Event recap Austin’s SXSW 2022: NFTs everywhere
South by Southwest, one in every of Austin’s greatest festivals with displays from tech trade leaders, movies and musical acts, kicked off its first weekend — and the theme for a lot of gave the impression to be nonfungible tokens, or NFTs.
From Friday to Sunday, corporations from Doodles to luxurious automobile producer Porsche provided NFT-themed displays to the 1000’s of attendees showing in individual in Texas. Many panels and workshops included discussions on learn how to create and retailer personalized NFTs in the course of the occasion, with companies like Blockchain Artistic Labs providing an interactive expertise throughout the road from NFT galleries and different meetups.
Three Cointelegraph crew members had been current for lots of the occasions on-site, together with designing customized CryptoPunks at Ripple’s home on Rainey Road after having fun with a crypto-themed cocktail. Fluf World, one of many largest displays on the pageant, featured immersible experiences with digital characters and drew in lots of individuals with its rabbit avatars and panels on Web3 and the metaverse.
Fluf World at SXSW pic.twitter.com/fqsgUeeVxy
— shinebright (@shine_bright434) March 14, 2022
Ben McKenzie, the actor recognized for his roles on TV exhibits together with Gotham and The OC who has additionally spoken out in opposition to public figures endorsing crypto, hosted a panel at SXSW with The New Republic employees author Jacob Silverman and Edward Ongweso of Vice Media. Whereas McKenzie stated the widespread use of crypto-related merchandise on the pageant gave the impression to be a advertising instrument, Ongweso added that he noticed a constant theme to corporations selling NFTs:
“I simply anticipated extra attention-grabbing gimmicks, demonstrations, makes an attempt to point out the actual use of worth, one thing fascinating and attention-grabbing about it. As a substitute, a whole lot of it’s actually centered on a really slender expertise that may perhaps woo you, however not a lot in interested by how this could truly do something apart from make cash for you, perhaps for those who’re fortunate.”
Austin Mayor Steve Adler additionally spoke alongside Miami Mayor Francis Suarez on how the 2 cities are dealing with the modifications in tradition by drawing in tech companies and a various array of individuals. Although Adler introduced on Friday initiatives to check how Austin might undertake crypto-friendly insurance policies and promote the advantages of blockchain know-how, crypto wasn’t the primary subject of dialog exterior of mentioning the town’s latest partnership with CityCoins.
Associated: Crypto Metropolis: Information to Austin
Based in 1987, Austin’s SXSW pageant drew in additional than 400,000 folks in 2019 earlier than scaling again as a result of COVID-19 pandemic. Because the capital of the most important state within the contiguous United States, Austin has develop into a hub of main tech corporations — incomes it the nickname “Silicon Hills” — together with Tesla’s headquarters in addition to the regional places of work for Fb and Google.
