Over the past few years, some of the most impactful announcements, moments and projects have come from Consensus. Presented by the leading crypto media outlet CoinDesk, Consensus is a key event for developers, creators, and more to build momentum, further discussions and create lasting connections across the industry.
For Trust Machines? All of the above.
Our team set out to represent the Bitcoin community in big ways this year with nearly a dozen speaking engagements in and around the main event, media announcements and great moments spent with our fellow Bitcoin builders. Here’s what we learned.
Bitcoin is Back
Trust Machines CEO Muneeb Ali and Coindesk reporter Frederick Munawa on stage together at Consensus 2023
At Consensus 2023, Muneeb Ali, our CEO and Co-Founder at Trust Machines, discussed the changes within the Bitcoin community's developer culture with Frederick Munawa. From a historically payments-first blockchain, the Bitcoin community has begun to truly embrace the use case potential of the blockchain with the recent introduction of Ordinals and Stamps protocols.
From Bitcoin color coins and NFTs through Counterparty, if you look at a lot of the concepts being discussed during the entire conference, many began right here on the Bitcoin blockchain. The developer culture of Bitcoin from 2017 is back. More open to experimentation and intellectual curiosity about what we can do once we truly unlock Bitcoin.
The Benefits of Open Systems
In addition to discussing one-on-one the ‘explosive growth’ of Bitcoin in 2023, Muneeb also sat down for an open AMA panel titled "From New Currencies to New Societies: The Way Forward for DAOs, Network States and NFT Communities."
The panel included a number of notable speakers, including:
- Kevin Owocki, Founder of Supermodular
- Kyle Rojas, Global BD and Partnerships Edge & Node at The Graph
- Paul McNiel, Founder of The Wagon Box
- Alim Khamisa, Product Lead at DELV
- Dr. Gennaro D'Urso, Chairman of Genetic Networks
- Julie Fredrickson, Managing Partner at Chaotic Capital (Moderator)
- Marc Hochstein, Executive Editor of CoinDesk
The panel talked about the new types of communities being built, digital-first, and how to address the challenges that come with this type of new infrastructure. Topics of governance and accountability and organizing through transparency are core tenets of many of the products we are building here at Trust Machines.
Head of Operations and Speaking
Trust Machines Head of Operations and Strategy, Rena Shah, speaks at ETHAustin
The event was not just located inside the Austin Convention Center, with many side events and discussions occurring all around the downtown area.
Our very own Head of Operations & Strategy, Rena Shah, not only took part at Consensus, discussing the Business of Blockchain, but she stopped by ETHAustin to chat about how Ordinals are making Bitcoin fun again to the Ethereum community. After that, she helped judge the Web3 startup competition over at The Grit Daily House with other leaders in the Web3 industry.
It’s a Bitcoin Revival for Everyone
That is just some of the great events we were a part of during Consensus week in Austin. Our team also celebrated the wins of the Bitcoin builders community at our The Bitcoin Happy Hour and watched our advisors, Dan Held and Aubrey Strobel, advocate for the innovation happening here by Bitcoin builders. Our team even stayed beyond the convention, with Chris Castig further discussing the surge of interest brought in by Ordinals.
So, where do we go from here?
With the revival of the Bitcoin developer culture in full effect, Bitcoin is becoming fun again. There's a place to build again, and that has already led to over three million Ordinals inscribed at the time of writing this and new innovations via Nostr, Stamps and RGB, the rush into the Bitcoin ecosystem has only just begun.
As much fun as we had this year at Consensus, we cannot wait to see all the new innovations we’ll be talking about in just a few weeks when we head to Bitcoin 2023 in Miami, Florida.
