The LatAm Community: a Growing Force in Blockchain
by Lalo Garza
Hola amigos! Nervos recently had the opportunity to test new ground in the Latin America region through sponsorship of the laBITconf event at Montevideo Uruguay. Hundreds of Latin-American people, and others from various parts of the world, attended to listen to key presentations from local and international speakers and to connect with each other.
The event’s topics were on point, with a mix of educational, technical and cultural perspectives. The government of Uruguay encouraged the local community to be disruptive by using blockchain and crypto technologies. Bitcoin advocate and expert Andreas Antonopoulos gave a motivational talk on the importance of having an open mindset, building and learning from errors, and constantly continuing to improve. We see this happening now in the LatAm web3 ecosystem, thanks to the advantage of having Bitcoin as a strong first basis for learning and creating new opportunities.
Some LatAm Exchanges expressed their thoughts in a panel discussion called ‘How to Surf the Latin American Crisis.’ Another panel with international crypto KOL shared their vision on how Bitcoin ignited a Re-Evolution that is deeply resonating with the Latin American community– especially in those regions that have lived or are currently living in difficult economic and political situations. Other interesting panel discussions focused on how to monetize your own data, the importance of stable coins and DeFi being adopted in the region, and becoming a decentralized tool for the inflation happening in many Latin American countries.
Most importantly, we were able to engage and connect with the community from a variety of different backgrounds that stopped by the Nervos booth, or approached us while walking around the venue. We met and had conversations with both experienced web3 developers and newbies just starting to build dApps, mostly for the DeFi ecosystem.
Some developers that had heard of Nervos, were excited to learn we are working on practical documentation & workshops to help them build on CKB. There was excitement for the upcoming launch of the Nervos Grants Program, and many devs expressed interest in applying once it goes live. We also met some miners interested in running Nervos nodes, as they were already familiar with PoW and UTXO models from Bitcoin. Investors were attracted by the Nervos DAO, our token-economics and the multi-asset store of value vision.
There were also enthusiasts, designers and community builders from Chile, Colombia, Argentina and Venezuela that came to our booth to ask us about how the Nervos Network works, what we want to accomplish in the year ahead, and how they could contribute to the project.
We definitely look forward to growing these relationships and providing the proper resources and tools for everyone interested in being part of the Nervos community in any way possible!
We believe strongly that in order to evolve financial or political systems, we need two things: new ways by which we organize the flow of data, and the values of a self-sustaining community based on a constructive culture of open access, trustlessness, inclusion and merit. Latin America is the perfect place for these ideas to flourish– most people understand from experience why centralized systems are fragile and tend to fail, and know first-hand the impact when that happens.
Also, the levels of education in Latin America are high enough to engage significantly with abstract and emerging technologies, and turn them into alternative viable systems through which we can build new opportunities.
Seeing these events continue to grow in Latin America, we know that blockchain & crypto technology adoption is happening now, and it is in these parts of the world where the need of evolution is strongest.
With that said, a major education effort is also needed for those who are starting down the blockchain rabbit hole, and for those who want more knowledge to be able to choose the right tools based on their needs. Nervos Network will focus on creating educational efforts for these means, and will continue to build & grow the community in the Latin America region.
We are incredibly grateful for the warm reception from the laBITconf event organizers, and humbled by the openness and kindness of the Latin America community and culture.
Hasta pronto!
For discussions or questions check out one of our community Telegram channels: English, Korean, Russian, Japanese, Spanish, Vietnamese and Chinese or join the conversation on Nervos Talk
