London Blockchain Expo With Photos

[JSEcoin]

The Blockchain Expo just took place at the London Olympia. It was a two day event with about 4000 attendees. We enjoyed the show and done this summary.

• The Blockchain Expo was a bolt-on conference to the original IoT (Internet of Things) Exhibition but there seemed to be more blockchain exhibitors and attendees than both the IoT and AI sides combined. It really shows how fast this industry is growing.
• According to one leaflet we picked up only 20% of digital ad spend is actually received by publishers and end users, the rest is swallowed up by networks and middle men. Again this needs to be fact checked but if it’s true then there is the potential for publishers to earn 5x what they are currently making. That screams out at and industry ripe for disruption.
• A lot of talk was about development moving away from protocols and blockchains and onto real life applications. The theory is that stage one of the industry development was the protocols , stage two the smart contracts, stage three the frameworks to integrate with, stage four the decentralized applications that will be used by consumers. Steem was given as an example of a project that is consumer focused and I agree that this is one of the few crypto projects that actually has real use. The current opportunity is for applications built on top of existing blockchain technology according to some opinions.
• The industry is very male dominated. It reminds me a little of what affiliate conferences used to be like ten years ago, a lot of introverted young guys who are making serious money. It is clear that the blockchain industry is still in it’s infancy and it hasn’t been fully commercialized yet. A problem that affects us and the industry as a whole is that if everyone comes from similar backgrounds then the thought processes and ideas they come up with when working as a team are all very similar. The potential of someone coming in with a different mindset would be extremely valuable to any project. But…
• You can’t hire blockchain developers for love or money. This was repeated a lot and I think it’s true because anyone who has been working in blockchain for a while and is good at what they do is most likely now unemployable. If you can code smart contracts or develop blockchain tech then you should really be charging whatever you want and have your pick of the projects that you want to work for/with.
• 70%+ of blockchain startup funding this year has been via venture capital and the rest from ICO. (This was a statement from a venture capital fund.)

Overall the show was good. Some of the presenters were a bit pitchy and were just doing self-promotion rather than offering any interesting content to their presentations (this may have been because we only had the free passes which gave access to half the presentations). Both the impromptu and formal meetings we had were very productive and we came away really pleased and excited for the future.

And finally some photos from the exhibition.









Full blog post at: https://jsecoin.com/takeaways-from-the-blockchain-expo/

Did anyone else attend enjoy the show? Anything we missed or you could add?

[seoincorporation]

I am very far from London, but I wish I could be there.
Just one question:
Was there any discussion regarding the tax matters? Or related to regulations about crypto?
I am really interested in how are they managing the regulations discuss in such kind of events!!

[JSEcoin]

Hi SEOincorporation,

There wasn't as much talk as you'd expect about UK regulations. Most conversation was focused on security vs utility tokens and the SEC in the US.

The SEC is viewing that the vast majority of crypto projects should be classed as securities and that would require registration with the SEC to sell them. I heard a rumor that some of the big Silicon Valley VC firms including Andreessen Horowitz had a meeting with SEC officials to complain that the regulation will hurt the development of blockchain tech in the US. I heard this 3rd hand so may or may not be true. Also the SEC wants limits put on how much individuals can invest during ICO's and also a ban on reselling tokens as intermediaries. Not sure how this will play out but the vast majority of ICO's are now whitelisting with a "I am not from China or the US" tick box.

Regarding tax in the UK I believe that crypto assets will fall under capital gains tax and be due when converted back into fiat currency. The inland revenue (our tax collector) is understaffed and ineffective so I think it will be at investors discretion as to what they declare for the foreseeable future.

[seoincorporation]

Hi SEOincorporation,

There wasn't as much talk as you'd expect about UK regulations. Most conversation was focused on security vs utility tokens and the SEC in the US.

The SEC is viewing that the vast majority of crypto projects should be classed as securities and that would require registration with the SEC to sell them. I heard a rumor that some of the big Silicon Valley VC firms including Andreessen Horowitz had a meeting with SEC officials to complain that the regulation will hurt the development of blockchain tech in the US. I heard this 3rd hand so may or may not be true. Also the SEC wants limits put on how much individuals can invest during ICO's and also a ban on reselling tokens as intermediaries. Not sure how this will play out but the vast majority of ICO's are now whitelisting with a "I am not from China or the US" tick box.

Regarding tax in the UK I believe that crypto assets will fall under capital gains tax and be due when converted back into fiat currency. The inland revenue (our tax collector) is understaffed and ineffective so I think it will be at investors discretion as to what they declare for the foreseeable future.

Hi, thanks for answering.
Yes, I think we all quite fall from a regulation regarding the taxes and such stuff.
Taking a look at the US Economic Report: https://www.congress.gov/115/crpt/hrpt596/CRPT-115hrpt596.pdf (chapter 9), the ICOs watch seems to be in action by now, and appears to be one of the principal concerns, contrary of the taxes and other considerations, which seems to be in a very initial phase.
Nevertheless, the scamming activity of many ICOs is an urgent matter. I'm glad they are into it.

[BitcoinNational]

Was it the first edition? I would love attend to the next expo.
I see that there was a government there, from Andhra, do they have a special regulation about crypto?

[DaveMallettJSE]

It was our first visit to the event, but I believe it also took place last year at least. Next years dates for London are already released as 25-26th April 2019. There are also events being held in Amsterdam and the US later this year.