Last year at South by Southwest (SXSW), the streets were filled with giant rabbits donning trendy outfits, alongside cartoon characters emitting rainbow mouths, all thanks to popular non-fungible token (NFT) projects Doodles and Fluf World. However, this year, NFT projects were missing, and instead, major brands and consultancy firms dominated SXSW 2023, focusing on Web3 strategies. Avery Akkineni, president of Vayner3, a Web3 consultancy firm, claims Web3 is moving from novelty to strategic implementation, disrupting industries with increased security, transparency, and efficiency. Rachel Weiss, VP of L’Oreal Bold Ventures, discussed Web3’s potential to enable «ownership of beauty», which recently made an investment in Digital Village, while NYX Professional Makeup joined The Sandbox to feature voxelized makeup looks on avatars, adding consumer ownership to the concept. Though NFTs were not a prominent topic this year, they are still seen as an important part of Web3 since they allow for consumers to possess digital assets. Despite market conditions combined with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, Web3 had a large presence at SXSW 2023 due to its potential and developers viewing bear markets as an excellent opportunity to build.
Web3 a hot topic at SXSW despite bear market and declining interest in NFTs
