In the world of cryptocurrency, what a difference a year (and a new presidential administration) makes.
At least according to John Paller, a Denver-based blockchain entrepreneur and the founder of this week’s ETHDenver, which is billed as the world’s largest Web3 festival gathering developers, entrepreneurs, and enthusiasts focused on cryptocurrencies, blockchain and decentralized technologies.
Paller, 49, is also founder of Opolis — “a Digital Employment Cooperative designed for self-sovereign workers” — and has been working in the blockchain space since 2014. Before that he worked for 20 years in traditional talent acquisition and human resources.
A former Democrat turned Independent, Paller credits the newly minted second administration of President Donald Trump with energizing the crypto sector ahead of this year’s festival, which runs all week through Sunday at the National Western Complex.
“So, the first Trump administration was kind of apathetic (toward crypto),” Paller said. “(Trump) was kind of a hater, but they didn’t really do a lot. I mean, the (Federal Exchange Commission) kind of did whatever it did and didn’t really give any clarity, but there wasn’t really what I would call a full-blown attack on crypto until (President Joe) Biden got elected (in 2020).”
Now, Paller says Trump has done a 180 on crypto, with his son Baron heavily involved in the sector. That, combined with voices such as David Sachs and others at the forefront of cutting-edge technologies, has completely altered the landscape. In January, Trump signed an executive order establishing the Presidential Working Group on Digital Asset Markets, tasked with creating a federal regulatory framework for crypto and digital assets.
“What we’re hearing is that the administration understands the importance of this innovation and how impactful it will be in everyday life, even though it’s still not what I would call mainstream today,” Paller said. “The administration’s goal is to make it mainstream and to enable the United States to be the center of innovation for the global movement in crypto.”
Cryptocurrency, or crypto for short, is a digital currency that is privately sponsored and operated, meaning it is money not supplied by the government. It’s a type of electronic money that doesn’t require a bank to verify transactions.
Crypto, according to the Harvard Business Review, is just the “tip of the spear,” with blockchain the underlying tech. Blockchain is a public ledger that cryptocurrency transactions are recorded on. Blockchain allows for transactions to happen without a middleman — without banks, in other words, so that many transactions can be person-to-person.
Web3, the subject of this week’s festival, is the umbrella term for the rewiring of the internet to a more decentralized model of data storage that…
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