Ethereum Freedom And Parisian Psychedelia: Reflections On EthCC[5]

THELOGICALINDIAN - Crypto Briefing active to the French basic to address on the fifth copy of Europes better Ethereum appointment

The Ethereum affectionate took over Paris for EthCC[5] this week.

EthCC Returns to Paris

This week, bags of builders, degens, and added cryptocurrency enthusiasts descended on Paris for the fifth copy of the Ethereum Community Conference (EthCC), Europe’s better Ethereum meet-up. In the years back EthCC launched, Ethereum has become a sprawling ecosystem captivation billions of dollars in bound value. It’s the capital hub for DeFi and NFTs and settles trillions of dollars in affairs annually. Though assorted competitors accept had moments in the sun over the accomplished year, Ethereum is still the better and best widely-used acute arrangement arrangement in the world, and its ascendancy over the blockchain ecosystem is such that assorted added Ethereum-adjacent networks tagged assimilate EthCC with their own ancillary contest this week.

Most crypto appointment attendees will accept that the befalling to affix with others at aftereffect parties is as abundant of a draw as the capital ticket, but alike with dozens to accept from this time around, EthCC itself had a lot to accumulate Ethereum enthusiasts occupied. The three-day accident accustomed speakers from some of the ecosystem’s top projects to Maison de la Mutualité, and appeal was so aerial that abounding top industry active were larboard ticketless.

The barbarous European heatwave larboard abounding bodies beat able-bodied afore the talks had captivated up on the aboriginal day, but the appointment alone seemed to advance as it went on. Several Layer 2 projects acclimated the break to advertise their assorted ZK-Rollup developments, and above the capital date the area was arranged with the accepted arrangement of stalls, their hosts dishing out t-shirts, NFTs, and Ethereum-branded macarons to anyone who’d stop by.

By far the most-attended allocution of the anniversary was the one from Vitalik Buterin himself. Contrary to his 2021 presentation on accretion Ethereum above DeFi, Buterin acclimated his 40-minute slot to go abysmal on what the network’s approaching will attending like afterwards the Merge and added above developments. The Ethereum architect explained that the agreement needs to affected a few hurdles to set itself up for the future, summarizing the angle as “short-term pain, abiding gain.”

Self-Sovereignty on Ethereum

Prysmatic Labs’ Terence Tsao acclimated his aperture to explain the complexities of the Merge to Proof-of-Stake, and PWN’s Josef Je alien himself as an aboriginal Silk Road fanboy angry Ethereum settler. After extolling the allowances of the psychedelics he’d acquired with Bitcoin on the aphotic web, he went on to ask admirers associates who advised themselves a “crypto native.” Most bodies aloft their hands, again he presented a account of the belief he anticipation bodies bare to accommodated to acquire such a title—significant crypto asset holdings, approved DeFi activity, and accepted crypto use for payments amid them. In added words, he was added or beneath analogue the self-sovereign, decentralized affairs that Ethereum makes possible.

Je was a diehard who subscribed to the freedom-first credo that sucks bodies into the amplitude forever, and I wasn’t afraid to apprehend the army auspicious as anon as he mentioned affective chemicals; blockchain ability be a almost new phenomenon, but it’s not adamantine to see the parallels it shares with the LSD-fueled counterculture movement of the 60s.

As for the affair schedule, there was added than abundant on action for those attractive to bake the candle at both ends. This was my aboriginal Ethereum conference, and I was taken ashamed by the cardinal of ETH admirers I met over the advance of the week. It seemed like Ethereum’s built-in asset was about everyone’s heaviest bag, to the admeasurement that conversations rarely affected on added ecosystems. This wasn’t the affectionate of cringeworthy maximalist army you acquisition overextension toxicity on Bitcoin Twitter; best of them addled me added as idealists who gravitated against Ethereum a while ago and never absolutely left.

A bang I ran into at MakerDAO’s DAIvinity affair told me he doesn’t attending above Ethereum or Layer 2 because dedicating his time abroad would be too abundant of a distraction, again he guided me through some of the best admired dejected dent NFTs he’d acquired and the bulk of ETH he’d spent on each. “I’m affronted I didn’t grab a Hoodie [Crypto]Punk back they were alone $200,000 the added week,” he sighed, accidentally pointing out the amazing allotment aboriginal birds accept enjoyed over the accomplished few years (ETH was priced at $0.30 back it launched in 2015 and topped $4,800 in backward 2021; today it trades closer to $1,600). The OpenSea baller wasn’t the alone one who fabricated it bright his adherence was to Ethereum. “What do you anticipate of Solana?” one degen asked me at a ConsenSys blessed hour. “I abhorrence it, but I’m bullish,” he said.

Paris by Night

Another affiliate of our aggregation aback concluded up at a affair that was mostly abounding with adventure capitalists and affected money types in artist apparel abrading amateur with one another; back he got there, he was greeted by a Palau government agent who shilled him the country’s recently-launched agenda ID program. The guy explained that it was accessible to get an ID and change one’s name to canyon Binance’s KYC restrictions. We looked into this afore we larboard Paris to see what we could dig up; our analysis is still ongoing.

Other than a cool easygoing Polychain-hosted accident accent by Justice, the hottest afterparty admission in boondocks was for rAAVE, Aave’s late-night soirée captivated a stone’s bandy from the Sacré-Cœur. I didn’t apprehend about Justice until afterwards the actuality but got into rAAVE because I was fast to get to the abstruse passcode that was appear during Stani Kulechov’s Lens Protocol talk; others had beneath luck. Inside was a attestation to Aave’s abode at the beginning of Ethereumland, with a sea of Aave-branded tees on appearance whenever the lights went up in abode of the aphotic dancefloor and lasers. At some point, I got talking to addition abroad who wrote crypto content, and again they larboard me on the dancefloor to ambit out some psilocybin from their friend. Again I accomplished it was abutting 02:00 and I had to be up for my Eurostar aback to London four hours later. Although I backward after than intended, at times rAAVE acquainted like added of an upmarket activity in the 8th arrondissement for bodies who anticipate clubbing involves canteen account and sparklers than the bathed throwdown it was aggravating to be (sorry guys, but it’s absolutely annoying back you applause in time with abode music, and why on apple was there a closed-off VIP breadth if this was meant to be a party?)

For the few canicule I was at EthCC, I heard little allocution of crypto prices. ETH came abutting to $1,600 during the accident afterwards dipping beneath $900 a ages prior, igniting hopes of a accessible continued Merge rally. But alike afterwards canicule of ETH outperforming the blow of the market, best bodies seemed added absorbed in talking about what they were alive on or the development updates appear at the event. Maybe it’s the months-long bazaar slump (ETH is still 66% bottomward from its peak) and boundless “macro” fears, or maybe it’s the burnout anybody is activity from account about bootless Ponzi schemes and adventuresome leveraged trading. Either way, whether ETH trades a assorted higher, lower, or at its accepted amount in July 2023, Ethereum—and EthCC—will still be around. The few thousand believers who flocked to Paris for this week’s appointment apparently aren’t activity anywhere either.

Disclosure: At the time of writing, the columnist of this allotment endemic ETH, AAVE, MATIC, and several added cryptocurrencies.