Between 12th and 19th of March, the city of San Juan in Puerto Rico has seen some major crypto action going on. Following the crypto mixer that I described earlier, there was Blockchain Unbound conference back to back with CoinAgenda.
First impressions
Crypto Law Group has sponsored my tickets for the Blockchain Unbound conference, simultaneously becoming one of the first official sponsors of the Documentary on Crypto Movement in Puerto Rico.
The event has been hosted at the Vanderbilt Hotel (which is a bit ironic if you’re familiar with the Vanderbilt family story). Lottery.com was the main sponsor of the event as well as the complimentary concert that happened right after the Blockchain Unbound where Akon, Busta Rhymes, Mos Def, Ghost Face Killa and Talib Kwali have rocked the stage. Interesting that I learned about the whole crypto movement from the NY Times article that also featured the 34-year-old, founder of Lottery.com, Mr. Clemenson.
😅someone installed 4 monitors with live candle charts right in a middle of the lounge zone
The tickets were around $1K for a basic access and $2.5K for the VIP (which I think gave some extra access to networking dinners and access to front seats). With such a high price tag it’s kinda obvious that the local population and startup scene won’t be able to participate, yet their website is stating that Blockchain Unbound is a:
"conference focused on connecting Puerto Rico with visionary entrepreneurs and investors in the blockchain, cryptocurrency and ICO vertical."
Nevertheless, I was able to connect with a lot of interesting investors and entrepreneurs, talk to them about the documentary and recorded 9 interviews.
swarm.fund is cooking some very interesting things in Puerto Rico
In this article, I won’t be reporting on all of the speeches and presentations as I was barely present in the Ballroom. Instead, I was involved in some heavy networking trying to connect to as many people as possible and thus spent most of my time in the lounge zone.
If you’re interested to learn more about the Blockchain Unbound I believe that Cryptosomniac Youtube Channel has made a full report of both Blockchain Unbound and Coin Agenda. Visit their Youtube channel to learn more or sign up for their exclusive newsletter (like I did to access all of their reports).
So, let me guide you through the event real quick.
Quick tour of the Blockchain Unbound floor
As I said, Vanderbilt Hotel was hosting the event. The security guards were everywhere around the building. The had it that even FBI was in the building as there were some several bomb threats. Not sure about the FBI but the armored people were hanging around the black mini-buses at the front. It’s normal considering the number of politicians and investors accumulated in one building on a commonwealth territory.
The whole event could be broken down into 3 zones:
- educational
- dining
- networking
I entered the building and moved straight to the lounge zone. The day before, I was already here to register. Most of the filmmakers and media channels were set up here. Also most of the networking was happening here and no pass was needed to enter. So, to be fair the local startup scene had all of the access to the contacts visiting the island during the event.
I continued to move and exited onto a veranda extending right into the sea. Vanderbilt Hotel has some amazing views to offer! The Ocean was stormy during the entire event, so lots of folks working at the tables right next to the edge got wet from the splashes. Most of my interviews I decided to take here. All of the other spots were either already taken or too dark. I hope the sound will be useable and Max will be able to do his sound magic with the collected materials.
I arrived about 40 minutes before the official opening ceremony, so I decided to go upstairs and check it out as well. Passing by the K-9 dog searching for bombs in the lobby I got to the second floor where the full bag check and metal detector inspection happened.
On the second floor I found (right to left): the VIP lounge, the ballroom, and the dining area. All of the talks were happening at the Ballroom. No booths were installed. I spoke to the organizers surprised by the size of the event but they confirmed that there are no additional areas set up. Blockon 2017 in Santa Monica suddenly started to look like CES.
I normally evaluate the size of the event their price tags and honestly was expecting more this time but then I learned that all of the proceeds from the ticket sales went to help the non-profit organizations helping with Hurricane Maria Relief. In fact, on the third day of the even,t a group of volunteers joined the people from those organizations to help install the solar panels in some of the areas of Puerto Rico that are still disconnected from power.
I learned a lot about the electric situation on the island but that would be a subject for a separate article. For now, let’s dig into why all of those people actually came to the island.
What Puerto Rico has to offer?
During the first hours of the opening ceremony, some of the local politicians clearly stated that Puerto Rico is open for business and ready to cooperate with all of the crypto businesses looking to relocate to the island.
After speaking with the accountants I understood that the Main benefits of moving to Puerto Rico (besides proximity to the warm Ocean and friendly local culture) are Act 20 and 22. Entities and individuals applying for them pay no state or federal tax and their corporate tax for all of the income outside of Puerto Rico is 4% corporate. Great for trading crypto or running any online business, like an Amazon store.
I’m still figuring out how much Puerto Rico has freedom from the SEC and whether it can have its own regulations for ICOs.
Aside from the benefits of the acts 20 and 22, the tax code is very similar to the federal tax code. When converting crypto to fiat I would claim personal income which is 33% for anything above 60K/yearly tax bracket. Curiously enough, the acts don't give any benefits to the local population.
I asked the CPA whether only US people can profit from acts 20 and 22 and I seems like non-us residents can also profit from this program. Still, one particular comment made in a Q&A session during the Blockchain Unbound was right on point: Puerto Rico doesn't have a convenient flight schedule to connect with Asia. Taking into account that the international investors need to invest only half a million dollars to get a green card (as opposed to one million dollars on the Mainland) it might as well be possible that Puerto Rico will become a gateway to the US for the international crypto investors looking forward to relocating into the states.
The question remains: “How popular is Puerto Rico outside the United States?” Most of the participants on the conference that I've met were from the US with a solid number of guests from New York (due to its proximity?). Surprisingly, I haven’t seen many young faces. However, there were more women present than on the Blockon 2017 Santa Monica which made me think that space is slowly getting more vital diversity.
What’s now?
During the past 2 weeks I’ve made an incredible number of connections and were busy trying to sort them out. This and work on the white papers kept me away from publishing on Steemit in a regular fashion but I’m getting back and looking forward to sharing with you how the Demo Day at Parrallel 18 went and the new vision for the Puertopia Documentary that has shaped with all of the field research that I went through.
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"With such a high price tag it’s kinda obvious that the local population and startup scene won’t be able to participate"
Conferences, especially blockchain ones, need to start lowering their price tags. Blockchain is about financial inclusion, not exclusion. I'm not sayint tickets need to be free, but that the local community should be able to participate in the conversation.
I completely agree. Right now most of the price tags for the conferences are stellar. Promotional rates are restricted to highly-funded startups, established corporations, and hedge funds. I feel that with more competition and awareness from the community the markets will become more accessible.
Still, the main networking floor at the Blockchain Unbound was free and open for anyone interested to sneak in and get their networking game going.
its great to see such an honest behind the scenes perspective of a blockchain event. ive also been attending a few although theyve been in europe and the US - but yes, super good to acknowledge these are not available to the masses. i would love to see a blockchain event that was liv e streamed via a decentralized platform. i know it might mean less ticket sales and such but sometimes you have to do things differently when celebrating such a different tech/cause/platform! we get to rewrite the rules entirely!
Networking is the key element of the conferences
Thank you so much for your comment.
Those kinds of events have pretty solid coverage from Youtube Channels and other media resources. I've seen many journalists and bloggers editing in the lounge zone and posting the high-quality interviews the same day.
The networking opportunities are really what's precious about those kinds of events. And Blockchain Unbound had a pretty liberal approach towards the networking zones. Anyone who tried to at least come check out the event would pretty soon realize that they need no tickets to hang out in the lounge area and on the back veranda and do the vital networking.
-K.
thats definitely a key take home point and a lesson a lot of us could learn from. to put yourself on the line and really go after things, even if you dont have a "ticket" there. great metaphor for life :)
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