I'm at a blockchain conference in the Dubai World Trade Centre. According to its marketing, it's the largest/most anticipated/most influential blockchain conference of the year. Will post some thoughts.

Spent the first 10 minutes walking around not understanding if this is a blockchain conference or not. Had to ask a lady if it was the right place.

Found panel. Woman says blockchain will help get the COVID-19 vaccine to the most vulnerable. Louis Vuitton says they're investing in IoT, AI and blockchain. IBM man says blockchain is the only way to distinguish between a real and a fake. UAE government woman agrees with him.

Panel host asks UAE gov woman: "So there are government services running on blockchain right now, amazing. So you drank the Kool-Aid then?". UAE woman replies "Drank the Kool-Aid? I make the Kool-Aid."

IBM man jumps in: "Blockchain actually began in China, tracking pork. You can scan QR codes in Walmart now and understand where things came from. There are sliced mangos being shipped from South to North America, and they get touched by 50 different agents."

"Before we had blockchain, it took 7 days to track these sliced mangos through all the systems. Now it takes 2.2 seconds". IBM man does not seem to admit that the efficiency is gained by replacing 50 systems with 1, and did not articulate why a blockchain was the only solution.

I hate this.

Nothing has changed at all in 3+ years.

I'm walking around and still cannot understand if this is really a blockchain conference. There is some blockchain garbage but there is also tons of other generic tech stuff all thrown together in the same room.

Health care is the big theme. Man talks about how big of a change it was for the doctors to enter things into a computer with a blockchain instead of writing it on paper. This presentation does not distinguish between gains from basic digitization vs. actual blockchain utility.

Panelist says blockchain will be big in mental health care. Now starts talking about how they've successfully tokenized love. Am I tripping

Back to the previous panel. Panel host is blown away and is waving his arms in an excited manner. He says "so with a QR code you can distinguish right away between a real and a fake... incredible! Imagine if we had this for money!".

I feel like I'm dead. I'm alive but I'm dead.

Fun fact, a friend here had problem printing out his badge for the conference. He used my badge yesterday. They scanned him with a QR code and he got in. Too bad they didn't have a blockchain to distinguish him between a real and a fake. They're missing out. Maybe IBM can help.

Shit, I just got recognized. Someone came up to me with a picture of my Rainbow chart tweet and asked "is this you?" and laughed.

Lol