In 2018, we not only celebrated our first birthday but also organised lots of exclusive networking events, sophisticated meetups, ICO pitching sessions and hackathons. In partnership with teams from a number of renowned global blockchain conferences such as the World Gaming Executive Summit (WGES), South by South West (SXSW), Delta Summit and the Malta Blockchain Summit to name a few, we organized some unforgettable event experiences. A big part of what CryptoFriends represents as a company is to spread the word about the wonders of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency, and releasing good content in addition to throwing great events is a huge priority for us. This is why we have picked some of the most interesting interviews, videos and articles about us over the year and are putting them all together in this newsletter for you to read and enjoy.

Cointelegraph

John McAfee: We’ll Screw up the Future, But It’ll Still be Better Than What We Have Today

Our Founder and CEO, Daria Arefieva, talked to John McAfee during the Blockchain Cruise Asia, that took place from January 15th to 19th. John answered about how he researches the coins to promote, whether he has any regrets about them and why Blockchain is the best thing that happened to humanity.

Key quotes:

“I have as much influence in that arena as I do with my followers. In fact, even more. To sit down with Roger Ver and Jihan Wu and talk about Bitcoin Cash — I think vastly is much more influential than tweeting to 700,000 people.”

“If I see something that I think the world needs to know about — I’m gonna say it. No sense in me being the only to know. I don’t want to whisper it to my friends. Isn’t it far worse? The fact that people take that and pump it, and dump it — that’s their business, not mine.”

“I believe that the future of cryptocurrency is in the new emerging coins technologies and creative ideas that are coming out to through the ICOs.”

Yahoo! Finance

CryptoFriends: Two-Day Crypto Summit during SXSW 2018, featuring Women in Blockchain Conference — ‘New Girls on the Block’

We co-organised the first-ever blockchain-focused summit to run during SXSW in Austin, Texas on March 12th & 13th, with some of the most influential, international and inspirational women in blockchain and fintech. Under the name ‘New Girls on the Block,’ the first day of the SXSW Crypto Summit featured keynotes, a series of fireside chats and panel discussions, covering all the major topics currently at the forefront of the blockchain universe. Yahoo! Finance published an article about the event.

Key quotes:

“Gender diversity remains a challenge, which is why ‘New Girls on the Block’ aims to showcase female blockchain pioneers and highlight the significant roles women are playing in this emerging industry.”

“A recent survey revealed that women make up just 1.76% of the blockchain community. Blockchain is one of the most disruptive technologies we have ever experienced, so we want to encourage more women to get involved and lead the way in shaping its future.”

Wildest Crypto Show

Interview with Daria Arefieva from CryptoFriends

From September 7th to 11th Coinsbank organized the Mediterranean Blockchain Cruise 2018. This was a 4-day voyage that started in Barcelona (Spain) where the vessel sailed to Monaco (Monte Carlo) and Ibiza. The Blockchain Cruise was aimed at accelerating the growth of the blockchain community by facilitating the formation of meaningful relationships between its members. Bruce Porter Jr, CEO of Globalboost, interviewed our Founder and CEO, Daria Arefieva. They talked about their crypto experience, cruise impressions and the future plans of CryptoFriends.

Key quotes:

“Malta as a Blockchain Island is very Crypto friendly.”

“In blockchain, hype is going down but trust is going up. “

Bitnovosti

Jon Matonis: “Three tokens I believe in: Bitcoin, bitcoin and Monero”

Jon Matonis is the Founding Director of the Bitcoin Foundation, and the CEO of Globitex, a Bitcoin exchange based in Luxembourg City. In November, during the Malta Blockchain Summit, CryptoFriends asked Jon about the pros and cons of the blockchain and crypto industry, his thoughts about the Russian blockchain community and 3 tokens he believes in.

Key quotes:

“If you are focused on becoming money, the most important thing is the network effect. The network effect is when you start something and it spreads.”

“The most important thing for a project is that you are removing an entity or authority, or a process that is set in the middle.”

“One thing that blockchain projects have in common, is that anybody who works there does many, many values and is doing everything.”

Coinspeaker

The EPIC Blockchain Hackathon on Blockchain Island (Malta)

From October 31st to November 2nd, a two-day hackathon took place during the Malta Blockchain Summit. The hackathon was organized by the Malta Blockchain Summit who worked in partnership with us, CryptoFriends.The first place was won by team, Blockchain Charity Lottery who were followed by teams TPass and Tensegrity who took the second and third places. We caught up with the hackathon winners, participants and mentors about motivation, expectations and results.

Key quotes:

“Hackathons are a way of gaining an education. You can challenge yourself and at the same time enjoy meeting new acquaintances and the atmosphere in general.”

“We need to get together, communicate, interact with each other, challenge each other — and so real ideas, projects will be born, they will take shape.”

The New Kids On The Blockchain

ETHEREUM DEAD? CRYPTO TAX REBATES? MARKET CARNAGE! BTC ‘DEADMAN WALKING?’

Our Ambassador and CEO of Qlear Protocol, Eric Benz was featured on the YouTube crypto show, “The New Kids On The Blockchain” and discussed with the presenters Lisa and Ash about what 2019 holds for the blockchain and cryptocurrency space, and also for us, CryptoFriends as a company. If you have not already seen it click on the link above and check it out. Eric outlines our upcoming roadmap of events.

Key quotes:

“CryptoFriends philosophy for the past year has been about putting on very tailored, very intimate and exclusive events which provide a lot more networking opportunity.”

“CryptoFriends is really about community and there’s a lot that we have in terms of our roadmap and plans moving forward that really are gonna highlight how we have built up our CryptoFriends Network and how we are going to be bringing them into that community platform.”

“You see such a bearish market right now but this is really the time where true innovation is going to come.”

For 2019 we have a number of surprises in store for you. We are working on some huge events and there are going to be plenty of occasions to work with us and collaborate.

Let’s stay in touch!

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Much love to you all, our dear CryptoFriends!