(That is the final in a collection of articles on ETHPrague commissioned via a grant from EVMavericks). You’ll be able to go straight to Youtube for video playlists with out unhinged commentary for each ETHPrague 2025 and Pragma Prague 2025.)
I arrived at Holešovice market feeling anxious. This was my first Ethereum occasion, and I wasn’t positive what to anticipate. A safety guard stood ramrod straight in entrance of an ETHPrague banner, just like the corridor wanted defending from unknown hordes. He glanced at my wrist dismissively and pointed on the subsequent constructing.
There, issues seemed a bit extra hopeful. A girl stood behind a make-shift counter, radiating the thrill of a first-time substitute instructor decided to not mess up.
"Hello," I stated. "I'm Twelve Meatballs."
She checked out me. I checked out her.
She broke first. "I want your ticket."
In fact she did. I pulled out my cellphone, flustered.
"Are you–" She paused, swallowing the phrase misplaced. "…right here for ETHPrague?"
"Sure," I stated, poking frantically at my cellphone.
"It's a QR code," she informed me. She was on the verge of explaining to me what a QR code was once I lastly discovered my ticket. She scanned it, relieved that the difficulty had been so simply resolved. Then, virtually as an afterthought, she handed me a paper bag of goodies: plastic battery pack, postcard, and a small bottle of what seemed like soy sauce. "It's an power drink," she informed me helpfully.
I slipped into my first session, sitting within the again like I used to be afraid somebody was going to provide me detention. "Show you might be human," stated the person on the small podium and for a second, I wasn't positive I may.
(I'll hyperlink the talks as I’m going so you’ll be able to contemplate which of them are price watching.)
That was Rémi introducing Self Protocol; at that time, I had no concept that I used to be going to finish up obsessing about their proof of humanity. Subsequent, Mely.eth talked in regards to the shift from domains to usernames and the way ENS can resolve the centralization of our on-line identities.
The morning had barely began and already my mind was full.
I slipped out as unobtrusively as I may and returned to the safety guard. "I'm simply questioning if there's anyplace right here to get espresso."
"I wouldn't know," he stated. "However there's this factor referred to as Google Maps."
Chastened, I turned to stroll away. "Proper. Thanks."
"No, wait." He pulled out his cellphone. "I'm simply trying." He hadn't been telling me off, simply considering out loud.
I smiled and glanced at his nametag. It stated ShieldTech.
"OK, I discovered one thing," stated ShieldTech. Espresso was accessible on the reverse facet of the market however he didn't just like the route Google supplied. "Don't try this. Simply go straight this manner and switch left. It's referred to as…." He struggled to translate the title. "I believe Espresso King."
I didn’t want the title of the espresso place and particularly not in English. "Thanks very a lot," I referred to as over my shoulder, escaping again into the corridor earlier than he may very well be any extra useful.
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In the principle presentation room, Anthurine Xiang launched EIP-7907 in a fantastically relatable method, utilizing Uber as an analogy: certainly you wouldn't need your driver to pay a flat fee, whatever the distance of your journey. However on the similar time, you needed to understand how a lot you had been more likely to pay earlier than you bought within the automobile. I'm not saying I understood EIP-7907 however at the very least I used to be beginning to grasp what was at stake.
Sadly, this appeared to mark the restrict of my potential to soak up new data. I wandered into mf's discuss on the brand new Cypherpunk technology hoping for one thing revolutionary. I left largely excited about lunch.
I made my option to a espresso stall that will or might not have been referred to as Espresso King. "Do you communicate English?"
He rolled his eyes. "What would you like?"
I relaxed. This was rather more the extent of service I anticipated in Jap Europe. I ordered a caffé latte, "only a single shot," I informed him. I wanted to tempo myself for the soy sauce drink later. He rolled his eyes and handed me a milky espresso. Fortified, I returned to the convention.
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The spotlight of my day was Tomasz Stańczak's fireplace chat. Somebody behind me was muttering about Layer 2s capturing the entire worth and Stańczak responded as if he'd heard the person, explaining that the primary focus needed to be the expansion of the community. "This isn’t the time to think about that Ethereum has to give attention to accumulating charges from L2s." As an alternative, he advised that we wish L2s to maintain successful and increasing. Our greatest problem proper now, he stated, was the braveness to vary issues and the braveness to discover.
If there was an official Ethereum anthem, I’d have been buzzing it.
Andrew Koller of Kraken's discuss on onboarding customers, not simply holders shocked me with the stat that solely 20% of customers hassle to withdraw funds from Kraken; the bulk are holders, not customers, and he needs to vary this. From there, I by accident sat in on Gavin Wooden’s discuss on Jam and CoreVM: I understood perhaps 3% of it, however the components I did catch had been fascinating.
That was the sample: sharp edges of readability inside lengthy stretches of blur. Mariia Yaatskovska on CoW swaps solver competitors, DCBuilder on the belief problems with client-side proving and Tomas Studenik on what occurs if we lose energy all had good and accessible talks.
I ended the day with the panel on Ethereum Privateness Roadmap, which grew to become the primary of my articles in regards to the convention.
I’ve to confess that I used to be relieved that the content material for the day was over. By the top, I didn't even have sufficient power to maintain saying howdy to ShieldTech, who saved staring sternly forward as if I is perhaps a deadly distraction to his position as our protector. I discovered a restaurant close to my hostel and collapsed right into a platter of Schnitzel to think about my ideas.
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I'd nervous that the convention can be too technical, aimed toward devs and genius mathematicians and never related and even understandable to me. And positive, there was technical content material however there was additionally lots for an outsider like me to have interaction with. Not simply lots, an excessive amount of to even sustain with.
~o~
It was raining as I arrived for Day Two. ShieldTech waved me over. "I’ve new data," he informed me. "In order for you espresso, you simply go into that corridor there. The one marked as…" He paused, probably counting in English in his head. "Seventeen. That’s the place you must go to get espresso." I had the sensation he'd spoken extra English right now than within the earlier three years.
"No drawback," he stated, and went again to watching individuals's wrists to verify that they had their wristbands.
I fingered my thriller soy sauce bottle and went straight to the presentation rooms.
By some means, the day-two schedule was even higher than the primary. I began with Katarzyna Kiwalska's lament that firms appear to at all times be ready for the appropriate second to start out worrying about sustainability. Dr. Maurice Chiodo amused us together with his consulting work on AI tasks critically missing in widespread sense, not to mention ethics.
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The primary fireplace discuss of the day was Aya Miyaguchi and Christopher Fabian speaking in regards to the Ethereum Basis and dealing with UNICEF (my favourite anecdote: Aya making an attempt to surreptitiously textual content Vitalik below the desk to say "I believe this man is critical" whereas Chris thought that perhaps she was simply actually bored of him). This was adopted by the headlining fireplace chat with Vitalik Buterin and Tim Berners-Lee (ETHPrague haven’t launched this video however you’ll be able to learn my take: Desires of Decentralization).
After that line-up, I retreated to the open courtyard, the place fortunately it had stopped raining. I made the error of checking X to see a viral submit: "So is there anybody in crypto who's over 30?" The web discourse appears to continuously reinforce that the crypto-verse is overwhelmingly white, male, and above all younger. At ETHPrague, it couldn't have been extra off-base. Certain, two baby-faced boys of doubtful hygiene sat on the desk behind me, arguing about critical hackathon stuff. However on the similar time, a pair of their 60s walked previous, speaking animatedly, dressed like they'd simply stepped out of a Milan showroom. I may hear at the very least 4 languages being spoken from a variety of women and men
The area wasn't simply younger and it undoubtedly wasn't simply male. Admittedly, the 2 hackers undoubtedly wanted proof of being over 18 however nobody questioned their proper to be there. Or mine.
And truthfully, that felt fairly nice.
I returned to the fray with a fast smile at ShieldTech, who had gone again to pretending that he'd by no means seen me earlier than.
I used to be prepared for the following firehose of data. Sara Polak cracked us up between onerous information about archaeology and the way blockchain may make a distinction. Paul Brody injected us with uncooked hopium as he talked about enterprise use of stablecoins. Joachim Schwerin from DG GROW of the European Fee nailed the necessity for anonymity, calling out the massive systemic dangers in legacy capital methods.
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My greatest problem wasn't going to be looking for three shows to write down about…however selecting solely three.
The one draw back was that the entire thing felt wildly unmoderated. There have been “hosts,” not moderators. Nobody was managing the time, so talks ran over, questions rambled, and transitions didn’t actually exist. In ROOT, I heard one host say “Hey, you don’t have to depart,” as half the room quietly did. The issue was that there was no break to vary tracks: for those who didn't stroll out, you missed the start of the following attention-grabbing discuss or worse, acquired caught up in an viewers member's monologue of "not a query however extra of a remark".
Nonetheless, it was an ideal day and I used to be overflowing with concepts and cross connections. And on prime of all the things else, once I left, ShieldTech virtually smiled at me.
I had 1000’s of phrases of notes. It took two beers to cease my mind from spinning and a glass of wine to get it spinning within the different course.
~o~
By some means, the third day, I satisfied myself that not solely may I soak up one other day of convention shows however that I may attend two conferences without delay. This was the ultimate day of ETHPrague but additionally the one day of ETHGlobal Pragma, located in one other corridor about 5 minutes away.
This time, I registered on the ETHGlobal tent with none confusion or bizarre explanations. Though, I additionally didn’t obtain any thriller soy sauce bottles, so I’d have to rethink that method.
Again at Corridor 13, ShieldTech undoubtedly smiled at me. Then he noticed that I used to be carrying the fallacious wristband. I stated one thing in regards to the different convention however he simply shook his head and seemed away. I felt like I'd simply been caught dishonest.
ETHGlobal Pragma felt like a tech convention dressed up for its first job interview: champagne as a substitute of Purple Bull, tasteful music, photographers in all places, waiters bustling via to select up deserted plates of canapes. The caffé latte got here with meticulous foam artwork. Hipster devs and first-time hackathon attendees seemed equally uneasy as they stood on the cloth-covered tables. Somebody nodded howdy to me and I spilled my espresso in shock. It was day three: was I… a veteran?
A number of the similar audio system had been at ETHGlobal Pragma as at ETHPrague however they had been simply pretty much as good the second time round. Tomasz Stanczak spoke eloquently in additional element about Ethereum's long-term imaginative and prescient. Martin Derka and his cats talked about Clever Sequencers which sounds uninteresting however undoubtedly wasn't. (My notes simply say, "F*ck me, I believe I perceive Zircuit" however this may occasionally have simply been a fever dream.)
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I returned to the ETHPrague halls, placing the related armband on the opposite wrist like I used to be promoting my poly standing. ShieldTech nodded approvingly and let me in.
I had organized to fulfill a web based good friend for lunch, besides that I used to be too hyped as much as eat and as a substitute offloaded convention braindumps on the poor man. You recognize who you might be…Sorry, nevertheless it did assist! After that a lot wanted debrief, I used to be wow'd by Aleksejs Ivashuk's discuss on what occurs in case your authorities says you don't exist, which led on to my querying Self Protocol's resolution.
I wandered again to ETHGlobal Pragma for extra canapes to observe Chris Hobcroft speaking about what Ethereum's for, however by now, I used to be struggling to take any new data in and even to remain awake.
I wasn't fairly determined sufficient to attempt the soy sauce power drink however fortunately, Paul Brody woke me up once more together with his partaking discuss on why privateness is crucial for enterprise adoption (though I nonetheless don't perceive why he’s passionately towards TEEs).
After which, as if in a fever dream, I noticed that we had been already on the finale. Vitalik's keynote was a tremendous name to motion for DAOs to reinvent themselves to allow them to goal for greatness. He spoke with Kartik Talwar for an hour and fifteen minutes, till the sounds of glasses clinking for the ETHGlobal Pleased Hour grew to become overwhelming and so they introduced the presentation to an in depth.
{Photograph} courtesy of the ETHGlobal Pragma Flickr account
I ended up sipping Pils subsequent to a shark-faced man carrying a swimsuit that price greater than my annual earnings. He launched himself with a easy smile, explaining that he was one of many ETHGlobal sponsors. Was I collaborating within the Hackathon?
"I'm a author," I stated, managing one way or the other to not introduce myself as Twelve Meatballs or supply bizarre private particulars that would wish critical explaining. Consequently, I didn't determine myself in any respect, too drained and confused to try to be witty. "I'm writing in regards to the convention."
"That's attention-grabbing," he stated. "The place can I learn your work?"
I checked out him blankly. The convention was nonetheless in progress; how may I’ve written about it already?
His smile tightened. "Like an internet site?" He was clearly making an attempt to be form. Because it occurs, I’ve 4 (4) web sites with numerous forms of writing on them, any one in all which I may have informed him about. However at that second, this escaped me.
"I haven't written it but," I stated, as if I'd by no means written a phrase in my life.
He nodded and saved nodding as he moved to the following desk, introducing himself with a easy smile.
I retreated to the halls of ETHPrague, the place my good friend ShieldTech knowledgeable me that the convention was over and everybody was leaving. After an ungainly pause, he helpfully knowledgeable me that there was a rave that I may go to.
Attending a Czech rave would make for a wildly amusing story however I had already skilled greater than my share of failed social interactions for the day. I had at the very least one Gb of notes and a bottle of soy sauce in my bag that I used to be apparently doomed to hold round endlessly. That felt like sufficient.
—
This completes my collection on ETHPrague. When you loved following my bewildered journey, you’ll be able to thank EVMavericks, who one way or the other thought that sending me to a crypto convention was a good suggestion.
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