was a panel discussion dedicated to the issues of regulation. It was hard to find any consensus among all members but the arguments used by the representatives of different spheres were especially valuable for us. The delegates from the blockchain industry, business, state institutions have all provided their own reasons and expressed concern over the lack of any crypto restrictions in Russia. At this phase of the project, we must understand the vulnerabilities and potential barriers for the Giant technology.
Mikhail was especially pleased to hear Tone Vays. He has drawn very accurate parallels between the boom of ICOs and the dotcom boom. It’s good to see that the expert of this level is sharing our opinion about the current state of things in the crypto industry.
Conclusions We Made From the Conference
Despite the fact that the conference was largely based on marketing, we have found like-minded professionals and organizations and receive a valuable feedback together with several partnership opportunities. The common understanding of realia and crypto mainstream discussions will allow to form a much more precise project agenda and reach a larger audience. We are now certain that we have a lot to say and our voices will be heard.