NEARCON 2022: Overall Impressions and Promising Results

NEARCON 2022 became some of the biggest events in the crypto industry, bringing together the NEAR community and its co-thinkers and partners. The scale of this event is impressive indeed: 2,000+ participants, over 700 NEAR-based projects, and more than 200 expert speakers. These four days were just a mad run of networking, rooting for innovative ideas and just having fun. Here I’d like to express my overall impressions and recap the results.

Networking Has Never Been So Much Fun

Imagine a place packed with crypto enthusiasts all chatting, enjoying themselves at food trucks with local food, and gazing at numerous entertainments. This is what the NEARCON venue looked like. But all this fun was just a background to intense collaboration of the brightest crypto minds who brainstormed the ideas for the creation of a better, safer, and more comfortable Web3 environment.

It was a place where all crypto fans could meet big names of the industry and get inspired for more exciting discoveries. This conference was a great experience for me, as in this short period of time, I’ve made ties with dozens of interesting people and learned about the amazing prospects for the crypto industry. And these were not some boring tie and suit meetings – I’ve met these people while having fun at numerous parties. One of them was a business breakfast organized by Roketo, a crypto streaming solution. I had a great time during engaging conversations. Co-Founder of Kikimora Labs Taras Dovgal shared with me his impressions of the conference:

“NEARCON is a great opportunity to meet similar-minded people and share thoughts about the future of Web3. I’m really impressed by the scale of the event, and I’m glad to see the NEAR community growing at such a rapid pace, and we are expanding alongside.”

Also I had a word with Eugene Rid, the second Co-Founder of Kikimora Labs:

“This place is buzzing with enthusiasm. The atmosphere is just fantastic. I’m so grateful to the NEAR team for bringing us all together and giving us a chance for networking and broadening the horizons of the crypto realm.”

Another party that grabbed my attention was the one held by NearPay and CryptoMondays. There, I’ve discussed the prospects for the NEAR community with George Goshanov, СЕО of MyNearWallet:

“With the ever-growing number of the NEAR family members, we are going to develop a sustainable one-stop environment where everyone will find any crypto solution they may need. It’s also great that the number of NEAR token use cases increases exponentially, making it a sought-after asset.”

Bright Prospects for the NEAR Ecosystem

Being a host of the event, NEAR, the leading smart contract blockchain platform, has built plenty of useful partnerships and kicked off a number of fantastic projects. Here are some of the most important ones in a nutshell:

• The NEAR Digital Collective (NDC) framework has been created as a move to enhance decentralization by arranging a governance group within the system. Its purpose is to enable the blockchain itself to make decisions which will add transparency to the way the community works.

  
  

• USDT, the biggest stablecoin in terms of market cap, has been added to the NEAR ecosystem. Commenting on the partnership, CTO at Tether Operations Limited Paolo Ardoino said:

“We’re excited to launch USDT on NEAR, offering its community access to the first, most stable, and trusted stablecoin in the digital token space.”

• NFTs are to be developed more actively within the ecosystem thanks to the partnership with Few and Far, an NFT marketplace built on NEAR Protocol. Robbie Lim, GM, Partners & International at NEAR said:

“We are thrilled to support Few and Far’s mission to provide seamless NFT minting solutions and an easy-to-use marketplace for the NEAR ecosystem and beyond. The NEAR Foundation embraces the digital asset revolution and the importance of laying the foundations for web3 gaming, the metaverse economy, and much more.”

• Fayyr has launched an NFT marketplace based on the NEAR blockchain to help charities and non-profit organizations make a social impact while giving artists an opportunity to torrent their creativity into meaningful humanitarian issues.

• NearPay has announced its soon-to-be released Visa debit card that will bridge fiat and  crypto payments. The card will be connected to the NearPay Wallet which makes paying with crypto for everyday goods and services fast and easy. Ivan Ilin, COO of NearPay, said:

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“It’s great that we are focused on the technology here, not the NEAR token, because price speculations should not be of higher priority. Overall, this conference helped me to see the perspective, the aspects to develop. At this stage, the projects within the ecosystem have already attracted some high-flying investors, and I think the next step should be a shift of attention towards our users. This conference has totally changed my perception of NEAR.”

• Pagoda, the Web3 startup platform working on the NEAR protocol, has unveiled its flagship console — an all-in-one tool for developers intended for smooth creation of dApps.

• NEAR Foundation has launched a $100 million venture capital fund in collaboration with Caerus Ventures, aiming to help creative people promote their art through next-generation platforms, marketplaces, and apps.

• In partnership with Coinbase, NEAR has launched a learn & earn program enabling its users to learn how the NEAR ecosystem works and get reward for that in its native tokens.

These are just a fraction of all the big promising plans of the NEAR community that were announced at the conference, and some of them have already been implemented.

NEAR Expands its Geography

In addition to the current NEAR hubs located in Kenya, Lisbon, and the Balkan countries, two more hubs will join the ecosystem which was announced at NEARCON. The one located in India will be focused on the promotion of blockchain talents and innovation. The region is seen as a promising site for development supported by a group of crypto enthusiasts.

The second new hub will be located in Vietnam, one of the countries that experiences a boom of the digital economy, with people massively adopting the use of crypto assets. In this country, the mission of NEAR will be to further develop blockchain innovation, education, and digital transformation.

Speaking of regional hubs, I’d like to separately mention NEAR UA, a hub that was located in Kiev, but when the Ukraine war started, the guys behind the project had to move to Lisbon. This hub makes immense contributions in all senses, not only developing the crypto sphere but also helping Ukranians stay within the community and find job opportunities in these toughest times. Founder of NEAR UA Anton Vaisburd shared his impressions of the conference:

“Great community of builders, a lot of meaningful conversations, and already a few partnerships so far. A lot of interest in the NEAR UA booth where people donate for merch, application of NEAR technology even for this. We have a lot of after-work to do, but already can feel the impact of the connections that were possible to make only thanks to NEARCON.”

Looking Forward to NEARCON 2023

It would not be an exaggeration to say that NEARCON 2022 was one of the biggest and brightest crypto events there ever have been. A wide range of exciting projects were presented at the conference, attracting an impressive number of attendees. As NEAR Foundation officials Jack Collier and David Morrison noted, this year’s event was five times larger than last year’s. As I look ahead to next year's conference, I can only expect it to be even more buzzworthy, given the boundless energy and enthusiasm of the NEAR team and its partners.