What is Devcon and ETHGlobal?

Many people around me might wonder why I am ditching my final week of school and assignments to participate in some random event in Bangkok. The only simple answer I can give them is that I’ll be going there to do “Ethereum Stuff,” and the said “Ethereum Stuff” is one of the world’s largest conferences that is happening bi-yearly and the largest Ethereum hackathon ever held.

These 2 crazy events happening all in one week in Bangkok are enough for me to be pulled over like a strong magnet placed in the heart of Thailand. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, within the Ethereum / Web3 ecosystem will be gathered in one place and talking, mingling about the same topics, and learning the latest updates about the ecosystem together.

Before Devcon + ETH Global, I was in Malaysia looking at everyone hyping up about the event, and the Road to Devcon initiative came. We at APUBCC have secured grants for 4 of our Road to Devcon Bootcamps, where participants upskill themselves in Web3 knowledge and development skills to prepare themselves better for Devcon and the ETH Global hackathon. I was tasked with being the Project Manager for one of the boot camps (Web3 Developer: Coding the Unknown) during my term at APUBCC, where we upskilled the members. We’re Web3 development skills through a series of workshops and talks.

Through this, I have seen Devcon's impact on my local community, which has allowed me to contribute to the forces that better prepare everyone for Devcon 7 and ETH Global Bangkok.

Event Highlights

Devcon 7 SEA

Devcon 7 SEA was an eye-opening conference when I entered the registration booth on the first day. You can see the quality of the event from the decorations, workshop topics, panel topics, food, booths, and everything else truly reflects the preparation that the Devcon team has done the whole year that led us to this day. One of the highlights was the event had not one, not two, but THREE whole floors prepared for the participants to eat, mingle, and learn within the conference so that we could make our ticket price worth it.

Other than that, countless booths set up by companies, protocols, and more give the participants updates about their companies and cool swags to take home. On the first day, you can see hundreds of people lining up for swags in the area where the booths are set up.

But these booths are not only to secure swags alone; they are there for us/me to learn more about what they do, what impact they bring to the ecosystem, and maybe even secure job opportunities and make new friends as everyone over at Devcon was friendly and did not show an ounce of arrogance even if they are from some well-established protocol.

Notable Takeaways from Talks

Below are the talks that I have sat and listened to. They might not be long talks or even workshops, but they are lightning talks that ‘struck’ my interest and impacted me after listening to them.

Building Developer Communities 101

I have always taken part in building communities such as APUBCC and Notion@APU. I also enjoy joining Web2 local developer community events such as MongoDB User Group KL, AWS User Group Malaysia, and many more. So, to further increase my knowledge and experience in building successful developer communities, this lightning talk has left me with insights to apply.

Gnana Lakshmi conducted this talk. Kudos to her for highlighting so many key points in a few minutes.

The key takeaways from this talk are:

• Finding your developer persona. ( Who is your audience? )

  • We need to find out our audience levels (Non-Developer → Experts)

  • To have a successful community event, you need to at least get your audience to possess some basic knowledge in the field so that everyone can understand the topics and have fruitful discussions.

• Building a Journey for your community

  • How will these people learn from your community?

  • Ensure the journey has an end goal (e.g., A job, project, connections, funding)

  • Make it clear what your community offers (e.g., Networking, Education, Entrepreneurship support)

• Collaboration Leads to success.

  • Collaboration with other communities is very important (e.g., how APUBCC collaborates with other University Blockchain Clubs in Malaysia to create a bigger impact in the local blockchain space.)

• Long term sustainability

  • How do you incentivize the people that are building your community?

  • Think about the benefits that can make your community last long and survive while being satisfied.

• Community is all about people.

  • Start small and build from there. It can be as simple as talking to a developer from a minor startup to share about the community.

  • It does not matter if your community has 100,000 people. We need quality, not quantity; we need people who come over and share developer insights or updates in the ecosystem, not people who only come for free food and swags.

“My mother will not use it”

This talk is about usability for the older generation and was based on a Twitter post that highlighted another guy saying that his mom won’t use crypto💀

This talk highlights the usability aspect of Web3, which I am trying to focus on for most of my hackathon projects. One of the main goals of usability is to onboard people to Web3, not necessarily our mothers seamlessly.

This talk was conducted by Nuno Loureiro, kudos to him as well.

The key takeaways from this talk are:

• The previous generations have high trust in institutions and corporations and not that much in decentralization

• Gen Z and Millenials are the Ultimate adopters and customers of Web3

• We need to focus on the younger generation

  • It is not only the older generations; it can be the younger teenagers or even kids.

• Design your approaches with critical thinking. Think beyond what is presented to the user, and consider how easy it will be for the user to use your product.

• Profile your users and understand them better to learn what turns them on.

What DeFi Founders Can Learn From Web2

This talk discusses some of Web2's values and basic economics that the countless founders of Web3 today can learn from.

Mike Silagadze, the founder of ether.fi, conducted this talk. Kudos to him for such an insightful talk.

The key takeaways from this talk are:

• The current issue with crypto is that there is way too much money in the space, which prevents real products from coming out.

• Cryptocurrency's main business model is printing casino chips and taking a rake from it. This means that all business models in crypto are fast-paced for the consumer, who treats it like a casino.

• Your product needs to retain customers to cover the revenue lost.

• Everything needs to be measurable.

  • You need to measure what makes your project needs to be considered successful or viable.

• Social Media, such as Twitter and Word of Mouth, can be the best customer acquisition methods for projects or protocols.

ETH Global Bangkok

ETH Global Bangkok was my first Global Ethereum Hackathon and definitely not my last! With 1950 Hackers, 713 Projects, and 86 Countries, it is also one of the biggest hackathons I have participated in. There are 68+ Protocols and Sponsors, leading to a total prize pool of $750,000. This gathered the attention of people all around the world, including myself.

The project that my team has submitted for ETH Global Bangkok is named “Butter” where we optimize the side event experience for people using AI recommendations to find out which event suits them most based on their interests, along with cool features on the side like stake to participate and gamified reputations. Our tech stack includes writing Smart Contracts in Cadence on the Flow Blockchain, World for human verification, Privy for connecting wallets, Hyperbolic for their AI Models, and utilizing the Nouns API for the profile pictures.

Unfortunately, my team did not secure any placements within all the bounties available, but my team managed to secure the Developer Feedback Bounty from Flow and Pool Prize from World. This was a great learning experience as the people at ETH Global Bangkok were all helpful, friendly, and supportive of our ideas and projects. This was highlighted when we faced issues for our Cadence smart contract interactions, where my teammate sat down with the Flow team and troubleshoot the issue together.

The swags from ETH Global Bangkok were also amazing and high-quality; the ETH Global Bangkok Hacker Pack and customized swags from the Protocol Sponsor Booths were also interesting to collect and bring home as souvenirs.

Notable Mentions for swags from ETH Global Bangkok are:

• Elephant Shirt from ETH Global

• Hoodie from Nethermind

• Hotsauce from Storacha

• Muay Thai Pants from CurveGrid

• Moo Deng Shirt from Flow

• Inflatable Bed and Blanket from Chilliz

• Elephant Pants from Coinbase

• and many more…

Kudos to the ETH Global Team for preparing an amazing venue and facilities, such as free massages, for us hackers to enjoy and indulge in after our many hours of hacking.

Key Takeaways for this Trip and Closing

After all of the above, I would like to conclude my article with some key takeaways that I have “taken away” from Devcon 7 SEA and ETH Global Bangkok:

• Do not hesitate to attend conferences like Devcon because of their above-average ticket prices; they always provide scholar programs or alternate pricing categories (e.g., local builder prices).

• Once you’re at Devcon or any conference, discard the idea that you know everything and approach everyone with a humble and open mind, ready for new concepts, ideas, or even knowledge.

• Talk to anybody and everybody, networking in general. You won’t know what opportunities you will get, such as job opportunities, collaboration opportunities for your local communities, etc.

• Once you face a problem, never hesitate to ask for help in hackathons or even your daily lives. The people over at the hackathon sponsor booths will always be willing to help you because you are willing to learn their technology and contribute to their ecosystem. This is a better way to approach your problems than sitting around fighting with your LLM to solve the problem.

• Have a structured plan to tackle your week packed with Conferences, Events, and hackathons. Having a plan and schedule allows you to utilize 100% of your trip’s time, generate meaningful connections within the main events, and have fun in the trip’s destinations as a tourist.

• Most importantly, have fun. Life is not all about jobs, hackathons, or technology. These conferences always have side events that allow you to release your pent-up stress, such as parties and healthy social events to break free from your career-focused day-to-day lifestyle. Or you could even explore the city where the conference is held and enjoy the time spent with your friends and loved ones.

• **Pack lightly for any Web3 Conference or Hackathon, as your luggage will be filled with swags and merchandise once the week has ended.

In conclusion, I would like to thank the organizing teams from Devcon and ETH Global for such a groundbreaking and eye-opening conference and hackathon.

To anyone reading this, never hesitate to try out new stuff, such as Web3 Hackathons (if you’re from Web2), attend events or meetups from your local communities (e.g., ETHKL for Malaysians), talk to random scary outsiders you meet at events, and BUIDL towards the future!