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INTERVIEW – Paris Blockchain Week, which has been held since April 8 at the Carrousel du Louvre, took place in a very favorable context, driven by a dynamic crypto economy and a more mature sector. In its fifth year, the event welcomed nearly 10,000 visitors and formed the nerve center of countless blockchain events on its side.
In its fifth year, the second at the Carrousel du Louvre, Paris Blockchain Week was full, or nearly so, with around 9,500 attendees. The conference dedicated, as the name suggests, to blockchain technology, was punctuated by various important announcements for the sector, such as the formalization of XRP to launch its own stablecoin (crypto-backed currency), but also the partnership between Kryptoburza OKX and blockchain Chiliz, which will make the platform a validator chains (like PSG or EDF subsidiary Exaion). This edition was praised by many attendees mainly for its ability to create interaction between attendees even when traditional brands did not participate, a black spot that Michael Amar, the founder of the event, acknowledged and attributed to the sagging NFT market.
With its scope, Paris Blockchain Week was able to bring together American players – for example financiers BlackRock or VanEck -, video game giants such as Ubisoft and giants of the crypto sector, from Circle to Crypto.com. Magnetism at the birth of numerous fringe events (famous side events), such as this day dedicated to the future of finance and blockchain held at the Ministry of Finance in Bercy, in which Capital participated, or again the developer camp set up for two days at Place Vendôme using the Sui blockchain.
At the end of this edition of Paris Blockchain Week, Capital takes inventory with Michael Amaro.
What is your assessment of this edition of Paris Blockchain Week?
Michael Amar: Paris Blockchain Week is five years old and the baby has grown a little: he walks, smiles, talks a little, understands. That’s kind of the stage of our development. It is important for us to be a platform for industry collaboration so that this blockchain technology reaches the stage of mass adoption. That is indeed our goal. We have to be there when the market is doing very well, as it is now, but also when it is at its lowest, otherwise there is no follow-through. We have managed to establish ourselves, we have the largest conference in Europe, we are among the three largest in the world and it shows. One of the nice parts of my job is that I get to spend half an hour or an hour with my partners before they go on stage and they are very happy to be here. They can collect all their appointments in three days. We have reached this maturity. Companies are now waiting for Paris Blockchain Week to make their product or funding announcements, as well as CES in Las Vegas for hardware products. It became a brand. I have created 10 businesses in my life and I have never been able to create a brand before.
What are the areas for progress?
To be honest, there are not enough financial institutions. This represents 3-5% of the companies present, but there are some very nice companies: Coinshares, Black stoneJPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Spanish, German, Italian banks, less French banks (smiles). We have fewer tokens because the NFT sector is suffering, but it will come back in a different format: we saw a small presence of Ordinals projects (NFT format on Bitcoin, editor’s note). That’s good, Bitcoin is making a bit of a comeback.
Does the maturity you claim from Paris Blockchain Week relate to the maturity in the blockchain sector?
Yes, it reflects the state of the market. I’m old enough to have lived through the dot-com bubble of 2000. And in 2000, the guys who came to try out internet companies often left to work at a bank or a consulting firm. The only people left were people a bit like me, more opportunistic, who didn’t have much education and stayed there because they had nothing else. That’s not the case in this industry today. During the bear market, serious people stayed, stayed and continued to build, and new ones came with a desire to invest in a context that was not speculative.
What moments from this week do you want to highlight?
Frankly, I was surprised by the Minister of State for Digital Affairs, Marina Ferrari. She just got into a position that is not easy, where we have to talk about AI (artificial intelligence), blockchain, agri-tech, etc. It is not easy and I found in her the dynamism and desire to make things happen. She met with very big players in the sector to show the appeal of France. I’m often critical, but she had the right message. There will be continuity. I also had a good dialogue with the BPI, which wants to be more involved. My favorite part is our investor day with the largest startup competition in the world and $10 million in prizes. $10 million is truly extraordinary. Team Tim Draper (American investment magnate and television producer) produces a television show on site. Finally, our roundtables on regulation move things forward: Richard Teng (CEO of Binance) announced that it is seeking jurisdiction based on its registered office; David Marcus – who was the CEO of Paypal tried to create Libra (Facebook’s cryptocurrency attempt, editor’s note) – will be speaking publicly for the first or second time since starting his company Lightspark. Not bad. Finally I am a football fan and visits from Basile Boli, Blaise Matuidi and Kingsley Coman are very nice.
This week, Paris Blockchain Week opened with the AI section and the first edition of the R.AI.SE show: what is the result of this conference dedicated to artificial intelligence?
Honestly and in all humility, it was a hit. It’s an event we decided to do four months ago. We wanted to play it safe and start small. And we actually had the best speakers in the world. We hired the founder of Grok (artificial intelligence program X, editor’s note)but also Chamath Palihapitiya (investor)Tony Fadell (iPod designer, among others). Rock stars of the industry. We managed to create an event and we are so pleased that we have already reserved the Louvre for a week in July for the entire genAI (generative artificial intelligence) conference.
On an economic level, is Paris Blockchain Week profitable?
It is, even if it is necessary to invest in a new event and expand the team. We don’t realize it, but Paris Blockchain Week has 30 employees throughout the year. It’s a lot of work. In terms of audience, we have 5-10% more visitors than last year (estimated about 9,500 visitors). I think we’ve moved upmarket: that’s what our partners tell us.