Pinoy sa Tel Aviv Ethereal Summit

Experiencing ConsenSys’s first International Ethereal Summit in Israel

Bilang isang Pilipino, I only get to see talks and gatherings about Blockchain sa abroad through youtube, links and articles. It is something that seems impossible to be able to attend to. Parang almost all of the blockchain thing is unreachable for me as a person and as a Filipino. Syempre! Uunahin ko ba namang gumastos pumunta ng abroad para lang sa mga ganyang event na ang dating sa karamihang Pilipino ay party-party lang or socializing. Nakow! Napaka-gastos!

And then suddenly ConsenSys said they will do the next Ethereal Summit to Tel Aviv, Israel. Wow! Much closer sa Pilipinas! Pero, magastos pa ring pumunta. Gusto ko man pero di pwede. I only have a few extra from my salary. And then the Ethereal Team sent a link for a “scholarship grant” to be able to attend the event. At first, parang “ok, may link for the scholarship, so what? mapapansin ba nila ung application ko? Mabibigyan ba nila ng tamang importansya? I don’t think so”… But then after a couple of weeks I decided to try the scholarship link. Why not?! Kung mali-mali man ang english ko, they don’t know me in person and they can’t say that straight to my face na mali ang english ko. Un nga lang sagutin ang scholarship questions hirap na hirap na ako, un pa kayang haharap ako sa maraming tao na mapapalaban ako sa english, nakaka-nerbyos!!! But I ended doing it anyway, there’s no harm in trying. Malay ba natin?

And then one day, I got that email! An email that says I am one of the grantee for the scholarship!! What??!! Is this for real??!! Me??!! Someone from the Philippines will be able to attend the conference that I am used to seeing only on youtube, links, articles, etc. Wow!!! I am so happy!! Finally! Panalo!!

And the day came! All was smooth, walang ka-proble-problema, from booking a flight, travelling to Thailand, staying at the airport for long hours lay-over, going through the security check for El Al and then passing through the Israel Immigration.

In summary, the experience was awesome! It made me realize that the people at Ethereal Summit don’t just gather because they want to socialize or make beso-beso, they gather because they believe in one common dream, decentralization! Bringing hope to everyone, bringing equal opportunity for everyone and most specially making this world a better for everyone no matter what your age is or what your race is. Bata ka man, single, married, millennial, centennial at kahit ano pa ang kulay ng balat mo. Blockchain is for everyone and people just have to know what it is, what it can do, what it will do and how it will make this world a better place.

In the event, I got to meet Joseph Lubin, Founder and CEO of ConsenSys and the Co-Founder of Enterprise Ethereum Alliance.

I also got to meet Vitalik Buterin, Co-Founder of Enterprise Ethereum Alliance.

This journey made me believe even more that Blockchain is not only for the first world country or even the english speaking country. Para sya sa lahat. Para sa ngaun at para rin sa mga Pilipino! We just have to give them a chance to help us understand what blockchain is. We just have to believe on the promise of blockchain. And we need to start with this journey NOW!! Kung natatakot ka, WHY??! Mas nakakatakot kapag hindi ka nag-try or hinayaan mong maiwan ka. This is the way to go! I believe blockchain is not for the future, it is for the NOW! Not yesterday, not tomorrow but NOW! Kaya sama ka na!

#blockJuan, #blockchainJourneyNiJuan, #cryptPinoy

Disclaimer: The views expressed by the author above do not necessarily represent the views of the Ethereum Foundation.