ETHLondonUK Opening Ceremony (Full Version)

Hello, London. Okay, it's a little hard to follow Queen, but I think, you know, I think we'll do a good job. I hope so. Yes, I hope so. Welcome to ETH London.

I am Simona. I am Kartik. And I congratulate everyone. Welcome to London. Welcome to London.

So the clicker doesn't work? It doesn't matter. Um, this is the first hackathon, ETH London, um, ETH Global Hackathon in the UK, and we're really, really UK, and we're really, really excited to be hosting it in London, in this beautiful location. Um, I know many of you have come from far and wide, some a little further than others. Personally, I, um, traveled the least to this hackathon.

I live in Brighton, so I took the train. I'm very green today and will be tomorrow and Sunday. Kardik, on the other hand, traveled a little longer. Are you a little tired of changing time zones? A little bit time zones?

A little bit . Quite a bit. So your job, apart from all the hacking and all the other cool stuff, is that if you see Kartik without coffee or an energy drink, it's your job your job to provide him with one. Literally, the future of ETH Global depends on it. So please it.

So please , please, if you see him without energy or coffee, give him some. She's not kidding. I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding. He dozed off several times.

No, I'm kidding. Hmm, great. So, here we are. Hmm, there are about 300 of us. Hmm, I think even more will arrive tomorrow and Sunday .

We love seeing advanced and intermediate level hackers come here and hopefully create something incredible, but I'm especially excited for the newbies and Ethereum newbies who are here today. Hmm, I was at a workshop, an introductory workshop to Web 3, this morning, which was great, and we covered a lot of the core concepts, and core concepts, and hopefully it will help everyone have a really good hackathon and build something really cool. Yes, um, over 20 countries are represented here. Um, thanks again to everyone who traveled, um, who dared to travel, um, with all the news about all sorts of viruses and all that . But you are all well done .

We are here and we are going to have a great weekend. And since I mentioned, um, a lot of people are from here, actually we have 65% from London. Oh, here's London again. You could have performed "We Will Rock You for Queen" better. Well, guys.

Okay, we have over 20 companies sponsoring, um, this event, which again is great, great to see. We have 13 non-TED tech talks tomorrow and Sunday. Today we have eight seminars. We've already held several. They will continue tonight and they are all literally getting out of here, go left.

If you have any problems, contact the guys at the reception. They will guide you and help you. We also have over 30,000 great British pounds in prizes. It's over... It's like a hundred thousand dollars or something.

That's a lot of money That's a lot of money . Yes. Yes. Yes. So, that's a lot of money that's a lot of money .

And we also have wonderful, wonderful mentors. We have mentors for DeFi, for UX, for privacy, for gaming, literally for everything you need. So ask them about everything. Ask them anything . They will be able to help you.

Hmm, and also help you. Hmm, and also , maybe they won't help you with some hacking tips, but tomorrow we have a great fireside chat with Vitalik and Joe, which will take place on this stage right here at noon, which is 12:00. You'll also be able to ask them lots of questions if you have burning questions you want to ask them, and I'll show you how to join our community so you can ask those questions and hopefully get your answers. Hmm, it's tomorrow. So, I'm going to figure out how this clicker works.

And, uh, we're extremely excited to be at Lead London. Hmm, ETL London is a global ETH event. Hmm, what excites me the most, and every time I get on stage and talk about ETH Global, is that every time I get on stage and talk about ETH Global, there's a new audience that I get to talk to, and they don't know what ETH Global is, and that's the best thing. Because the goal of ETH Global is to attract new developers to the web3 ecosystem, and the more new faces we see, the better, because we believe that this is our success in achieving our goal. So, ETH global events ETH global events are such events.

Uh, we do them all over the world. Uh, they contain...Okay. Well, it's a glitch in the matrix. This is a glitch in the matrix.

Oh, never mind. These are transitions. So, really, the template for each of our events is that they are hackathons. Hmm, and we don't separate them by direction or by the specific problems you solve. You can create anything you want.

We want you to have the creative freedom to create whatever you like. Uh, regardless of whether it's interesting to you at the moment or something you've been thinking about. Uh, you can do that. These are opportunities for you to learn, mentor, and grow. Hmm, the main thing is to understand what is possible in this ecosystem.

So a lot of it has to do with being able to find people who are working with you on similar things, getting help from them. There are tons of mentors here, available anywhere from in-person to Discord. And if you ever get stuck or want to learn something about technology, uh, you can probably find the person who invented it in this room. And that's what makes her amazing. This is entirely for the ecosystem.

These are not competitions. These are not events where you have to compete for a specific prize. These are pure opportunities for you to learn. Uh, and, let me repeat, this is a hackathon, not a conference. Er, much less emphasis on more reports.

It's about creating, showcasing what you do. And to continue this theme, we prefer demonstration over narration. So even if you work on a project this weekend and you don't manage to implement it or bring it to the desired final look, you should still present it to the judges, because it's about progress, not a polished product. And it's really important to us that you improve your knowledge and get closer to what you want to create you want to create . That's why we held such events all over the world.

And that's why we're here in the UK. These events include everything from lectures and workshops to opportunities to network with people in this space who are improving this ecosystem. From ecosystem. From anywhere, from New anywhere, from New York to Cape Town, from India to San from India to San Francisco. These events allow thousands of people to enter this space.

Since the founding of ETH global, over 10,000 people have attended these events in the last 18 months . Uh, we've seen over a thousand projects, uh, and hosted people from over 75 countries, and that's what makes this community great and diverse and really cool, because they're experimenting and creating all these projects. Some of them you've heard of before, from Instadapt to CryptoKitties, and also set Protocol at 1 in exchange. They've all come out of these hackathons in the past, and we can't wait to see what you all create, because these are opportunities for you to dream big, and we want to be there to help you, uh, achieve it. So I'm really excited to see what comes out of ETH London on Sunday, and, uh, let's move on to the rest of the show.

So with that, I want to call on two people from this community, Josh Stark and Evan Vanessa, who are going to come here, uh, and discuss, uh, this new segment that we want to add to all of our events, and it's called "The it's called "The Year So Far Theorem ," and Josh and Evan are going to summarize what's happened in this ecosystem in a few slides and tell you what's really interesting. So please welcome Josh and Evan to the stage. Hello everyone. Hmm, thanks for coming. Thank you, Carter, for the kind introduction.

Uh, I'm Josh. Uh, I'm one of the co-founders of Eth Global. Uh, and in my free time, when I have it, uh , I write a blog post, one blog post a year, uh, with Evan, and it takes about a whole year. Yes. Uh, and it's a joke between us because we spend so much time on it.

Uh, and Evan, you obviously know from uh, ethereumnews.com, a popular weekend newsletter that I'm sure you're all subscribed to already. So we decided that instead of waiting until January 2021, let's update the community more often about a few interesting things that have already happened this year. So, we just picked six things that we thought you would find interesting about this building. Er, so let's get started.

Uh, number one, uh, in random order, and Evan, you already clicked. Uh, number one, so uh, many of you probably already know this, but the total value locked in DeFi, uh, surpassed 1 billion, uh, I think, on February 7th, which is an incredible achievement for an ecosystem that barely existed a few years ago. Um, for those of you who don't know, uh, DeFi refers to decentralized finance, and it's a term we use to refer to a lot of different financial applications, uh, built on Ethereum. So things like decentralized exchanges, uh, stablecoins, uh, ways to trade your cryptocurrency or use it, uh , lending protocols, insurance protocols, uh, and many, many more, and the total value locked into that. All of this means that there are all these assets that, you know, can serve as collateral or pools of liquidity that exist within these programs.

And today it is a little less than a billion dollars. Uh, but it already crossed a billion dollars this year. Uh, number two, uh, the ecosystem support program has launched this amazing wish list, and it's especially relevant to the hackers and developers, uh, in this room. Uh, ecosystem support ecosystem support is the Ethereum Foundation's program to provide financial and other support to projects across the ecosystem. Uh across the ecosystem.

Uh , and now there's a wish list of things EF would like to see people create. So, if you are wondering how to get involved in the Ethereum ecosystem, check out this list and learn more about what you can work on. It should also be noted that all of these links will be posted on the official Discord later, so you will be able to find them. will be able to find them. Thirdly, ETH Denver took place Thirdly, ETH Denver took place .

Some of you I know have even been there. It was an amazing event attended by over a thousand people. And many wonderful things were created. If you're still thinking about what to create this weekend and want some ideas, check out their blog post with the winners, as well as their blog post with each work from the hackathon. This can be a great way to expand on the work already done.

And now I'll move on to Evan. Yes. Spencer Denwitty , who is a security guard for New Jersey Net, has tokenized his contract on Ethereum. There are some pretty interesting stories there. The team was doing something else before they started doing this.

Hmm, and also doing this. Hmm, and also how the MBA tried to fight him, but he kept insisting and insisting and eventually proved that he could do it. So this is something that is only available to accredited investors, but it was a really cool way to see a real person, ahem, known outside of cryptocurrency, go about tokenizing things on Ethereum. So, um, we also saw the flash also saw the flash credits, which was very exciting, and maybe a little too exciting, um, especially if you know what you're dealing with. Hmm, we've seen that flash seen that flash credit is basically within a single block, hmm, the idea single block, hmm, the idea that you can borrow from someone and pay a small amount if you pay it back in the same block, in the same transaction.

So atomicity is such that you know it exists. Hmm, so there are a lot of things you can do when suddenly capital is no longer a constraint. And I've seen people say things like, you know, democratization, you know, being a whale or being rich and being able to do things like delaying arb. Hmm, that's really cool. Um, and that opens up a lot of different things.

Um, you know, the need to have a security management module in Maker. So management module in Maker. So , um, and then, you know, a lot of things have already been launched this year . I think, for example, to name a few that are just, um, um, also here, like Aztec, of course, have launched confidential transactions on the mainnet; This is super cool. They're behind the desk if you want to talk to them .

Um, you know, a few other things, like Set came out of one of the global youth events. Ring launched the first, um, ZK Stark rollup, which is super cool. They're actually on their exchange, um, which is also a trustless level. They perform about thousands of transactions per second. So, you know, scalability is starting to really show up in blockchains.

And then, you know, there are other things you know, there are other things like our trees, which is really cool, which is using your cube in the complex, you can plant trays using percentages of your cube locked in DeFi. And if you don't want to know what these terms mean, I couldn't explain them, and I'm sorry, but you can ask me about them and I'll be happy to talk to you. Uh, and if you want to know what happened last year, please read the blog post we spent a thousand hours writing. Uh, again, the link will be on Discord later. Uh, and we'll just end it there.

Here is the last slide. Uh, all the links will be in the chat again. Uh, and if you want to stay up to date on Ethereum, uh, subscribe to Evan's awesome newsletter. Uh, he really doesn't want to cheat on this. So I...

this is the best and most detailed way to stay up to date, especially with technical developments in Ethereum. Uh, that's incredible. Register now. I want, I want him to tell me later that he got a real boost of energy after that evening. Hmm, thanks everyone.

Hmm, I hope you have a great weekend. Happy hacking. Thank you, Evan and Josh. Hmm, I'll say it again. We can provide the best news about this ecosystem for Ethereum.

Please sign because he won't tell you. Hmm won't tell you. Hmm , next we have a few sponsors who want to share what they're doing and tell you why they're here, what they're doing, what they want to contribute to this ecosystem, and generally support everyone who's here in terms of mentorship, SDKs, and their tools. Hmm, and I want to start inviting them on stage to share these words. So, speaking of quick loans, I want to call Jordan from A to tell you a little bit about A and what they do.

Please welcome Jordan to the stage. Hello, guys. Greetings. I have three minutes. I'll try to be quick.

Um, if you're not familiar with flash flash loans, we offer simple loans and lending that allows you to earn on your assets or leverage your long positions. But to present, uh to present, uh , to present the price this week, this weekend, uh, that would be pretty good. Uh, our price is 2500 ADI, uh. Oh, sorry. We have a price of 2500 ADI, uh, for the coolest icon on A, and the coolest thing is that it's actually in ADI, and ADA is our, uh, token when you make a deposit.

And we just made a deposit, uh, so by the end of the weekend you will actually earn at the current rate, which is 8% on DI. This will make you $1 more by the end of the weekend, and you can keep it in your log to keep earning. So that's quite nice. Uh, we also have special giveaways for AER, and we have open giveaways for everyone at the booth. Uh for everyone at the booth.

Uh , but besides the prices, like what it brings you, what's interesting, if you want to act, we try to help you with a lot of things. Uh, we have pretty cool documentation. We also have a large community of open source developers. The protocol is completely open. Uh, everything we do is open source and public.

And actually, uh, if we like what you're creating, or if you want to continue building, uh, an ecosystem, there's a possibility that we'll help you get funding or provide small grants just to support your work. We actually have people here in the room who have already built, but actually, beyond that actually, beyond that , we'll help you with marketing, branding, uh, swag, like I said, and love support therapy, like, uh, we all need that in Ethereum. But perhaps something we are strongest at. Uh, we can make memes for you. She says she wants to dance, but doesn't know how to stop watching.

Her name is Jenny. So this is actually a collateral swap.com stream. Uh, David was here in, I don't know. David, are you here?

Yes, David is here. He created collateral swap. Essentially, it allows you to, uh, change a long position to, uh, your own storage. Let's say you were long a bat in your vault, and within a single transaction you could open a long position on ETH without having the capital needed to close your position. So it's actually quite good that you can do a lot of things with a flash loan within a single transaction.

Uh single transaction. Uh , but we'll create memes for you to reach, uh, a wider audience. Um, if you want to learn more about flash loans, we have a talk today at 9 o'clock. Emil, Ernesto, and Andre, who are somewhere in the room, will speak and give a more technical presentation about what you can do with a flash loan do with a flash loan . And tomorrow at 2 p.

m. we'll also have another talk about composition, uh, within D5 with...And actually, that's what aaton is. This is not just a technical composition; it's like a human composition. We are going to create teams; You don't know each other.

So, that's all that's happening this weekend. And if you need help, here's our Telegram if you need to, uh, contact us over the weekend. If you need some more technical help, there are some developers here, and you have Stan, the CEO, Ian, who does the business, and me, who heads up operations. If you need any feedback, uh, we're all pretty multitasking pretty multitasking , so even we're tech-savvy, you can reach out, trying to be quick, so we respect that. Thanks, guys.

Thank you. Thank you, Jordan. Hmm, I'm really excited to hear about what flash loans can do and what you all are using flash flash loans for. Uh, next I want to call Tom from Aztec. And Tom will tell you about will tell you about what Aztec is and how you can use them for your hacks.

Please welcome Tom to the stage. Greetings. Well, welcome to London. Uh welcome to London. Uh , it's Brexit Britain, so we can't afford a afford a slideshow.

Uh, I'll give you a 30- slideshow. Uh, I'll give you a 30- second, uh, introduction to the Aztec protocol. Uh, as you may know as you may know , we, as Evan just said , launched it on Brexit Day, January 31st. Uh on Brexit Day, January 31st. Uh , that definitely wasn't intentional.

Uh, we're currently processing, uh, confidential transactions. Uh, but our privacy network has much bigger aspirations. Uh, so at this point you can do, uh, zk die, you can integrate this right now, uh, into your DAPs, and we certainly expect to see a lot of these, uh, over the next few days. Uh, then we're going to introduce user privacy later this year . So we'll get rid of the transaction graph and then finally, uh, code privacy and scalable privacy towards the end of the year.

So, this is our plan of action. Uh, we have a great SDK. Uh, so please come and, uh, talk to us. There will be a lot of Aztec representatives because we are here on home turf. Uh, so come to us about this.

Uh, we have, uh, 2000 Zade die as a prize pool, and especially, uh, good prizes if you integrate into the mainnet. Uh integrate into the mainnet. Uh , and we're also going to give away 1,000 ZK cubes. We feel very generous. Uh, so please come to us and we'll give you, uh, give you, uh, some coupons for a random amount of ZK dye, some of them for as much as $50, which is a lot of money these days.

Uh, anyway, thank you. Please come to us. We are right behind. And, uh, we look forward to seeing you all over the weekend. Thank you, Tom.

I need a microphone. Thank you, Tom, from ASAC. Uh, thank you. Okay, now I have my microphone back. I feel better.

Good. So thank you very much, uh, Aztec and A. But of course, they're not the only sponsors, because as I mentioned before I mentioned before , there are many others who make this possible. And what I want you to do now, because you didn't do very well with Queen. I don't hold grudges, but maybe a little.

Hmm, I want you to start clapping your hands for the next four slides and not stop. So, let's all show them our love. So Starkware, Diversify, Orchid, Consensus , Liquidity Network, Aztec, ENS, Biddler, 1KX, Taurus, MetaPresent, DAP, Hero, Pillar, AWS, Infura, Kickback, Acropolis, Endorse, Defi Prime, KCL Blockchain and Ethereum London Meetup Group. Yes, London. Yes, let's go.

Without your support, these events would literally be impossible. And, uh, it's not just about being here or having something financial. It's about being here, being part of the team, and helping us, uh, make this event better, uh, by giving all your support and time to the rest of the hackers. And that's what makes this, uh, great. So thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Um, we want to move on to the main part of this ceremony, namely our keynote address. Many of you are new to the Ethereum ecosystem, and many of you are very familiar with it and have already participated in previous global events related to the topic of Web 3. And what makes this ecosystem extremely unique is that it is an open, permissionless platform . And not just from the technical side, it's the fact that anyone can come in with can come in with any experience and start contributing. There is often a process of research, a process of understanding what is happening what is happening , how can I best contribute?

But overall, it's one of the few ecosystems few ecosystems that isn't just about cryptocurrencies, not just the technical aspects, but is generally ready to accept an audience from any perspective, from research to development, marketing, and, you name it, any category. But how do we actually make better use of use of it, from guiding people to better contributing to understanding? How do we identify these issues that are worth solving or focusing on? Hmm, can we do that? Can we handle this better handle this better ?

Hmm, and to share some of these thoughts on this topic, I want to turn to Albert Ni from the Ethereum Foundation. Hmm, who, conveniently, will give his talk on Ethereum from different perspectives. And, uh, with that, please welcome Albert N. to the stage. And I'll leave that to you.

If I can use this or make it work, does it work? OK. Perfectly. Hello everyone, thank you very much for coming. Hmm, as Kartik said, my talk today will be about Ethereum from different perspectives.

But first, who am I? My name is Albert, and the most important thing you should know about me is that I am really tired of jet lag right now. Uh, there are a few more things you might want to, uh might want to, uh , know. You know, I studied mathematics and computer science. I had a pretty cool experience at a startup, and it led to other learning experiences and ultimately led me to working and helping the Ethereum Foundation today.

Now about today's talk for those of you who saw my talk at ETH Boston. The first half of the talk is mostly a reduction of some parts that I have finalized, and in the second half I am happy to introduce some new concepts and connections with ETH London. So, the fundamental premise of this report is that to better understand complex topics, we need to consider a wide range of perspectives. This does not guarantee that we will have sufficient understanding. You know, one of the tricky things about power laws is that you can get 99 correct conclusions correct conclusions , but the hundredth thing you missed can dominate everything else.

But considering more perspectives also increases the likelihood that we will stumble upon what is most important. One of the most difficult topics of the most difficult topics is predicting the future. And one approach to thinking about the future is to look at the past. After all, we are in the future compared to the past. So to start, I've collected some quotes about the Internet from back in the 1990s.

Oops. So, this first quote belongs to Robert Metaf (1995), the inventor of Ethernet, who has nothing to do with Ethereum. Hmm, that's a pretty ironic quote when you think about both the time and this particular technology, which was vital to the introduction of the internet. The following quote says something that I think is quite reasonable. She says that most things that succeed don't require retraining 250 million people.

Of course, we know it's much more than that now. Then we have another quote about all these promises of what the Internet will bring. You know, airline tickets, restaurant reservations, purchase and sale agreements. And of course, she points out that the local mall still makes more purchases in a day than the entire Internet processes in a month. This may sound familiar to some of you in Ethereum land.

Finally, we have this somewhat infamous quote about the impact of the Internet on the economy compared to fax. Hmm, and I was almost embarrassed to include that, because I think the context of that quote was actually to make a somewhat controversial statement at the time. So statement at the time. So , I think it's important to consider some of these things in context. Another important context to point out here point out here is that I am not trying to compare Ethereum or blockchain to the future of the internet.

I think it would be similar to the mistakes that were made in these quotes. The moment we start to think we know what will happen is also the moment we are at the greatest risk. And that's why in almost all of my speeches I like to quote the parable of the blind men and the elephant. Most of you have probably heard this parable or some form of it. There are several blind men in history.

They touch different parts of the elephant for some reason. And because each of them has an incomplete understanding, they make different and incorrect assumptions about the object they are touching. So it is obvious that the blind men are wrong in their statements in this picture. But in reality, two major mistakes are being made. major mistakes are being made.

First, they fail to consider that they are directly interacting with something that may be much larger than what they can perceive. Secondly, they don't communicate with each other. I won't accuse anyone of blindness. This is beyond your control. But considering they talk, I don't think they're deaf.

So I guess that part is up to them. That's why, when trying to hack Ethereum or anything big and complex, I think it's important to consider different perspectives and communicate about them. We will get a better picture, even if it is not perfect, and that is also the goal of this conversation: to improve our picture, at least to the expected level, by looking at Ethereum from different perspectives. So, the first perspective is history. I don't mean the history of blockchain, the history of cryptography, or the history of digital money; they are important, but I'm going to go even deeper.

Unlike the first four quotes, which were meant to be broadcast through newspapers, magazine articles, or recorded presentations, I received this quote directly through Twitter. As a side note, I still think about it sometimes. I grew up in the Chicago area. I was a big sports fan. And back in 1995, Michael Jordan announced that he was coming out of retirement to return to basketball.

If the internet had been a big deal back then, this statement would have undoubtedly ruined it. But instead, Michael Jordan had to send a fax to various newspapers and television stations so they could announce it. In other words, one of the most famous people on Earth couldn't make the statement directly because the technology essentially didn't exist. It makes you wonder what dynamics might exist 25 years from now, especially given efforts like Twitter's decentralized social networking protocol Blue Sky and all the other things I'm sure will have been explored since then . So, getting back to the topic, I've always liked one type of thought experiment–imagining experiment–imagining what it was like to be at certain points in history.

This moment in history is typing on a keyboard connected to a computer terminal. The most interesting thing is that when you go through this thought experiment, you realize that without hindsight, the reaction might not have been as positive. You might say, "Well, you type and it shows up," but I've already been able to do that with this typewriter, and it's always there. Another perspective I'm considering is thinking about data movement and how much it has changed over the years. Most people in this room have probably not even used most of the technologies on this list.

I know on this list. I know I had some experience with floppy disks and CD-ROMs, but I had never dealt with, for example, an 8- dealt with, for example, an 8- inch MemorX floppy disk. Another story I like to tell is how in 1989 my parents spent $600 on a 20 megabyte hard drive. Uh, I've joked before that it's still a lot cheaper than storing that much data on Ethereum, but I wonder what about parents who can use Ethereum today despite its limitations, uh its limitations, uh , just like my parents used it for me, and for which I will be eternally grateful. So, another prism through which to look at history is to identify places where imitation took place.

As they say, imitation say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. And it becomes especially interesting when it happens in situations that otherwise don't make sense, because in a way that gives you more precision in your thought process at that time than anything else. My standard example of this is the example of this is the history of JavaScript. Uh, as some of you may know, JavaScript was originally called Mocha, and then it was renamed to JavaScript due to the popularity of Java. Something popularity of Java.

Something that confuses people to this day, because these two languages, while having some similarities, are actually very different. Of course, JavaScript has long since overtaken Java as the most popular and widely used programming language in the world. Ethereum has its own interesting parallel with Solidity. Solidity was created to interface with the Ethereum virtual machine, and its syntax was at least partially motivated by JavaScript due to its popularity. However, I think that coding in Solidity is probably better thought of as something akin to writing bash akin to writing bash scripts than using JavaScript.

You know, JavaScript is often used in a context like frontend, where you can get away with certain bugs or other issues with what you're building, which is much less true for Solidity. And while we're on the subject , there's this interesting fact that the creator of JavaScript is currently working on the Brave browser. The Brave browser was funded with the Ethereum token. And, as I noted at the beginning of this section, history may not repeat itself, but it does repeat itself, but it does seem to rhyme. Another poem I enjoyed delving into is performance optimization.

I remember when I was in school, someone was discussing how important performance optimization was in general. There was a time when it seemed like computers were simply getting faster, and that any improvement in performance optimization skills would depend on improvements in the speed of computers in general. Of course, then came the smartphone revolution, and suddenly everyone had slower computers and slower internet slower internet connections again. And so, of course, performance engineering started to matter in this context. Then we had blockchains, where performance optimization is even more important.

And really, I think the bottom line is that computing power will always be more useful. I expect things like homomorphically encrypted computing to become more popular and widespread as we continue to improve these technologies and have faster computers. Ultimately, the goal was never simply to be able to perform calculations. So that brings me to the next point I want to look at I want to look at , which is engineering. One thing I've found really interesting over the last 10 years, and really over the last 30, but especially over the last 10 years, is how software engineering has changed .

I had a really interesting conversation with this, uh, 20- conversation with this, uh, 20- year-old guy who made the observation about the blockchain, uh, in Ethereum, that it seems impossible to write code that can't be changed later. Uh be changed later. Uh , then I introduced this person to CD-ROMs and told them how, once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away, software had to be distributed on these fairly immutable devices. Most people didn't even have the internet. So you had a very similar dynamic where you had basically one main chance to get things right.

What's cool is that software development companies are becoming increasingly safe environments for coding. You know, coding schools are becoming much more common. People can often learn to code in 3 to 6 months and start contributing. And that's really great because it has made software development much more accessible . I remember one of the hardest things for me when I worked at Dropbox was knowing that it was possible to spread a bug spread a bug that killed the company.

You know, like a file sync program file sync program , if you lose someone's files, it doesn't matter if you can fix the mistake later. And we see some similar aspects with blockchain aspects with blockchain engineering. It's a pretty dangerous environment for coding right now. One way I like to think about it is about it is that blockchain computing is a kind of imposing certain laws of physical reality on the virtual world. And so I would also like to point out that perhaps considering writing software on Ethereum as software engineering may not be the most productive approach.

In a way, I think that developing for a blockchain-based computer is more like building hardware than software. Well, that's not necessarily a bad thing not necessarily a bad thing . After all, we can build cars, we can build bridges, we can build skyscrapers, we can build space shuttles. The list goes on. So I believe that we can build complex and reliable systems on blockchain.

The main thing is blockchain. The main thing is that we will have to use approaches that are perhaps more similar to those used to build complex machines in the real world, and use different best practices. Hmm, the key point is also that people don't start building cars using raw metal. They don't start building houses by cutting down trees. There are many things we need to create along the way to improve the potential of what we can put together.

The next perspective next perspective I like to look at is the compute stack. This perspective was inspired by a question a friend asked me: “What is the most interesting technical environment you have ever environment you have ever worked in?” For me, actually, one of the most interesting technical problems I encountered was when I was 12 years old. I built my own computer. And by building my own computer, I mean I asked my parents to buy parts that I could then assemble for a new computer for a new computer , so that I could have, you know, a shiny new computer and I could do a school project.

It was really brilliant on my part brilliant on my part , I think, in many ways. Well, this experience left me with a very strong memory that a computer a computer is not a black box. It's something that can be taken apart. It is something that can be assembled, reassembled, and disassembled. It was a spark that never left me.

What has fascinated me since then is how little opportunity I had to work with the new computer. Even at a place Even at a place like Dropbox, which had pretty high technical requirements, you know, there was support for desktop, web, and mobile, the correctness requirements were high, the scalability requirements were high, the latency requirements were pretty high. But even there, you know, most of the work was confined to a fairly narrow segment of the computing stack. For example, there is never enough motivation to create new programming languages, operating systems, or virtual machines. Now, with programmable blockchains, it's really cool to see not just the motivation, but probably the need to rethink the entire computing stack.

For example, no one will use a new programming language today unless there is a new context where it is particularly well suited. Smartphones were the most recent example of this, and it could be argued that some of the mechanisms used for artificial intelligence are also a form of this. But in general, you need to find a new context to start working on new parts of the stack. Again, in a similar way, a redesign of the entire developer experience will be necessary, which has already happened many times in Ethereum. And it has its own potential to contribute and, you know, hopefully, save us from unintentional bigger dents along the way.

Overall, this is the first time in decades that so many parts of the computing stack are simultaneously available to operate in a practical context. As I mentioned before, I think it's interesting to reflect on historical moments and what it would have been like to be there. And I think the most interesting thing here is that there is an element of presence during all of these things. The early days of the Internet, the early days of operating systems, and even the early days of computers themselves days of computers themselves . I certainly wouldn't have guessed that building a truly new computer would make more sense today, after so much development and implementation, than it actually did when I was 12 years old, you know, putting together that desktop computer.

But as exciting as all of this is , what's still missing is what still missing is what I think is an important, perhaps the most important perspective on what we're all working on here. So for the next perspective, I'm going to look at more of a legal, game -theoretic, or mechanistic perspective. As an immediate question, I would like to ask what is the purpose of the legal system or any legal system? For a long time I thought it was about enforcing laws. After all, that's what it exists for, right?

Ultimately, I realized that the greater effect of legal systems is that they establish, or attempt to establish, confidence in society that the laws will be enforced. This is quite important because the confidence in society that laws will be enforced shifts the balance in how people behave at scale. And so, when we talk about equilibrium, it means equilibrium, it means that the legal system is fundamentally an example of mechanism design. People talk a lot about game theory these days, but I don't think they talk enough about mechanism design. Mechanism design turns game theory upside down.

Instead of asking how we play this game to maximize our goals, he asks how we design the game so that when people play to maximize their goals, the outcome is better, whatever that means. The Nakamoto consensus itself is a kind of groundbreaking application of mechanism design thinking. Now, one of the most famous examples and often cited examples of game theory in action is the prisoners' dilemma. Most of you are probably familiar with this. But for those who don't, the key idea is that there are situations where individually rational behavior leads to perhaps globally suboptimal outcomes.

This is often cited as an example of the limitations of game theory. However, once you put on your mechanism design hat, I think it becomes much more interesting. In particular, the prisoner's dilemma is actually being solved, just not directly. This is where mechanism design comes into play . It is true .

It is true that the original game leads to suboptimal behavior, but we can also think about how we can change the game that is being played? Well, this won't always be possible, but changing the payoff matrix or turning the prisoners' dilemma into an iterated game instead of a one-hit game can lead to significantly improved outcomes for players. This brings me to my next point, which is to dive deeper into authentic commitments. I think credible commitments are a very underrated element of the world. They are almost like atoms in a physical sense.

They are everywhere, and their properties affect everything, but we also don't think about them directly very often. Commitments of varying levels of credibility are everywhere. For example, if you were to choose between a TV of a brand you know and a TV without a brand, which one would you prefer? Brands are a form of reliable commitment behind the quality of a product. They are essentially a form of proof of stake, and proof of stake itself is used as a form of reliable commitment in addition to its primary role as civil resistance civil resistance .

Of course, another form of reliable commitment is money itself. We all know that paper money essentially has no internal use. Maybe they can be burned for heat, or they look cool artistically, but that's it. So their value is almost entirely tied to the soundness of the bond, which, you know, embodies the authority of the issuer and the difficulty of counterfeiting. So one of the things that blockchains fundamentally enable blockchains fundamentally enable is that a broader range of trusted commitments becomes possible.

For example, anonymous parties can provide reliable commitments using blockchains using blockchains . Traditionally, this required a mutually trusted third party, although we don't always realize that one exists. You know, the legal system, the government, or just a regular company. So let’s look at a question that people often ask and probably don’t ask enough: does this really require a blockchain? When people ask this question, I think they are really asking whether the increased space of trusted commitments opened up by blockchain-related concepts is being utilized.

Just as blockchains are fundamentally a reliable commitment technology, Ethereum is essentially an attempt to harness and exploit the potential of reliable commitments. Ethereum allows for reliable commitments or being clear, flexible, easy to use, and widely applicable. This is the essence of all software blockchains, at least in my opinion, and it has some really powerful implications. For example, we have seen how Ethereum has enabled much more of the potential of zero- disclosure proof-based technology and applications than was previously possible in Bitcoin. This is one of the clearest demonstrations of where additional flexibility and ease of use can be used.

The prism of credible commitments also shapes my understanding of the anticipated transition from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0. I think a significant part of web 2.0 will eventually interact with programmable blockchains.

But I don't think most of them will be completely replaced. One way I like to think about it is that computers didn't allow for typing because we already had typewriters. Computers made spreadsheets possible and made the Internet accessible to people. Similarly, smartphones were terrible at text and spreadsheet processing when they first appeared, and perhaps still are. Although it was even worse then.

And some of you may remember that on the first iPhone you couldn't even copy/paste. But smartphones have allowed us to set new default expectations . Now you can expect many people to have connectivity have connectivity , have camera access, and have location access. Ben Horowitz did an interview that I think goes into this very well, which I think can be found on the athereum.org website.

In the same vein, programmable blockchains will also get much better, but I don't think they'll be better at these, quote " better at these, quote " web 2.0," things that web 2.0 is interested in right now , because they're already optimized for them . Rather, programmable blockchains allow us to build with trusted commitments in entirely new ways. As we first saw with Bitcoin, money itself can be issued by a random anonymous person, Satoshi Nakamoto.

This concept would have been unthinkable before. Now, speaking of Bitcoin, it's worth noting that Ethereum's increased flexibility comes with an important tradeoff. It also increases the surface area of risk, which can actually affect the credibility of Ethereum-related commitments. After all, if you're confident that a piece of code will work, but you're not sure it's bug-free, it might still not be as reliable in your mind. This transitions nicely to how Ethereum and Bitcoin attempt to use trusted commitments in different and complementary ways.

Bitcoin doubles down on its core commitments and tries to make them as compelling as possible , with a narrower, more immutable focus. Well , it actually has its trade-offs. Just as the potential for errors reduces overall confidence in a commitment, the immutability of a system, even as needs or security requirements change, can also reduce confidence in its commitments. There is no optimal point on this spectrum, only a series of compromises. And I think the world would probably be a better place if both of those approaches were taken, as well as others.

Now remember what I said earlier about the prisoners' dilemma. Ultimately, programmable blockchains aim to provide a new primitive upon which new systems can be developed . You know, we could use this to change the payoff matrices, turn one-shot games into iterative ones. In general, the point is simply that with new systems, new equilibria for behavior emerge. Remember behavior emerge.

Remember , when we're talking about the ability to do completely new things, it's pretty hard to predict their long-term impact long-term impact . You know, language was once a new thing. Numbers were a new thing. Legal systems, electricity, the internet, smartphones – the internet, smartphones – the list goes on, and even though they seemed big at the time, they turned out to be much bigger than we thought. And so, with that in mind, I see blockchain-based programming as the basis for a new type of citation language that is built on guarantees, not promises.

And, as some have pointed out, there is hope that this will transform concepts like "don't be evil" into "you can't be evil." Now, for my next point, I want to talk a little bit about talent in this area. One statement I have made repeatedly is that the talent pool in blockchain will grow significantly. I was Dropbox's head of engineering hiring for several years and spent about as much time on recruiting as I did on other aspects of Dropbox during those years. I even secretly visited other companies' offices to talk to people I was trying to recruit was trying to recruit , and I took many tours of university campuses.

Now, there are a few concepts I learned along the way for analyzing talent migration. The first is that top talent wants to work with other top talent, especially when you're working on complex problems complex problems that also have the potential for impact. The second concept is that the best talent rarely actually seeks out new opportunities. It's a pretty important concept, um, because there's this assumption that, you know, the best people always work in the most important industries. But that's not really the case, because the best people are often in situations where they're very happy and therefore less likely to do research, because that's where the best talent is, which is often a lagging indicator.

So one question I like to ask my friends is, "I know you're not looking for change right now, but if you were, what would you consider?" I've found that by asking this question, you help learn a lot more about what might be more interesting in the future than just asking people what they do now. So , as I said, top talent can be a lagging indicator, not a leading indicator, of what's interesting. In this sense, seeing this sense, seeing one respected colleague take an interest in a new field is probably worth more than a thousand days of hearing about it otherwise. In fact, hearing about it all the time often has a counterproductive effect.

And I think just like the startup world between 2008 and, say, 2012 or 2013 , we're seeing this happening more and more in cryptocurrency. When I launched Dropbox in 2008, the startup world looked very different than it does today. I often like to call it a startup village because everyone actually knew each other at the time, and like some villages, it definitely didn't feel modern feel modern . It definitely didn't feel developed. Back then, people thought you were crazy to start or join a startup .

And when I told my friends at MIT that I wouldn't be back for my senior year , they reacted as if they were telling me that, like Hollywood, I would become a movie star or something. And believe me, no one at MIT has what it takes to be a movie star. So by 2012, the narrative began to change. You know, this is Drew, the founder of Dropbox this is Drew, the founder of Dropbox , and four years later he's on the cover of Forbes he's on the cover of Forbes . Part of this was because the nuclear winter left by the do-com bubble had finally melted.

And you know, go on for a few more years and the startup community will truly become the startup world. At that point, people would actually look at you strangely if you said you would never consider moving to a startup. Right now, I think something similar is happening in blockchain, but as with many things in this area, it will take time, while happening at breakneck speed, before you know it. I think what guarantees a dam break is how interesting this space is. As if these are n't empty calories.

You know, most people get distracted by the unpleasant, superficial aspects of, say, cryptocurrency speculation. But if you look at if you look at why blockchain-based computing is an interesting environment, the list goes on. This is one of the many reasons why I am so excited about the future of Ethereum. And that brings me to my eighth and final point in this conversation. The word “compositeness” has been used a lot in the Ethereum world lately, especially in the context of decentralized finance.

This got me thinking about what compositeness looks like in Ethereum at all levels. The first perspective I'm going to use going to use is the composability of programs on a network or programs on the global computer itself. It's 2020 , and people have been talking about blockchain bridges for almost as long as blockchains have existed. Much progress has been made, but it is still quite limited, and decentralized finance has become a great example of the importance of staying within the same system. You know, the reason why the hub about flash loans is a great example of this is because it's probably going to be difficult to achieve complete atomicity between blockchain methods.

Erm blockchain methods. Erm , and so full atomicity will be indispensable in a certain context. And, as flash loans have shown flash loans have shown , fully automated adomity allows users to make certain reliable commitments that would otherwise be impossible. This is an example where the difference between, sorry, 100% certainty in something and 99% something and 99% certainty is huge. However, I believe that most application layout examples will not require you to be on the same network, and we are all better off for it.

There will be many more such examples. I remember that even ETH Boston was working on using prediction markets to hedge against hedge against black swan risk. Hmm, and we had things like crypto dragons consuming crypto kitties, even though they weren't actually created by the same people. The second lens focuses on tools, infrastructure, and standards. Now every software developer knows how valuable it is to not have to write your own programming language, your own IDE, your own code review tools, or even most of your own libraries.

You would be better off focusing on the differentiated aspects of what you are trying to create while are trying to create while standing on the shoulders of others in everything else others in everything else . And beyond the tools, there's also the infrastructure there's also the infrastructure , such as not having to sync the entire node just to node just to change something. I'm not saying that people shouldn't sync nodes at all , it's just nice that you do n't always have to . And browser and smartphone support is another example of this. Training materials, tutorials, and functional testing networks are also an important part of this.

Another thing that I think is underestimated is standards. Standards are often associated with bureaucracy and bloat, but that's because we tend to only notice them when only notice them when they make life difficult. We overlook the standards that have made life much easier. In my opinion, concepts like ERC20 or ERC 721 continue to be underestimated. They allow people from all over the world to benefit from each other's work and accumulate benefits for their efforts.

Even the simple fact that a token that meets certain Ethereum standards is much easier to integrate into an exchange, centralized or decentralized, seems to be routinely ignored by investors and experts. As for the third one, I think things are starting to get really interesting. Once you really have a dynamic ecosystem dynamic ecosystem , amazing things start to happen . Consider the following process. Let's say you somehow discovered Ethereum, then started working with it and maybe decided to attend a global ETH event along the way.

You know, maybe at the ETH global event you even built some cool stuff and met your co-founders. So the next step will be to get support for your new project. And as you can see, there is a long list of ways to do this. And when you start creating it, you will start showcasing your efforts. Maybe through online groups.

Perhaps through more personal events. You can find other people who want to contribute and even hire some of them. There are also things like Gitcoin bounties and other things that allow you to get help without having to be constantly hired. And this is where you might come full circle and become a global ETH sponsor. I swear they didn't tell me to post this slide.

Um, but now you have even more developers contributing to your project and maybe even meeting their future co-founders. And the cycle begins again. Now, this may not work exactly as described here, but each step in this flow happens and has happened surprisingly often. Look, none of this is new per se. Open source is not new, compositing is not new, hackathons are not new, and talent flow is not new.

But the way these things come together in Ethereum, I think, is pretty special. Now, for my final review, since full circle has been the theme of this conversation, let me go back to one of the things at the beginning. I would like to remind everyone that we should never be too confident in our understanding, and to reiterate that the moment we start to think we actually know what will happen is the moment we are at greatest risk. For example, an expanded space of reliable commitment sounds really cool, but cool doesn't necessarily mean good. Likewise, I would like to remind the people in this room that almost everyone interested in Ethereum or blockchain today has crossed an intellectual chasm to get there.

I jokingly call it the acid trip epiphany we all shared. Unfortunately, acid trip epiphanies don't scale. Uh, utility is something that scales. And that's why I think it's really appropriate to give such a talk at the ETH Global Hackathon. So with that in mind, I can't wait to see what happens this weekend, and I can't wait to see what happens over the next 5 years.

Thank you and I wish everyone a wonderful ETH London. Thank you very much, Albert. Hmm, that was great. I took so many photos of these slides that I could have just asked Albert to do the presentation. I have them all .

Hmm, and I think . Hmm, and I think it's been great, mainly for me, because we've watched people come into this ecosystem and their journey, and how easy we make it for them to come into the ecosystem, learn, build, and then support people who come in to implement the projects that we use and love now, and hopefully the ones that come after them. So that was great, and I hope you were all as inspired as I was by what he was talking about. Yes. Yes.

Perfectly. Hmm, okay. So, now we only have about 20 minutes, and then you guys can start hacking. So, the logistics, um, on this floor, that's where, um, tomorrow's fireside chat with Vitalik and Joe will take place. Hmm, the workshops, as I mentioned, will be to your left.

There are toilets up here, but downstairs you will get water, drinks, food, a place to rest, and more toilets. So just so you know. Um, okay. Seriously, again , as we've said , as we've said , thank you all for coming here and, you know, um, despite the news and so on, but actually London is pretty low risk right now. But having said that, let's make sure we keep it that way.

Um, you all got an email from these global guys with detailed, um, you know, safety measures, but the main one is to wash your hands regularly if you're not already doing so. What's wrong with you ? Please start doing this. Hmm, there are also more disinfectants than water itself. They are on every table, in every corner.

There's even more at the support desk. Literally immerse yourself in it. Hmm, and also in my gift bag. Hmm, more details if you're not sure about something . If you're thinking, damn it thinking, damn it , should I do this?

Hmm, here's a link to see more tips and tricks. Hmm, official announcements. This is Discord. Go there This is Discord. Go there if you have any questions.

If you want to chat with the mentors, if you can't find the team, here you can ask all your questions and hopefully find all the answers. Hmm, join the conversation. As I mentioned earlier, you can ask questions for tomorrow's talk tomorrow's talk , but we will also have a lot of people sharing their experiences in East London. I would love for you all to join our community. Hmm, it's in a video format that you can share, and on this channel we'll also be posting hacking tips that will be given to you literally over the weekend by the guys from Consensus Academy and the 1 million devs team.

If you have any questions again and you're not ashamed to show your face, please ask them there, and someone will hopefully answer them from the wider community, not necessarily from the people who are physically present here. Here are some things. I mean, we all love an internet all love an internet connection at a hackathon connection at a hackathon . This is our second favorite thing. Hmm, after we can't connect our laptops when we present our projects on stage.

Here are some of the things you can do to keep us in touch and so we can all have a great time. So, definitely, no 4K videos or anything like that. Thank you very much. Hmm, secure your Wi-Fi. You can chat with the guys from Orchid, Orchid Wave the guys from Orchid, Orchid Wave .

So protect your VPN. They are our VPN partner VPN. They are our VPN partner . Go and chat with them. Let's be safe.

And then the full schedule on the main website. If you want to check out any of the talks, any of the workshops, when you have to come back here for our closing ceremonies, which will be just as interesting, just check that out. Um, and again, we can't, you know, let you hackathon without mentioning all the benefits of the prizes, over a hundred thousand dollars, over 20 companies, and we have Taurus, that's 2,500 British pounds, we have Diversify and Starkware, 5,000 American Aztec, 2,000 US dollars, 5,000 ADI. DAP Hero is a prize of 1000 D. Peo is a prize of 4000 Diana prize of 4000 Diana .

ENS—1000 dollars. And then the Ethereum Foundation will have a special ETH 2.0 prize, which I will tell you all about. Here he is. Hello everyone.

So I'm really happy about this hackathon, because it's thanks to it. You can't just hackathon something. Now we have you here, people from the research team and from the different client teams, so you can do hacking exercises and learn about Firm 2. So we have a prize of $5,000 for the three best hacks, which will be split between the three best hacks. You can find detailed information on the website hack.

eu.wtf. We'll have fun at the hackathon. There are many interesting tasks worth considering. You can also make your own if you want.

Just come, talk to us, find us on Discord and happy hackathon. Perfectly. Hmm, did everyone get this link? Maybe we need to share. Oh, there you are.

So, the prizes are literally where you'll find them all. If you missed any of them, any of them, any of the sums, this is a great link, it's all here for you to check out at your leisure. Thank you very much. I hope you...Oh, yes I hope you...

Oh, yes . Code of conduct. I just assume everyone is super nice and wonderful. So be respectful. Harassment will not be tolerated.

Let's keep the wonderful Ethereum culture sweet, gentle, warm, and wonderful, but use disinfectant. Um, if you want to join the team, we're starting a little mixer downstairs where I mentioned that the food snacks, um, start in how much now? In about 10 minutes. So, everyone who needs a team, come down in 10 minutes, and hopefully we'll find you a great team, and you'll create great things together. And let's start hacking.

Thank you very much everyone. Have a nice weekend everyone. Have a nice weekend . Um, and see you later.