MiamiWeb3 Summit Recap
The past twelve months brought numerous changes along with industry redefining moments felt throughout macro environments and delivered possibly the most significant “phase change” we’ve since in Web3’s history.
Last year [2022] started off continuing the pace & excitement the industry had experienced during 2020 — 2021 with peak market cap ($2.90Tr), venture capital deployed ($30.0Bn+), total value locked (TVL) in DeFi ($175.0Bn+), rising protocols, new middleware, summers of DeFi, NFTs, and much more. Then, everything changed.
Towards the middle of Q2 2022, the industry was at the beginning of a massive industry shift. The change required a different mindset for all involved and demanded asking questions for not only a path forward but how to prevent the actions from occurring again. This prompted the creation of the MiamiWeb3 Summit (full recordings).
What began as an idea to bring together leading voices evolved into my producing (with outstanding partners) one of the year’s most significant industry events over two days (Nov 29–30th) with more than 1,500 attendees, multiple global industry partners, six side events & dinners, and 100+ speakers congregating in downtown Miami. Here’s a quick recap of the Summit if you missed it, and at the end of the summary, you’ll find full-length videos of all of the discussion.
We began the event by jumping right into discussing the elephant in the room and, more specifically, the current state of the industry and the impact of global & macro events that had occurred only days before as well as during the notable headlines of the prior nine months since the year began. To then unearthing the grey areas between the countless headlines emerging daily to what could be expected in the six months to follow.
The City of Miami’s Mayor Suarez, opened the Summit with a keynote speech discussing Miami’s role as a hub to the Americas and its transition to a “city as a platform” and evolution to a global hub for everything Web3 and technology beyond. Afterward, Mayor Suarez and Julian Holguin, the founder/CEO of Doodles, discussed Miami’s Ecosystem, Doodles, and the industry’s current state. Raymond Yuan, the founder of the CTH Group, then presented his views on the broader State of the Industry.
In the aftermath of many redefining moments for the industry, panelists took to the stage to discuss how to pick up the pieces to push forward in a new direction. The world’s leading think tanks took the stage to provide a depth of insights on their collaborative efforts in working with corporations & global governments on the implementation of decentralized technologies & the momentous task of guiding policy & instructing best practices around digital assets & the controversial central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
The regulatory environment, at the end of 2022, was beginning to heat up for an all-out battle in 2023. Senator Cynthia Lummis and I sat down to talk in-depth about the latest policy conversations happening within Congress at the time and her team’s ongoing work for the Lummis-Gillibrand Responsible Financial Innovation Act as well as how the regulatory environment may shake out beyond 2023.
The traditional finance (TradFi) industry was well represented throughout the event, with views of how institutions view the long-term potential of digital assets, decentralized finance (DeFi) impact of the good, the bad, and why some institutions may be holding off while others are slowly progressing. During the Summit, the talk of Institutional DeFi was highly debated, from asset allocation planning, DeFi trading & services, the risks & opportunities around yield products, lending & staking, asset management & custody, to tax & compliance to the future of mining.
The Summit’s second day kicked off with two of the most notable names in the industry Tim Draper (of Draper VC) and Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano (of Pomp Investments), discussing everything from Bitcoin’s decade-long journey and the greater industry’s transition to the arrival of the institution moment.
Continuing the discussion on Bitcoin, the conversation evolved towards the infrastructure level and what advancements have been made with the unlocking of the Bitcoin Economy & Layers and activating $360B+ of liquidy to Layer-2s (L2s) solutions post-merge as well as their impact on digital assets. With the development stack covered, the conversation shifted towards venture capital and the role ecosystem funds play within Web3. Additionally, speakers dove in-depth on how they’re fueling the platforms of the future (protocols) and new journeys for the industry’s rising Emerging Managers and family offices.
Talks continued into some of the most discussed & under-discussed categories of the industry — pending regulation environment, privacy, Non-Funginable Tokens (NFTs) post-hype, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), Gaming & GameFi, Digital Identity, Naming Systems and the impact on-chain reputations & DeSoc (social) will have on our future. The Summit concluded by examining the more significant transition from a Web2 world to a potentially thriving Web3 & decentralized future and the future of money.
To conclude, the MiamiWeb3 Summit was packed with two full days of over 35 talks, more than 100 speakers, and six side events during the heart of an industrial shift for Web3. To relive the event and all discussion, below is the entire agenda and links to the full recordings.
Day 1 Talks:
- Welcoming Address from CTH Group’s Raymond Yuan
- Opening Keynote from Miami’s Mayor Suarez
- Fireside Chat with Mayor Suarez & Julian Holguin of Doodles
- The State of Crypto & Web3 (2022)
- Picking Up The Pieces in Crypto
- Fireside Chat with Kyle Ellicott & Senator Lummis: Regulation, Policy & The Responsible Financial Innovation Act
- Modernizing Regulation, Government, & Society in the 21st Century
- An Outlook on Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs)
- TradFi’s Outlook on DeFi’s Future
- Looking Forward: Hedge Funds, Institutional Lending, & Marco Risks.
- Institutional Allocation. Don’t fear the FUD.
- Institutional Access to DeFi Trading & Services
- Opportunities and Risk with Yield Products: Understanding the Relationships Between DeFi & CeFi
- Asset Management & Custody
- The Great Pending Tax & Compliance Debate
- Mining Through Market Volatility
Day 2 Talks:
- Fireside Chat with Tim Draper & Henry Love
- Fireside Chat with Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano & Kyle Ellicott
- Unlocking Bitcoin Layers.
- The Battle for Scalability: Layer-2s & Alternative Scaling Solutions.
- Less Trust More Truth: Polkadot’s Native Token (DOT) Has Morphed & Is Not a Security. It Is Software.
- Investing in Web3’s Ecosystems.
- Emerging Managers Investing in Web3’s Future.
- Can Crypto Save The World? Crypto For Good.
- Fireside Chat with Kyle Ellicott & Jim Esposito, COO of MoonPay.
- Evolution of NFTs, Going Beyond Hype.
- Web3’s Role in Sports — From Athletes to Leagues.
- Fireside Chat with Henry Love & Bill Kramer — “Lights, Camera, Action — Web3 and Hollywood.
- Evolution of Gaming: Guilds, GameFi & Metaverses.
- Your Digital Identity: From Avatars to Metaverses with Sandy Carter, COO of Unstoppable Domains
- Navigating Privacy & Regulatory Uncertainty.
- DAOs: An Institutional View.
- Fireside Chat with Jennifer Blei Stockman and Lydia Chen
- Next Stop, The Metaverse: An Economic View.
