Nevertheless, Chopra’s attendance was fitting. Chopra has made a name for himself by combining spiritual guidance with buzzwords like “quantum,” much to the ire of actual scientists who have made a point of calling out Chopra on his misuse of scientific concepts. Yet this mishmash of hype and science is undoubtedly familiar to anyone working on distributed databases, a field where the term “blockchain” has been diluted to the point of near meaninglessness. The only thing that was missing from the conference, as far as I was concerned, was a bar serving Long Island Iced Tea.

Here’s a visual tour of the second New York Ethereal Summit. If its attendees are right, it’s also a glimpse of the future.