I've admitted that I'm pretty new to the crypto and blockchain world, so I attended the Denver Day for Crypto this weekend. It was sponsored by Salt Lending. Here are my thoughts:
It was great to see probably about 300 people there. There were several that have never purchased any crypto, and are trying to learn. Everyone in the know is so supportive and helpful.
It was also nice to hear some of the actual business cases, and the progression of the blockchain technology past merely speculating and investing and trading crypto currencies. There are some great business models.
Salt (www.saltlending.com) has a really impressive, platform and team. If you haven't checked them out, I highly recommend it. They are creating loans that are partially backed with crypto currency. So I can allow my BTC or ETH to grow while I get a loan. Great team there as well. They truly see this as the next generation - financial services on top of cryptocurrencies.
Real Blocks (http://realblocks.com/) was another interesting company I talked with. They are tokenizing real estate investment. So I can buy their token, and use that to buy into some of their real estate deals. I can then sell that token within their network to another investor. Fantastic idea.
Kowala (https://kowala.tech/) is solving a huge problem with the volatility. They know that crypto currencies aren't really useful as currency since the values fluctuate so much. Their currency will always be valued right around $1 (or other currencies they are going to mirror). This is going to have such far-reaching effects since we will now be able to transact globally in longer term contracts without the worry of huge price movement.
Metal (https://www.metalpay.com/) has a great idea in that you can earn their coin by using their coins. More transactions equal more Metal in your wallet.
Overall, there are just some brilliant people coming up with some great ideas in the space. My mind was blown. I'm not even sure how I'm capable of typing this right now. I can't wait to continue the conversations with some of the people I met in Denver.