Kent Barton

The Ethereum Denver community turns 10 this year. What a ride! So...how'd we get here, and what's next? In 2014 this community was founded on two fundamental assumptions: 1.) That Ethereum would expand upon what Bitcoin started, furthering the cause of global freedom and providing a platform on which to build decentralized tools to hedge against the rising tide of authoritarianism. 2.) That Colorado was well-positioned to build upon its tradition of independent thinking & its frontier mindset, becoming a hub for blockchain builders & thinkers. A decade later, both these assumptions have been proven out beyond our wildest expectations. Ethereum Denver served as the grassroots foundation for ETHDENVER (@EthereumDenver), the world's most badass crypto gathering on the planet; Colorado's crypto-entrepreneur community is thriving and growing every year; and Ethereum itself has accomplished nearly everything it originally set out to do (plus much more), while adhering to its core value prop of maximal decentralization. Alas, the authoritarians are winning too. From calls to limit freedom of speech here in the states, to the death of free expression in the UK, to strongman regimes expanding power around the planet, the cause of global liberty is on the ropes. In this moment, Ethereum's censorship-resistance and permissionlessness is more essential than ever. With all this in mind, I'm super stoked to be relating the details of our next Ethereum Denver meetup, on August 20th. Your speaker: Josh David, of @Liberty_Rocks. The topic: The Cypherpunk and Crypto-Anarchy movement that big-banged the entire blockchain universe in the first place. You'll get a better understanding of this history, why these core values are so crucial to the future of this species, and how Cypherpunk principles can inform the next wave of building in the space. RSVP here: meetup.com/ethereum-denve… Many thanks to our sponsor @RenzoProtocol, who embodies the culture of building in Colorado. And mega-props to @taykendesign and our dear friends at Future of Web3 (@0xfw3), who are partnering on this event. There's a lot of grousing lately because Number isn't Going Up. Zoom Out, friends. Look what's been accomplished in 10 years, both within this humble community and across the broader blockchain world. Imagine how things might look in another decade as this momentum continues. Ignore the endless noise & shrill naysayers; the future is brighter than you can imagine.

Thanks for keeping the OG Ethereum Denver crew in mind, Spartan! As a point of clarification, Ethereum Denver and ETHDENVER are two separate entities. The meetup was a necessary precondition for ETHDENVER, but not a sufficient one. We had a thriving grassroots ecosystem thanks to multiple years of regular events and community-building. This provided ample kindling for someone to come along with an idea like "let's use this community as the foundation to build a global hackathon." That someone was @PallerJohn. Prior to this, we'd toyed with the idea of some kind of hackathon, but on a much smaller scale. John conceptualized ETHDENVER; Ethereum Denver threw its support, blood, sweat, and tears behind it; we were fortunate to have a rockstar veteran organizer thrown in the mix (@mmjustin); Opolis lent its support and resources; sponsors soon followed, and the rest is history (which was detailed nicely in the thread @0xjoshua linked below).

OG here. I'm super proud of ETHDENVER, both historically and in its current form. While I'm not an active organizer these days and can't take credit for the hard work of the team in recent years, I think it's still the best embodiment of the cypherpunk ethos that we have in the space. Hands-down. I understand missing the vibe and energy of the Sports Castle. Those days were special, and there's no doubt that the vibe shifted once we moved venues. ETHDENVER's growing size is ultimately a function of Ethereum's growing adoption and success over the years. Keeping things warm and inviting and fun, while also scaling up, is a tough challenge that the ED team has conquered. Yes it felt a little growing-pain-ish and awkward the first year over there, and there was a certain magic and critical mass of being in that smaller venue that's hard to replicate. Last year felt much more like our new home, with most of the wrinkles ironed out. And yes it does smell like Greeley. Or Ripple. There's a panopoly of ETH-related topics on the schedule this year, as always. OTOH there are people from non-ETH ecosystems as well. That's fantastic; we have a lot to learn from one another. (For instance, what can us in ETH land learn from UX improvements in SOL land?). Let's leave the mindless maximializing to the Jimmy Songs of the world. But despite the presence of other ecosystems, ETH remains the focus of the *vast* majority of talks. Of all the sponsors this year (150+)...only a handful are not ETH/EVM/ETH related. Ethereum Fucking Denver. What started as a small gathering in a dive bar about a very speculative technology has turned into a global event where 20,000 people show up to talk about building a better world. This is incredible! I still shake my head in disbelief every year seeing what that our little community turned into. Getting people together IRL is also the perfect antidote to the brutal and hostile nature of CT these days, where everyone seems to be attacking everyone else, and nobody cares what you have to say unless you're already well known. The hostility in all directions is a far cry from the punk-rock, come-as-you-are, us-against-the-world vibe that used to typify Ethereum...both online (usually reddit back in the day), and at meetups. As far as some paid sponsors getting talks, this is a function of the fact that ETHDENVER is (and always will be) free to attend, in the true spirit of Fuck Gatekeeping. Gotta pay for the event somehow. But the event remains a low-shill, high-signal-to-noise zone. 70% of the talks this year are merit-based and not connected to any paid sponsorship. No price discussions or meaningless hype. I touched on all this at last year's opening ceremonies...and don't feel like anything has changed in the meantime. If anything, the endless CT drama and negativity has made these types of IRL events even more important. If there's one thing to be concerned about, it's the fact that the Ethereum community (at least here on X, where the majority of discourse happens) is no longer a meritocracy of ideas...these days, it's difficult to propagate original thought if you're not already influential in the space. Yet Ethereum as a platform is a maximally permissionless place where builders can truly do whatever they want, without having to get anyone's approval. I worry that given how much discourse happens on CT, builders might lose sight of this fact and get discouraged as a result. I'm not active on X anymore, barring an timely discussion like this. It's a non-stop soap opera, hostility is everywhere, vapid hype is everywhere, and the signal/noise is atrocious. The knives are out in a way that reminds me of the BTC community circa the block-debate days. A lot of Ethereans are looking for blood because their preferred asset hasn't appreciated in price. Definitely not what I signed up for, and definitely not in the DNA of Ethereum Denver. Thankfully the surreal wonderland of ETHDENVER is the perfect antidote. Will most people leave the event inspired to build? Inspired to think deeper about making the world a freer, fairer, and more prosperous place? Fuck yeah. And that's success in my book. youtu.be/ONEkNCI2iyY?si…

@griffgreen imagine I walked into your town with a take like this, telling you what’s good in your local community where you have the actual connections. maybe ask around CO ogs and see what they truly think of what Ethdenver has become

ETHDenver's SporkDAO is the most successful Public Goods DAO in existence. Their regenerative model is best in class. It's free to attend & every attendee becomes a legal member of the DAO by staking SPORK. If there are profits, they are split amongst the stakers.

Did someone say @EthereumDenver Alpha Party? Excited to be joined by @seven7hwave @blondontherun @PallerJohn and other ETHDenver OGs on Dec 13th @VentureXUSA (3rd floor Milk Market) in LoDo. RSVP: lu.ma/EthDen25

It's beautiful / hilarious to watch the media slow-walk the results of states that were "called" by Poly an hour before. The wisdom of the crowd is showing how antiquated the old approach is, and also a good reminder that the media has a strong incentive to stretch out the drama and anticipation.

From 2016 -> 2024 the stack for watching election results has shifted from cable news + NYT needle to X feed + Polymarket. And holy moly is the latter better than the former.

@sbetamc @PulpSpy @Concordia @GinaCodySchool Congrats Shayan!

PhD progress: ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓ 100% ✅ #phdlife #lookMaImADoctor aaaand that's a wrap! 🎓 (Special thanks to @PulpSpy, @Concordia, and @GinaCodySchool )

There's something about this that makes me so happy. Harkens back to the days when rock shows weren't so scripted and polished, and crazy shit like this might break out at any given show. The first show I ever saw (GNR), Axl Rose left the venue in the middle of his set and a riot almost broke out. While Slash played a 45-minute guitar solo. Rock and roll. On a more serious note I hope Perry isn't experiencing any sort of relapses.

Best explanation I’ve seen so far re why Perry attacked his own guitarist (clips of which are all over my feed). The band basically played Perry off, robbed him of some vocal solo time (altho there’s obv some much deeper issues beneath surface). Great band tho.

holy fucking shit ENS has been on a tear this year. a recap for everyone who's been asleep: - Google search recognizes ENS names - GoDaddy supports DNS names in ENS - Uniswap & Coinbase have issued hundreds of thousands of subnames each and growing - and now fucking PayPal and Venmo support ENS names for sending crypto and you call this a bear market, anon? 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯

Great interview with @Justin_Gary about @SolforgeFusion just launching on @solana

@PatrickCamuso yes indeed ser

@seven7hwave We've come a very long way.

"Are ya winning, son?" Well, let's see... Bitcoin is inevitable. Ethereum is scaling to the world. Solana is inspiring. You wouldn't know it from the hysterics here on twitter, but we're most definitely fucking winning. Zoom out. Stop relying on influencers for your emotions.

success ≠ short-term price action success = long-term value accrual

As someone who was terrified when Trump invented false pretenses to try to steal the 2020 election, I feel you. Yet a few things make me think it's less likely Trump will do an about-face on crypto. 1.) Consider that abortion is either a winning or losing political issue, depending on which way the wind is blowing that particular election season. Not so with opposing crypto; there is no evidence of an actual "anti-crypto" army, and per some recent surveys about 1 in 7 Americans holds crypto. Thus, Trump has little to gain politically by suddenly switching teams. (This is forward-looking too; as soon as the corpse on the 2024 election has cooled, everyone will start focusing on the 2026 mid-terms). And financially, Fairshake isn't going anywhere; it's a massive presence now, and is likely to be in the future. (In fairness, one *could* argue that the large banks might exert enough leverage on Trump to make him flip back on crypto. But with the likes of Larry Fink in the industry's corner, monolithic opposition from Wall Street is no longer a thing.) 2.) Trump himself has used crypto for projects, holds crypto, and has surrounded himself with political actors who are also strongly pro-crypto. It's unlikely, for example, that a JD Vance or Vivek would support such a pivot. This stands to be a strong disincentive to turning on the industry. 3.) The open and free market paradigm of classical, Reagan-era conservatism is still a thing, and a strong strain in the GOP. It makes sense for this party to at least give lip service to the open markets of crypto–and as we've seen from the likes of Tom Emmer, this pro-industry stance is often supported with real pro-industry action in Congress. Meanwhile, the basic ethos that Harris seems to be espousing is one that rests on a *SUPER* vigorous role of the state. Crypto, in the view of Harris and her crew, is likely to be viewed as something that's anathema to their core values. (And she sure as hell hasn't done anything thus far to show that she feels otherwise.)

When he says now that he likes crypto, even though before he said he disliked it and his admin taxed it and prosecuted it, oh sure I believe him now, he’s always super-truthful, he’s never trying to con people by telling them whatever they want to hear. nytimes.com/2024/08/31/us/…

The top line of this propaganda poster is a quote from Mao during the Cultural Revolution - but it's equally at home in today's censorial environment. ""All wrong thoughts, all poisonous weeds, all demons and monsters, should be criticized. They must not be allowed to spread freely." The Chairman would be proud of his ideological ancestors in the EU, Brazil, and throughout much of the western world.

Almost every tweet in this thread is inaccurate. I'll respond and also provide a different framework for how people should think about scaling blockchains like Ethereum. What is true The rate of reward ETH validators earn has decreased over time because of 1. the continued rise of the ETH staking rate and 2. decrease in demand for mainnet tx's as activity moves to L2s. If you think that the reward rate that validators earn for securing the network is the most important thing, then stop reading now as we fundamentally disagree. What Justin got wrong 1. There are many approaches in motion for how to fix liquidity and composability. Based sequencing, chain & account abstraction (Socket), reimagining key management and commitments (OneBalance), intent protocols, scaled rollups (MegaETH), etc. The most obvious one is of course zk rollups with real time proving. This will give us immediate and seamless interop across L1, L2, and L3s. 2. Shared sequencing is not incentive incompatible - it would INCREASE the rate of reward earned by sequencers. Many L2s are working towards this. 3. All rollups are moving towards decentralization. Arbitrum is at stage 1 and already cannot censor or steal user funds, and Optimism and Base soon will be Stage 1. It should be no surprise that projects start off with training wheels and take them off as they become more secure and battle tested over time. 4. There is zero evidence to suggest that chains without onchain governance are somehow captured. If anything, the opposite is true - that things take too long because its hard to build rough consensus on major changes. 5. It is totally possible to also scale the L1. In fact, it's necessary! It doesn't kill the L2 value prop at all since no L1 will ever be able to handle all the worlds throughput on a single chain. For reference, just the NASDAQ does 25-50m trades per day. How to think about Ethereum Again, if all you care about is how much validators earn, then of course L2s sound terrible. But I think we should optimize for something different: for an ecosystem to support the maximum number of users while making it as inexpensive as possible for those users to transact. By that metric, the Ethereum ecosystem is the healthiest it has ever been and has been dramatically outpacing all others in its traction. L2s also give the biggest bang for the buck in terms of scalability vs cost. In the next year or two, we'll see most rollups be at Stage 2 and be able to sustain 1k+ TPS. Some will be higher at 10k or even 100k TPS while maintaining extremely low costs.

Interesting how the Europeans are steadfastly adamant about standing up to Putin, while emulating Putin himself. nytimes.com/2024/08/25/tec…

The community seems to desire more financial transparency from @ethereum. This is not rocket science. The EF needs to communicate more often, and in more detail. Then augment those communications with TXID's showing where the funds are going, and what they're going to be used for. At @ShapeShift DAO we set a *gold standard* for transparency around financials. Of all the things I've worked on in crypto, this is the one I'm most proud of. The core components included: - Weekly meetings about our budget. How much was in the treasury? What was the planned monthly spend? When would these funds be spent? - Spreadsheets showing itemized expenses, monthly drawdown, and total runway. - Constant references to our gnosis safe treasury and other on-chain data. "Don't take our word for it - look for yourself." - Regular strategy discussions outlining the community's plans in a public setting. Additionally: Remind everyone of why exactly the EF exists. This seems to have been lost over the years. That mission and vision shit is crucial. The community is eager for reassurance that the EF is pushing the ecosystem forward. We can do better, EF. Nobody should ever be caught off-guard by what's happening. JUST COMMUNICATE. Constantly.

The inflated egos, flaming tribalists, and incessant doomers of Crypto Twitter are a shoddy simulacrum of Crypto Reality. Much of what you see here is a distorted view of what's really happening, filtered through the lenses of influencers and the almighty algorithm. To take a more unadulterated pulse of this social and technological movement, go to a local event. Case in point: last night's Ethereum Denver / Future of Web3 meetup, where we heard from Josh of @Liberty_Rocks on the Cypherpunk and crypto-anarchy roots of crypto. Check out his site at liberty tools: (libertytools.io) Also: special thanks to @RenzoProtocol for sponsoring! These grassroots IRL events make me more bullish than ever for the future of crypto. The critical mass is here.

Great intro by @seven7hwave into a talk about crypto-anarchy and cypherpunks delivered by @Liberty_Rocks. @0xfw3 throws another fantastic meetup to connect the broader Colorado blockchain community. Tons of great faces here tonight, great to see so many familiar BUIDLers!