One Week In Bangkok 🚀🚀🚀🚀
One Week In Bangkok was not enough! While I’m late to the Devcon fan community, after one week, I’m now firmly ensconced. While it’s not as epic from a number of attendees standpoint as ETHDenver, going to an exotic location like Bangkok adds something very special to the mix. It’s not just a conference, it’s an adventure. It was also a Tour de Force for the ETH community, which has emerged from the long winter stronger than ever, ready to battle tradefi and the slew of Ethereum killers.
Below are six highlights of a glorious week in Bangkok:
#1 — The Beam Chain Announcement Got The Most Buzz, Highlighting The Expansive Ambitions Of The ETH Developer Community
Beam Chain is an ambitious proposal by acclaimed Ethereum Researcher Justin Drake to redesign of Eth’s consensus layer to achieve faster blocks, cutting the current 12 seconds block production cycle by 2/3rd; and faster finality. Beam Chain also proposes the use of zkVMs to prove Ethereum state data, as well as provide greater security against the pending threat of quantum computing via hash based cryptographic signatures.
Post the announcement, the community pondered the feasibility of the plan given Ethereum’s complexity. And even Drake conceded that he Beam Chain proposal is meant more as a starting salvo in the quest to answer Ethereum’s most pressing issues, rather than as a solution. But it also highlights the extraordinary ambition that has always defined the Ethereum developer community as it continues to expand the possibilities of what blockchains can achieve.
#2 — Bangkok Was An Inspired Choice for Devcon
I had never been to Bangkok, so I was super excited for my first visit, and I wasn’t disappointed. Its a bustling vibrant city of 16 million people (12th most populous in the world) . It’s well known for being socially progressive in terms of drugs and sex, and for it’s exotic and healthy cuisine. Bottom line, it’s a super FUN place, and ridiculously cheap, while also providing world class service.
While the traffic is horrific, the city is very walkable (if you don’t mind the heat). And Bangkok has a solid subway system. And for those willing to risk it, riding a scooter cuts way down on travel time above ground.
And the conference venue was majestic:
And the venue was massive, allowing for the 12,000 attendees to mill about without filling crowded.
#3 — The Vibe Was Electric
While there are many great communities in crypto, there is only one king, and it’s Etheruum. It’s the king in terms of scale, and in terms of longevity, which is critical in developing meaningful connections:
Ethereum is the king of community because, since 2020, ETH has shifted to a modular architecture, outsourcing parts of its infrastructure like execution and data availability to layer-2 networks, creating massive value for community members. And Ethereum is king because it’s composable, incentivizing cooperation over competition. It’s king because the community moves ETH forward, as opposed to a small cabal of insiders. And, most notably, for me, Ethereum is the king because of the strong ethos to make the world a fairer and better place.
#4 — There Was Little Talk Of Solana
While the Solana community is obsessed with Ethereum (i.e. all the chatter about all time highs for Sol/ETH), there was little mention of Solana at Devcon. Time will tell if that’s a mistake, but there’s a feeling that ETH is on an inexorable march to be the dominant L1 for the future of money and value transfer.
That said, I’m a Solana fan as well. In January I penned “It’s a Degen World And Solana Is King Of The Degens.” But, I think the focus on all time high Sol/ETH is irrelevant. While I think Solana will go up more than ETH in this bull run, it’s not because Solana is winning and ETH is losing. It’s in large part, because Sol has a higher beta. Just like I believe that Doge will go up more than Solana, ibecasue it has a higher beta. When market goes down, which it obviouly will at some point, Solana will go down more than ETH.
But, per this thoguhtful tweet storm by crypt VC Alexander Pack, ETH’s move to a modular architecture has had a short term negative imapct, but it positions ETH for dramtic long term success:
#5 — My Two Favorite Devcon Events We’re Blockchain Association Stanford Summit (B.A.S.S.) & CryptoMondays Bangkok!
There were Devcon 450 side events. I didn’t have the chance to visit them all, so I’m not fully informed on the quality of each & every side event. But for my money, the best side event at the last number of major ETH events I’ve been to (ETHcc, ETH Denver, …), has been the B.A.S.S., for the quality of the attendees, with the great speakers (e.g. NEAR’s Ilia Polosuhkin “Delivering the Promise OF Blockchain For AI”), the icing on the cake.
And, driven by bias, my other favorite event was CryptoMondays Bangkok (my 36th CryptoMondays city!). Thanks to our featured guest Ameen Soleimani, James Slusser (Polkadot) for the venue, and our sponsors Stably USD Classic Blog The Official Blog of dTRINITY (â–˛), Swarm Foundation, &Datafund; and last but not elast Kyle Heise (Crypto Content), and Genzio for the support!
#6 — ETHGlobal, The Biggest Devcon Side Event, Featured The Largest ETH Hackathon EVER!
Many of the best and brightest programmers continue to work in the Ethereum ecosystem, as highlighted by the record setting participation at ETHGlobal in Bangkok.
If you’re not bullish on Ethereum, you’re not paying attention!
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This article has been prepared for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer or solicitation to buy tokens or other securities of CryptoOracle (the “Company”).
