March 4, 2024: ETHDenver Recap 🚀🛠️
21 Attendees Share Their Takeaways from ETHDenver
HOW WAS ETH DENVER?
Trying to answer this question is nigh impossible. The conference is huge, larger than ETH-CC according to at least one attendee’s estimate.
The entire event therefore becomes something of a “choose your own adventure” experience, in which you curate your own echo chamber. My experience, defaulting to small meetings with DeFi people, was quite slanted toward my own interests.
We had a better idea to capture the broader experience. We asked everybody we connected with throughout the event to submit their takeaways. Most told me to eff off, but 21 people obliged.
Here are their full takeaways:
Scoopy Trooples, Founder @ Alchemix
ETHDenver was a massive jubilation.
We have made it out of the bear market, and friends and colleagues are coming together excited for what we are building and where we are going as an industry.
Each bear market we survive, the bond we share grows stronger. The sheer amount of development happening in the Ethereum ecosystem is staggering, and it is honestly too much to keep up with.
We appreciate everyone who made it to the Alchemix event with Rare Evo, Premia, Silo, and Certora. CYA next year Denver.
LogarithmicRex @ StrangeH2OPod
Once again, ETH Denver delivered on its promise: bringing the western crypto community together, in person. It is hard to overstate just how important meeting in person is for careers and for this industry, perhaps even more so because our industry is so online. There is no other event like ETH Denver in person density and momentum.
Key takeaways on ETH Denver 2024 specifically… so much of the energy of the week has moved from the main event to single/half day mini-conferences, and I might even say there were too many of them. Really fractured the community and everyone felt like they were missing something important. The main event also suffered, much smaller and the booths were less impressive. I wonder about how long ETH Denver retains its primacy.
Finally, I noticed that this year so much more of the energy was on infrastructure and ZK; while DeFi still had a strong presence, I am beginning to see signs that we are moving beyond the “DeFi is the only use case of crypto” era.
My two takeaways are:
DeFi is growing up and maturing fast as a sector in crypto. Stable Summit the conversations mostly surrounded by RWAs and you see a number more institutional friendly projects and players on the horizon. It may not be as degen as its past but it is more sustainable and shows that we can evolve as long as we can maintain our core ethos of open and positive-sum collaboration and not bend to the scarce tendencies of the old world too much.
Crypto x AI is not a gimmick but a real genuine synergy. In the same way blockchain enabled self-sovereign money, it enables self-sovereign intelligence as well. This is growing expor more important by the day as centralized ai risks are a danger to our privacy and children’s future understanding of the world. I am hopeful that there is still time to remedy the situation but for now it would be in our interest to not cringe every time we hear AI and do the due diligence on worthy efforts.
Jack Melnick, Head of DeFi @ Polygon
Top Takeaways: The energy at Denver was better than it has been in years. People are clearly feeling euphoric after emerging from an extended bear market, and are having fun exploring and being creative after a long period of heads down building (also true for me!)
My favorite part was getting to explore some of the new design spaces that will clearly be major themes for this cycle:
Native yield
Rollups/L2s
Cross-chain messaging / modular interop
PVP games and new ponzinomics
more thoughtful consumer-facing products
solid chunk of new DeFi applications
One of my biggest takeaways is that we simply have too many general purpose L2s. At the end of the day, sequencer fees for these general purpose chains compress to zero on a 3-5+ year time horizon.
As a result, you should really want to achieve a level of specialization either as an appchain or as a vertical-specific chain, rather than competing in the same design space as everyone else. A million identical L2s just leads to fracturing, no matter how you spin it.
So, as an extension - I think what I had the most fun with was just riffing with smart people at the conference, who clearly feel motivated to contribute again after burning out some last cycle. I think over 2 days, we probably came up with 25+ new CDK chain ideas, all with a high degree of specialization
Darren Camas, CEO / Co-Founder, IPOR Labs
ETH Denver was a mixed bag, with a bit of euphoria from the current market, to an overabundance of infrastructure and low DApp and end user representation. Around the main venue I was shocked to see the prevalence of infrastructure projects from L2 to DAppchains to crosschain infrastructure.
What was missing was the user who has on-chain activity apart from memecoin speculation. This reflects the VC investment into infra where the return on the best used DApps can yield multiples, but infra can command the multi billion dollar valuations. I can't help but compare it to building ghost cities where everyone has bought properties, all the roads are paved, the sewage lines installed, and the valuations are steep, but nobody lives there. When people start to sell their ghost town properties we'll see a contraction back to safety. I'm a bit of a fat protocol maxi.
My main point of interest for the event centered around the restaking narrative. Where LRTs have sucked the liquidity out of DeFi, restaking is an inevitability, with the industry overleveraging on points while oblivious to the returns and more importantly the risks. Some of the main LRT protocols self describe as players in an emerging bond market with different investment grade characteristics and constructions ranging from marketplaces, to highly curated validator sets, to the blissful unknown.
As our job at IPOR Labs is to understand, quanitfy, and contextualize risk on the interest rate or restaking rate side, so the current lack of data availability presents a massive opportunity, but also a huge challenge and risk assessment of which most of the market is blissfully unaware. I suspect it will take a few major blowups and loss of funds before the market begins to adequately price the opportunity in restaking. Therein lies the opportunity where the IPOR Protocol is positioned to become something like the Credit Default Swap market for LRTs.
Corey Caplan, Founder @ Dolomite_io
Overall it was a strong conference. While I thought recent price action was going to invite more moon boys, it actually encouraged more builders to come. There’s a lot of innovation happening, and the industry is eager to work together to push the needle forward.
I also noticed more focus on risk management and generally more self awareness of the things being built and how risks are introduced. Last cycle, people were afraid to ask the tough questions, esp. in person. Now I noticed more people just letting it rip haha
Eomji Park, Head of Research and Operations, Encode Club
ETH Denver demonstrated the resilience and vibrancy of the community, persisting through the bear market. The event was highlighted by committed builders who were deeply engaged in technological innovation.
The emphasis was still more on infrastructure than applications, with a notable shortage of engaging apps. There's a common understanding of the necessity to bring more developers into the ecosystem, but there's a shortfall in activities and opportunities to sustain this growing influx. Tackling this issue is a responsibility for everyone involved.
Despite the challenges, the presence of intelligent and passionate individuals committed to furthering web3 was a source of inspiration. Their efforts are likely to have an impact that goes beyond the confines of web3, contributing to the broader field of technology.
Wavey0x, Core Dev @ Yearn Finance
We're still so early. Not all the tech people brag about is ready for prime time.
As always, the best part of ETH Denver was the people. Engaging with people who are deep in the same defi niches as you are is the best. For this reason I really enjoyed Reserve's event and the Stablecoin Summit.
Prioritize for meeting with people, not for spending time at main event.
EigenLayer is overrated.
Marco Worms, Docs @ Yearn Finance
The ETHDenver hackathon is a great catalyst for EVM talent, it is the best part of the event IMO to meet technical people
Although America has been fighting against crypto, it does feel like the Americans still try to be in the spearhead of the market thanks to events like this one, many great devs were present and I was glad to be here
ETH Denver felt quieter than last year, which was surprising. I'm not sure why, but as an experience it was better, as many talks were attended by dozens of people (or less) which meant it was easier to talk to the speakers afterward. I like meeting people at conferences and think it's the best part, but I don't need to meet 25,000 people, and a smaller crowd somehow drains me less.
AI was far more prominent in talks this year than even 6 months ago at ETH CC, where account abstraction was a major focus. In one talk, the speaker spun up a permissionless GPT in 5 minutes, leveraging a slack A100 resource for rent. Some of the dreams of 2017 ICOs - Golem in this case - finally have the infrastructure to make consumer ready products. Crypto the Game and Farcaster were also major topics of conversation.
Bitcoiners were out in force, and it looks like there is finally a lot of buidling happening on L2s. We love to see it; the best decentralization includes multiple technologies.
Overall, the space is getting so big, and developers so niche, that it's impossible to keep up with it all, even within a subcategory like Curve-based DeFi. ETH Denver is about meeting people; it makes the whole crypto experience far more meaningful than number go up (which we also enjoy).
Can't wait to come back next year!
This conference was the perfect example of the end of the calm and the beginning of the storm. Every single serious project is in the midst of an launch, and people are getting excited again. While not overwhelming, new users are finally coming back in, and there is real institutional interest, that is way more advanced than simple experimentation.
I saw some shit man... things will get really really crazy this year
Seeing BTC rocket through $60k while on my flight Wednesday morning, I knew there was going to be a lot of energy. No talk of lambos, yet (which is good thing imho), but good vibes and the optimism from builders and allocators was almost as high as the prices.
Outside of price go up, majors themes were: founders discussing successful raises, LPs looking to deploy more into DeFi, EigenLayer changing the Ethereum landspace, LRTs, the risks associated with AVS coming online, what points people were farming, what the success of Ethena will do to perp funding rates, the Blast launch, Bitcoin ordinals making massive moves and the promise of Bitcoin getting more expressive with L2s.
Compared to last year, this year’s ETH Denver was *buzzing*. There was an overwhelming number of side events, tons of new protocols and startups, and a healthy collection of hardened institutions that made it through crypto winter. The energy of the conference seemed to match the huge pumps in BTC and ETH prices during the same time period. The winter has thawed and we are in a blossoming crypto spring.
What was most interesting to me was the aesthetic of the venue, companies, and attendees. This year had in some ways a more corporate feel to previous crypto conferences I’ve attended. The 80’s aesthetic of Curve.fi’s web interface is out and a sleek, clean, Apple-style corporate aesthetic is decidedly in (Coinbase in particular set up a booth that looked and felt like an Apple store). Companies are growing in adoption, revenue, legitimacy, and access to the cultural mainstream.
Even so, the crypto/degen aesthetics linger on. The aquarium-themed event and main venue (the “Spork Castle”) had colorful decorations made out of pool noodles, there were giant hilarious jellyfish and a band of sea creatures periodically roaming about, we had full-scale gaming setups, and there was a man holding a giant baguette, walking around in baguette slippers with a microphone, loudly telling everyone about his arch-nemesis.
Most importantly and happily for all of us, we are still absolutely saturated with extremely intelligent and motivated builders. The froth of previous hypes seems to have mostly dissipated (not much by way of NFTs came my way) and the majority of the ideas I encountered at this conference were legit, research-based innovations ranging form ZK proofs and verified computation, to rollup-based scalability and interoperability, to formal tools for audits and formal verification. The aesthetic may be playful and informal but we are here to stay and are building something real.
Kostiantyn, Head of FinTech Producdts @ Dev.Pro
Stablecoins right now have risk profiles, so anyone will find something which fits their needs:
Circle — conservative, don't share profit with holders
Ondo — conservative, but share profit
Ethena — degen mode, offer 25% APY
USDT + USDC = 96% of stablecoin market cap = risk for the industry and its decentralization. Shouldn't be like this.
Tokenization in 2024: treasuries and stable coins will dominate volume. Real estate and art will dominate innovation.
Interoperability is a king. Blockchains and protocols should be able to transact seamlessly.
Asia will be top mover for blockchain and crypto in 2024.
Institutions and catching up: Citi did Digital Assets pilot, JPM during billions of transaction volume every day.
Industry agnostic? Can you really be industry agnostic today? — Not sure.
Private network was a things couple years back. Today public networks with permission and privacy level on top of it is a thing. Everyone goes public.
Building tech is not enough. Making regulators to approve the tech — is a big deal.
RWAs is not really retail product. Retails is not interested in 5% APY in bull market. That will change in bear market.
Predictions (or hopes) are that stablecoin regulation will finally reach the US in 2024.
Brand promise for tokenization back 2017 was better liquidity. Today we see that it’s not true. There is improved liquidity, but not good liquidity, what was illiquid in real world stays illiquid on chain. Tokenization is really about efficiency, cost optimization, speed, transparency and security.
Tokenization is good for something that can exist only in physical world, in that can be digitally native — it should be digitally native. Currencies are good examples of something that should eventually become digitally native — not tokenized.
There is a new generation coming which grew up digital native and get used to speed, convenience and cheapness of digital world. Imagine what will be when they try to open BofA account and they pay 3% fee for wire transfer and wait for 5 days for it to arrive to destination. They will resist, this will push blockchain adaption even more.
Alan Scott / Janitor @ RAILGUN_Project
My interactions with crypto enthusiasts and builders is more often than not online. On Discord, Telegram, Twitter and if I'm lucky, some videotelephony meetings. This is what makes conferences like ETHDenver so appealing, hackers, degens, and VCs all descend on a city to tell an account of their escapades in the space.
I'm still trying to digest the week's "alpha." Coffees, lunches, conversations over deafening music, and talks at the conference. There's one thing for certain - shitcoining and memes are back in full swing. Seemingly everyone I ran into was in some memecoin rocketship. $MOG, $PEPE, $WIF, random NFT collections, everyone had something they were excited to shill. I'm still chuckling about the amount of people trying to find a way to "invest in Bera." Which all the above tells me is people are excited to speculate again.
What I really came for was to meet with other builders in the space. Most of the interesting chats were in quiet lunches. I had the most thought provoking conversations around privacy, smart contract design, perps, and more.
From all of this I'm most intrigued by web3 security type protocols; particularly those that claim the ability to frontrun malicious transactions. Also, wallets with transaction simulation and fast response alerts to honeypots and the efforts around aggregating that information across aligned companies to better serve the community. More end-user security means (hopefully) more adoption but it does leave me feeling like it will enable worse architecture - like sending millions into an anon multisig because of hype.
I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with ETHDenver. I get slightly annoyed playing Lu.ma Go Fish with my "internet friends" trying to coordinate which "networking event" I'm gong to get tinnitus from. The lack of Ubers and expensive food leaves something to be desired but I know I'll be back. It's almost unexplainable why, but there's something to getting several thousand like-minded people in the same city.
Zach / Founder @ Party Action People
We were absolutely blown away by the response to the unStable Summit. 600 people with almost every major L1, L2, stablecoin and lending protocol represented. A clear takeaway is that serious people see stablecoins and RWAs as key narratives.
As my first time at the wider ETHDenver conference, I finally understand what all the hype is about, the two weeks were some of our most productive conference weeks ever — everyone was here. Denver is also an amazing city and we got lucky with the weather.
See everyone in Brussels :)
Taariq Lewis / VolumeFi
My takeaway from ETHDenver is we are in a race for "higher yielding ETH"! What does the world look like when every ETH tries to upstage regular staked ETH for the most yield and points?
ETH Denver showed events where LRTs and LSTs commanded packed audiences and Eigen Layer's founder was nicknamed crypto's "Brad Pitt." The race is on for the highest yielding ETH, juiced by security and financial leverage.
Aiham, Founding Team @ Silo Finance
ETHDenver was a tremendous success. The majority of Silo’s core contributors team met each other for the first time since the inception of SiloDAO. We met with many of our partners, users and community members and that felt very special especially to our engineering team who rately come in touch with the community.
Our takeaways
We receive much love from teams, projects, and the overall community, which will motivate us to keep serving the DeFI ecosystem better.
For the first time in two years we feel the incredible positive sentetiment about the ecosystem overall.
Innovation is back to the ecosystem.
Tao, A Team @ Aladdin DAO
It is my second time attending ETHDenver.
The first time, I participated as a developer. The main conference wasn't fully prepared because the internet connection was poor and the food was expensive. However, there were many hacker houses that encouraged the developer community, especially the Huma Finance hacker house. They provided free coffee, free food, fast internet and money reward - they knew exactly what developers needed. I want to express my gratitude to them for making ETHDenver more developer-friendly.
This year, I took on more of a business development role for Aladdin Dao to promote our latest product, f(x) Protocol’s $fxUSD. It was also my first time speaking at the Unstable Summit. I was excited to meet all the DeFi enthusiasts.
Although DeFi might not be the hottest topic this year, like AI or BTC Layer 2, the entire DeFi industry is still growing rapidly.
Samuel McCulloch, Flywheel / Leviathan News
Everything about ETH Denver can be summed up in this one chart showing the amount of VC funding month to month over the last 3 years.
After peaking in 2021/2, new funding for projects has essentially dried up, and its effect on the largest US crypto event was noticeable. The lavish parties were gone (except for Berapalooza), the amount of booths at the main event was smaller, attendance was down.
Subdued. That's the feeling that I got from this years ETH Denver. Even though prices are at all time highs, new money has yet to flow back into big projects on the scale we saw in the last bull run. I guess we still have PTSD from FTX blowing up, and US regulations are no better now than before. DeFi was not the big narrative this year, instead being AI and restaking. The former is untested and yet to see a cycle, riding on the back of Open AI's 7 trillion dollar valuation. The latter is just industrial scale airdrop farming with no revenues and use case yet, its a multi-billion dollar food farm.
This isn't to say that things won't change, but the cooler sentiments towards crypto were well on display for the week.
Alex Golubitsky, Founder @ MetaLeX
Another great ETH Denver! Despite buying a ticket for the main event, I never managed to make it to the convention itself. The side events were, as always, amazing. The biggest narratives I took away from the event are:
Governance is a top concern among projects
Stablecoins are a huge interest for market participants, and there is a lot of interest in basis swap denominated stables
ZK continues to be a huge narrative, and
Interest in L2s and alt L1s continues to be high.
As for the conference itself, my largest concern is that it is no longer a unitary event, but a series of correlated side events. While the quality of the side events is probably the highest it has ever been, I am worried that communities are becoming siloed and there is less opportunity for collaboration between groups that do not interact regularly because of this.
PS
More thoughts rolling in after the deadline…
Jarred, BDR at Halborn
I was surprised to meet so many people involved with security at ETH Denver this year. I met many people who are either independent researchers or are part of a team dedicated to preventing hacks. Many people have taken notice how lucrative it is to find vulnerabilities in a projects codebase which has spurred the growth of the auditing space tremendously.
One thing that still surprises me is that we still haven’t really seen any kind of consolidation in the L2 space. There are clear leaders in terms of TVL, but there continues to be a plethora of new chains going live. When I first got into crypto 3 years ago, I was fascinated by the use cases that many DeFi protocols were solving for, I’m not really sure that multiple L2’s is the solution to further the space and onboard new users.
Great recap! Really enjoyed reading this.