Consensus 2018 NYC Blockchain Week – After Bitcoin (BTC) catapulted in price at the latter half of 2017, the world began to take notice of cryptocurrency and its underlying technology the blockchain. At last year’s blockchain week, only 2,700 attendees were reported by CoinDesk. Yesterday, the final attendee count for the first day of the event was over 8,500.
Final attendee count for #Consensus2018[1]: ~8,500
— Barry Silbert (@barrysilbert) May 14, 2018[2]
Consensus 2018 is bringing in at least $17 million in ticket sales this year, as tickets were running $2,000 a pop before the event and last minute admission at the door is $3,000 a ticket.
The first consensus conference was held back in 2015 and CoinDesk registered[3] only 400 attendees.
Lamborghini’s and Protests
To kick off the event yesterday, three Lamborghinis lined the entrance of the conference. Many attendees arriving thought they were owned by cryptocurrency millionaires attending Consensus 2018.
Three lambos outside of consensus pic.twitter.com/cxsv7bQ0PA[5]
— Neeraj K. Agrawal (@NeerajKA) May 14, 2018[6]
Later, CNBC announced[7] that the Lamborghinis were strategically placed for promotional purposes. Broadway Supercars, a New Jersey-based car rental company, parked the cars at the front of the conference to grab the attention of cryptocurrency enthusiasts.
Consensus 2018 hasn’t been completely smooth sailing. Anti-cryptocurrency protests were held outside the conference as angry bankers tried making their stance known.
Bankers protesting outside #Consensus 😂https://t.co/uJTJRWzttB pic.twitter.com/Rq1N4q2sXX[8][9][10]
— Federico ⚡️ (@Federico_Xmas) May 14, 2018[11]
Some attendees had to wait close to an
