ETHBarcelona: What happened at the 3-day blockchain impact conference

At the end of June it was New York. Now it was Barcelona’s turn. For three days (July 6-8), the Catalan hub attracted the attention of blockchain enthusiasts from around the world. And thousands of them arrived to attend the long-awaited ETHBarcelona, ​​called “the first Ethereum impact conference ever”.

The event, or cultural experience, was the theme of solarpunk, a movement that envisions a world where technologies are used for the benefit of both humans and the planet. In line with that, the room was filled with plants, futuristic NFT art, a meditation room – and participants were encouraged to bring their own bottles to refill. The cherry on top was the stage, whose floor was covered with real grass – and most speakers and panelists presented barefoot.

This detail only underlined the seriousness of many of the topics discussed at ETHBarcelona. Speakers, whose list climbed to over a hundred, addressed complex topics such as regenerative mentalities and cryptophilanthropy, as well as blockchain security, web3-gamification, DAO best practices, blockchain scaling and resilience and much more.

“#ETHBarcelona not only learned the importance of regenerating the world with decentralized finance #ReFi, but it ultimately regenerated my heart, soul and spirit along with not only uniting technology with nature, but enabling a greater sense of unity among my team @gooddollarorg , “tweeted Tian-Yuan Zhaoa blockchain product designer.

Speakers came from leading blockchain organizations and included Evin McMullen (Disco.xyz), Skylar Weaver (Ethereum Foundation), James Beck (Consensys), Simona Pop (Gitcoin; Status.im), Scott Moore (Gitcoin) and Griff Green (Giveth; Commons). Stack; DAppNode). And while the majority of the lectures were given in English, there were Spanish presentations as well. A good example was a panel that discussed opportunities and challenges for Spanish-speaking women in the NFT room, led by Sabrina Bonini (CriptoEsCultura).

The talks were supplemented with a wide range of workshops, exhibitions and even concerts. But perhaps the most fascinating aspect of ETHBarcelona was that it represented a case study in itself of how web3 can come to reality. And if I mention an NFT treasure hunt or NFT tickets, I’m just scratching the surface …

Even before the conference started, the organizers declared that 5% of the ticket sales would be donated – and the recipient case would be voted on by the participants. On top of that, the Ethereum Foundation has reportedly donated $ 10,000 to the fund. This was supplemented with additional funds from NFT speaker cards and “moments”, a collection of snaps from the event published on DoingGud (the organizer’s) marketplace.

In order to decide democratically, the financing was then the subject of a square round of financing. Using this tool, ETHBarcelona demonstrated the true value of this innovative form of matching public funding and found an engaging way to educate the public about it.

It was elements such as these that gave the event an overall collaborative and optimistic atmosphere. The human connection was also something that many participants appreciated. Some mentioned that it was their first blockchain conference after the pandemic and a very welcome opportunity to restore contact with the wider community.

“Had a great time at @eth_barcelona. Was a bit like a festival instead of a conference. Made new friends and got to know people I had not seen in years,” Nick Hollins, the founder of voyager.xyz, said on Twitter.

So until next year?