EthDenver 2023

What bear market?

EthDenver is notable as being the occasion that kicks off convention season every year. It consists of a hackathon adopted by a convention and web3 #BUIDLers and corporations flock en mass to attach with different technologists, corporations and traders on the occasion.

This 12 months there have been considered round 25,000 folks attending the convention, which is big. Each time I bought in an Uber the driving force would ask me if I used to be there for this crypto convention and inform me they’d simply dropped somebody off for it! 

As soon as upon a time (5+ years in the past) one may really feel the heart beat of web3 just by checking in on Reddit. Now there’s simply manner an excessive amount of occurring to maintain up with every thing — even in simply the Ethereum ecosystem. Nonetheless, there have been some very clear themes on the convention.

There have been mini summits through the week masking many areas of web3, however those who actually stood out have been:

There have been others, however being a developer convention, these are the massive themes proper now that present a snapshot of the place we’re with respect to the evolution of this ecosystem.Interoperability and wallets have been mentioned for years inside web3, nevertheless, the progress being made right here is critical. 

Interoperability is an attention-grabbing space, as all the varied alt-layer one blockchains wish to discover seamless methods to switch property between each other, particularly Ethereum. 

There are numerous kinds of interoperability between networks. The frequent theme we’re seeing is that just about each blockchain community needs to help Ethereum with the power to execute EVM bytecode.

These networks then obtain higher efficiency by creating layer 2 networks on them which might be secured by a base chain. Belongings might be transferred between layer 2 networks utilizing the bottom chain as an middleman — all of them profit from the underlying safety of the bottom chain. 

Probably the most important problem lies in transferring property between non-native networks — i.e. from one layer one community corresponding to Ethereum to a different corresponding to Polkadot. This sometimes entails an middleman that bares a lot of the danger related to property going between chains and is a big honeypot for attackers. As engaging as any such switch is, it is nonetheless questionable if an environment friendly answer can exist that may take away the requirement for a trusted middleman to handle the infrastructure facilitating the cross-chain switch of property. The perfect can be to do that on the protocol layer, however options don’t exist to bridge throughout totally different layer one protocols at the moment.

While at EthDenver there was an actual buzz about all of the exercise happening right here, how lengthy the “layer 2 wars” go on is more likely to be dictated by the adoption of ZK-EVMs that we see over the approaching months.

The groups engaged on this expertise all have important runway, however I do not envisage a future the place we have now many various layer 2 applied sciences getting used. As an illustration, on the present time, the lion’s share of whole worth locked in layer 2 networks is throughout Arbitrum, Polygon and Optimism. 

Zero-knowledge applied sciences could also be underpinning the subsequent technology of ZK-EVMs which might be about to be launched, however they’re additionally thought-about a vital privacy-enabling expertise for web3. 

Though zero-knowledge expertise is utilized in ZK-EVM, it is not used for privateness causes. Transactions which might be happening on layer 2 networks are usually not non-public between contributors. Though one may in principle create a personal layer 2 community that would cover among the on-chain exercise.

This kind of privateness will probably be a sport changer for customers of blockchain networks, nevertheless, it is not as far alongside because the layer two applied sciences, and lots of proceed to drive true privateness ahead for blockchain networks.

Therefore the theme of zero-knowledge expertise is more likely to proceed to assemble extra momentum within the years to come back. 

Probably the most unimaginable takeaway from EthDenver was how vibrant the Ethereum ecosystem is in 2023, particularly contemplating we’re in a so-called bear market. I’ve at all times beloved being at Ethereum occasions corresponding to DevCon, EdCon, EthCC and others, however had beforehand checked out EthDenver with a degree of FOMO having not attended. 

Loads of occasions are organised round EthDenver — a gaggle of us went climbing!

Having had the possibility to attend, I imagine the FOMO was justified and for anybody on the fence about attending, it’s best to. I promise you will not remorse it. Simply be sure to come armed with ChapStick and hand cream — the local weather there may be extremely dry!