One of the great things about a strong community is its ability to galvanise when times are tough. And right now in the crypto community times are, at least on the surface, tough. With a market winter that looks set to last for all eternity (if you believe any of the doomsday prophets on Twitter) and bad actors posing as ‘white knights’ scamming millions from users, it’s enough to make anyone want to pack up and move to the Bahamas.

If you move past the charts and the candlesticks and the tabloids, though, you’re likely to find that many in the crypto community are quietly but confidently building their brands and their products with an eye toward brighter times. Watching the sunset over Harbour Kitchen in Docklands, as a warm and excitable crowd gathered for CloudTech Group’s networking event, this definitely felt the case. The crowd itself was a wonderful mix. Old friends, new friends, collaborators and potential collaborators alike mingled by the wharf whilst enjoying the delicious food and refreshing drinks that the occasion demanded.

But while most were happy to chat about the state of the community and the industry (and let’s be honest, you’d have to be somewhere remote and desolate not hear people talking about FTX) there was a purpose to the evening: to introduce the community to the exciting projects currently underway at CloudTech Group.

CloudTech’s CEO, Kevin He, got the evening underway by thanking everyone for coming before giving a brief introduction of the different projects. He approached this introduction in a casual but succinct tone, one that was well balanced for an event like this, as it meant that each presentation would also be informal and fun.

Following Jonathan was Dr Zahir Tari, who is leading the Green Bitcoin project, a collaboration with CloudTech Group and RMIT. Dr Tari spoke with zest and at length about the project, starting with its key goal, which is to develop greener cryptocurrency technologies, ones that are able to handle large-scale transactions while minimising the consumption of mining resources. With the environmental impact of crypto technology a pertinent topic, it was great to hear that leaders in this community are actively working towards a better future. Dr Tari also brought his entire team along, which he cheerfully introduced as the real stars of the project.

The final presentation was reserved for CloudTech’s CMO, Bolei Deng, who gave the audience a sneak-peak of what to expect with CloudTech’s upcoming Web3 site, Helicon. In a space as exciting and fertile as web3, it can be difficult to stand out; from Deng’s enthusiastic talk it was clear that Helicon has enough aces up its sleeve to be at the forefront of the web3 world, with a number of features (which, due to being in development, Deng could only hint at) that are sure to draw users across from the world of web2.

After these chats it was time to get back to networking, and as the sun made its slow descent to the horizon everyone embraced the occasion for what it was: a fantastic opportunity to forge new friendships and strengthen old ones, while at the same time chatting about ways to make the community even better. From the sounds of things, the future looks good.