So Many People, So Little Time!

Over 15 thousand people attended Consensus 2024, with approximately 7000 crypto/web3 companies in attendance. The atmosphere was largely optimistic and the conversations were constructive and forward-thinking.

The main hall was dominated by the main sponsors of the event; blockchains. Stellar, XRPL, Tron Network, Polkadot and Hedera were particularly prominent. Of course, we spoke to all of them. We probably spoke to just about everyone!

We met with existing partners and took some giant strides towards closing additional partnerships. Our attendance was hugely beneficial and was absolutely worth the considerable effort and expense to be there.

We were either introduced to or randomly met some very key people not only from “pure” crypto/web3 companies, but also from the traditional financial and payments industries. 

Such is the nature of these events; you wander round the convention centre in the morning and early afternoon, get chatting to some people and plan for the really juicy networking opportunities at the side events. We were lucky enough to have some good connections before we arrived, so getting into some of the more exclusive side events was not a problem. 

Of course, the convention is just the start. My schedule for this week and next is filling up with meetings with Consensus Comrades to take action on the exciting ideas we dreamed up together while sipping complementary cocktails in Austin rooftop venues.

Connections and deals initiated or consolidated at Consensus will – beyond a shadow of a doubt – shape the future of crypto and blockchain adoption. Zypto will be an important part of this future and it’s looking very bright indeed for us and our partners!

The Battle of the Chains

As I say, a large part of the main hall was dominated by different blockchains. In most cases, the emphasis was on “Build on <Insert Blockchain>” and there were examples of projects built on each one as well as walls covered in the logos of existing partner projects.

Each chain is looking for a niche and each niche project is looking for a chain.

There are incentives and grants flowing and, quite honestly, it’s an exciting time for anyone with ideas and technical know-how. Getting funding and backing for exposure from blockchain foundations is probably one of the easiest ways to kickstart a tech startup right now.

We are fortunate enough to have a chain-agnostic business model for our core activities, so it was great to speak to the guys at the various booths about how we can help them to grow their volume in the payments space and how they can support us as we do it.

That is not to say that we won’t have an especially close relationship with particular chains, of course. That all depends on how much emphasis they want to put on payments and how open they are to providing mutual support.

Some Dinosaurs Can Fly

There’s always a slightly uneasy feeling around The Incumbents at this kind of event. By that, I mean the presence of well-known or very large established companies. Pre-blockchain companies.

The blockchain and cryptocurrency industry is by nature disruptive and distrustful of “the man”, so companies that elsewhere would be the undisputed top dogs are viewed with scepticism at events such as Consensus.

For example, during our not-infrequent pit stops for coffee and cookies in the Startup Zone, sponsored by Google Cloud, the only mentions of Google amongst the people we spoke to were accompanied by scoffing and dismissive eye-rolling.

At one point I spoke to some very pleasant representatives of Amazon Web Services and was less than impressed by their offerings for web3 startups. I wonder if I’d have been less dismissive if it were a smaller company I was talking to. Maybe.

We – the crypto community – are somewhat suspicious of big business and governments. The same is true in the other direction.

On the other hand, the crypto community YEARN for mainstream acceptance; for big business and governments to welcome us in with open arms. Meanwhile, traditional businesses and administrations YEARN for innovation to stand out, but their big heavy structures simply can’t keep up with the lightning fast blockchain industry.

This is why some of these dinosaurs are destined to evolve feathers and fly… If you’ll pardon the slightly mixed metaphor, like a Financial Phoenix from the ashes of the wildfire that is the spiralling-debt-laden, inflation-ridden clunky old economy most people are just watching as if it were a nice relaxing bonfire. You know the meme for this, right?

Some of these companies will be brave enough to work with us and, by doing so, they’ll stay relevant during the transitional period and beyond.

Interestingly, I’ve had dealings with a lot of the largest crypto companies over the years and, to be honest, a lot of them have become just as set in their ways as traditional finance and payments companies. They found niches where they make a ton of money, they’ve hired people from mainstream companies and the innovation has slowed waaaay down. This is good for us, because we’re speeding up!

Payments Companies

The biggest surprise for me at Consensus was that what Zypto is doing is practically unheard of. I mean, a company that connects together so many aspects of the payments ecosystem.

Crypto payments companies at consensus generally fell into the following categories:

• On/off ramps – Buy crypto with fiat or sell it to fiat (there were a TON of these)
• Payroll (one company)
• Cards (2 companies)

However, the need for people to pay and get paid is universal and the interest in our various services was enormous.

It is genuinely shocking to me that we are managing to build out such an extensive suite of payments solutions while the majority are still concentrating almost exclusively on the short-term gains to be made from speculative trading.

I should point out that we spoke to the payments companies that were there and in 100% of cases, at least something we offer is of interest to them or we could integrate what they do into our ecosystem of products and services.

There were also traditional payments companies such as PaySafe and Worldpay. While both companies have taken some steps towards facilitating crypto payment acceptance, neither of them gets close to how far along the path we are.

I was pleased with our progress before I went to Consensus. After it, I am more confident than ever that we are going in the right direction to make a real impact on the global payments industry.

Honourable Mentions

Finally, I’m going to go through and brainstorm out some other people and companies that we saw and/or spoke to that have stuck in my mind:

Web3Auth – A way to use a web2-style login with 2fa options so users don’t have to worry about managing seed phrases.

Association for Women in Cryptocurrency – We made some great contacts at this stand and are looking forward to working with them moving forwards!

Mobile Mining – A fun concept with a serious purpose. Could allow Zypto app users to use part of their device’s processing power to help train AI models used for scientific research and similar applications, while being rewarded in crypto or ZYPs.

Combination Visa/Mastercard, Hard Wallets and Wallet 2FA – Physical cards that you can pay in stores with, but also double as hard wallets and 2fa devices that you have to touch to your phone’s NFC chip to authorise blockchain transactions.

Customised hard wallets and preloaded memorabilia – Fun customised hard wallets and crypto-themed metal coins that are preloaded with crypto. An interesting gift idea.

Swaps on various blockchains – We met people that have developed swaps that could be good for us to integrate into Zypto App’s Swap UI.

Brand new stablecoins – There are cross-promotional opportunities with 2 new stablecoins that are entering the market 

Miners – We discussed our bill payment solution and how it can benefit miners by removing the need to pay for electricity bills in fiat.

Accounting software – I can’t imagine anything more boring than accounting. Thankfully, there are options that we could integrate into our systems to provide individuals and merchants with a super simple way to get their crypto accounting taken care of.

Blockchain-based TV – I don’t know how it works, but it sounds cool from what the guys told us. They need help to take and make payments and we’d like to do some cross promotion, so our chats outside the hotel could end in something useful!

Smaller blockchains – There are interesting opportunities to work with smaller blockchains to help them gain more traction for payments

Summary

Consensus was exhausting but exhilarating. I’m looking forward to sharing news of deals and projects that were started or moved along while we were there over the coming weeks and months.

Zypto is even better positioned than I’d realised to become the world’s leading crypto payments company.

Now, back to work… We have a roadmap to finish and a vision to turn into reality!