Live from ETH Denver: DAO Town
Part 2: Don't underestimate degen style, my panel was lit, and the story of Vitalik Buterin
There are so many things to say about the Ethereum community and this blockchain that is currently dominating the Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) space. If you didn’t know by now, there are hundreds of blockchains that have their own protocols, Decentralized Applications (DApps), and communities. The people are what make Web3, and they come from all different backgrounds. I am amazed by the stories I’ve heard so far from people from Seoul to Bangalore. ETH Denver is the definition of Shill City and a mecca for diversity.
The world of blockchain is a lot like the world outside it. It comes with different people, diverse backgrounds and interesting stories to be told. The type of story that should be conveyed deep within a reader’s psyche so that they can embrace it, engage with it, and feel very attached to the plot or the journey, or just see something new. In this sense, it can be hard to convey the story of the Ethereum community and this blockchain in the most engaging way possible. I’ve been lucky enough to be planted in the thick of an already blossoming dark forest thanks to my position as Head of Community at ApeWorX. Although it’s a new company, the people associated with it have been around since the beginning of Ethereum. It didn’t take me long to fit in as the streets of downtown Denver overflowed with crypto hooded people with book bags full of laptops and other expensive equipment, on their way to hack on the next big thing to win bounties worth thousands.
But let me give you a bit of technology history before I get into the hackathon…
As documented by Camila Russo in the Infinite Machine, the founder of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin had been writing about Bitcoin for Bitcoin Magazine for years before he founded this community. Since 2008, Buterin had been writing and developing other use cases for a so-called “Bitcoin 2.0” but could not manage to galvanize the Bitcoin Maximalists to build something better on-chain that everyone could enjoy. So the programmer basically got fed up with the lack of innovation and duplicated all the good parts of Bitcoin — the peer-to-peer transactions and the blockchain. He mobilized a team of degens to create a community-driven open-source software project. Around 2014-2015, Buterin published a “white paper” detailing a new blockchain called Ethereum, which described how to store information and data in a safe, immutable way. You can read it here. In an email, the computer genius wrote to his close friends about this new “computational platform for smart contracts and decentralized autonomous organizations.” Overnight, the email went viral in the underground tech community. A lot of people started forwarding the email and replying back to Buterin with excitement, offering their own skills to build the future of humanity. This is the most fascinating part about this whole “crypto” “web3” stuff.
Like the beginnings of Violet Summer Zine, I published my first piece of writing for Issue 1 in an email to my closest friends with the subject line Watering Plants at 3AM. Back then, I was still living in Philly and the unknown. Sometimes concepts and crazy ideas are shared casually in an email. We ask for feedback and when the network effect works its’ magic, that’s when you’ve got something good. One email has the power to birth a whole community. This is the ethos behind the Ethereum blockchain, as well as other blockchain’s like Harmony, Vega, Solana, Flow and many others I’ve yet to discover.
As much as we read about the wild crypto markets and the newly emerging crypto millionaires, I'm a firm believer that just like the first man or woman at the top of Mt. Everest who isn’t there for their glory but to claim a world record and protect his fellow mountaineers coming behind them, so is more than half of those with the top 10% market share in crypto. They got there not just to make money but to define the future and bring us all along with it. Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t make it up the mountain and a lot of companies are not gonna make it in crypto. So listen up when I say, don’t believe the hype! It’s probably a scam.
Blazers, Blockchains & Baddies
One of the more memorable events I attended in Denver was a women’s breakfast hosted by Upstream about the power of female communities and how to connect and build a DAO by integrating their tooling. We chatted about the future of female DAOs over bagels and coffee. I met a woman from South Korea who started a salon to educate women about crypto. I met another woman getting her Master’s in Cryptography. I met so many women I forgot their names but thankful because those faces would be faces I’d feel connected to once we were all left those safe walls of the Upstream house. Monica Rojas from Upstream and Supreet Kay from Web3 Equity discussed ways to organized communities and facilitated a discussion on how women can be helpful to each other’s journeys by asking for what we want directly and in the moment.
Meanwhile, the street style at ETH Denver 2022 was surprisingly, devastatingly chic AF. I thought it would be hard to not cover fashion month after doing so for years as a fashion correspondent, but I was wrong! Denver turned into a micro Williamsburg. Hackathon and conference attendees were strutting around in colorful mink furs and bold-colored leggings and wigs. I spotted a vintage Chanel windbreaker and the gworls got dressed for the DeFi Valentine’s Day party hosted by Harmony. There were several people wearing LOEWE sunnies indoors and of course lots of people had on something Balenciaga related. My last web3 conference I felt out of place wearing a blazer. At Eth Denver, it was fair game to wear whatever, including a sequined cape or trippy solar panels. In DeFi, it truly is come as you are.
My First ETH Denver Speaker Opportunity
If you didn’t know by now, your humble narrator is a conference speaker. Most of the time I am a conference attendee, eager to learn and connect with new technologists. At ETHDenver I was invited to speak on two panels about NFTs and my journey into Web3 technology with H.E.R. DAO. I’m all about giving back to the community and decided to accept the invitation (for my first speaking gig) to be on a blockchain-related panel. I was able to speak about topics very near and dear to my heart — both learning Python and NFTs have impacted the creator economy. Not to mention, major alpha was dropped by my panelists, including an upcoming MetaMask token airdrop and new “green” NFT platform called the Palm Network. Check it out below.
Web3 Decentralized Apps and Brands I Love 💕
NFT Girl Gang: Founded by Kitty Grier, this web3 platform focuses on merging fashion and lifestyle with crypto. Their pop-up events and edgy content are worth the read.
DAOmasters: I met a few team members at DeFi Valentine’s day party in Denver and their mission is to onboard the next million DAO contributors & operators.
Filecoin: There’s a thing called NFT storage and it’s making it’s way into mainstream crypto. Filecoin has been around for a while when it comes to decentralized data.
Tally Wallet: A community-owned wallet powered by the people. It is committed to serving the members that use it for their own money.
Glossary
DApp: Decentralized Application
Open-source: A product, concept or brand that is free and open to all who seek.
Ethereum: The second blockchain to ever exist after Bitcoin.
Degen: A person who exists outside of the government system. Someone who is devoting their life to building web3, the metaverse and operates in a decentralized fashion.
DEGEN STYLE
Shirt by Anti Finance Finance Club
The fashion was incredible whew! Loved the read Mel!