Paris Blockchain Week 2023: First day of the Summit kicks off

Paris Blockchain Week (PBW) kicked off its fourth year as one of the world’s largest conferences tackling all things blockchain, crypto and Web3. The event hosts over 10,000 attendees and sold out last year.

Following two days packed with hackathons, talent fairs and investor demos, the main event of the week, the Summit started on March 22.

The Cointelegraph team is stationed in Paris to bring readers the latest news from the ground. The latest news are presented below in ascending order (the newest story at the top). Time stamps are in UTC.

10:00 am: The first-panel discussion on the role of Web3 kicked off with Cointelegraph editor-in-chief Kristina Lucrezia Corn?r moderating a discussion around the evolving role of Web3 technology in the traditional financial ecosystem.

Cointelegraph editor-in-chief moderating a panel on Web3

The panel titled ‘State of Chain 2023’ was joined by Patrick McGregor, head of product for Coinbase, Matthew Savarese, vice president of Nasdaq Digital Assets, Richard Widmann, global head of Web3 strategy at Google, Dante Disparte, head of global policy at Circle and Denelle Dixon CEO of Stellar Development Foundation.

The discussion was focused on the state of traditional finance and the recent banking crisis and how Web3 based solutions are becoming a norm in times of financial crisis, something that was envisioned by Satoshi Nakamoto himself at the time of creating Bitcoin.

Patrick McGregor, Matthew Savarese, Richard Widmann, Dante Disparte, Denelle Dixon and Kristina Lucrezia Corn?r (from left to right)

9:30 am: The next keynote speech was delivered by the CEO of Stellar development foundation Denelle Dixon. She talked about the real-world use cases of blockchain technology focused on humanitarian aid. She stressed the need for blockchain tech in bringing efficiency to aid distribution especially when those who need it the most are unbanked.

Stellar Foundation CEO Denelle Dixon talking about role of blockchain in humanitarian aid

9:00 am: The opening keynote of the event came from Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin who talked about the importance of decentralized networks in the traditional setup. Lubin highlighted the diversity in the Web3 space and how it has helped the ecosystem grow more strongly with a broad spectrum of talent.

Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin during his opening keynote speech

8:30 am: The next keynote speech came from Henri Arslanian, the co-founder of the investment banking company Nine Blocks Capital Management. It revolved around the latest global crypto trends, be it Bitcoin, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) or non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Arslanian shed light on some of the key events in the crypto world over the past year, right from the growth of Bitcoin, the numerous crypto contagions and the recent bank runs. He stressed that moving froward the stress would be more on regulations and transparency.

Henri Arslanian talking about global crypto trends

8 am: The first day of the summit kicks off with a keynote from Zahreddine Touag, co-founder of Paris Blockchain Week. During his keynote, he stressed the need for the events such as PBW and its role in building business relationships and connecting to new people.

Paris Blockchain Week Summit started with keynote by Zahreddine Touag

Investor panel: What are the best investment opportunities in Web3?

In the next panel discussion around investment opportunities in Web 3, Marguerite de Tarvenost, a Web3 investor said that the bear market is the best time to build in the crypto market. She added that a bear market offers more time for investors and innovators to build their reputations.

Ivan de Lastours de Bernarde, Katelin Holloway, Marguerite de Tarvenost, Michael Amar, Andrei Brasoveanu, Richard Muirhead (from left to right)

Fabric VC co-founder talks Bitcoin, bank crisis

Richard Muirhead, the co-founder of Fabric VC, talked about bitcoin price, inflation, bank crisis and the emerging role of Web3 amid all this. He said Bitcoin is the first use case of Web3 with its deflationary properties and can become a safe haven during times of crisis. He added that Web3 is actively working on resolving traditional financial problems but sometimes new use cases can take time as it is much more than just trivial software development.

In-depth discussion on metaverse gaming

With metaverse in focus, Neal Stephenson, an American author and founder of metaverse project Lamina1, along with Paris Blockchain Week chairman Michael Amar discussed the concept of interoperability in metaverse gaming.

Neal Stephenson, who penned the term “metaverse” during 1990s, talked with Cointelegraph editor-in-chief Kristina Lucrezia Corn?r on the evolution of the word. Read here.

Neal Stephenson and Michael Amar (from left to right)

Stephenson said the idea of interoperability is irritating for some game developers as many of these games are focused on building their own ecosystem for years, be it Fortnite or Minecraft, He explained that idea of interoperability seems like kind of an abomination from the fact that at this point all it offers is just dragging and dropping asset from one game to another.

Cointelegraph behind-the-scenes on day 2

CT team kicked off the second day of Paris Blockchain Week 2023 started with a reflection of cultural and historical depth of the venue:

Things at @ParisBlockWeek that just make sense #PBW2023 pic.twitter.com/Sd8P6TxHJs

March 21, 2023

Web3 headlines agenda on day 1 of summit

The main agenda for March 21 revolves around the scope of Web3 in today’s world. The one-day event called Web3XP would be focused on how brands and creators can generate value in the metaverse and how Web2 companies can transition to Web3. The event will see participation from business professionals of consumer brands, gaming, collectibles, art and fashion in one place.

Monday saw a relatively crowded talent fair tailored for crypto and blockchain industry. Credit: Cointelegraph

Cointelegraph reporter Joe Hall attends pre-summit events

A talent fair was among the pre-summit events at the PBW 2023.

Cointelegraph team making sure you get the best angle

Cointelegraph team arrives in Paris

Cointelegraph editor-in-chief Kristina Lucrezia Corn?r, head of video Jackson DuMont and reporter Joseph Hall are deployed on the ground in Paris all week to deliver the most recent developments from the conference.

Jackson DuMont, Kristina Lucrezia Corn?r and Joseph Hall (from left to right). Source: Cointelegraph

Investors Day

Investors Day kicked the week off on March 20, bringing together investors interested in Web3, nonfungible tokens (NFTs), the metaverse and blockchain applications.

Stay tuned for continuous updates from PWB, including key takeaways, highlights and behind-the-scenes footage.

Paris Blockchain Week kicks off

The 2023 edition of PBW features speakers from some of the industry’s biggest players, such as ConsenSys, Ledger, Animoca Brands, Algorand, Reddit and more. It consists of the main summit and the Web3-focused Web3XP, and its main themes include public policy, enterprise blockchain, open finance, Web3 art, and investing in Web3 culture and entertainment, among others.

PBW also has a dedicated event for investors, a competition for startups, a hackathon and additional side events.

Last year’s event saw around 3,000 summit-goers and featured keynotes and fireside chats from some of the most prominent figures in the industry, such as Binance’s Changpeng Zhao and Tether’s Paolo Ardoino, among many others.