Let's be honest: every year, another "blockchain week" pops up, promising to finally deliver on the Web3 revolution. We see and read about decentralized finance, NFTs revolutionizing art, blockchain eradicating world hunger. It’s cool, it’s new, it’s sexy and quite frankly, 90% of the time, it’s hype. Dutch Blockchain Week (DBW) 2025 is coming, and I'm curious to see if it will be yet another echo chamber or will it actually showcase tangible progress.

Can Promises Turn to Progress Here?

DBW25 boasts a who's who of crypto players: Bybit, Tether, Gemini Exchange, and even representatives from the European Commission and De Nederlandsche Bank. That's a compelling lineup. Are they really serious about addressing the hard problems? Or are they simply in it to inflate their private equity investment portfolios and party at the networking receptions.

I'm hoping for the former, but my gut – call it the cynicism of someone who's seen too many crypto winters – says we need to be critical. We need to ask the tough questions:

  • Are these "innovations" actually solving real-world problems, or are they just solutions in search of problems?
  • Are we truly empowering individuals, or just creating new forms of financial exclusion and exploitation?
  • How will regulators manage the potential for fraud and manipulation in the AI-driven compliance solutions?

It's great that DBW25 is focusing on AI and blockchain, especially around compliance and fraud prevention with their Block & Order Hackathon. Sometimes we forget that AI is a double-edged sword. AI will be just as readily deployed to perpetrate fraud as to detect it. I’m excited to see how the hackathon entrants will tackle these issues.

Regulation: Friend or Foe to Innovation?

Having the involvement of high-level regulators, such as De Nederlandsche Bank and the European Commission, is a big deal. It raises a critical question: Can regulation and innovation coexist? Or will regulators suppress the innovation, experimentation and creativity that makes Web3 so enticing?

I’ve spoken with thousands of these founders who are scared stiff right now by the regulatory uncertainty that looms over crypto. What they want is certainty and help to plan. At the same time, they’re concerned that overregulation of this nascent industry might smother their businesses before they have a chance to prosper.

This is where DBW25 could really be a game changer. If it encourages genuine collaboration and conversation between innovators and regulators, we can move mountains. Bridging the chasm between the idealistic dream of what Web3 could be and the tangible realities of keeping your business compliant will be invaluable.

Let's not kid ourselves: this is a massive challenge. As anybody who’s tried to regulate the crypto world knows, crypto is global, decentralized, and constantly evolving. Trying to regulate it is akin to nailing jelly to a wall. That’s because getting it right takes a tricky balancing act of protecting consumers while encouraging innovation.

Beyond the Hype: What's the Human Impact?

Ultimately, the success of DBW25 won't be measured by the number of attendees, the size of the sponsorships, or the hype surrounding the latest NFT project. It will be measured by how it improves the lives of real people.

Will it help small businesses access capital? Or will it further entrench intermediaries by giving them unprecedented tools to reach consumers? Will it help to produce a more fair and transparent financial system?

These are the questions that really matter. And they’re the questions that I’ll be looking to answer as I follow along with DBW25.

I'm cautiously optimistic. This moment of collective outrage has the possibility to be the spark that ignites lasting, positive change. We’re excited by the potential, but it has to go beyond the hype and understand how this technology can be applied in the real world. Second, it has to respond to the good faith concerns of regulators and consumers. It must put the human impact first, above all else and in all cases.

If it can do that, there is hope. Dutch Blockchain Week 2025 would be the perfect place to turn Web3 hype into reality.