Feelings from attending Singapore Crypto Week: Old narratives are ignored, consumer applications are highly anticipated, and super individuals are yearned for by everyone

Author: starzq, Ruby Wang

The 5-day Singapore Crypto Week (Token2049 & Solana Breakpoint & Network State Conference) has finally come to an end. I'm currently exhausted and writing this little essay in the hotel, summarizing my experience and providing some different perspectives.

As it was my first time attending Token2049, and I participated in three conferences in one go, overall it exceeded my expectations:

• Interest level ranking: Network State Conference > Breakpoint > Token 2049
• At Token 2049, I felt a strong business atmosphere and high-level topics (of course, the invited guests were also very prominent);
• At Solana Breakpoint, I sensed an active product development atmosphere, an engineer culture, and a focus on innovation in the financial industry, as well as attention to the Chinese-speaking community;
• At the Network State Conference, I experienced the most diverse audience and speakers, with cutting-edge attempts at Network State, and could genuinely feel the crypto/tech community's concern for society, healthy living, and private property, as well as everyone's yearning for the state of being "super individuals who can freely live a global life." Even if you're not in the Crypto/Web3 circle, this part is still appealing; in fact, I saw non-Crypto people at this conference.

Additionally, we found a way to attend for "zero cost," saving $2,000, and I will share that with everyone, haha.

Below are my summaries and feelings about these three conferences. Enjoy!

We also recorded a podcast about our conference experiences, which is more emotional and three-dimensional. Feel free to listen on the following platforms: Xiaoyuzhou, Apple, Youtube, Spotify

1. Token2049: Star-studded, old narratives ignored, consumer applications in high demand

Token2049 has often been criticized for its "high ticket prices" and "business atmosphere," but I must say the invited guests were indeed impressive, especially on the first day at the OKX Main Stage:

• Balaji: Sharing "Technodemocracy"
• Polymarket founder Coplan, Founders Fund partner Joey, Alliance DAO founder Wang Qiao: Discussing Building Web3 Consumer Apps
• Arthur Hayes: Sharing macro impacts on the crypto space
• Polychain founder Olaf: Sharing Crypto x AI
• Vitalik: Sharing views on the future of crypto, singing "Castle in the Sky" and "Spirited Away"
• Vitalik, OKX CEO Xu Mingxing, Circle CEO Jeremy: Continuing the discussion on the future of crypto
• Polymarket founder Coplan & Balaji: Fireside chat
• Researching immortality influencer Bryan Johnson: Launched Don't Die App
• Snowden
• ……

These high-level guests shared high-level topics, but one round of listening is enough; too many topics can be overwhelming. Additionally, there were three Main Stages with dozens of speeches, which indeed had little new content, leading many to choose business networking instead.

It is worth mentioning that "consumer applications" were repeatedly highlighted in the shares, including by Vitalik, and were highly anticipated, but very few have broken out of the niche, which is why Polymarket founder Coplan was given two opportunities to speak.

Coplan's insights during the "Building Web3 Consumer Apps" panel were very sharp, showing no regard for VCs, while also reflecting his independent thinking spirit:

Confrontation 1:

• VC: We place great importance on whether an application utilizes Crypto features;
• Coplan: The most important thing is meeting consumer needs; there’s no need to emphasize Crypto.

Confrontation 2:

• VC: We focus more on applications with gamification design, as they can attract users better;
• Coplan: As a consumer, I really like Temu (the overseas version of Pinduoduo), but "gamification" is not the most important; the core of Temu is nailing product selection and pricing.

My own feeling is that I finally saw product manager-type founders. If founders or this industry do not care about needs and users, what qualifications do they have to talk about "Mass Adoption"?

Moreover, more and more founders are transitioning into investment roles; it’s becoming increasingly difficult for VCs these days.

2. Solana Breakpoint: Full of product updates, a Demo Day-like experience, focusing on the Chinese-speaking community

In August, Solana released a short video mocking the current state of "crypto conferences": there are more speakers than audience members, all are the reapers, and there are no leeks.

They also hinted early on that they wanted to make their event Breakpoint "a bit different."

My feeling is that it was indeed "different" and "interesting," basically meeting my expectations.

Most intuitively: the official merchandise was different.

Unlike Token2049's paper bags, T-shirts, and a pack of small ads, Solana Breakpoint's official goods included a thick tote bag and a double-layer jacket, instantly elevating the quality.

Most interesting: Demo Day-like keynote sharing.

Breakpoint had very few panels, replaced instead by a series of 5-15 minute keynote presentations:

• There was basically no fluff, all were product introductions and updates, with the last slide being a QR code for the beta version. We took notes on Jupiter, Helio, Phantom, Hivemapper, Travala; friends can click the links to experience them.
• This format is very similar to Apple’s product launches or CES, while pushing project teams to deliver new product features at this juncture, rather than just telling stories.

A few other impressive points:

• Solana emphasizes engineer culture; Tensor mentioned on-site that they only have two engineers. Attendees often pulled out their notebooks to start coding when they got tired of listening.
• The Solana Foundation is also very grounded, with basically no big words. Foundation chair Lily Liu's opening speech included the line "Build for users, not for podcasts," which I understand as a reflection on the current crypto conference landscape and a requirement for Solana.

• There was a high proportion of attendees from Europe and America, and I saw several families bringing strollers to the venue, probably because there was no one at home to help take care of the kids. Impressive!

Additionally, Solana has a unique community called Superteam, where community members can earn grants by creating content around projects, effectively combining content creators, marketing, and applications, but unfortunately, it has not covered the Chinese-speaking region.

Thus, a highlight of this event was the launch of Solana's official Chinese-speaking community, Solar, the night before Breakpoint. The atmosphere was great, and here are my recorded impressions:

1. The Solana community is very cohesive and places great importance on the Chinese-speaking community (the fact that Breakpoint was held in Asia for the first time also reflects this). This stands in stark contrast to the scattered nature of over 50 ETH L2s.
2. Everyone was full of energy, frequently interacting, contrasting with the slightly serious atmosphere of Token2049 (Community first, not PR first).
3. The density of beautiful women was extremely high! The gender ratio was relatively balanced.

3. Network State Conference: The most diverse audience and speakers, exploring the future life of super individuals

If Token2049 and Solana Breakpoint are essentially "crypto conferences" where people come to work, then the Network State Conference feels more like a "super individual gathering":

• No one was there to "work"; instead, I saw several friends who bought tickets six months ago specifically to attend;
• The attendees were not purely from the crypto circle; the common characteristic was a yearning for the state of being "super individuals who can freely live a global life." The guests that day were also a gathering of super individuals; I was most interested in Naval and Pieter Levels, an independent developer earning $420,000 a month.
• The topics shared revolved around "how to provide better living facilities for super individuals in network states," covering physical facilities, community, health, transportation, finance, culture… very diverse;
• For a 10 o'clock meeting, people started lining up at the door at 9:50, rushing in to grab front-row seats as soon as the doors opened, contrasting sharply with the sparse attendance at crypto conferences, instantly reminding me of the enthusiasm I felt attending TED conferences ten years ago.

Here are Ruby's firsthand impressions:

The proportion of Chinese attendees was not high, but the friends I met today were very interesting and genuine, not pretentious. Two female friends even flew to Singapore last night and headed straight to Changi Airport after the conference just to attend today’s meeting, as they care about the implementation of Network State and are die-hard fans of Balaji and Naval. Although discussions in crypto often attract attention with prices and profits, I truly felt at the NS conference that everyone cares about society, life, and health; being able to integrate Crypto as one of the tools to take action and change society and life is the real way to break the circle. After all, what can truly bring people together for a long time to appreciate each other is never just interests; it’s shared hobbies, interests, and values.

The information was overwhelming, so I’ll share some on-site photos first. We will later do a separate episode discussing the Network State Conference and Network School.

Balaji's opening:

Have we given birth to new companies like Google, new communities like Facebook, new currencies like Bitcoin, and is it possible to establish a new country, the Network State?

Popup city practices from various places: Argentina, Montenegro, California, Honduras…

Distribution of wealth in the crypto circle and recommendations for global passports:

• 560 million crypto users globally, with a cumulative wealth of $23 trillion.
• 170,000 people with over a million dollars, 325 people with over a hundred million dollars, and 28 people with over a billion dollars.
• The eight fastest-growing passports; those with sharp eyes can see which countries they are, haha.

The most popular share of the day was undoubtedly Naval's.

Sharing a note:

• Solving your material conditions (financial freedom) is the foundation of building your life. • Wealth = the ability to influence change. • If ChatGPT can replicate it, you’re likely unable to profit from it. • Creativity is solving problems in new ways. • True value lies in solving unknown problems. • Self-improvement is true progress. • Naval's greatest achievements stem from his obsession with nature. • Loneliness is the fate of all great souls ------ Schopenhauer. • Book recommendations: "The Infinite Beginning" and "The Structure of Reality." • Satisfy material needs by creating what society needs. • You cannot buy: a healthy body, a peaceful mind, and a loving home. • Don’t pursue respect; it will make you famous and turn you into a celebrity (which is often painful).

Awkward moment: Super independent developer Pieter Levels said he still doesn't quite believe in Crypto (but he has friends working on ZK projects), and Balaji promoted it for several minutes on-site, haha. I’ll整理一下后续分享给大家.

4. Why, as content creators, did we attend Singapore Crypto Week, and how did we achieve "zero cost"?

Friends who know us are aware that we pay close attention to Crypto/Web3 consumer applications and use cases, as these are the methods that can bring more incremental users into Crypto.

Since Solana focuses on consumer applications and was holding its first conference in Asia, we thought we should go learn, and immediately checked the official website, finding that a ticket costs $499. Even applying as a Creator would cost $199, which was still a bit pricey.

Then we discovered a small note on the Breakpoint website about a Media Pass! If you have your own media platform, you can apply. I quickly opened the form, and the fields were quite simple. After filling it out, I received a confirmation email the next day. Awesome!

Using the same method, we also applied for a Media Pass for Token2049. However, this time it was stricter; each media outlet could only issue two passes to the editor-in-chief and deputy editor-in-chief, so we wrote our titles as Co-Founder (the average crypto person being a Co-Founder finally came in handy, haha).

Another small detail is that when applying, we had to provide the official website and company email. This is where having an independent domain name comes in handy; combined with Cloudflare, we directly generated an email with the suffix web3brand.io, which sounds impressive, doesn’t it? 😄

This also reflects the benefits of accumulating content and having a little technical knowledge, haha. Interested friends can refer to this.

5. The happiest part: Meeting a ton of online friends

One major benefit of Crypto Week is that it brings everyone together in one space at the same time, making it convenient for friends who usually communicate remotely or interact on Twitter to meet in person.

So we met a ton of online friends at the venue and side events, including guests who have been on our podcast but whom we hadn’t met in person yet, haha.

A huge thanks to our reader Kelly (who is also one of the podcast guests!) for helping us find a super chill venue to organize a reader meetup, where we met 20 online friends at once.

Many people expressed that chatting online and meeting in person is indeed very different; everyone became more three-dimensional, haha.

There were also many friends who added contact information but, for various reasons, we couldn’t meet. We’ll see you next time!