WEST PALM BEACH — The gloomy week in the crypto world presented an awkward subtext for this week’s “Permissionless” conference, an event pitched as “the largest Metaverse and DeFi event in history, designed to celebrate the new era we’re entering into.”
Over 7,000 attendees in solidly business-casual attire gathered at the Palm Beach County Convention Center to weather the bad industry news and hype their various projects. For all the industry’s talk of radical transformation, the event, while exciting, felt surprisingly like any other conference — except instead of selling medical devices, or speedboats, they’re selling freedom.
Chris Dixon, Andressen Horowitz partner and crypto-world celebrity, served as ambassador for that hype during an opening panel Wednesday, where he said “I believe we’re in the golden period of Web3.”
But what’s the basis for that optimism when one of the most high-profile conceptual projects of that “golden period,” Terra — whose founder, Do Kwon, canceled his scheduled appearance at the conference — just publicly, spectacularly imploded?
Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly Capital, asked during a panel: “Where do yields come from? We now know the answer. It comes from risk.”
“Risk” is a polite word for what the Web3 universe has been grappling with lately. Billions of dollars in…
