EthCC 2024: Impressions and Insights about the Biggest European Blockchain Conference

Hi, dear Hackernoon fam!

Daria Strategy here, and I want to share my impressions and insights from the recent EthCC [7]. It was my first EthCC and probably the biggest blockchain event I have ever attended. Similar in scale was Devconnect Istanbul in November 2023, but it didn’t have the main conference.

Ethereum Community Conference is the annual European Ethereum event focused on technology and community. It features 350+ speakers and 400+ side events during the week. The organizing team is from France, and six previous events were held in Paris. This year, because of the Olympic Games, it took place in Brussels.

EthCC covers many different subjects and addresses various levels of comprehension of blockchain technology through conferences and workshops.

Circle, Chainlink, ZKsync, Arbitrum, Optimism, Aave and Lens Protocol, Celestia, Espresso, Cartesi, OpenZeppelin, Aleo, Keyrock, 1inch, Clave, L2Beat, DYDX, DeGate, and many other companies and projects connected with Ethereum were present as sponsors, speakers and side event hosts. Solana, Cosmos, Berachain, and Polkadot were also there.

All these teams strive to add more flexibility, ownership, and opportunities to our daily lives with dApps and platforms built on blockchain.

The most hyped topics for discussion during the EthCC week

Speaking of trends and the hottest topics, I can highlight several discussed in the speeches, panels, and small talks (at least, in my bubble).

Here are a few of them:

Bad UX in Web3 and ways to fix it & Privacy + security and UX

A little over a year ago, at conferences and in podcasts, people started talking about the bad UX in decentralized applications and the barriers for mass users (btw, for developers, too). It was clear before, but around that time, it became evident TO EVERYONE. Usually, the speakers concluded that UX is still complex and that privacy and security cannot be neglected.

Account Abstraction is a super hyped topic now because it allows us to onboard the mass audience and turn all these people into blockchain users without pushing them to become crypto users. You can read my articles about AA and its role in building the Web3 Love Marks.

Bad UX is also connected with high gas fees, low speed of transactions, complex interfaces, increased security requirements and other issues that complicate the life of a mass user.

Infra wars + “We don't need so many chains/infra, but investors still invest.”

Large infrastructure blockchain projects compete with each other for the right to be "the best L2," have the highest TVL and have the most applications built in the ecosystem. This, on the one hand, stimulates technological progress and, on the other, creates tough discussions and battles, the fight for candidates and mutual accusations in social networks.

The struggle for investments also causes “wars” between infrastructure projects. Tens and hundreds of millions of dollars are invested in blockchain protocols, which stimulates the growth of the number of projects. Currently, some protocols on the market haven't a single project built on their chains. Investors do not yet see a large number of consumer products that could be invested in and have a successful exit.

To reach mass adoption, we need more straightforward and attractive products that reveal the benefits of the blockchain and are not other projects that are understandable only to their developers.

Zero-knowledge is the future for scaling Ethereum and building relatable systems

In cryptography, a zero-knowledge proof or zero-knowledge protocol is a method by which one party (the prover) can prove to another party (the verifier) that some given statement is true while avoiding conveying to the verifier any information beyond the mere fact of that statement's truth.

At the moment, the zero-knowledge concept is one of the most promising in the blockchain environment. Many projects research and implement this method to make their projects more relatable.

The most desirable merch was the Eli5 Book by ZKsync. One of the MatterLabs team members created this book for his kids, but it became viral among the blockchain community, first at ETHDenver and then at EthCC.

Using cute animals and a friendly tone of voice, the book explains how the mathematical concept of zero-knowledge works, which is used by the ZKsync team and many other teams to build blockchain logic and solve the problems of security, scalability, and speed.

Teaching the zero-knowledge concept has never been more engaging and enjoyable!

You can read an article, “Zero-Knowledge Hackathon Insights and Recommendations“, about my impressions and conclusions after participating in the ZK Hack hackathon.

Marketers are looking for cutting-edge technologies

AI and blockchain technologies give marketers and growth experts more tools to create content and interact with their audiences, as well as add more value to the projects.

Due to the features of the blockchain and increased privacy, Web3 product marketers have less information than their colleagues from the traditional fields. Analytical platforms that provide consolidated information from Google Analytics and onchain data are in high demand.

POAPs have already become an integral part of any blockchain event and are no longer a novelty, so now marketers are looking for other ways to interact with the audience.

Apple Vision Pro, with its superpowerful VR and spatial audio, AR technologies, game mechanics, loyalty programs with NFTs, and many other features, is waiting to be implemented in products’ promo campaigns.

How to avoid becoming a victim of a robbery in Brussels

Unfortunately, some people were robbed or touched in the streets. I know several people personally who have had their phones, wallets or bags stolen or been harassed by aggressive people. For this reason, on the second day, everyone was advised to hide their badges from the conference when walking outside. In addition, some individuals promoted “violent topics” in Brussels to get more engagement on Twitter.

Nevertheless, my impressions of the blockchain week were not spoiled because I was focused on attending events and meeting new people.

The most interesting from the EthCC week

As I mentioned above, in addition to the main conference, about 400 large and small side events took place during the week. Many said that Side events are more exciting than the main event. This is true, but thanks to the organizers of the main event, this week-long blockchain festival in the center of the European Union's capital became possible.

The great popularity of side events lies in people's desire not to waste time looking for the main stage but to have deep conversations with interesting people in a private environment.

The best morning event was the Builders' Brunch by Crypto Girls Club. Many people build DeFi products for the B2C audience and care about UX and product marketing. The representatives of MetaMask, WalletConnect, Safe, EigenLayer, and others discussed their solutions to make DeFi products more accessible and attractive to the mass user.

The best events for top-notch networking were Modular Security Debate by Cartesi and Open Finance Day by Aave in collaboration with Chainlink, Uniswap and Aptos. The organizers of both events managed to gather outstanding speakers and attract many interesting people.

At Cartesi’s event, I was happy to meet David Hoffman from the Bankless Show (the most popular YouTube channel about blockchain and crypto).

Female-friendly Blockchain Week

This Blockchain Week has attracted so many women! Even though it is still quite difficult for women to build a career in the blockchain and crypto fields, this year's EthCC showed that this is temporary. Marketing (brand, PR, community) and DevRel are the most popular (so far) female professions in the field. That said, I know a lot of female founders, as well as engineers, cryptographers, and mathematicians.

The most girlish event, at which I met many Twitter friends IRL, was the SheFi Summit at The Merode (the private members' club in the heart of Brussels).

Maggie Love and her team gathered the best ladies in web3, inspired them and gave them a feeling of belonging. The SheFi community is empowering and collaborative. By the way, there were many men at the event, too.

Parties and fun at EthCC

The blockchain community is famous for its parties. It's a way to make informal connections and relax after technical presentations and workshops. I know many people are against parties at tech events, but I believe any form of interaction that creates new quality connections has a right to exist.

I attended two parties during the week, and they were great!

The Clave team organized ZK Sante, the gathering for the ZKsync community in an old and authentic food hall with good drinks and snacks. Seeing many familiar faces and chatting with awesome people was a pleasure!

Another evening event was a hyped and stylish rAave that had many beautiful people and good music. The Avara team organized the party with passion and attention to detail. We had to dress according to the black-red-rose dress code. In the picture you can see our looks that got a lot of compliments.

Conclusions

If you missed EthCC, this is the link to all the speeches: https://ethcc.io/archive

Such big and diverse events allow you to meet many people and reunite with old friends you met at Ethereum conferences in other capitals. The opportunities arise when you stay in touch and build deep relationships with people who share your values and goals. Many teams impressed me with professionalism, builders' mindsets, communication, and good vibes.

• Learning cutting-edge blockchain concepts and product ideas from the top people in the industry. Done!
• Dancing at a rave with people you've been following for a year? Easy!
• Agreeing to create a new branch of the well-known Web3 community? Of course, I'm in!
• Discussing the plans for the future while eating burgers with someone many engineers seek advice from? Yep!
  

This crazy and insightful week in Brussels reaffirmed that being open, collaborative, and authentic is vital in the Ethereum community, the profession, and everything you do 💫 I'm super happy to be part of a future where every individual will have financial freedom and choice like never before. The next EthCC will take place in Cannes.

Here is a short video to share the atmosphere and vibes of the blockchain week in Brussels:

Announcement

This year, I joined the team of organizers of ETHWarsaw, the conference and hackathon. September 5-8 will become the main event during the Warsaw Blockchain Week. The venue for this event is the vibrant district - Browary Warszawskie. I invite everyone interested in Ethereum and the possibilities of its tech stack to join us. More details are on the website: https://www.ethwarsaw.dev

This is the video of my speech at ETHWarsaw in 2023. I shared insights about building brands for Web3 startups:

Read my previous articles about making blockchain as popular as AI, launching a Web3 Project in 2024, and the challenges of the Web3 hiring culture.

Follow me on social media: LinkedIn, X, and YouTube.