Hong Kong Web3 Festival: Why I Went, What I Found, and Why I’m Still Thinking About It
So I attended the Hong Kong Web3 Festival.
It was a 4 day event, with 4 stages running at the same time, multiple booths, lots of merchandise, and there always seemed to be something new being introduced every day.
The booths were actually really well done.
The standouts for me were:
- TRON DAO
- HashKey Group
- OKX
- Bitfire
- ZA Bank
- Signal Plus
They had really fun games and the overall experience at the booths was amazing.
Each stage had good talks, but my favourite part was something very specific.
They were using live AI to translate English to the local language and vice versa while speakers were talking.
That stood out to me.
Why I even went
I didn’t just randomly decide to attend this event.
I wanted to attend this particular event when I learnt about Vitalik Buterin and Ethereum’s history with China.
Last year, my friend and colleague James told me that when Vitalik was trying to raise money for Ethereum, he had to learn full Mandarin so that he could raise funds in China.
That really stayed with me.
So I made a commitment to myself to actually learn more about Asia, China, and Hong Kong’s role in blockchain and Web3. Not from the outside, but by being there.
Because if we are building in Africa, we also need to understand how other regions are building, funding, and scaling.
I shared this with James and he recommended this event. I saved up and decided to attend.
The part we don’t talk about enough
When you look into Ethereum’s early days, you start to see how important Asia actually was.
Wanxiang Blockchain Labs and the Wanxiang Group were involved very early on.
Wanxiang was an early supporter of Ethereum during its early days, at a time when the ecosystem was still forming.
There are also key figures from the Wanxiang ecosystem, like Xiao Feng, who have played a major role in building out blockchain infrastructure in the region.
Later on, when mainland China banned crypto, players like Wanxiang and HashKey Group moved into Hong Kong, which is now positioning itself differently.
Something I kept hearing
A common sentiment I heard from many local people was:
“Web3 is dying.”
To them, this was a small conference.
Not like the years before.
Some people even said it should have been 2 days because there wasn’t much happening.
I heard this a lot.
But my experience was completely different
But tell me why it took me exactly 4 days to do everything I needed to do.
For me:
- It was the perfect size
- The perfect number of days
- Everything was just right
This is coming from someone who found Token2049 overwhelming.
So for me, this felt balanced.
Final thought
It’s interesting how people can be in the same place and experience it completely differently.
For some, this felt like decline.
For me, it was one of the best conferences I’ve attended.
And from where I stand, building in Africa, this matters.
Because it gives context. It shows how different regions are approaching the same industry.
If you’re building in Africa, I genuinely think this is something to experience at least once.
Not just to attend, but to understand where the industry is being shaped from.
