I was at the WiZink macro event on cryptocurrencies and it was a real joke

this fiasco feeling It escalated at 10 p.m. when organizers invited attendees to enter said “metaverse” by inviting attendees, one of those without a screen, to wear the virtual reality set on their heads and insert the mobile. together. and break the Guinness record for the number of connected people (to the “metaverse”). But the thing didn’t work. The Wi-Fi was down, the app didn’t work, and no one could see much. The Palacio de los Deportes was suddenly filled with children with giant glasses looking for an avatar of Thawani in a supposedly virtual world.

Finally they designed A pixelated video of the Thawani doll apologize — “Sorry we didn’t see you all in the metaverse: we brought in the best technicians, but the connection failed”—and traveling in different scenarios (a beach, a city full of skyscrapers) while describing the benefits of a new world without public transport and climate change. The youngest doesn’t remember, but in 2003, before Facebook was born, there was a social network named after him. second life His graphics were very similar to what the young canary had envisioned twenty years later.

The broadcast ended with a video clip metaverse Several people applauded after Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Then he personally came out and talked about his projects for a long hour, but until then The stands are already starting to empty.. It was past eleven at night, and nearly all the boys between the ages of twenty and thirty had been there since six.

What should the Crypto World be like?

This was not the first edition of this year’s Mundo Crypto. There was another one starring cryptocurrencies still rising like foam at Casa de Campo in Madrid last year. Thawani then accused of causing pump and discharge: Say that a cryptocurrency that someone buys cheap will increase in value, encouraging others to buy it, artificially inflating its price, taking advantage, selling high and getting a good slice. Classic market manipulation.

One summer later, the ‘energy’ surrounding the cryptocurrency world is very different. Shared market value plummeted and Mundo Crypto and its founder, who came to set up a soiree to hire dozens of ‘traders’ in 2021, changed his rhetoric. Already at the press conference he gave before the event on Thursday, after warning CNMV neither Mundo Crypto nor several of the sponsors are licensed to provide investment servicesThawani argued that this is not what they wanted. In return, they would offer “a new model of decentralized education.” As he later explained, an academy with entrepreneurship and investment courses (also cryptocurrencies).

Not the first time a so-called guru will end offering courses to pass on your success to others for a fee. Similar stories are those of young ‘dropshippers’ (who teach how to set up online stores with products imported from China) and IM Academy, an already dispersed network that promises young people to get rich through crypto investment courses. The term Mundo Crypto uses to sell its idea is “responsible mass adoption”.

Until the appearance of Thawani, action was a consecutive presentations, some in English with no translation and bad sound, interspersed with sweepstakes (a bitcoin and a car) and games for the public. Two of the speakers, the founders of a cryptocurrency exchange, said: its financial center in Seychelles and its Singapore office to the ardent applause of the public. and the moderator’s endorsement, “Web3 entrepreneur” (according to his web bio) barely understandable Pilar Troncoso. Outside, in the hallways they were selling beer and there were some stalls with virtual reality glasses and lots of arcade machines, even older than Second Life.

Economists Daniel Lacalle, Juan Ramón Rallo and Pablo Gil put the most serious note. Lacalle started by talking about inflation, public spending and interest rates, but he made a second intervention, emphasizing that “there are no risk-free assets”, that “the greater the localization, the higher the volatility” and this is important. Distinguish between technology and asset investment. Beginning by greeting “CNMV supervisors” and unleashing passionate shouts from the public, Rallo called for caution with “digital assets” as well. Apart from Bitcoin, he said, the value of the rest depends on the credibility of its issuer. Gil reminded the youth the biggest technological change was the creation of the internet and that, in addition to the fact that “80 or 90%” of cryptocurrencies will disappear just as startups and apps disappear, everything that follows will be just one more step away. It was hard to find anyone dissatisfied with this conversation; rather, to people who are made short.

The public applauded, though not as much. Four MPs from El Salvador who came to make propaganda for their country. El Salvador is the first region in the world to accept Bitcoin as legal tender, but without great success. Speakers assured Your country is safer because you operate with Bitcoin. They said they were looking for “investors” like those present, and eventually got some of the people out of their chairs to say, “I promise to visit El Salvador.”

A young man asked his girlfriend for her hand alive, it was possible to see it in public Little Nicholas and popular youtuber wall street wolverine, He is known for the phrase “here”. amount con cojones” (expressing the stance of not selling cryptocurrencies even if their value drops) took a minor part in the scene.

Although originally planned to be presented by television Cristina Pedroche and Jorge Fernandez, the regulator’s warning, and media pressure caused both participating companies (like PlayStation and Coca-Cola) and some to drop from the program. The Vozpópuli newspaper reported this Saturday that Patricia Conde and Javier Cárdenas would replace them, but in the end they did not: Andrés Meneses, former host of Movistar Danae Boronat and crypto influencer who led the charge.

The organization boasted of having sold 7,000 tickets costing 47 euros reimbursed (ie, in principle, participation was free and the event was borne by the sponsors). The 9,000-seat tribunes were almost full and there were VIPs (waiters, table and seat) on the rink. He was followed by an average of 3,000 people on YouTube. There were two more or less clear profiles among the public: young entrepreneur world of enterprises and about the world young worker from outside the tech industry who decided not so long ago to take a chance and buy some crypto. Some complained about the lack of information about the program, which is not available on the web, and the lack of crypto world ‘stands’ in the aisles.

“Let’s see if we’re rich”joked Rubén, in his thirties, who had arrived from Madrid with his friends Javi and Manu. Rubén, a consultant specializing in quality control, bought crypto a while ago and holds it “as a long-term investment,” knowing that all he can lose is money. The three of them came to “learn”, to “learn”, to better learn what this is all about. Same with another group of three boys aged 20 to 21 from Alicante and Cuenca. Biotechnology and Nursing students, They regretted the late realization that their loved ones were the investing world.

Thawani thanked the attendees for their participation and did not hesitate to suffer in a week when media attention was largely focused on his event. “Thank you for being here and coming despite all the pressures we’ve been through,” she told the audience. “The media tried to silence us. Media manipulation is real. But what they don’t know is that the crypto world is not just a financial tool.”