ETHDenver 2022 proves once again that crypto isn’t going anywhere
This year’s ETHDenver was unlike any before it. Not just because 17,000 more people registered for this year’s than any before, but also because of the palpable excitement from every single attendee.
Many huge names stopped in to speak with guests, including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis. From the Castle to the Jonas Building, the Colorado History Museum to the Art Hotel, events highlighted the growth of the crypto space, but also its maturity into a well-respected industry.
“So much more is possible,” explained Colorado Director of Digital Transformation Russell Castagnaro at ETH. “For example, why do we vote in a box? We’re excited to see all these pitches for the next frontier. I can’t wait to mix and match with all of you guys.”
The U.S. state of Colorado declared it would be the First Digital State in the country during the conference. Colorado has already begun using blockchain technology for a livestock provenance platform called “My Colorado Verification.”
“Ethereum enables so much more than payments,” said Gov. Polis during his keynote talk during the kickoff event, “it enables cooperation and collaboration.”
In addition to the excitement on the government side, several NFT creators also came to ETHDenver to talk about projects they’re currently working on or things they’ve noticed about the space.
Head of Partnerships at Mojito Camilla Mcfarland spoke about how NFTs are still in the early adoption stage and that Sotheby’s, Coca Cola, Louis Vuitton and many other brands are starting to use this technology.
Besides some gimmick-themed events like Tally Wallet’s puppy playroom (across two days and eight hours, Tally gave attendees the chance to relax with an adorable puppy — no shade from this blog: what a great reprieve during the conference!), Polygon, Consensys, Algorand and Infura all had featured talks during the event.
Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, held an Ask-Me-Anything event to kick off the conference, talking about how important he believes it is for humanity to figure out decentralized governance.
“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,” he said during his talk.
Buterin highlighted during the AMA that it was important for relationships between humans to develop so more systems can be created that help more people.
NFT artist Pplpleaser also held an event at nightclub venue Temple, highlighting her new “NFTs-meet-Hollywood’’ venture Shibuya.xyz. The event, featuring a teaser of pplpleaser’s latest venture — a kind of choose-your-own anime-style animation, focused mostly on the Shibuya platform. It will allow users to vote on the outcome of a media project and gain fractional ownership through tokens.
Andrew Yang, the libertarian and founder of the Forward Party, also made a surprise appearance at ETHDenver. The former presidential candidate highlighted all the good that Web3 could do for the public, and how it could change the way we govern as a society.
“Web3 could be the biggest anti-poverty initiative in the history of the world,” Yang explained on the main stage of the Castle venue.
Professional opera singer Lauren Michelle was also at ETHDenver, highlighting how important non-fungible tokens have been for her and how they’ve valuable to creators everywhere. Michelle said NFTs allow us to build “anything we want.”
Several protocols also took part in #BUIDL Week, a hackathon event that takes place the week before the main event at ETH, including Harmony Protocol and Polkadot ecosystem.
Harmony CEO Stephen Tse spoke at ETH, sharing his vision of the better future possible through blockchain technology. He also shared ways that Harmony is helping to usher in a more equitable world. Announcing the Blu3D DAO, Tse said this education-based DAO with the mission to empower women and help them build careers in the web3 space.
Harmony also announced their “Blue Metaverse” at ETHDenver, committing to funding tens of thousands of DAOs and scholars on zero-knowledge proofs.
Featuring eight blue Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, Tse spoke at the main stage of ETHDenver’s Castle about the ins-and-outs of the project — a complete imagining of the metaverse.
The Harmony ecosystem showcase continued with a highlight of the protocol’s games and dapps. Tse rolled out the company’s four-year plan, highlighting that by 2025, Harmony hopes to have all of its treasury in DAOs.”
This network started with us, with the team, with the community — but it’s all going to be DAOs… we want to bring in 100,000s of scholars into the space,” Tse announced.
Over 160 grantees are building the Blue Metaverse, Tse said, adding that 35 DAOs each received $40 million. Check out the Harmony CEO’s full talk at this link.
Polkadot was all over ETHDenver, giving several talks, hosting an open house, and posting $15,000 worth of hackathon bounties during #BUIDL Week. Polkadot’s bounties included pitching a new parachain project (5 bounties worth $1.500 each) and actually building a new parachain with Substrate (1st place for $5,000, 2nd place for $2,500).
“We were very excited to be in Denver this year,” said Polkadot’s Developer Relations Partnerships Lead Urban Osvald. “The event was superb and had a very positive effect for the entire Polkadot ecosystem. Over a dozen Polkadot ecosystem projects made an appearance, we had Substrate workshops as well as over 20 hours of Polkadot-related content during #Buidlweek. All in all, a massive success.”
Attendees came to ETHDenver from over 150 countries, some trying to win hackathon bounties, others hoping to network, some to just soak in the energy. If you’re looking to catch up on everything you missed, make sure to look at the ETH Denver curated YouTube playlist — it’s full of talks and various happenings from the event!
While only a week-long, ETHDenver brought invaluable experiences to all who attended — including the MouseBelt staff lucky enough to attend!
