It's no coincidence that this year's motto is "It's All MediaTech Now!". We're impacted by MediaTech in all aspects of our lives, online and in the everyday world.
Right now, we’re teetering on the edge of the Metaverse and other persistent virtual worlds, there’s the buzz around NFTs and the fallout from the cryptocurrency rollercoaster, not to mention references to Web 3.0 – but how does it all hang together, if at all, and why is it important? We’re going to field some answers to these seismic questions at  #mthcon22:  you’ll find out what  Web 3.0 (aka Web3) really is  (spoiler alert: it is  not  the same thing as the Metaverse!), discover more about blockchain, the distributed ledger technology that powers decentralized solutions to a huge range of platforms and services, and how this could ultimately affect us all. 

Our opening keynote address on stage 2 is entitled  “Web3: Delivering the Future”, and we’re super excited to have as our keynote speaker  Santiago Siri,  an Ethereum insider, who will explain how what started out as a non-profit rival to Bitcoin has developed into the Ethereum platform on which, amongst other things, ground-breaking blueprints for future societies are being built. One of these is the Democracy Earth Foundation, and Santi will share his ideas around this and the principle of Universal Basic Income (imagine what you could do if you didn’t have to earn your basic living wage every month?!) and its significance for the future of society.

But if you’re going to be distributing an income to people, you have to be certain that they really exist as a human being – and this is where the Proof of Humanity project comes in. It’s a social identity verification system on Ethereum that helps people create the basis for their own universal profile and take charge of their own identity online. And that’s just one way he envisions that might enable us all to break out of the “colonial internet” controlled by a few Big Tech giants.

And on the topic of Big Tech, we are delighted to welcome  Sofie Hvitved  who will open the track on Stage 1 that focuses on entertainment in the Metaverse: “Metaverse or Betaverse?”  The conversation around how much of our lives will be spent online in alternative “-verses” (Metaverse, Multiverse, Omniverse etc.) is still in its infancy, but there is a dawning realization that these virtual worlds must not be regulated, controlled and directed by Big Tech. These are the discussions we’re dedicated to promoting and developing on our stages at #MTHCon22 - more great reasons to be there!

Santiago Siri

Democracy Earth Foundation

Born and brought up in Argentina, Santiago Siri  saw at first hand what happens when the principles of democracy fall by the wayside; he believes that the growth of crypto can lead to the end of corruption and capital control, and sees his native country as being one of the best positioned to lead the change. More than just an idea, this is an ideology, and Santi will talk about how he visualizes this alternative to our profit-driven consumer society. Santiago Siri (“…I’m still waiting for Apple to send me a royalty check for using my name!”) spent many weeks travelling the world with the founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, and, as he described it, “…the only place Vitalik actually got stopped by passers-by in the street asking for his autograph was in Argentina! Almost every young Argentinian is crypto and blockchain savvy – it’s amazing!”

Sofie Hvitved

Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies

“The logic that we use to sustain our current media industry does not fit the way the users consume media.” With this statement,  Sofie Hvitved  pinpoints one of the main problems facing media producers – and consumers – today. She believes that the traditional media is being sustained in a system that does not apply to the future media landscape, and raises provocative questions about alternatives – as she calls it, “the new logic”. Sofie is senior advisor and Head of Media at the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies, has lived all over the world and has a global view on the future of work, of societies and of the narratives that will inform and guide us.

Her research on future scenarios for the Metaverse is far-reaching; she believes that it is still in the prototype stage, and that we have yet to see the technologies that will have the greatest impact on its development. Along with other, more radical proponents of the need to take control of one’s online identity, Sofie echoes the Danish government’s statement that “the battle against Big Tech is the freedom struggle of our times”. She is a passionate advocate for ethics in AI programming and believes equally strongly in the democratisation of news – but her life is not all mediatech-oriented: Sofie is also the former Danish table football champion. Who could have guessed? You can hear Sofie give the opening keynote on our Metaverse track at #mthcon22 on September 28, 2022 on our Stage 1 – it promises to be an eye-opener!