WEF 2022: Serious people to stay in crypto despite market setbacks, says CCI CEO Sheila Warren

During the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2022, Sheila Warren, the CEO of Crypto Council for Innovation (CCI), sat down with Cointelegraph to discuss a range of topics including the state of crypto, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO) and safety within the metaverse. 

Reminiscing on previous WEF events, Warren started off by comparing the past WEF events to this year’s event. The CEO of CCI told Cointelegraph that she finds it amazing to see how projects that were just starting out in WEF events of 2018 and 2019 have now made themselves very well known. Warren said that:

“I’m finding that old acquaintances, some of the folks that we know from the business side, from the public sector, are just thrilled. And everybody wants to talk about blockchain and crypto.”

Despite the negativity surrounding the state of the crypto markets and the recent collapse of Terra, a very prominent blockchain project, the CEO of CCI remains positive and believes in the future of the space. She said that:

“Even given recent developments, I feel very positive because I feel like we are seeing, again, a contraction that’s going to mean that very serious people remain in this space. […] We want people that are serious about the opportunity and the potential this technology and innovation hold.”

Apart from these, Warren also shared her perspective on the metaverse and talked about the fluidity of going between digital experiences and real-life experiences that augmented reality is able to provide.

She explained that the metaverse will enable people to have a more “seamless identity across different spaces.” However, the CCI executive believes that this also comes with its own dangers.

Related: WEF 2022, May 23: Latest updates from the Cointelegraph Davos team

When asked about how to prevent Web2 and social media’s negative traits such as harassment and trolling from being brought to Web3, the CCI executive mentioned that the community may combat this through DAOs.

With DAOs, Warren explained that DAOs have screening mechanisms that serve as a gate to people who want to perform negative acts. With this, each member puts in efforts to stay a part of the community.

Meanwhile, in the same event, Brooks Entwistle, senior vice president (SVP) at Ripple, encouraged people to build despite the crypto winter. Entwistle believes that the current market trends present an opportunity and urged people to “reduce the noise” and focus elsewhere.

Additional reporting by Ezra Reguerra.