What bear market?
EthDenver is notable as being the occasion that kicks off convention season annually. It consists of a hackathon adopted by a convention and web3 #BUIDLers and corporations flock en mass to attach with different technologists, corporations and buyers on the occasion.
This yr there have been regarded as round 25,000 folks attending the convention, which is large. Each time I obtained in an Uber the motive 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 might really feel the heartbeat of web3 just by checking in on Reddit. Now there’s simply approach an excessive amount of occurring to maintain up with the whole lot — even in simply the Ethereum ecosystem. Nevertheless, there have been some very clear themes on the convention.
There have been mini summits in the course of the week overlaying 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, nonetheless, the progress being made right here is important.
Interoperability is an fascinating space, as all the assorted alt-layer one blockchains wish to discover seamless methods to switch property between each other, particularly Ethereum.
There are numerous varieties of interoperability between networks. The widespread theme we’re seeing is that just about each blockchain community needs to help Ethereum with the flexibility to execute EVM bytecode.
These networks then obtain better efficiency by creating layer 2 networks on them which might be secured by a base chain. Belongings may 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.
Essentially the most vital problem lies in transferring property between non-native networks — i.e. from one layer one community reminiscent of Ethereum to a different reminiscent of Polkadot. This usually includes an middleman that bares a lot of the chance related to property going between chains and is a major honeypot for attackers. As engaging as such a 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 could be to do that on the protocol layer, however options don’t exist to bridge throughout completely different layer one protocols at the moment.
While at EthDenver there was an actual buzz about all of the exercise going down right here, how lengthy the “layer 2 wars” go on is prone to be dictated by the adoption of ZK-EVMs that we see over the approaching months.
The groups engaged on this expertise all have vital runway, however I do not envisage a future the place we’ve many various layer 2 applied sciences getting used. As an illustration, on the present time, the lion’s share of complete worth locked in layer 2 networks is throughout Arbitrum, Polygon and Optimism.
Zero-knowledge applied sciences could also be underpinning the following technology of ZK-EVMs which might be about to be launched, however they’re additionally thought-about an important 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 going down on layer 2 networks will not be non-public between contributors. Though one might in concept create a non-public layer 2 community that might cover a few of the on-chain exercise.
One of these privateness will probably be a sport changer for customers of blockchain networks, nonetheless, it isn’t 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 prone to proceed to collect extra momentum within the years to come back.
Essentially the most unbelievable takeaway from EthDenver was how vibrant the Ethereum ecosystem is in 2023, particularly contemplating we’re in a so-called bear market. I’ve all the time liked being at Ethereum occasions reminiscent of DevCon, EdCon, EthCC and others, however had beforehand checked out EthDenver with a stage 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’s extremely dry!
