CryptoMondays VR Meeting #1 Was Pretty Cool, Until The Trolls Came
The inaugural CryptoMondays was held in NYC on 1/8/18 (THE day crypto market cap peaked). Over 300 people showed up at Bagatelle for the…
The inaugural CryptoMondays was held in NYC on 1/8/18 (THE day crypto market cap peaked). Over 300 people showed up at Bagatelle for the event.
The 2nd CryptoMondays NYC, the following week, had 350+ attendees and three TV crews, and we decided to enable others to host CryptoModnays in any city around the world.
Little did we know that Crypto winter had begun. But all through Crypto winter, CryptoMondays continued to grow organically. Today there are 20,000+ members in 57 CryptoMonday cities around the world.
Over the 2+ years that we’ve hosted CryptoMondays NYC, attendance was correlated to the near term price movements of crypto. But then, to date, in 2020, before we moved it to VR, we experienced surging attendance, up almost 50%, on average vs. Q4 last year.
And, most importantly, as opposed to early 2018, when the talk was largely about crypto prices, now the dialogue is largely about crypto products and what’s scaling. But with meetings in IRL on hold, we moved it to VR.
CryptoMondays VR Was Already In The Process of Being Spun Up
The Blockchain Center in Miami, home of CryptoMondays Miami, has been featuring VR Game Nights since November, produced by Bits and Tokens. One of their Co-Founders, Jerome Dallas reached out to me about starting CryptoMondays VR last month, and we’ve been working on it since. Others, including Udi Wertheim, have also just started hosting VR Meetups:
The First CryptoMondays VR Was Pretty Cool, Until The Trolls Came
On Monday, March 16th, with the help of Bits & Tokens, we hosted the first CryptoMondays VR featuring a Fireside Chat with William Foxley, a reporter with Coindesk
The Meetup started in a rendering of The Bitcoin Center Miami.
William Foxley starts talking at about 7:20 minutes in (see video above).
At 7:50 in, Will’s Oculus Go crashed
Will found his way back and starts talking again at 9:30.
Will’s Oculus crashed again at 14:10 and he was unable to return
At 16:40 we were transported to another world, created by Bits & Tokens, specifically to hold Meetups and other events.
We hung out in the new space for about a half hour until the VR trolls came at 38:00.
The trolls like getting in your face
The trolls apparently have nothing better to do then to visit different VR events and try and ruin them with their loud and obnoxious presence. There are tools to mitigate the trolls, and we’ll get better at using them to limit the damage done. But, unfortunately, they were largely successful at disrupting our Meetup.
The 6 Initial Lessons
VR is having a moment that will accelerate the adoption curve dramatically — Given my limited visual interaction with other people outside of Zoom, VR was an awesome respite. It’s easy to see how the experience will improve over time and become a regular mainstay of our daily lives
People Have Largely Not Used VR, So The Need Help — Just helping people find the room was a challenge. But this will get better fast. IT’s not rocket science.
Leveraging Other Mediums In VR significantly enhances the experience — You can play videos and stream videos of yourself in to the VR experience. It really is immersive.
The Oculus Go Has A Battery Life Of About 1.5 Hours —The Quest is 2.5 hours, which is another reason to get the Quest. So make sure your fully powered before joining a Meetup.
We need to get better at stopping the trolls. They’re a thing.
Buy A VR Rig Today- They’re going to sell out, and you want one.
Join us at the next CryptoMondays VR. Let’s change the world.
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