ETH Boston’s 2023 conference creates opportunity, community for students, professionals – The Daily Free Press

Sahir Doshi, president of BU Blockchain and junior in the Faculty of Computer Science and Computer Science, is no stranger to addressing an audience. Sharing one’s ideas and gaining insight from others has always been a valuable experience.

“I love public speaking,” he said. “It’s an excuse to dress up a bit.”

Doshi did just that at this weekend’s ETH Boston 2023 Conference and Hackathon at Boston University. With two stages, 89 individual speakers and a variety of panels, workshops and lightning talks, ETH Boston and Boston DAO held their first in-person conference in four years. Its mission was to unite students, developers, investors and companies in understanding and planning for the development of the decentralized web.

Doshi said he was happy to have the conference on campus.

“I’m super pumped that it’s on campus because, first, our home is BU, and second, a lot of students come from Northeastern, [Boston College]Suffolk, even Harvard and MIT,” he said. “I think it’s great that because we’re in a university setting and city, that there are so many young people coming together.”

A team of 10-15 industry professionals worked independently and with city leaders to complete legal work and obtain sponsorships and book venues to bring the conference to life, Doshi said. He worked with a developer to create wireframes for the website, and then with a group of students to plan the hackathon.

“It feels like [an] all-on-decks kind of thing,” Doshi said. “Everyone helps where they can.”

Doshi spoke on two panels over the weekend: the first, a discussion about working in crypto and getting paid to do what you love, and the second, a conversation with other local college blockchain group leaders about how they’re working to connect students to the industry. But it’s not just the conversations on stage that matter to him.

“I always look forward to hearing the natural conversations that happen outside of the speaking rooms,” Doshi said. “For me, people want to meet other people they’ve never met or known before, and they want to spark amazing conversations and connect.”

Pooja Ranjan is the chief fencer of the Ethereum Cat Herders, an open source group of people who support the Ethereum network through project management. She said even people who are not well versed in the blockchain world can learn from events like the conference.

“It’s an opportunity for people to weigh in,” Ranjan said. “We have a much greater opportunity to contribute to the blockchain ecosystem.”

According to Ranjan, it’s more than the learning that matters at an event like this – it’s building community.

“I think blockchain is trying to create an ecosystem, and not a chain can do that,” Ranjan said. “We have to be interoperable and we have to have contact with each other.”

HairDAO co-founder Andrew Verbinnen said that while blockchain is known for having a technologically mystified and “kodey” reputation, the community fostered at conferences like ETH Boston is more important.

“Creating our communities,” he said, is going to be “much harder to replicate than any piece of code.”

Verbinnen added that the community is essential to ensure fair conversations.

“I don’t want to say something in a closed room and not have someone else who might know I’m wrong not be able to fact-check me,” he said. “It’s just easier to figure out what works and what doesn’t if you have people sharing their own experiences, giving their own ideas … the more minds, the better.”

Speaking on Saturday about the work that HairDAO does, Verbinnen said that while they often deliver these presentations, it was especially meaningful to do so in this type of setting.

“It’s just really inspiring to talk to people in real life and have them tell you that they’re inspired by your mission or that they’re really impressed by what you’re doing,” he said. “It’s a boost when you work hard on something to hear that people appreciate it.”

Tim Carstens, principal engineer at RISC Zero, has been involved in the blockchain community for 12 years. He was invited to speak by a colleague and said he was impressed with everything the event had to offer.

“This event here at Boston University has really reinforced Boston’s brand of being world-class thinking and super down-to-earth,” he said. “[This was] probably the best blockchain event I’ve been to in my career, honestly.”

Attending the conference, Carstens met people who recognized the criticisms of blockchain technology — such as energy efficiency and cyber fraud — and were focused on pursuing healthier business models. For him, this experience was both exciting and refreshing.

“A lot of the builders and entrepreneurs that I’ve talked to… they’re very genuine, their eyes are open and they’re just as frustrated as I am about how long it takes for the exciting stuff to become real and they’re working to make it happen happen, Carstens said.

This pursuit is important to Doshi, who said younger people will soon play a significant role in blockchain technology.

“We’ve seen companies fighting things and trying to prove that blockchain is not just a scam, it has potential,” he said. “The reality is that our generation is going to be the one to really solidify it as a normal part of our daily ecosystem.”

Ranjan said the opportunity to learn more should not be overlooked.

“Blockchain is going to change the world,” she said. “It’s the right time to step in.”