ETH Denver attendee comments: DeFi is no longer the only use case for crypto, ZK is still an important narrative
Original author: CRV.MKTCAP.ETH
Original compilation: Deep Chao TechFlow
The ETH Denver (Denver) conference was held recently. The conference is huge, larger than ETH-CC.
So the whole event actually becomes a choose your own adventure experience where you create your own information cocoon.
We had a better idea to capture a wider range of experiences. We asked everyone we came into contact with during the conference to submit their experiences. Most told me to fuck off, but 21 people were willing to tell me how they felt.
What follows is their account.
Scoopy Trooples，AlchemixFounder
ETH Denver is a huge celebration.
Weve emerged from the bear market, and friends and colleagues are coming together to get excited about what were building and our future as an industry.
With each bear market we survive, our bond grows stronger. The amount of development happening in the Ethereum ecosystem is staggering, and honestly, it’s moving at a pace that’s hard to keep up with.
We thank everyone who attended the Alchemix event in partnership with Rare Evo, Premia, Silo and Certora. See you next year, Denver.
LogarithmicRex，StrangeH 2 OPodmember
ETH Denver once again delivers on its promise: bringing the Western cryptocurrency community together to meet face-to-face. It’s hard to overstate the importance of face-to-face meetings to the industry, perhaps because our industry is more accustomed to online events. No other event comes close to ETH Denver in terms of density and momentum.
Specifically, the main takeaway from ETH Denver 2024 is that much of the energy this week has been diverted away from the main event and towards single-day/half-day mini-conferences, and I’d go so far as to say there are too many mini-conferences. Everyone feels like theyre missing out on something important. The main event has also been affected, being much smaller and with less eye-catching stands. I wonder how long ETH Denver will remain dominant.
Finally, Ive noticed that the energy this year has been more focused on infrastructure and ZK; while DeFi still has a strong presence, Im starting to see signs that were moving away from the DeFi is the only use case for crypto era.
DeFi Dave，Flywheel DeFimember
My two takeaways are:
DeFi as an area of crypto is maturing and growing rapidly. Much of the conversation at Stable Summit revolves around RWA, and youll see more agency-friendly projects and participants coming soon. It may not be as crazy as it used to be, but its more sustainable and shows that we can grow as long as we keep our core ethos of openness, positivity, and collaboration and not bow too much to the old world.
Crypto x AI is not a gimmick but a real synergy. Just as blockchain enables self-sovereign currency, it also enables self-sovereign intelligence. This is increasingly important as the risks of centralized AI pose a threat to our privacy and our children’s future understanding of the world. I hope we still have time to rectify the situation, but for now, it would be in our interest not to cringe every time we hear about artificial intelligence and to do our due diligence on worthwhile endeavors.
Jack Melnick，PolygonHead of DeFi
Key takeaway: Denver’s energy is better than it has been in years. People are clearly ecstatic to emerge from a secular bear market, and are enjoying a sense of exploration and creativity after a long period of heads-down construction (the same goes for me!)
My favorite part is exploring some new areas that will obviously be major themes this cycle:
native income
Rollups/L2
Cross-chain messaging/modular interoperability
PVP games and the new Ponzi economy
More thoughtful consumer-facing products
Plenty of new DeFi applications
One of my biggest takeaways is that we have so many generic L2s. The bottom line is that sequencer fees for these general purpose chains will approach zero over a 3-5 year timeframe or even longer.
So you should really want to achieve some level of specialization, whether thats as an application chain or as a vertical-specific chain, and not compete with everyone else for the same space. A million identical L2s will only cause fragmentation, no matter how you interpret it.
So, as an extension, I think I have the most fun improvising in meetings with smart people who clearly feel motivated to contribute again after burning out the last cycle. I think in two days we probably came up with over 25 new CDK chain ideas, all of which were highly specialized.
Darren Camas，IPOR LabsCEO and co-founder of
ETH Denver is a mixed market with some excitement, but an overabundance of infrastructure, and underrepresentation of DApps and end users. Around the main venue, I was shocked to see the prevalence of infrastructure projects from L2 to DApp chains to cross-chain infrastructure.
What is missing are users who engage in on-chain activity in addition to memecoin speculation. This reflects VC investment in infrastructure, where the best DApps can generate multiples of returns, but infrastructure can command multi-billion dollar valuations. I cant help but compare it to building a ghost town, where everyone buys property, all the roads are paved, sewer lines are installed, the valuations are high, but no one lives there. When people start selling their ghost town properties, well see the economy shrink back to a safe state.
My main interest lies in the rehypothecation narrative. As LRT sucks away liquidity from DeFi, re-staking is inevitable as the space overuses points while ignoring rewards and, more importantly, risk. Several major LRT protocols claim to be players in the emerging bond market, with varying investment grade characteristics and structures, ranging from market platforms to highly curated validator sets.
Our job at IPOR Labs is to understand, quantify and contextualize risk in interest rates or repricing rates
Our job at IPOR Labs is to understand, quantify and contextualize risk in terms of interest rates or rehypothecation rates so the current lack of data availability is a huge opportunity but also a huge challenge and risk assessment that most people in the market But he didnt know it. I suspect there will likely be several significant capital losses before the market starts to fully price in the re-hypothecation opportunity. This is where the opportunity lies for the IPOR protocol, which will become a credit default swap market similar to LRT.
Corey Caplan，Dolomite_ioFounder
Overall, it was a strong meet. While I think the recent price action will attract more moon boys, its actually more about encouraging more builders to come on board. There is a lot of innovation happening, and the industry is eager to work together to drive progress.
Ive also noticed that people are more focused on risk management and generally more self-aware of what they are building and how risk is introduced.
Eomji Park，Encode ClubHead of Research and Operations
ETH Denver demonstrates the resilience and vitality of the community that continues to survive a bear market. The event highlights committed builders who are deeply involved in technological innovation.
The focus is still more on infrastructure than applications, and there is a noticeable lack of compelling applications. There is widespread recognition of the need to bring more developers into the ecosystem, but there are shortcomings in sustaining this growing influx of activity and opportunities. Solving this problem is the responsibility of everyone involved.
Despite the challenges, the presence of smart and passionate individuals dedicated to pushing web3 further is a source of inspiration. Their efforts may have an impact in technology areas beyond the boundaries of web3.
Wavey 0x，Yearn Financecore developer
Were still in the early stages. Not all the technologies that are being touted are ready for practical use.
As always, the best part about ETH Denver is the people. It’s best to interact with people who are deep into the same defi niche as you.
Prioritize meeting people instead of spending time on the main event.
Also, I think EigenLayer is overrated.
Marco Worms, Yearn Finance documentation
The ETH Denver Hackathon was a big boost for EVM talent, in my opinion the best part of the event was being able to meet the technical staff
Even though the United States has been struggling with cryptocurrencies, Americans still seem to be trying to be at the forefront of the market thanks to events like this. Many great developers were in attendance at the event, and Im glad to be here
Navy Innovator
ETH Denver feels quieter than last year, which is somewhat surprising. Im not sure why, but as an experience it was better because many of the talks were attended by a few dozen people (or less), which meant it was easier to talk to the speakers afterwards. I love meeting people at conferences and think thats the best part, but I dont need to meet 25,000 people, and a smaller crowd makes me less fatigued in a way.
AI was even more prominent in this year’s speech, even more so than at ETH CC 6 months ago, when account abstraction was a major focus. In a lecture, the speaker launched a permissionless GPT within 5 minutes, using idle A 100 resources for rent. Crypto gaming and Farcaster were also major topics of conversation.
Bitcoin enthusiasts are out in force and it looks like there’s finally a lot of construction on L2. We like to see this, and the best decentralization includes multiple technologies.
Overall, the field is getting bigger and developers are becoming more niche, and even subcategories like Curve-based DeFi can’t all keep up. ETH Denver is all about meeting people; it makes the whole crypto experience more meaningful than the numbers going up (and we love the numbers going up, too).
Figue ，Paladin Votemember
This meeting was a perfect example of where a calm ends and a storm begins. Every project is being launched and people are getting excited again. New users are finally coming back and theres real institutional interest, which is much more advanced than simply trying it out.
I see something, things are going to get really crazy this year
Billy，Term LabsCo-founder
After watching BTC surge to $60,000 on my flight on Wednesday morning, I knew there would be a lot of energy. Builder good vibes and optimism are almost as high as prices.
In addition to price increases, major topics include: founders discuss successful fundraising, LPs looking to deploy more capital in DeFi, EigenLayer changing the landscape of Ethereum, LRT, risks associated with AVS listing, points people are mining, What impact will the success of Ethena have on perpetual rates, the release of Blast, the massive changes in Bitcoin ordinarys and the promise of Bitcoin becoming more expressive via L2.
Derek, Certoraverifier
This year’s ETH Denver was a lot more lively than last year. There were tons of side events, tons of new protocols and startups, and a slew of institutions weathering the crypto winter. The energy of the conference seemed to be matched by the sharp rise in BTC and ETH prices during the same period. Winter is behind us and we are in the midst of a booming crypto spring.
What was most interesting to me was the aesthetic of the venue, company and attendees. This year was in some ways more corporate than previous cryptocurrency conferences I’ve attended. The 80s aesthetic of the Curve.fi web interface is outdated, replaced by a sleek, clean, Apple-esque corporate aesthetic (especially since Coinbase set up a booth that looks and feels like an Apple store). The company is growing in adoption, revenue, legitimacy, and entry into mainstream culture.
The great thing and the greatest joy for all of us is that we are still full of extremely smart and motivated builders. Much of the previous hype seems to have dissipated, and most of the ideas I encountered at this conference were real, research-based innovations, from ZK proofs and verification computations, to Rollup-based scalability and interoperability, to formal tools for auditing and formal verification. The aesthetic may be playful and informal, but were here and building something real.
Kostiantyn, FinTech Product Lead at Dev.Pro
Stablecoins now have risk characteristics, so anyone will find something that fits their needs:
Circle: Conservative, does not share profits with holders
Ondo: Conservative, but share profits
Ethena: Carnival mode, offering 25% APR
USDT + USDC = 96% of stablecoin market cap = risk to the industry and its decentralization. It shouldnt be like this.
Tokenization in 2024: Treasurys and Stablecoins Will Dominate Transaction Volumes. Real estate and art will lead innovation.
Interoperability is king. Blockchains and protocols should be able to conduct transactions seamlessly.
In 2024, Asia will be a major driver of blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
Institutions are catching up: Citibank conducted a digital asset pilot and JPMorgan Chase has billions of dollars in daily trading volume.
Industry agnostic? Is it really possible to be industry agnostic today? - uncertain.
Private networks were a thing of a few years ago. Today, public networks with permissions and levels of privacy are a reality.
Simply building technology is not enough. Getting regulators to approve this technology is a big deal.
RWA is not actually a retail product. In a bull market, retail investors are not interested in 5% annual interest rates. In a bear market, things will change.
It is predicted (or hoped) that the United States will bring stablecoins into regulation in 2024.
In 2017, the brand promise of tokenization was better liquidity. Today we see that this is not the case. Liquidity has improved, but liquidity is not good. Things with poor liquidity in the real world are still illiquid on the chain. Tokenization is really about efficiency, cost optimization, speed, transparency and security.
Tokenization is beneficial for things that can only exist in the physical world, and for things that can be digitally native, it should be digitally native. Currency is a good example of something that should ultimately be digitally native rather than tokenized.
A new generation is coming that has grown up as digital natives, accustomed to the speed, convenience and affordability of the digital world. Imagine what happens when they try to open a US bank account and pay the 3% wire transfer fee and wait 5 days for it to arrive at their destination. They will resist, which will further drive blockchain adoption.
Alan Scott ，RAILGUN_ProjectAdministrator of
My interactions with crypto enthusiasts and builders are generally online. On Discord, Telegram, Twitter, and if I’m lucky, some video conference calls. Thats what makes conferences like ETHDenver so engaging, where hackers, speculators, and VCs all come to a city to talk about their adventures in the space.
I’m still trying to digest this week of “alpha.” Talking to deafening music and speaking at conferences. One thing is for sure: memes are back in full force. $MOG, $PEPE, $WIF, random NFT collectibles, everyone has something they’re excited about that they want to promote. I still laugh at people trying to find a way to invest in Bera. All of the above tells me that people are excited to speculate again.
What Im really here for is meeting other developers in the field. Most of the interesting conversations happen during quiet lunch hours. The most thought-provoking conversations I’ve had are about privacy, smart contract design, malicious holders, and more.
All that said, Im most interested in web3 security type protocols, especially those that claim to be able to pre-empt malicious transactions. Additionally, there are wallets with transaction simulation and quick-response alert features to identify pitfalls and information aggregation efforts of various companies to better serve the community. More end-user security means (hopefully) more adoption, but that makes me feel like it might encourage worse architecture. Like sending millions of dollars to anonymous multisig accounts because of the hype.
I have a love-hate relationship with ETH Denver. Im a little bothered playing Lu.ma Go Fish with my net friends. The lack of Ubers and pricey food was a bit of a shame, but I know Ill be back again. Thousands of like-minded people gather in the same city for reasons that are almost impossible to explain in words.
Zach ， Party Action PeopleFounder
We have been absolutely blown away by the response to the unStable Summit. Nearly 600 people attended, with nearly every major L1, L2, stablecoin, and lending protocol represented. One clear takeaway is that serious people believe stablecoins and RWAs are key to the narrative.
As my first time attending the wider ETHDenver conference I finally understand why there is so much hype and it has been one of the most productive conference weeks we have ever attended with everyone here. Denver is an amazing city too and we had great weather.
Taariq Lewis, a member of Volume Finance
My conclusion from ETHDenver is that we are competing for higher yield ETH! What would the world look like when every ETH tried to outperform regular staked ETH to gain the highest yields and points?
ETH Denvers event showcasing some LRT and LST attracted a large audience, and the founder of EigenLayer was nicknamed the Brad Pitt (an actor) of cryptocurrency. The race for the highest yielding ETH has begun, driven by security and financial leverage.
Aiham，Silo FinanceFounding team
ETH Denver was a huge success. Most members of Silos core contributing team met for the first time since the founding of SiloDAO. We meet with many partners, users, and community members, which is especially important for our engineering team since they rarely have contact with the community.
What we gained:
We have received a lot of love from the team, projects, and the entire community, which will inspire us to better serve the DeFI ecosystem.
For the first time in two years, we are experiencing incredibly positive sentiment towards the entire ecosystem.
Innovation returns to the ecosystem.
Tao，Aladdin DAOmember
This is my second time attending ETH Denver.
The first time, I attended as a developer. The main meeting was not well prepared as the internet connection was poor and the food was expensive. However, there are many hackhouses that encourage the developer community, especially the Huma Finance hackhouse. They offer free coffee, free food, fast internet, and bonuses, and they know exactly what developers need. I want to thank them for making ETHDenver more user-friendly.
This year, Im taking on more of a business development role with Aladdin Dao, promoting our newest product, $fxUSD from f(x) Protocol. This was also my first time speaking at the Unstable Summit. I’m excited to meet all the DeFi enthusiasts.
While DeFi may not be the hottest topic of the year like AI or BTC Layer 2, the overall DeFi industry is still growing rapidly.
Samuel McCulloch， FlywheelandLeviathan Newsa member of
Everything about ETH Denver can be summed up with this graph, showing the amount of monthly VC funding over the past 3 years.
After peaking in 2021/2, new funding for projects has largely dried up, and the impact on the largest cryptocurrency event in the United States is clear. The lavish parties are gone (except for Berapalooza), the main events have fewer booths and fewer attendees.
Low profile. This is how I feel about ETH Denver this year. Despite all-time high prices, new money has yet to flow into large-scale projects on the scale we saw during the last bull market. I guess we still have the hangover from FTXs bankruptcy, and regulation in the US isnt any better now than it was before. DeFi is not the big narrative this year, but artificial intelligence and re-hypothecation. The former is untested, yet to go through cycles, and is simply relying on Open AI’s $7 trillion valuation. The latter is just an industrial-scale airdrop with no revenue and use cases yet, it’s a multi-billion dollar airdrop farm.
That’s not to say things won’t change, but the calmness toward cryptocurrencies has been on full display this week.
Alex Golubitsky, Founder of MetaLeX
Another great ETH Denver! Although I purchased tickets to the main event, I never made it to the convention itself. The side events were as exciting as ever. The biggest insights I gained from this event are:
Governance is the primary focus of the project
Stablecoins have generated significant interest from market participants, and there is interest in basis swap-denominated stablecoins
ZK remains an important narrative
Interest in L2 and alternatives to L1 remains high
As for the conference itself, my biggest concern is that it will no longer be a single event, but a series of related events. While the quality of related activities is probably the highest it has ever been, I worry that the community is becoming insular and due to this there are fewer opportunities for collaboration between groups that dont interact regularly.
