Nearcon 2022 will bring together over 2,000 attendees at Cais da Viscondessa in the stunning coastal city of Lisbon. Known as Near’s flagship event, this year’s Nearcon will be the Near ecosystem’s largest-ever event, uniting the best and the brightest from the Near and Web3 ecosystems.
Part conference, part festival and part hackathon, the theme for this year is “Building beyond the hype.” Over three-and-a-half days, 191 world-leading thinkers, economists, policymakers, creators, multichain collaborators and developers will deliver 128 sessions across four stages.
It is one of the biggest crypto events of the year, signaling to the broader community that Near and Web3 are here to stay, no matter what the market looks like. Near’s vision is to enable Web3 developers to create without limits and to be part of the most usable blockchain in the world by creating a protocol that is scalable, inclusive and sustainable.
Nearcon will highlight the challenges and opportunities for achieving its goals and the ways in which it is removing barriers to achieve a Web3 world of limitless creation.
It is also a celebration of Near’s major community milestones, which recently included launching over 700 ecosystem projects spanning all Web3 verticals and layers in less than a year.
After the pandemic, people are welcoming the chance to gather in real life, and Nearcon will be an interactive exhibition of the world-class brilliance, creativity and talent that comes with the Near ecosystem. It’s a front-row seat to the cutting-edge projects being created on Near.
Developers, entrepreneurs, creatives and regulators will each have a dedicated track at Nearcon, with panels and information sessions customized to the specific interests of each group. Seven content themes will structure the event: future of finance, future of work, sustainability, Web2 to Web3, governance, arts and culture, and technical content.
Day One highlights will include a keynote from Near Protocol co-founder Illia Polosukhin, as well as JavaScript creator and Brave founder Brendan Eich, and Google Cloud engineering director James Tromans.
Attendees will also hear from Sheila Warren, the inaugural CEO of the Crypto Council for Innovation and Brett Scott, the author of Cloudmoney: Cash, Cards, Crypto, and the War for Our Wallets.
The excitement will continue on Day Two with highlights, including a keynote from Near Foundation CEO Marieke Flament, Messari founder Ryan Selkis and SailGP co-founder Russell Coutts. There will also be sessions from all-star VCs including Fabric, Hashed and Electric Capital, and a talk from science-fiction author Chen Qiufan.
On Day Three, attendees will hear from A16z head of network operations Jeff Amico, SailGP chief technical officer Warren Jones and an all-star legal panel with Ledger, Bain Capital, Cardano Foundation and Mina Foundation. The final day will also see sessions from Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire, as well as OrangeDAO, AstroDAO and more.
Alongside all of these learning sessions, there will be time to celebrate, connect and have fun with like-minded people. Live DJs and networking events will be on daily, along with creative activations, art, culture, NFT drops, dinners, parties and even a gaming lounge.
It will also be a globally minded gathering, with representatives from Near Regional Hubs who are based in Asia Pacific, the Balkans, Kenya and Ukraine. Food trucks from these regions will also be present. This international, multicultural, in-person experience is designed to be precisely the kind of event that has been sorely missed over recent years.
To top it all off, Near is also reaching out to hundreds of hackers from around the world, inviting them to an intensive 48-hour in-person hackathon for the chance to win prizes and compete in a live “Dragon’s Den” with crypto titans.
The hackathon finalists will also have their pitches professionally recorded live in front of all conference attendees. Also, accepted hackers who attend and send a hack in person will get a participation stipend in Near tokens to offset most of the cost of an airfare to Lisbon.
All in all, the Near Foundation will be showcasing all the ways in which the Near ecosystem is flourishing — providing a framework for how Web3 will continue to shape our shared, decentralized future around the world.
Find out more about Nearcon on the site.