Devcon3 — Day 0
This year I am attending the annual Ethereum Foundation Developers Conference — Devcon3 in Cancún, Mexico. My goal is to blog about the event at the end of each day, that I am here. I will try to summarize the highlights of the conference and communicate the newest movements in the Ethereum space. So please stay tuned if that sounds interesting to you!
My trip so far
I arrived in Mexico yesterday, as I flew in from San Francisco, where I was visiting my girlfriend. I have never been to Mexico before, and it has definitely been quite the experience so far. Cancún is probably not a place I would have come to on my own for leisure, as it can be easily described as Time Square’s and Las Vegas’ Mexican cousin. It is a tourist cornucopia with it’s mile long beautiful white sandy beaches and luxurious all-inclusive resorts. I am based in the heart of the “Zona Hotelera”, or Hotel Zone, where there’s a tour boat salesman on every corner, and the beach bars are lively until the early hours of the morning. It is not exactly the authentic Mexican experience as Hooter’s and Fat Tuesday’s are dominant in the streetscape. It is however also close to the conference center, where I will spend most of my time here, so the tourist mecca is something that I can live with. The nice weather and great beaches are certainly making up for some of it. The combination of IT conference and every spring breaker’s favourite sunny destination is certainly going to be an interesting one!
Goals for the conference
There are multiple reasons why I chose to go to Devcon. Firstly, I am always looking to broaden my knowledge in the ever developing Ethereum space, as I am working with blockchain implementations at my job and university every day. To elaborate on this, I am currently developing a blockchain business course for my university, that features development on the Ethereum platform, so I am here to hoard material and information on the bleeding edge developments of how the future of the Ethereum ecosystem and toolset might look like.
Additionally I am about to write a Master thesis on how businesses should navigate and choose between the plethora of blockchain application platforms based on their needs and risk. For example I am very interested in how to effectively monetize blockchain solutions beyond ICO’s, and how to solve some of the technological hurdles of scalability and privacy that exists today. Working at a payment company, these are some of the daily issues that we deal with when trying to push a blockchain solution from a proof-of-concept to a market ready solution. Therefore I am hoping to get answers on how future developments on the platform will enable us to cross some of the aforementioned hurdles.
Secondly, I am here to meet fellow Eth heads, and hopefully have great discussions of where this steaming blockchain train is going. It still seems kind of unreal to me how much the Ethereum community has grown since I came across this strange and exciting technology back in the start of 2015, why I am thrilled to just be a part of this ever growing movement, that still feels like this “secret cool club”. So I’m excited to just listen to great insipring talks and meet people who are just as excited about Ethereum as I am.
So to sum up…
Basically, I am here to hear about all things new in the Ethereum space, the general status of the Ethereum project itself, and what the future holds for the blockchain revolution. All this while kicking back on a beautiful beach, with a cold beer and the company of fellow blockchain enthusiasts. I hope everyone has a great Devcon here in Cancún!