Ryan Selkis and Synthetix founder Kain Warwick face-off to debate DeFi’s future at BlockDown 3.0

BlockDown 3.0 is set to host a colossal clash on DeFi as crypto visionaries make bull and bear cases for the decentralized finance movement which is sweeping the industry, the event will take place October 22-23.

Ryan Selkis, co-founder and CEO of crypto data platform Messari, will take to the virtual stage alongside Kain Warwick, founder of DeFi derivatives trading platform Synthetix as they debate the future of the DeFi movement and examine what direction it will take in the next 12 months.

Selkis, who has called DeFi a bubble that “will pop sooner than people expect”, is on record as saying he loves the experimentation it is bringing to the industry, but in a series of tweet sent in September he derided the movement:

“DeFi is just one big pool of capital sloshing around a small group of insiders and mercenaries who will soon run out of victims to fleece … I don’t recommend DeFi to most people because I don’t recommend high-stakes Vegas poker to fish.”

fwiw, I LOVE this experimentation. Like ICOs, yield farming / incentivized liquidity provisioning is a novel innovation in capital formation.

Smart people are making a killing.

But I don’t recommend DeFi to most people because I don’t recommend high-stakes Vegas poker to fish.

— Ryan Selkis (@twobitidiot) September 10, 2020

Warwick who is bullish on Ethereum and DeFi’s future has previously acknowledged that decentralized finance is in a challenging place, with so much happening in the space at the same time, but is bullish on the potential of decentralization to change the status quo for the better.

At the peak of this bull market the majority of the top ten assets will be tokens on Ethereum. Plan accordingly.

— kain.eth (@kaiynne) September 27, 2019

Writing on the Synthetix blog he said:

“It is without a doubt the most hectic and intense environment you could choose to build in. The proportion of things we don’t know so far outweighs those we do … I believe this is because we are in the middle of a huge transition, not of finance, but of human organisation … we are only in the very beginning of this explosion of open systems.”

The debate promises to be one of Blockdown 3.0’s must-see events, which will also feature appearances from Grammy-nominated artist and founder of Akoin, Akon, and Sergey Nazarov, CEO and founder of this year’s standout DeFi token, Chainlink, which saw its token price soar to an all-time high earlier this year.

Erhan Korhaliller, CEO and founder of blockchain PR agency EAK Digital, and organizer of BlockDown, said it was another example of BlockDown delivering the best guests, topics, and debates in the crypto space.

“Throughout this period of lockdown, we have been determined to keep the crypto and blockchain community connected and networking, while also delivering industry-leading talks, discussions and debates.”

He added:

Ryan and Kain have strong views on the future of defi, whether it will grow or disappear. This debate will give attendees both sides of this new innovation that will allow them to make their own minds up on the future of decentralized finance. This will be another must watch debate for anyone interested in finance, fintech, economics and the impact defi is having on these industries.”

BlockDown 3.0

The October event will be the third edition of BlockDown, after the successful debut of the format in April. The conference, which is free to attend, also features two levels of tickets, for businesses and VIPs.

BlockDown has laid the foundations in 2020 for a new way to host and organize conferences, attracting more than 10,000 attendees globally to its first two events.

The BlockDown conference will be bought to a close with a two-hour 3D virtual afterparty for paid ticket holders.

To find out more, head to www.blockdownconf.com to sign up and register, join the BlockDown telegram, or email [email protected].