Consensus Crisis in Hong Kong: Industry's "Consensus" is being severely torn apart, leaving the PVE technical narrative in the shadows

Original Author: Haotian, Crypto Researcher

Editor's Note: From February 18th to 20th, the Consensus conference came to Asia for the first time and was held in Hong Kong. Judging from the number of attendees, the Web3 craze in Hong Kong remains strong, with over a hundred peripheral events. However, compared to last year's Hong Kong conference, this year's conference saw significant changes in the attendee demographics, event atmosphere, and discussion topics. This article reflects the insights of crypto researcher Haotian who attended the conference. He candidly remarks that this may be the most "unconsensual" consensus conference. BlockBeats reprints the full article below:

Sharing a short essay about this Hong Kong Consensus conference:

1) Similar to past conferences, many people were running around to various side events near the main venue. Coupled with an unfamiliarity with the Hong Kong map, running between sessions and dinner appointments left everyone physically exhausted. However, the mental fatigue was even more draining. With no end in sight, when will it all stop?

2) Despite the overall environment, both large and small events were still bustling with attendees. Emotionally, everyone seemed energetic, perhaps most participants came for the "emotional value." In reality, the most popular ecosystems were those around Solana, with events consistently packed and able to attract significant attention. In contrast, Ethereum, BTC Layer 2, and related activities appeared much more subdued. It can only be said that amidst the chaos, each taking their turn on stage, they have all had their moments of glory;

3) Although this was billed as a Consensus conference, upon interacting with more people, it felt like the least "consensual" consensus conference. The industry's "consensus" is being severely fractured. The technical narrative consensus is overshadowed by the meme narrative PvP consensus, diamond hand holders find themselves at a loss for words amid the trading consensus of young traders, and the consensus of veteran technical builders struggles to find a place among projects with outstanding marketing tokenomics. What appears to be consensus differentiation is actually the collapse of the industry's "unified" values. After Consensus, it is feared that Polarization will become the norm;

4) Many veterans in the crypto industry have remarked that the "market environment has changed." In fact, the market can never be wrong; it's just that the old tactics of the veterans are no longer effective. Using the logic of switching between bull and bear markets over the past two cycles, these veterans find that the four-year cycle transition is no longer valid. The market defines a bull market around hot narratives, here one moment, gone the next. When you are still adamantly believing that the bull market is just beginning, it may have already ended;

5) There's no need to complain that making money in the market has become difficult. It's just that the audience for making money has changed, and the mode and logic of making money have changed. The current market is flooded with assets, where market attention (Mindshare) controls liquid wealth. Young post-00s who dare to stay up late, rush in, take their profits, have the energy and courage, become the lucky ones in this round of PVP narrative. In contrast, the old hodlers with diamond hands and a PVE mindset simply have no chance of winning. However, every PVP wealth feast ultimately sees a large withdrawal of liquidity, and it's unclear how long this squid game can continue;

6) I can feel the desolation of a group of technology narrative idealists and builders, and this sense of disappointment is different from before. To quote an old OG, the technology roadmap has been gradually implemented, the TGE has been completed as requested, the community has been maintained, the narrative has been continuously updated with hot topics, but the token price just can't seem to rise. For those who do things with idealism, does the prolonged absence of corresponding market rewards signify a depletion of innovative forces? If the crypto space loses its idealistic geek spirit, what spirit should the Crypto industry use to counter the external stigma of being a mere casino? What, don't we even need pretense anymore?

7) People in the AI Agent car are mostly trapped in a miserable state, but most people still firmly believe in the future of the AI + Crypto narrative. I have always emphasized that aside from the short-term application value of AI Agent deployment, the key lies in the value of activating the consolidation of past narratives such as Layer 2, ZK, modularity, chain abstraction, and so on. It allows old narratives to have a completely new build direction and enables application-premise possibilities for non-deployed infra. In short, compared to the value of the sacrificial rupture of the current AI Agent bubble and its future reconstruction value to the industry's massive blood transfusion, it is not worth mentioning;

8) The operating logic of the secondary market has completely changed. BTC stands out in the sky with ETF off-market funds propping it up. On-chain, ETH and networks like SOL and BSC are fiercely competing at the ecosystem level, but no matter how intense the competition, the market unanimously believes that the altcoin season of overall bullishness is over. The choice of which locomotive to board determines what kind of outcome can be achieved. Once you make the wrong choice, the result will be hard to bear, for example, if you happen to align yourself with layer 2.

9) The on-chain world has become the hope of most people in the crypto space. However, compared to the difficulty of making money in the CEX secondary market, the on-chain pure-speed PVP environment is also a daunting challenge for the majority of participants. After the chaotic era, the on-chain world must achieve complete restructuring from asset issuance, community cohesion, CEX integration, to technology application landing throughout the entire chain. Clearly, an on-chain story without asset issuance threshold restrictions and without continuous technological innovation empowerment cannot truly and meaningfully transform the Crypto world.

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