Kent Barton - An Opening Ceremony Discussion

I'm gonna turn the microphone over to Kent Barton the founder of the etherium Denver Meetup which is where this all spawned from actually so if you don't know who I am I'm John I'm one of the stewards here and we're gonna go ahead and just jump right in to the to the opening ceremonies program thank you John take it over so welcome everybody to the third iteration of each Denver we're super glad you're here we've been so excited getting ready for this it's like a LA but several weeks three months for some people of chaos but it's all worth it so thank you whether you're from the city or the state or another state or abroad you are what make this makes this awesome quick intro like John mentioned my name is Kent I'm wearing my buffer cord a handkerchief so that must must mean I'm gonna be the emcee this weekend I do R&D stuff at shape-shift as he mentioned I started the etherium community here about six years ago you might see on me on Twitter or reddit at seventh wave speaking of Twitter all the maximalists on Twitter were telling me that aetherium is dying a protracted and sure death and developers were leaving in droves so we're actually expecting maybe like ten people to show up but we have a fair bit more so it appears the maximalists were completely wrong so quick shout out we just saw something awesome so here's the thing the world has changed before our eyes right now we're seeing societal transformation by virtue of this technology for example what we just saw earlier with two state governors joining us the world is getting involved in crypto it's a far cry from where we were six six years ago Colorado in particular is a fertile ground for blockchain development and I as we dig in I wanted to give a quick shout-out to some crypto companies that make it so special to be here radar relay the decks and node infrastructure I've seen many radar people here electric coin company I don't know if Zuko's in the house but we're all familiar with Z cash appleís flexible employment benefits for the future Austin Griffith I feel whereas often I feel like Austin is a company unto himself he is that prolific we're gonna hear from him shortly davic sin feel well inter wallet operability making addition solving some very pressing needs with respect to ux in blockchains the mighty shape-shift non-custodial asset management in a nice sexy and frictionless platform get coin kevin is here today i just had a second child kevin is here in colorado and yet coin of course is revolutionizing how digital funding works at blockchains i also want to point out that here in denver we're building on the shoulders of giants sorry wrong Satoshi there there we go we're building on this on the shoulders of giants I here in Denver there is an amazing Bitcoin community prior to anything really related and what you see here is very much an outgrowth of that original community so shout out to the old old OGS and the Denver Bitcoin Center so one thing they I think keep in mind even though we're seeing this mainstream transformation is at the core a third name is cyberpunk it's cyberpunk is hell you know today people are doing things like making private transactions now with Aztec there they're escaping the vagaries of central bank money printing thanks to Dao or I'm sorry make her Dao and the dye a lot of the values of cyberpunk are coming to life thanks to etherion in 1993 Eric Hughes Road and the cypherpunk manifesto that information doesn't just want to be free it longs to be free and we really try to embody that eat eat Denver it literally is free to attend as you know it is free of charge thanks to our awesome sponsors who will here tonight but this is this stuff is too important to keep caged up in siloed it's very we believe in open source so ultimately why are we here you know to hang out network meet people watch a buffer cords hanging out with governors and other elected officials perhaps but ultimately it's to build cool things and what is it about aetherium that makes it so so fun to build on what is the power of crypto this is a quote from brett ben DeFrancesco writing in the bank lists newsletter recently and i think he perfectly captures the spirit of what what is so important to paraphrase the first part saying someday some kid in his parents basement or in his dorm room is gonna build something that's gonna change the world and how is this gonna happen permissionless decentralized crypto along with the compounding effects of other permissionless protocols built on top this is the crux right here and this is why it's it's it's so cool the era of gatekeepers is gone no longer do you have to placate you know all the usual suspects all that matters is your users the team you're working with it also kind of underscores the the sage advice of Timothy Leary and this is a good thing to keep in mind of course in the era of you know crypto influencers people with many Twitter followers telling you what to think or how to think or how things are and then in this permissionless era it doesn't matter what they think ultimately you're only the only opinion the matters is yours so think for yourself and do do your own thinking question authority on another note we like to sort of step away from the tribalism that has at the nation state level brought us such wonders as world wars and genocides and the specter of imminent nuclear annihilation this has no place in in crypto and we really embody this at eath Denver you'll notice alongside a ton of etherion projects we have cosmos teams here Z cash aetherium classic we welcome this because ultimately it's about getting together and focusing on the tech and get anyway from from the tribal so we have a ton of ground to cover I wanted to wrap it up with a quote from the the late and great hunter as Thompson who is a resident of this state he lived in Aspen I this quote is from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and I think I I read it recently and it occurred to me it's so perfectly captures what's happening in this in in crypto right now and this quote he's talking about the sort of a and the 60s anti-war movement in that countercultural movement what we see before our eyes here is a burgeoning new movement and I think this is this is the perfect ethos here there is madness in any direction at any hour you could strike sparks anywhere there is a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right that we were winning and that I think was the handle that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of old and evil not in any mean or military sense we didn't need that our energy would simply prevail there was no point in fighting on our side or theirs we had all the momentum we're riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave of course the sad epilogue to this is that in the 60s that beautiful wave crested and was replaced by cynicism and war in the 70s so why wouldn't it be the same way with this crypto movement for starters we can learn from the past we can learn what went wrong with wept one and web two and most importantly we have this permissionless nature we have this permissionless technology we can build on this is the core so I have no doubt that dozens of amazing things will be coming out of out of this hackathon based on this and we're super excited to see it thank you [Music] you