Virtual Events Are The Future

When we began crafting Mainnet, we knew what we didn’t want: a blase, static event that felt like a muted CNBC screen.

Too many virtual events we’d attended felt like continuous webinars. Something you might end up watching passively on a second screen, if at all. They offered no real reason to tune in, as many of the sessions could just as easily be downloaded as podcasts, or restreamed on YouTube. So we wanted to create a conference we thought we’d actually enjoy *attending* online: a no bullshit, high-signal program that could entice top investors and builders to stop what they’re doing, tune in, and immerse themselves in networking and spontaneous “unconference” sessions that we all know prove to generate the best and most lively discussions at physical events.

We think we've solved for many of the challenges presented by virtual events by setting an insane standard for speaker curation, investing in a best-in-class "virtual venue", and creating an environment that caters to builders vs. service providers.

We’re excited to share the full agenda (and narrative structure) of the event for the first time today, and look forward to taking you from "Red Pill” to full "Self-Sovereignty” over three days.

Take the red pill here

DAY 1

“Red Pills” - Jun 1 10:00am-1:30pm ET
Almost everyone starts their trip down the crypto rabbit hole in one of three places: Bitcoin, Ethereum, or more recently, Stablecoins.

We kick things off with a State of Crypto (and Messari), by yours truly. Then dive into a moderated panel (with Pomp!), featuring three of crypto’s most important investors (CoinShares’ Meltem Demirors, ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood, and Fidelity Digital Assets' Tom Jessop) for a discussion on how they are helping to bring crypto to more institutional audiences.

We tackle bitcoin’s path from toy to regulated financial asset with executives from Bitstamp and Blockchain. And Fortune’s Jeff Roberts takes a turn diving into the exploding stablecoin ecosystem with the creators of the three largest crypto dollar projects (Tether, Paxos, USDC), while our own Qiao Wang discusses how to parse signal from noise with three of Messari’s top data partners (Flipside Crypto, Kaiko, and Coin Metrics). Finally, we wrap up with a joint presentation on bitcoin’s path ahead in a new decade with MIT’s Neha Narula, and Lightning’s Elizabeth Stark.

Table. Set.

Day 1 Break-out Sessions & Networking - 1:30pm-8:00pm
We’ll get to Ethereum and the "decentralization of everything" tomorrow.

For Day 1, we’ve got four 2.5 hour working sessions to choose from: a bitcoin 2020 deep dive, a complete breakdown of the stablecoin market, a session on tools and services for crypto traders, and a peak at capital formation 2.0. Plus presentations and investor Q&A with some of the community leaders from projectss like Zcash, Algorand, Maker, Beam, Monero, DASH, Blockstack, OmiseGo, Terra, Ontology, and Crypto.com. Oh, and virtual drinks, no matter your time zone.

“CEX Appeal” - Jun 1 8:00pm-11:30pm ET
Once you’ve taken the red pill, the question for most becomes “how can I buy in?” We look at the state of critical institutional infrastructure the first evening.

Messari analyst Ryan Watkins starts the evening session with an overview of the state of centralized crypto infrastructure. Then The Block’s Frank Chaparro interviews the CEOs of three of the industry’s most important financial services players, Genesis Capital, BitGo, and FireBlocks. While Bloq’s Matt Roszak drills down on crypto’s new issuance models and whether staking, continuous token offerings, and private secondary auctions are "moon math" or "capitalism 2.0”. M&A leads for Kraken, Coinbase, and Binance discuss consolidation trends, while CZ (Binance) and Sam Bankman-Fried (FTX) close things out with a discussion on how their organizations are blitzscaling.

Plus some late night derivatives chatter, speed networking, and unlimited after hours white boarding.

DAY 2

“Web 3’s Moment” - Jun 2 10:00am-1:30pm ET
Is crypto about more than money? Foundational "Web 3" protocols are just starting to come online as the soul of the internet itself is at stake.

Messari analyst Wilson Withiam sets the stage with an overview of what to watch for the rest of the year with so-called "Layer 1” protocols. If you weren’t a big believer in the Web 3 / censorship-resistant internet use case earlier this year, the fallout from the coronavirus may have made you reconsider. Nakamoto’s Balaji Srinivasan presents on the Post-Virus World, before handing things over to leaders from Ethereum, and several new, emerging smart contract platforms. We wrap up with sessions on the emergence and potential of gaming and scarce virtual goods in our new less mobile, social realm.

(Plus a special announcement from BitGo. :))

Day 2 Break-out Sessions & Networking - 1:30pm-8:00pm
Like yesterday, we’ve got four 2.5 hour working sessions to choose from. This time, there’s a recap of some of the most popular sessions from May’s popular Ready Layer One event, an update on the enterprise ethereum alliance and corporate applications for crypto, and workshops on smart contract security, and rapid prototyping with money legos. Plus more excellent presentations and investor Q&A from projects like Waves, Cardano, ETC, Celo, Sythentix, Cosmos, and Solana.

Don’t like the group sessions? Start your own 1:1 meetings or private group sessions.

“DeFi’s Growing Pains” - Jun 2 8:00pm-11:30pm ET
Money Legos is a powerful meme, but so far in 2020, decentralized finance has proven just about as fragile. Can DeFi scale securely?

Messari DeFi analyst, Jack Purdy provides an update on the exploding DeFi market (and its recent vulnerabilities). Then DeFi analysts and security hawks Demi Brener, Taylor Monahan, and Yainv Tal break down the path forward before in-depth discussions with the top DeFi application creators (Compound, Maker, Synthetic), and DEX protocol maintainers (0x, Kyber, Uniswap). Chainlink’s Sergey Nazarov explains how his team is bridging the off-chain world with the on-chain universe, and FutureSwap's founder presents on how to create and make derivatives markets. Then IDEO CoLab Ventures hosts a late night BUIDL session with other DeFi pioneers.

DAY 3
“Governing Chaos” - Jun 3 10:00am-1:30pm ET
How do we build ethics, resilience, and upgradeability into these powerful new systems, so they lead to the future we want?

We speak with protocol leaders who have worked to gradually decentralize the management of their projects (Gnosis, Melon, Aragon), identify best practices for leading communities and engaging multiple stakeholder groups for feedback (Zcash), and go deep on the emerging economy of DAOs (the LAO, StakerDAO, MetaCartel). Plus a special keynote from Meltem Demirors, and a closing fireside chat between TBI and USV’s Albert Wenger on the “World After Capital.”

With nearly 200 speakers over 100+ discrete sessions, you’d find it impossible to NOT learn from some of the top players in crypto at Mainnet. More importantly, you’d be hard pressed to not have fun, or meet some of your favorite amazing colleagues for updates on the tireless work they are doing to build out the decentralized future. We hope you’ll join us, and be part of the solution to the decade’s inevitable challenges.

See you there!

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