During the second day of Ethereal, speakers sought to answer: What does the future hold for blockchain technology and mass adoption?
Crypto prices may have crashed since the December peak, but the crowd at Ethereal[1] is largely focused on the power of the technology, and most are still looking forward. Saturday's speakers gave their piece on a critical question: Where do we go from here?
Media Drives Adoption in Development and Society
"Once [a blockchain developer's] project is live, they have no power, no influence, on whether it succeeds," said Vlad Zamfir, an Ethereum blockchain researcher. He emphasized that blockchain development is shaped by social consensus, and getting people to side with a specific fork is a responsibility held by the crypto-focused media.
Ronny Chieng, a comedian from "The Daily Show," received a roar of laughter from the crowd as he joked about his lack of knowledge on blockchain, but he still managed to get his point across: To reach people with no interest in tech, enthusiasts must speak their language. When those in the community reach out to mainstream media and effectively communicate with them, they will use their influence to spread the word, and reach the lay audience.
Vanessa Grellet, executive director of social impact at Consensys, spoke on reaching individuals in a different way: identifying critical problems facing humanity and building solutions tailored to their needs.
Driving Government Involvement
Governments need to understand this new wave of technology. Brian Forde, former tech advisor to President Obama, pointed out US representatives' poor understanding of tech, as evidenced by the Mark Zuckerberg fiasco[2]. He also wants to see blockchain implemented as an accountability tool: Constituents can voice their opinions on a public blockchain to influence their representative's vote, unlike the current system of
