Bankless 75 - The ETHCC Experience | Interviews with Ethereum Community Leaders
Primer: David Hoffman of Bankless brings us live coverage of EthCC. He interviews various Ethereum community leaders and shares with us their insights.
Format Of Podcast
Quick interviews with some of the big names at EthCC
Their EthCC experience
State of crypto for them
Talks that they are looking forward to
EthCC
The last EthCC was in March 2020, where attendees contracted COVID
Delayed EthCC this time because of COVID
EthCC is a conference specific to builders
"And so he [Kain Warwick] had to more or less petition his government to like hey, please let me leave. And say like this, this me leaving is going to be economically beneficial to Australia. That's why you should let me go." - David Hoffman
No panels in EthCC. Each speaker giving 1 talk at a time
Definition of "builders" has increased in scope this time round. Includes non-DeFi platforms as well as content creators
Overall Vibe At The Conference
"So I would say that the vibe is definitely like, we're all here to build and talk about building and also talk about, like all the new directions that Ethereum has taken in the last year since the last EthCC event. And we all want to kind of pow-wow and you know, communicate what we're all up to, because we're all builders here." - David Hoffman
No one is talking about ETH price
Different topics of conversation at the conference:
NFT track
DeFi track
Non-financial use cases track
Ton of energy and people are chatty
Privacy and applications of ZK roll-ups were also discussed
Aave is throwing a rave and calling it rAAVE
Contrasting Bitcoin Miami and EthCC
More affordable tickets to EthCC than Bitcoin Miami
Bitcoin Miami: 3 main stages
EthCC: 1 main stage, with ~9 peripheral rooms going on
Way more price talk at Bitcoin Miami
Ethereum: The Infinite Garden
Documentary that is being filmed at EthCC
The word "infinite" talks about iterative games, where the goal is to work with your opponent such that you both survive over the long term
No release date for the documentary as they are still filming
Interview With Vitalik Buterin
Feels that the ecosystem is slowly and steadily maturing
Projects keep getting better, setting the bar higher
Talks He Found Interesting
Presentation on Proof of Humanity
Karl Floersch and retroactive funding
Cryptocurrency monetary policy
Did He Ever Think About The Magnitude Of Ethereum
Ethereum ended up bigger than what he was expecting
"So it's [Ethereum] definitely a very strange and very unexpected journey. But I'm happy with what came out." - Vitalik Buterin
Has The Community/Builders Exceeded His Expectations
Did not expect to see cross-country collaboration happening
Also thought that apps would exist as silos. Did not expect applications that could talk to each other
What Should The Ethereum Community Point Their Attention To
An Ethereum-based login where people can use their Ethereum accounts to log in to other services
Social recovery wallets that are more resistant against centralized takeovers and are more likely to be recovered back if users lose access to it
What Comes Next After Scaling
Privacy still needs to be improved
Wallet security
Having decentralized solutions come up fast enough such that centralized solutions don't get entrenched
"Wallet security, I keep harping on about social recovery wallets, but I think like, did we do multiple podcasts about those already, but I think we just have to, like, keep on." - Vitalik Buterin
Concerned about coin voting as it could be used to bribe governance decisions
Thoughts On The Social Scene In Ethereum
"And I think that's actually something that the Ethereum community has, has done really well, right. Like the community is supportive. It's very, like helpful and friendly to people just trying to join and do interesting things. And I think that's something really valuable." - Vitalik Buterin
Interview With Stani Kulechov
The atmosphere at EthCC is always good
"And it's wonderful to see again, like so many nerds in a like a physical presence. So cool." - Stani Kulechov
Stani's Talk
About credit delegation
Young entrepreneurs, emerging businesses can take uncollateralized loans using credit delegation
Thought On EthCC
Use it to inspire other people and developers what they can build
Implemented flash loans feature last year but it did not receive much usage. After promoting the use cases, they started to see traction
How Is This EthCC Different From Past EthCCs
A lot of new audiences this time round
"And what's interesting here is that now we kind of like expanding the community, just not being on the like, nerds excited about decentralization and you know, like coding but actually into your community that looks like a kind of like a society." - Stani Kulechov
What Talks Is He Looking Forward To
Try to look at the talks afterwards. His focus is on being available to the community
One of the talks that he always tries to be available for is Vitalik's talk. Vitalik's message focuses on the big picture and highlights areas that are underserved
Dean Eigenmann and his talk on memes
Aave Pro
Renamed Aave Arc
Private liquidity pools for institutions that require additional requirements (e.g. compliance)
Demand has been strong from hedge funds, market makers, and banks
rAAVE
A raave. To have fun, meet people, and build new friendships
Reflecting On The Magnitude Of What Aave Has Done
Still small relative to big tech
In time, it will grow bigger and empower different kinds of societies
Interview With Kain Warwick
Good to catch up with people and the vibe is amazing
Getting Out Of Australia
"It was not easy. I needed to prove to the government that you know, I was speaking here that was economic benefit to Australia." - Kain Warwick
Kain's Talk
On DAO capital formation. An extension of a blog post that he posted a few weeks back
Answering questions on his return to Synthetix
Talks That He Is Looking Forward To
Vitalik's talk
Gaming talks
"Like making the effort to come in person, the amount of like, just brain dump that you get after like a two or three day conference is just incredible." - Kain Warwick
What Do People Ask Him At EthCC
A range of subjects from governance to yield farming
Interview With Jerome de Tychey
Lead host and organizer of EthCC
Feels relieved that the conference is on
Change In EthCC Across The Years
Conference location is fixed at Paris
Organized by Ethereum France in the 1st year in 2018
Attendees increasing each year
Their core value: EthCC should be accessible to everyone (~300 euros for a ticket)
Ethos Of EthCC
To provide as much value at the lowest cost possible. Hence, the conference is jam-packed with multiple talks in parallel with one another
1 out of 5 attendees are builders
Talks He Is Looking Forward To
The talk by Vitalik on how to do good with DeFi
Why Should People Attend EthCC
"So being totally unbiased, this is the best Ethereum conference in the world." - Jerome de Tychey
Conference ticket is affordable
Before COVID, there is a job fair and hackathons during EthCC
All their talks are live-stream and available on YouTube the day after
Interview With Aya Miyaguchi
Aya's Talk
Spoke on Ethereum: The Infinite Garden
Also introduced one of their fellows in the Ethereum Foundation Fellowship program. This is their first cohort
What She Is Excited About
Getting together with everyone else
On The Ethereum Community
Amazing to see what the community has achieved
"I just feel proud to be part of it [Ethereum community]." - Aya Miyaguchi
Important to always remember what's special about Ethereum so that we do not lose this feeling of uniqueness
On Ethereum: The Infinite Garden
The team finished their fundraising
She and other community members provided them with plenty of ideas and the project is still evolving
Interview With Cooper Turley
Excited over the progress that's been made
Cooper's Talk
A talk on the future of music. Music is an industry that's ripe for social and financial disruption
"You know, I just love this design space of every creator feeling like they're their own startup now." - Cooper Turley
Talk He Is Looking Forward To
Vitalik's talk
Thoughts on EthCC
Get a good understanding of where the industry is at, which projects are worth paying attention to, and what people are working on
"Just being here in person, it's really important to remember our roots, you know, I think that ether went up a lot this past year. And for a lot of people, there's a, you know, maybe a feeling that you don't need to be as present at these things anymore. But I think for me, it's now more important than ever to show face and show that regardless of what happens financially, that we're all here for the same reason." - Cooper Turley
Interview With Simona Pop
Why People Should Attend A Crypto Event
"I feel Ethereum events are the way to kind of try and test and kind of immerse themselves into the space because everybody's incredibly helpful." - Simona Pop
Talks In EthCC
Loves the many different types of speakers and the different topics
Status is conducting a workshop on integrating with Walletconnect
What Is Status And Why We Need It
Status is a privacy-first chat app that is censorship resistant, a crypto wallet, and a Web3 browser all in one application
Available on mobile devices
When users join the app, Status will not ask for their personal details. They will be assigned a random three word name and store contacts locally
Working on new features such as editing and deleting messages
How Will She Illustrate The Trend Of Crypto Events Over The Years
A lot more substance now. More opportunities to engage with the applications
"And I feel obviously, we're now at a stage where there's a lot of the applications are live, a lot of usage, and so on. So you're able to experience it in a much fuller way, I guess, versus listening to talks, and oh, it's coming. We have it now." - Simona Pop
Most exciting for her is to see more newcomers with each event
Interview With Joseph Delong
Elevator Pitch On SushiSwap's Newest Release
New AMM called Trident built on top of Bento Box
Bento Box is their platform that allows you to have strategies on the underlying tokens
Launch of 4 new pools
Concentrated liquidity pool to get the best prices for blue-chip assets
Hybrid pools where like-kind assets can be swapped (e.g. USDT to USDC)
Constant product pools with 15% gas efficiency and 2x capital efficiency
Weighted pools
Where Is SushiSwap Heading
Have their own developments with Kashi, Bento Box, and Miso
Long term, these services will be integrated together
Will try to capture some of the market for active LPs
Each pool type optimizes a certain type of token
Concentrated liquidity pools are good for blue-chips and getting the best prices
Hybrid pools are good for stablecoin swaps
Constant product pools and weighted pools are good for long-tail coins
Any Topics That You Are Looking Forward To
Rundown of Geth
How Is This EthCC Different From Other Conferences
"It's kind of like the end of Empire Strikes Back. Like, everybody's getting COVID, well, actually, there's this like, new like, mystery virus, everybody's like, a little bit scared of, everybody gets it at the conference, the future of DeFi like, like people, like maybe recognize that, but the future of DeFi was uncertain at that time. And now we've come, you know, two years, and the future is very certain." - Joseph Delong
Interview With Jordi Baylina
Talks That He Is Looking Forward To
Talks on Layer 2 scalability
Observe how other projects are approaching the challenges of scaling
Hermez Network
A ZK rollup
It is used for payments
Launched in March 2021
There's no 7 days withdrawal period for Hermez Network
Has a forced withdrawal feature where the coordinator can never lock up user's funds. A user can perform a layer 1 transaction and recover their funds
Differences Between Optimistic And ZK Rollups
In optimistic rollups, the coordinator indicates the state, regardless of whether is it valid. There is a mechanism for people to challenge the state if they find that it is incorrect. If the coordinator is not able to prove that it is valid, they will lose their collateral
In ZK rollups, the coordinator not only publishes the newest state, but the cryptographic proofs that the state is valid as well
The problem with ZK rollups is that it requires a lot of computation resources to complete a proof
"Two years ago completing this proof was like crazy, was almost impossible, I would say. Right now, it's the technology has improved a lot, the mathematical algorithms have been improved a lot." - Jordi Baylina
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