ETHDenver, for any of those who couldn’t make it, was a whirlwind of multiple stages featuring talks from the brightest thought-leaders in ETH, long lines, food trucks and collecting way too much swag from the top organizations leading culture in this space.
It’s been an exciting week in the Mile High City, packed with community-focused talks, panels, and workshops. ETHDenver was full of surprises this year. A jam-packed week with all the big hitters from Governor Jared Polis to Vitalik Buterin, Founder of Ethereum. So without further ado, here are some highlights from ETHDenver.
#ethdenver’s two biggest celebrities pic.twitter.com/ofiWdhJCJs
— Lucas Matney (@lucasmtny) February 19, 2022
Day 1: Feb 17, 2022 | Opening Ceremony
The first day of ETHDenver was filled with exciting announcements, innovations and developments of some of the most prominent minds in the blockchain ecosystem. In addition, the Ethereum community assembled to build the future of Web3 via #BUIDL’ing, thought-provoking talks and hands-on workshops.
More than 150 countries were represented this week! More than 20,000 people have registered, just a little up from 2,500 from the previous physical conference in 2019.
Russell Castagnaro, Director of Digital Transformation of Colorado Governor’s Office of Information Technology, stated his excitement about integrating blockchain technology into state infrastructure. He shared the government-adopted use case of blockchain technology in the form of a livestock provenance platform, My Colorado Verification.
The proliferation of NFTs in our day-to-day is undoubtedly primarily attributed to big brands’ adoption. However, Camilla Mcfarland, Head of Partnerships at Mojito spoke about how traditional brands are adopting NFTs from Sotheby’s, Philips to Porsche, Coca Cola to Louis Vuitton. “We’re in the early phase of middle adoption, and I think 2022 will be an absolute course change in NFT adoption,” she said.
Announcements and Industry Developments
- Lit Protocol x Ceramic Network announced an integration for encrypted and decentralized data and apps. With this integration, private, dynamic applications with a decentralized backend are now possible.
- Nahmii and SkunkDAO announced their entrance into the Metaverse with a build-your-own NFT VR experience.
- Mint Gold Dust will host a live in-person auction at the ETH Denver, including exclusive works by Android Jones, Nanu Berks, Martin Lukas Ostachowski, and more. Rare Pepes, including a fine art PEPEBASQUIAT, as well as rare Bufficorns courtesy of ETH Denver and Spork DAO, will be auctioned at the event.
Day 2: Feb 18, 2022
Governor Jared Polis of Colorado spoke about being a proud “Coloradoan” and warmly invited all the ETHDenver attendees to the center of Ethereum innovation and blockchain. He also shared that Colorado will be the first state to accept cryptocurrencies for taxes. “Ethereum enables so much more than payments, it enables cooperation and collaboration,” he said.
In a completely packed first and second floor of the Sports Castle, Vitalik Buterin, Founder of Ethereum spoke about the Digital State, discussing how Ethereum and any nation-state can work together to create cohesive, regenerative societies.
He believes that decentralized governance is one of the biggest challenges of the 21st Century and goes far outside of the crypto space itself.
“Don’t think about it as in what this institution can do, think about it as what problem is being solved and what are the different groups of people that can do it,” said Vitalik.
Vitalik explained how despite the variety of visions found in the Ethereum community, everyone is still working together to utilize crypto to make a better world. This includes the positive interactions between the community and every institution current and future.
Immediately following his talk, Vitalik did a 15 minute AMA with the Ethereum community, reminding everyone that these relationships – between states and nations, institutions and collectives, and humans to humans are fundamental to developing better systems that can help more people.
John Paller, Founder of Opolis and SporkDAO, and Dani Osorio, Head of Content of ETHDenver, dove into the Bufficorn Ventures: The SporkDAO Community Investment DAO. They explained how all attendees are part of the SporkDAO and its investment in growing the Web3 community by supporting projects. “This is about returning value to you for just being here,” said Paller.
Announcements and Industry Developments
Governor Polis announced that Colorado will become the first state to accept cryptocurrency payments for state taxes, fees, and services by the Summer of 2022.
Pplpleasr teased a new decentralized video content project, Shibuya.xyz, which allows users to vote on the outcome of the series and gain fractional ownership through tokens.
Day 3: Feb 19, 2022
I’m at ETHDenver for @ensdomains! I’m wearing my alisha.eth cap so you have no excuse to not say hi if you see me! pic.twitter.com/7nldqjWjid
— alisha.eth (@futurealisha) February 19, 2022
On the Laser Stage, we rounded up the day with notable panels unpacking some of the most interesting areas of Web3 development. These were led by Teck Chia, Andrew Thurman, Brady Dale and Jaye Harrill.
Brady Dale moderated the panel ‘The Future of NFTs’ with Lauren Halstead of Chainlink; Chase Zhang, of Huobi; Jacobo Toll-Messia, Founder of Nahmii; Nick Emmons, CEO of Upshot. This is definitely a must-watch!
Lauren Michelle, a professional international Opera singer, performed and told her story about how NFTs are allowing us to be creative and build “anything we want.” Lauren has released an NFT tier system where users access a piece of mixed visual, and audible art representing a VR concert experience.
NFTs will allow anyone to come to perform from anywhere, including Lauren’s underwater theatre in a metaverse Opera house.
Andrew Chow of TIME Magazine led a panel on, “Is Blockchain the Future of Technology?” with a broad range of experts in the industry, including Eva Beylin of The Graph, Ric Burton of Balance, Sam Kazemian of FRAX Finance, and Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR. The common thread of what they believe to be the future of blockchain lies in the ability to reward positive actions within society thanks to the incentives of token systems.
Maria Mihu of Fayyr brings charitable art auctions to the digital world. “Fayyr bridges the world of digital art so everyone feels represented in the space. We want artists to feel supported and charities to make revenues from their sales.”
Artists are able to create art, then mint as an NFT, and sell it for a cause they support if they choose. Additionally, they can choose what percent of the sale they receive before the rest goes to charity.
David Cash, Editor-in-Chief of NFTS.WTF and founder of CashLabs, spoke about the future and present of Metaverse Fashion and considers it the gateway drug to Web3.
Jaye Harrill led a discussion on how data is the foundation of dApps with Harish Raisinghani, Developer Relations Manager at Covalent, Daniel Olshansky, Protocol Specialist at Pokt Network, Josh Neuroth, Head of Product at Ankr, and Albert Hu, Developer Advocate at Alchemy.
Olshansky doesn’t consider the dApps currently being built to be of critical importance to our day-to-day lives. However, in the future, when there is true risk because people are using dApps for everyday tasks, he says it will matter much more how data is used, maintained and stored.
A panel of experts featuring some leaders responsible for many of the largest music deals in the world, including Julia Xu, Christina Beltramini and Cherie Hu, discussed some of the exciting ways the industry is experimenting with musical NFTs.
Blockchain holds great potential in this space in a highly centralized industry where musicians often get one-tenth of a cent when someone listens to their productions.
“We are building tools for the 99%,” said Ahmed Al-Bahalgi, co-founder of Biconomy, during a panel on user experience in Web3 and how to make it better for mass adoption. The panel was moderated by Jacob Oliver of Cryptobriefing and included Roger Brogan, solutions architect at Chainlink Labs; Kayla Kroot, Creative Director at Koii Network and Nikola Vukovic, Frontend and UX at DeFi Saver.
Day 3: Feb 20, 2022 | Closing Day
This week has demonstrated what the power of community can create. ETHDenver brought together more than 15,000 thinkers, developers, creators and change-makers from more than 150 countries, creating an experience as unique as the Bufficorn itself.
Winners of the #BUIDL Hackathon
Out of the 30 teams who presented in the final round on Feb 20, 2022, congratulations to the #BUIDL hackathon winners!
Cannon – no website yet
Bounty winners are being published on ETHDenver.com. Projects will be supported across the year so keep your ear out for even more developments and innovations coming out of the community that will accelerate the Ethereum ecosystem in the future.
That’s a wrap, ETHDenver, till next year!
