Day 2- Consensus - A Crypto Newbie and Woman of Color's Perspective

I pull up to my usual parking spot. It's packed with cars this time. Some of them are police cars forcing the homeless people to move and trashing the clothes they left. I'm not too fond of people coming to conferences worldwide to witness our homelessness problem.?

Also, homeless people have a right to exist, and they have to go somewhere. I came from Washington State, where the churches set up tent cities for the homeless on their property. It was not the pretty tiny home village by Mobile Loaves and Fishes, but it wasn't the streets.

Homeless people could take showers and have mail delivered. They could apply for jobs and benefits. They had to live by a few rules designed for peaceful communal living. Knowing how vital God and religion were when I came to Texas, I expected the streets would be clear of homeless people. There would be tent cities at every other church. I soon learned there was a massive divide in how the North and the South approach religion.

I found parking a little farther away for $10 for 9 hours and $20 for 20. I pay the $20. It's prepaid, so I'm guaranteed that's the price. It appears that the homeless people have moved to the busy streets. Now they have nothing, as the cops were trashing it. So they sleep on the ground and stare at passersby.

I find it wild that I'm attending a conference that people have paid thousands to attend. Outside the building, there are people with nothing.?

I fear the way society is trending; it'll only get worse.

I'm back to the friendly faces of the conference. I visited the booths I missed the day before. I win some crypto. To collect it, I downloaded their wallet. I now have four wallets on my phone, and I must figure out how to move everything to one wallet. I'm also the proud owner of some worthless crypto and about $25 of bitcoin, an itty bitty percentage of one bitcoin. It takes about 20 minutes to receive Bitcoin. With that delay, I'm unsure what its use case is. (Use case: a situation where it makes sense to use it).?

I decided to go to the helpDESK, a booth where you can complete journeys (think scavenger hunts) for conference crypto. For example, you can visit booths (scanning QR codes), watch sessions (scanning QR codes), and find QR codes in a treasure hunt. It's currency in the conference but worthless outside of it. It's valid for swag, food, and drinks at the conference. They showed me how to activate it and explained why it wasn't showing up in my account. I have to complete a quest to earn 300 DESK coins. These journeys require visiting more and more sponsor booths (which I completed earlier). So I retrace my steps and let them know I'm here to scan this time since we've already talked. Consensus has a cute hoodie that I'm trying to earn. (BTW, I don't need any more hoodies. I have at least five hoodies of varying warmth from my employer and other tech companies). I'm trying to complete the journey levels as fast as possible now.

I'm also annoyed that I listened to a guy the day before who told me that scanning the QR codes would open up surveys. A helpDESK employee later told me that some QR codes have surprise wins, where you can collect 1,000 DESK coins instantly. He was competitive and intentionally misdirected me. He didn't want me to pick up extra DESK coins.

While completing the journey, I ran into the talking rocker robot chick connected to an LLM (Large Language Model) backend (think ChatGPT). Things will get strange with AI, autonomous vehicles, crypto, and Web 3. It's all future and sci-fi until it's here. It's here. We're trying to figure out how to ride the bike as we build it.

I run into a couple of women also trying to complete the treasure hunt. We're asking a bunch of people to try to find hints. Someone has had to do this before us or knows something.

I leave to attend a talk in the NFT gallery, and upon coming back to the convention center, I trip on the curb. Instead of falling instantly, I do this weird slo-mo balancing act and must've yelled, "Oh no." I come crashing down, too much swag weighing me down to regain my balance. A group of men nearby came to help, gathering my swag and checking on me. I'm so embarrassed but impressed with the conference attendees' kindness. After all, they could have made fun of me. They chose instead to help.

I attended Google's Startup Celebration party. Googlers know how to party. Is that the guy I chatted with from a dating app a while back? I pause, contemplating whether to ask. If it were him, we'd have some great conversations. On the other, I'm worn and not interested in debates. I'm here to learn about Web 3 and the money Google is handing out to build the ecosystem.?

I look around. There are so many men here (see pic at the top of the article). Web 3 needs more women, stat. Women are few are far between.

I ask questions of various strangers. I eat...so much. I love those thumbprint crab cakes. They also have these chicken tacos. Yum. I drink water disguised as an adult beverage. It's amazing what a proper glass and lime will do. I contemplate dancing with the five people in front. I half dance and lock eyes with others who do the same. I finish my water and head out.?

It was a good day and night, despite the setbacks, the failures, and the lessons learned. Learning a new industry means being willing to make mistakes, fail, pick myself back up, and keep going.?

It means being willing to be uncomfortable until it becomes routine. These people don't know me. It's a sea of opportunity. It's awkward, but I'm also kind of awkward. And many of these people are just as awkward—a sea of awkward solidarity. Because it's an emerging industry, many, if not most, people remember what it's like to be a newbie. It's not as cliquish as some tech circles can be,

The conference is almost over, and my understanding of the industry is just beginning.