Lamborghinis greet crypto fans at Blockchain Week in New York City
Tickets for the three-day crypto event at Consensus in Midtown Manhattan cost between US$1,300 and US$3,000 each
A Lamborghini costs about 23 bitcoins, which might not seem like much, unless you owned the cryptocurrency in December, in which case you could have bought one of the US$200,000 luxury cars for just 10 of them.
Such was the conversation at Consensus, a three-day crypto event happening in Midtown Manhattan this week. Lamborghinis lined the entrance for a publicity stunt on Monday, while people inside waited on long registration lines while discussing bitcoin prices and evangelising blockchain, the technology that stands behind most digital currencies.
“This is like the Glastonbury of crypto,” said attendee Shane Brett, likening the event to a large music festival held in Britain.
A lucky few snatched invitations to an after-party featuring rapper Snoop Dogg, who is a fan of bitcoin. Crypto enthusiast Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and Square, will give a keynote presentation on Wednesday.
Event organiser CoinDesk estimated that 7,700 attendees paid between US$1,300 and US$3,000 per ticket, a much bigger crowd than the 2,700 entrepreneurs, investors and enthusiasts who went to Consensus last year.
“It’s packed; it’s amazing,” Frideric Prandecki, co-founder and CEO of Las Vegas-based Bob’s Repair, said at the event. His startup, which is building a blockchain-based website that lets users find handymen online, raised money by issuing its own cryptocurrency.
Like many others at the event, Prandecki was sanguine about the future for virtual currencies, which are essentially pieces of code not backed by any government or hard asset.
“This is just the beginning of a revolution,” he said.
