Consensus 2021 — Day One

Three takeaways from day one of Consensus 2021

I last consumed Consensus in 2018 — and missed a trip to Morocco with my family in the process. I also failed to purchase bitcoin (BTC) at that time, which looked like a good idea when it dropped from ~$8k to ~$3.5k at the start of 2019 but obviously looks a little less prescient in 2021. Oh well: two strikes there. Now, I’m “back” at the biggest crypto conference in the U.S., determined to avoid a third strike.

Consensus is completely virtual this year and the event organizers have taken full advantage, scattering panels, presentations, interviews and keynotes throughout the day. The first session today was at 8 AM Central and the last won’t finish until after 10 PM. That’s a long day. Fortunately, I split the day in two with a trip to The Art Institute to see exhibits from Bisa Butler and Claude Monet with the family in between. Nevertheless, I persisted and managed to take in several hours of content. Here are three thoughts that are top of mind for me:

1. The very first slot of the very first day of the conference was given over to the Federal Reserve Board and it went about as well as you might expect that it would. No knock to Dr. Lael Brainard but having the Fed lead off was a bit like your grandparents in charge of snacks on 4/20. A little behind the trends, a little out of touch with the tenor of the times. It’s hard to say “no” to The Fed, I guess, so it was probably better to get it out of the way so that the real party could begin. My favorite part of Dr. Brainard’s discussion were the comments that were flying in the Q&A pane. Brutal.
2. Next up was Ray Dalio from Bridgewater Associates. Ray isn’t a “Krypto Krazy” and in many ways he’s as removed from the crypto world as The Fed is. He did confirm, however, that he owns BTC (I would have liked interviewer Michael Casey to ask him more on that topic) and his history lesson on the rise and fall of fiat currencies validated, at least in part, the BTC as a store of value narrative as well as the impossible to ignore fact that the 21st century will be for China what the 20th century was for the United States. According to Dalio, these are once-in-a-lifetime occurrences and he had the good fortune to be born in 1949 as the U.S. Dollar rose to the top of the financial pyramid. On this, the 80th birthday of Bob Dylan, it seems appropriate to quote a song that he didn’t write but could have: “Oh a mighty wind’s a blowing, It’s kicking up the sand, It’s blowing out a message, To every woman, child and man.”
3. Finally, I have to give a shout out to the Chicago panel that was part of the Crypto State Agenda track. Featuring a one-on-one with Don Wilson of DRW interviewed by World Business Chicago’s Michael Fassnacht and a panel from Colleen Sullivan of CMT Digital, Peter Johnson from Jump Capital and Imran Kahn of Volt Capital and the DeFi Alliance, the session reinforced my faith in Chicago as a financial center. I must admit that I am not a DeFi jedi but I think that it’s probably a good idea to keep an eye on the DeFi Alliance going forward.

There are three more days of Consensus yet to go. I’ll take in as much as I can while still pushing paying projects forward and will share my thoughts as they come. Stay tuned.

Chuck Mackie is a principal at Fathom Communication. Fathom provides thought leadership strategy and content that delivers both depth and understanding for financial services and technology innovators.