NFC 2022: Building NFT Europe with passion

More than 2500 people, 150 speakers, 2 full days of conference. In Lisbon, from 4 to 5 April 2022, the Non Fungible Conference (NFC) took place and we participated!

All large-scale events specializing in NFTs have always taken place historically in the US or Asia. But never in Europe. Of course, there have been many meetups. There are also specialized crypto or DeFi conferences. But nothing about NFTs specifically.

Yet Europe is full of talent and leadership in this area. The Sandbox, OVR, Mintbase and even some members of NonFungible.com have been living in Europe and building the Web3 for years.

Here is our feedback on this event which was rich and intense.

Digital Art and NFTs

Throughout the event, several exhibitions and artistic events took place. Not only at the venue of the Non-Fungible Conference but also in the surrounding area!

The “permanent” exhibition of artists brought together more than 50artists who were able to invest entire rooms. As soon as you entered the NFC, it was possible to quickly see the exhibition in a room with little light. 

And in the middle of all these screens, a collective work in support of the victims of the war in Ukraine.

‘Mariupol’ is a dynamic, interactive and layered artwork that brings together collaborations from 38 artists to mark the beginning of another tragic chapter in this continent’s history. 

The artwork is a “living” artwork, whose final appearance will depend on its owner. As with other digital artworks on Async.art, collectors control the visual state of the image, which can be changed at any time.

Other works were exhibited by different artists:

A talk about NFT Wash Trading

Among these sharing of reflections and feedback from experts, Zoup and I led a workshop on the theme of wash trading. Some market manipulation practices can take place to inflate the price of an asset, faking a marketplace volume or take advantage of a reward system.

Many talks were organized during these two days of conferences. With more than 250 speakers, the topics covered were as rich as they were varied. Evolution of NFTs in the art world, growth of wearables, how NFTs are revolutionizing the art of collecting, reflection on metaverses…

For 45 minutes we were able to alternate between explanations from our NFT good practice guide and answers to questions to the public. Indeed, many new players want to develop their own NFT marketplace and want to know how to prevent this kind of practice.

While recalling that risk 0 does not exist, it is also worth remembering that wash trading schemes leave an indelible mark on the blockchain. Players operating NFT marketplaces can therefore identify wash traders through these different schemes and start a dialogue with them rather than banishing them at the risk that they will return with other more complex market manipulation schemes.

The most important thing is to determine *why* a wash trading takes place, it can be to receive trading-related rewards as well as pretend that a project has more activity than it seems.

Non Fungible Conference Side Event: ArtDAO Launch

During the day, the conferences took place in several rooms… but events took place in Lisbon! The focus was on Ledger who organized parties in partnership with Playboy (of which there were commercials in the streets) or the degenerate Party party of The Sandbox.

But they weren’t the only ones. Another side event caught my attention, that of ArtDAO’s Genesis Launch. The evening took place near the port, in an artistic creation workshop.

Again, several screens were plugged in when I entered the shed that housed the exhibition. In this darkness and in the middle of the flashing screens, this painting on canvas that hung from the ceiling. As a reminder of the importance of reality in the virtual world.

It was also, of course, a moment of relaxation thanks to the DJ and their electro set adapted to the late afternoon atmosphere. External discussions focused on the evolution of the NFT sector while being accompanied by beers and glasses of wine.

A big thank YOU!

The least we can say is that the event was very intense and interesting! We were obviously delighted to be able to welcome you to our stand to answer your questions, but more importantly, we were delighted to have seen how much of a reality the European dynamic around NFTs is.

Over the course of the discussions, we were able to see the diversity of profiles that are interested in NFTs today and are more than ever confident about the evolution that these tokens will take in the years to come.

To complete this article, we interviewed several key players in the ecosystem during this event:

• Gaspard de Ledger
• Shaban from Everdreamsoft
• Paul from FxHash
• The artist Jaen
• The organizer of the Non Fungible Conference: John Karp

They shared with us their vision on the NFT ecosystem and its future that we will publish in several articles soon! To be the first one to read it, don’t forget to follow us on our different social media