We successfully concluded Genesis DevCon with 850 blockchain enthusiasts and here’s what we learned
At IBC Media, we’re always looking for ways to support India’s budding developer community to enter the blockchain space and leverage the treasure trove of opportunities it holds. Hence, we set out with Genesis DevCon ( a sequel to Genesis Hack) to enable and embolden the entrepreneur and developer community in India to learn more about how they can impact the world as we know it.
Having concluded the event on 24 & 25 November, at NSSC, IISc Bangalore, we’d like to share with you the significance of this developer conference and what we learned about the blockchain space.
Blockchain in India and the significance of Genesis DevCon
Since the advent of blockchain technology, India, as an emerging market, has seen a boom in blockchain professionals who are looking for the right opportunities to expand their skillset and build exceptional solutions to everyday problems.
Presently, India’s blockchain space has a pool of over 15,000 blockchain developers, and over 300 blockchain-based startups out of 7500 emerging technology startups. To put things into perspective, India has the second-largest pool of blockchain developers in the world, second to the USA.
As you can see, the size of this community is large, however, they need opportunities to learn to scale. With this vision, we brought forth Genesis DevCon. Over a period of two days, we gathered over 850 people at Genesis DevCon that included 45+ accomplished professionals who shared their experience and knowledge with the attendees. Here’s what we learned about them:
- +220 people had the basic knowledge of what blockchain technology was and joined us to better their understanding of the same;
- 150 people were startup folk and developers who were working on blockchain projects and 119 developers were open to exploring multiple blockchain platforms to build innovative solutions,
- 200 people who were uninitiated in blockchain technology, joined us to learn about this exciting emerging technology space.
We believe that we fostered an engaging learning experience for the attendees of the conference. Here are some interesting points that we gleaned from organising Genesis DevCon.
5 Major Insights from Genesis DevCon
With the confluence of these individuals, we got some valuable insights into the blockchain ecosystem in India.
- Awareness of academic research in blockchain
Aside from the work that we see happening with enterprise-level blockchain players, most of the blockchain ecosystem is unaware of the research work that’s happening at academic institutions. In addition to the researchers who joined us from the National University of Singapore, we had researchers join us from the IITs, IBM Labs and Microsoft labs. They presented their in-depth research into mechanisms that made blockchain technology immutable and secure. Bringing this to the surface will help several developers and startups understand how to better their work in blockchain and fuel more innovation in this space. - Innovation-driven collaborations between researchers and enterprises
From the tech talks and panel discussions that took place, we found that enterprise blockchain players and crypto folk don’t exactly see eye to eye. However, this doesn’t reduce the scope for collaborations between the two to drive innovation. Two senior researchers who spoke at Genesis DevCon — Satya Lokam and Pankaj S Dayama have been working with enterprises (Microsoft and IBM labs, respectively). This sets the precedent for the quality of blockchain solutions built and how the technology is
3. Developers are seeking multiple blockchain platforms to BUIDL
We learned from the workshops conducted at Genesis DevCon by the Matic Network, æternity Blockchain, and Tezos that developers are eager to try their hand across multiple protocols and learn about building on them. Over 120 developers are mostly open to trying out new blockchain protocols. The workshops at Genesis DevCon were conducted by experienced developers who helped several developers, hands-on, learn to build dApps on protocols, on-the-go.
4. Innovative initiatives from a younger crowd
We found that people between the ages of 21–28 who attended Genesis DevCon mean business. They told us that they are already working on blockchain technology-based startup ideas or on a blockchain side product.
5. Blockchain job opportunities: Enterprises > Public Chains
Given the scope for blockchain technology and the extent of its applications today, enterprises and public chains are one of the largest providers of blockchain solutions. From Genesis DevCon, we found that these enterprises have a larger number of job offerings than public chain companies. However, this is not a disparity, as both parties are willing to find and nurture talented individuals.
We are grateful!
It goes without saying that organising Genesis DevCon, not only gave us the chance to meet with extraordinary individuals and facilitate learning in blockchain, but it was far more insightful than we imagined it to be. On asking these people if Genesis DevCon truly helped them learn , 90% of them responded positively. This goes to show that blockchain professionals, developers, enthusiasts, technologists, and entrepreneurs are ready scale-up, and initiatives like Genesis DevCon will enable them to build their understanding of this space.
Raghu Mohan — CEO, IBC Media, believes that this will truly be the “genesis” of the inflow of opportunities for the blockchain ecosystem in India.“Genesis DevCon was aimed to be a confluence of blockchain developers. Sparks of brilliance exist within academic, enterprise, startup and crypto circles, but most often, they existed in silos,” he said.
He also added, “If there was one thing that Genesis DevCon did well, it was to bring the best engineers from all these silos and get them to have meaningful conversations with each other. The IBC Media team and I are very proud of this, and I think this marks the beginning of new collaborations and greater possibilities for horizontal blockchain implementation.”
We believe that we truly facilitated quality learning experiences and the creation of purposeful relationships through Genesis DevCon. However, we wouldn’t be much if it weren’t for each and everyone who participated in the event. We thank all our sponsors and partners for helping us build Genesis DevCon to be an event that reached 850 people. We thank our speakers for being enthusiastic about imparting their valuable knowledge and skill to all those who attended Genesis DevCon. The IBC Media Team was also assisted by a set of dedicated volunteers who supported us.
However, the highlight of this token thank you note goes to 850 special people who joined us over two days to learn about blockchain technology. Thank you, attendees. You guys were a great crowd!
At IBC Media, we’re working on some amazing projects. Presently, we’re working with AE Ventures — the investment arm of the Æternity Blockchain, to bring you the Æternity Starfleet Accelerator. You can apply for the accelerator if you have an awesome blockchain startup that needs mentorship and funding to scale up. (Learn more here.)
This is not the last you will see of us. Stay in touch.
