European Blockchain Convention
A few impressions from the European Blockchain Convention in Barcelona and what stood out beyond the usual Web3 rhetoric.
In October 2023 I attended the European Blockchain Convention (EBC) in Barcelona.
Events like this are always a mix of signal and repetition, but they are still useful because you get a clearer sense of what people in the industry are actually worried about when they are off Twitter and inside the same room.
The sessions covered the usual spread of topics: digital assets, infrastructure, identity, regulation, enterprise adoption. What stood out most was the gap between ambition and operational reality. Most of the conversation centered on custody, compliance, settlement, and how to fit blockchain systems into institutions that already exist.
That was the part I found most valuable. The closer the discussion gets to regulated environments, the less useful generic “Web3 will change everything” language becomes. What matters instead is system design, controls, operational ownership, and whether the product still makes sense once the constraints are real.
Beyond the talks, the convention was a good reminder that the ecosystem is broader than the startup slice people usually see online. There were established companies, infrastructure providers, legal and compliance voices, and teams trying to make blockchain systems legible to normal businesses.
I left with a more grounded view of the space: still interesting, still worth building in, but increasingly defined by execution rather than slogans.