ETHDenver Recap

Mile High DeFi

Embroidered on sweatshirts, sweatpants, and booths — this slogan was the theme for Denver. The Aave team continues to deliver, printing the most coveted gear, and coining the phrase that graces this blog title.

Denver evolved into a retreat for positivity, curiosity, and building toward the next wave of crypto adoption. It was much more than DeFi — the city was humming with 12,229 attendees (!) who wanted nothing more than crypto, a sip of a heady craft beer, and maybe a light edible.

ETHDenver was greater than DeFi.

It was a time of healing, reconnection, and optimism for the future of our industry. A few potential alternatives to this Aave-coined slogan:

“Mile High DAOs”

“Mile High L2s”

These were two narratives, among others, that seemed to stick, recurring within conversations.

Let’s take a look at the dominant themes from Flipside’s trip to ETHDenver 2023.

Yuppies arriving in Denver.

Base(d)

Fresh off the recent Coinbase announcement, Base had its own space within the main venue, beckoning builders and future users with a Saturday full of parties and side events.

The BASE lounge was eerily reminiscent of the early days at Apple. Black turtlenecks, funky mustaches, and steamy Cortados — it was a hub for creativity and innovation.

Beyond these events and presentations, Base was the topic of every lunch, coffee, or casual dinner. It was small talk, next up after: “so what do you do?” or “where are you traveling from?”

Everyone seemed to have their own opinion. Follow-up questions quickly lined up:

What did it mean for the space? For Ethereum? What sacrifices were being made?

I’ll try to summarize our learnings neutrally (full transparency: I’m bullish):

The Good

• 100,000,000 Coinbase users able to migrate on-chain
• Can then bridge to Optimism, Ethereum, et al and brings valuable liquidity and users across Ethereum
• Powerful UX for users to interact with the network; greater stickiness via Coinbase wallet
• Strong launch partners; LayerZero, Uniswap, Euler, Aave, and Flipside :)
• Shared security with other L2s and Ethereum
• The first example of an app chain, competing with the Cosmos’ model

The Bad

• KYC chain; seems to replicate the rails produced by TradFi
• Much of the network will be KYC’d users, dettering others
• Further fragments liquidity and users across different networks
• Isnt’ fully decentralized; no clear roadmap for Governance

No matter what side of the aisle you fell on, it was hard to ignore this pivotal development for the ecosystem. A new Flipside colleague, Alec, noted Base’s allure and potential:

“A new chain without a token. They must really be focused on the tech.”

This sentiment illustrated the curiosity shared around Base. Optimism’s L2 seemed to put the optimist back into crypto, with folks eagerly looking towards the horizons of crypto.

DAOs.

Yea, those damned things. With less focus on ICOs and new projects, the crypto community within Denver seemed to refocus on making the DAO experiment successful.

There was an appetite to support key pillars of the ecosystem:

• Governance tooling (like Agora, shoutout Charlie Feng)
• RWA monitoring and evaluation, elevating lending protocols (RWA.xyz)
• New delegation models and voting mechanisms

Discussion centered around the typical blue chips, MakerDAO, Aave, and Uniswap — but left room for new incumbents, such as OrangeDAO, SpearbitDAO, and Euler.

Flipside was recognized equally for its role as a data provider, as much as a Governance team.

(This is a win for us — LFG.)

Working alongside these DAOs with product-market fit seemed to grant teams a sort of pedigree. A willingness to work on hard, important problems — without many rewards.

As this changes, the network of those thinking about, and helping grows DAOs remains strong and resilient. Many of these folks handled the altitude without issue 💅

Fixed Rates & UX First

Infuated by the announcement of Spark Lend, an Aave fork aimed at better equipping MakerDAO retail users, fixed-rate seems to lead with the customer experience.

This conscious decision to build off the Aave UI signaled something to the wider DeFi community; the best and easiest protocols to engage with will win.

This bet sparked (😉) deep conversations about robust customer experiences, and products that focused on the user first, and the technology second.

Crypto in the past had this backward; we built with technology first, customer experience second, disillusioning the valuable users which make or break their app. It’s time to fix this.

This attitude has slowed widespread adoption and fueled mainstream media’s critique of crypto as “shadowy;” the current solutions are too difficult to use and understand.

Will my mother want to write down 12–24 words and save them on a piece of paper? No, she can barely find her Grocery list in her bag anymore.

This standard for custody and ownership seems incredibly inefficient and wallets were a key part of interacting on-chain. It’s time to shake some sh*t up.

Crypto companies must have heard some of my conversations, with Coinbase and InstaDapp releasing their solutions this week.

Meet WaaS (Wallet as a Service) and Avocado:

While wallets are a great first step, let’s keep this trend going across more products, infrastructure, and protocols.

Zero Sum -> Positive Sum

As crypto matures as a young industry, competition for market share remains fierce. I’m guilty of this attitude within our own product sector; it’s human, folks want to win.

In Denver, whether it was the altitude, the jet lag, or other — industry participants set down their differences and focused on building towards a collective goal.

It was no longer “I” — it became “we;” I was impressed by the maturity of this positioning and hope it remains as we optimize for more outside adoption and respect.

I’m frankly tired of my friends not thinking my career is real.

Me and my Flipside boys meeting other companies while in Denver

Back To Sea Level

As folks return to cities like New York, SF, and Chicago we are grateful for the hospitality which Denver afforded us for the past few days. It was a home, with few outsiders.

Meeting in person, whether it’s teammates, online friends, or fellow DAO contributors, is reassuring and reminds us of the talent which is carefully drawing up this industry.

There was something about the clean air at a mile up — it allowed us to speak clearly and honestly, approaching problems with nuance and a dash of excitement.

As I take my PEDs to stomach the flight back without a panic attack, I leave Denver with relief and trust — both in my team and in the industry.

We’re playing in the right places, speaking to the right people — and importantly asking the right questions; it helps us inform our products and our people.

Flipside is lucky to have representation at ETHGlobal events, like Denver. When it continues to be of the same quality, and reveal the same signal — we’ll be at many others.

Give us a shout — @flipsidegov