“Lean into the new” was the central message of Steven Bartlett’s fireside chat at the London Blockchain Conference 2024.
Bartlett, a serial entrepreneur and host of The Diary of a CEO, one of the top podcasts on the internet today, describes how he first thought blockchain and digital currencies were ridiculous after seeing monkey JPEGs selling for millions.
Remembering how many had dismissed his own foray into social media marketing the same way, Bartlett decided to buy an NFT himself. While he lost his initial investment of $200k, he had followed his own advice, leaned into something he didn’t understand, and learned about the disruptive potential of blockchain technology.
Since then, the British entrepreneur has gone even further, launching a Web 3.0 studio, ThirdWeb. As he has done in the past, Bartlett intends to harness the power of innovative technology to create value and change the world. He encourages others to do the same.
Gaming Will Be the Killer Use Case
From Axie Infinity to the Haste Arcade, blockchain entrepreneurs have been tinkering with new gaming models since the technology became widely understood almost a decade ago. Bartlett told the London Blockchain Conference that gaming would be the killer app. To him, it seems obvious; the industry is ripe for disruption, and blockchain allows for new models to be built.
What are those new models? While Bartlett didn’t elaborate on this himself, we can look to the industry for answers. Play to earn utilises micropayments on scalable blockchains to empower players to both pay and earn as they play. Each interaction might cost a fraction of a cent, but winning a battle or game could net them an instant payment and net them some valuable digital items, too. It’s not difficult to see how revolutionary this will be.
Blockchain gaming also empowers players. For too long, they have been held hostage by big studios who make vast fortunes from subscription models while the players own nothing. Blockchain games mean players can pay as they go, win and trade digital assets such as NFTs and other tokens, own their data and stack the aforementioned micropayments.
While the first few popular blockchain games have met with mixed success, this is a sector that’s heating up fast. Will Bartlett’s promised upcoming announcement be linked to blockchain gaming? We’ll have to wait and see!
Blockchain Will Become Invisible
Whether the application is in gaming or another sector, Bartlett emphasised how, in the end, blockchain will fade into the background and become invisible. Just like the internet, it will become a tool that others interact with without even realising it.
For too long, blockchain apps and tools have been clunky and clumsy, offering an inferior user-experience in virtually every area. If Web3 is going to be the next step, the focus will have to be on exactly what Bartlett said: removing the blockchain from the user experience and bringing user-friendly applications to the forefront.
A key part of the journey to a better Web3 experience is education. Developers need better tools, and they need to see examples of how apps can be developed in a way that makes the blockchain invisible. Part of that involves self-learning, but it’s up to large players in the industry to educate newcomers, too. That’s what the London Blockchain Conference is all about.
Better, Cheaper, Faster
To find success in a burgeoning industry, you need to know what’s better, cheaper, and faster, Bartlett told the #LDNBlockchain24 audience. Indeed, this is becoming apparent in the blockchain industry as the thousands of copycat blockchains fade to black and the technically superior ones pull out in front.
However, investors and entrepreneurs need to be careful not to take token prices as an indicator of a blockchain’s capabilities or long-term viability. Over the past decade, we’ve seen endless coins pump to astronomical highs before disappearing entirely. Instead, the focus should be firmly on transaction throughput capacity, fees, and other elements such as whether the chain is Turing complete or has its own smart contracting language.
This shift is already well underway. At the London Blockchain Conference 2024, we heard virtually nothing about speculation. The conversations and presentations were focused squarely on entrepreneurs like Bartlett who are determined to disrupt established industries using the blockchain.
Whether it’s a next-gen cybersecurity tool, a game, a social media application, or a new media distribution system to rival Netflix and YouTube, the tools that define the future will live on scalable public blockchains and will offer users a hassle-free, fun experience.
Take Bartlett’s advice and lean into what’s new. Blockchain is the future, and Web3 is where the action is. Whether you want to build, invest, or simply observe, apps that use scalable utility blockchains to disrupt established interests will be the winners a decade from now.
Register today and be the first to learn about upcoming keynote speakers and themes at #LDNBlockchain25.
