At the 2018 South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, Ethereum co-founder and ConsenSys founder Joseph Lubin took the stage for a wide-ranging conversation with Forbes Senior Editor Laura Shin about why blockchain technology is poised to transform not just finance, but virtually every sector of the global economy. The keynote, delivered on March 9 and reported on March 10, came at a moment when the cryptocurrency market was in the midst of a steep correction — but Lubin made clear that his vision extended far beyond short-term price movements.
TL;DR
- Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin keynotes at SXSW 2018 with Forbes’ Laura Shin
- ConsenSys built a community of 100,000 to 200,000 developers worldwide
- Lubin envisions Web 3.0 enabling peer-to-peer exchanges without intermediaries
- Blockchain could let artists receive 100% of revenue instead of 20-30%
- ETH trading at $686.89, BTC at $8,866 as broader market corrects
From Bitcoin to Ethereum: The Next Chapter
Lubin opened by acknowledging Bitcoin’s pioneering role in the cryptocurrency space, describing it as a groundbreaking experiment in the potential of decentralized currencies. But he was quick to emphasize that Ethereum and related projects were designed to take that foundational idea to an entirely different level — one where people could be incentivized and compensated for work they are genuinely passionate about.
“Our company ConsenSys was started to continue the vision of the Ethereum project,” Lubin told the audience. “It’s an open-source project, with 100,000 to 200,000 people around the world building off of this system. The bounties network incentivizes people to do work in certain kinds of projects, everything from health to supply chain to law.”
The scale of that community — potentially hundreds of thousands of developers contributing to an open-source ecosystem — illustrates how far the Ethereum platform has grown since its launch in 2015. The projects being built on Ethereum span a remarkably diverse set of use cases, from healthcare records management to supply chain tracking to legal contract automation.
The Web 3.0 Vision
Central to Lubin’s presentation was the concept of Web 3.0 — often referred to as the semantic web or the decentralized web. Lubin described a fundamental shift in how business and commerce operate: moving from the current model where large corporations act as intermediaries between consumers, to a future where peer-to-peer exchanges happen directly and without restriction.
Under the current internet paradigm, technology companies extract enormous value by serving as gatekeepers between users and the services they need. Lubin argued that blockchain technology enables a new architecture where value flows directly between participants, with smart contracts automatically enforcing the terms of agreements without the need for trusted third parties.
However, Lubin was candid about the timeline, acknowledging that building out the necessary infrastructure and achieving widespread adoption would take considerable time. The technology is still in its early stages, and scaling solutions remain an active area of development for the Ethereum community.
Ethereum as Cryptofuel, Not Cryptocurrency
One of the more notable aspects of Lubin’s discussion was his framing of Ether — the native token of the Ethereum network — not as a cryptocurrency in the traditional sense, but as a “cryptofuel” that powers the ecosystem of decentralized applications. This distinction has important implications for how regulators might classify Ether, and Lubin suggested it gives him less concern about legal challenges.
He also addressed concerns about the use of cryptocurrencies for illicit activities, pointing out that blockchain transactions are actually more traceable than traditional cash transactions. Modern blockchain analytics tools allow law enforcement to track suspicious activity with a high degree of precision — a fact that contradicts the popular narrative of cryptocurrencies as a haven for criminal activity.
“There are so many great projects in our space,” Lubin acknowledged. “There are so many bad projects in our space. There are so many fraudulent projects in our space. We understand that for hundreds of years, fraudulent transactors have been taking advantage of people. It absolutely makes sense for regulators to take a look.”
Music Industry as a Use Case
Lubin used the music industry as a particularly compelling example of how blockchain could reshape existing economic structures. Today, intermediaries — record labels, streaming platforms, distributors, and various middlemen — take between 70% and 80% of every music transaction. Artists, who create the actual value, are left with a small fraction of the revenue their work generates.
With blockchain-based systems, Lubin envisions a world where consumers pay lower prices while artists receive 100% of the revenue from their work, instantly and without the delays and deductions that characterize the current system. Smart contracts could automatically distribute royalties, manage licensing rights, and ensure that every participant in the creative process is fairly compensated.
The Ethereum Improvement Process
Lubin also described the Ethereum Improvement Proposal process, which gives a voice to thousands of community members who want to shape the protocol’s development. This governance mechanism ensures that changes to Ethereum are debated openly and implemented with broad community support — a stark contrast to the closed-door decision-making that characterizes many traditional technology platforms.
As Ethereum grows and attracts more users and developers, Lubin noted that more stakeholders naturally become invested in its governance and direction. Questions about whether transactions should be reversible, how to balance privacy with transparency, and how to scale the network to handle mainstream transaction volumes are all actively being debated within the community.
Why This Matters
Lubin’s SXSW keynote, coming at a time when ETH was trading at $686.89 amid a broader crypto market selloff, served as a reminder that the most influential figures in the blockchain space are focused on long-term infrastructure rather than short-term price action. His vision of a decentralized web where individuals transact directly — bypassing the corporate intermediaries that dominate the current internet — represents a fundamental challenge to existing power structures. Whether that vision materializes on the timeline Lubin envisions remains to be seen, but the breadth of development activity on Ethereum suggests the foundation is being laid for something transformative.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency investments carry significant risk. Always do your own research before making investment decisions.
100-200k developers in the ConsenSys orbit and the subsequent layoffs 8 months later were brutal. a lot of talent got scattered
100% revenue for artists vs 20-30% from labels sounds amazing in a keynote. seven years later and the music industry middlemen are still eating. progress is slow
seven years later and artists are still getting 20-30% because the streaming platforms run the distribution. blockchain did not fix music middlemen
seven years and crypto music platforms have like 400 users each. the distribution layer won because it already has the audience
scattered talent landed at competing projects and built some genuinely useful stuff. the ConsenSys layoffs were painful but distributed the expertise
the brain drain from ConsenSys layoffs seeded half of defi summer 2020. painful then, productive in hindsight
Chen W. the brain drain from ConsenSys layoffs seeded half of DeFi summer. painful restructure but it distributed expertise across the entire ecosystem
dev_diaspora_ the ConsenSys layoffs were the best thing that happened to defi. scattered talent built uniswap, aave, compound. sometimes dissolution is distribution
lubin talking about web 3.0 at SXSW while ETH was at $686. we are still building toward that vision and ETH is 10x higher. early calls were right
Lubin talking about artists getting 100% revenue at SXSW 2018 while ETH was at $686. seven years later streaming platforms still take 70%. the tech works, the adoption doesnt
Lubin promised 100% revenue for artists in 2018. its 2026 and soundcloud still pays fractions of a cent per stream. blockchain music platforms failed on distribution
ETH at $686 during this keynote. imagine being in that SXSW audience and not buying. hindsight is brutal