Blockchain Futurist 2025: Feeling the shift

What I saw in Fort Lauderdale

I returned to the Blockchain Futurist Conference after years away, not quite knowing what to expect. The last time I set foot in a hall like this, it felt like a casino floor: endless booths hawking tokens, hype, and noise. Walking into the violet‑tinted expo space in Fort Lauderdale, I felt the familiar thrum of people and machinery, but the conversation had shifted.

Instead of endless talk of pumps and memes, I heard serious chatter about real-world assets (RWAs), regulated currencies, and business ideas designed for scale. I still saw neon signs and spinning tickers, but I also watched entrepreneurs demonstrate tools like Peace Through Trade, where applause mingled with the crowded echo of a hall full of curious onlookers. Old friends greeted me with fist bumps, new faces shared ideas about compliance and utility, and somewhere between the laughter and the mic checks, I realized there was a genuine question in the air: Are we finally leaving the era of pure speculation behind? If you’d like to see some of these moments for yourself, there are two short videos embedded later in this article.

In a quieter corner of the conference, I sat down with a representative from Peace Through Trade. We talked about the evolution from the initial coin offering (ICO) free‑for‑all toward discussions of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and RWAs. He reminded me that giants in emerging industries collapsed because they ignored legal foundations. Their team is building their platform to satisfy banks and even United Nations‑adjacent programs, and that compliance‑first approach felt like a breath of fresh air.

Later in the day, nostalgia took over as I wandered to the DeLorean booth. Standing beside motifs of the gull‑wing prototype, I learned that the company plans to tokenize the business and individual cars so fans can actually own a stake in putting new DeLoreans on the road. That idea, a token tied to an object you can touch, felt like a different league from the pitch decks of the past. There were still corners of the conference devoted to speculative coins, but there were also sparks of genuine innovation that challenged me to work harder and stay curious.

The utility vs speculation test

As I made my way through Futurist 2025, I kept a simple question in mind: Does this project have a product I can understand and a path to market, or is it just a token with a slick pitch?

That question guided every conversation and demo. When the Peace Through Trade team talked about building within existing legal frameworks, working with banks instead of evading them, and creating auditable records of trade, I leaned forward. Those words: compliance, transparency, partnerships, were mostly absent during the last bull run. By contrast, there were booths with spinning prize wheels and anonymous ICOs and later non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that promised easy riches but refused to name partners or lay out a business model.

The DeLorean idea passed my test because it tied tokens to a brand you can touch. Fans would be able to help finance the manufacturing of cars and share in the value of the company. It isn’t a promise of quick wealth; it’s an experiment in ownership and financing. The line between utility and speculation isn’t always obvious, but when teams are willing to talk about regulation, partners, and deliverables, you can feel the difference in their approach and in your own gut.

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What I want builders to take from this

If there’s a moral to my return to this conference, it’s that our community is at a turning point. The pump‑and‑dumpers haven’t disappeared, and there are still booths with loudspeakers promising the moon, but there is also a growing cohort of entrepreneurs who prioritize compliance, durability, and integration. They invest in research and legal opinions and spend time talking to regulators and potential partners. Builders should remember that speculation makes headlines, but without trust, you cannot build anything that lasts.

Projects like Peace Through Trade and DeLorean show that if you invest in legal frameworks, transparency, and partnerships, you can start to build products that real businesses and governments might adopt. That’s the only path to making BSV and other blockchains part of everyday life, rather than carnival sideshows.

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Watch the clips

While I hope this story stands on its own, we’ve also produced short videos that capture some of these moments and conversations. If you want to see the thrum of the expo floor, hear the hum of machines, and witness the sincerity in the voices of people trying to build something real, our two-part clips are embedded above.

Whether you are a skeptic or a believer, I invite you to watch them, feel the energy for yourself, and decide where you stand in the conversation about utility versus speculation. And if you see me at the next event, whether over a cup of coffee or a debate about scaling, please come say hello. I’ll be there.

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Watch: Inside the London Blockchain Conference with Kurt Wuckert Jr.