On March 5th, the Ethereum Denver Developers Conference was coming to an end. The scale of this conference was unprecedented, with a total of more than 40,000 participants, and more than 300 projects participated in the previous hackathon. Cryptographer Will@FinanceYF 5 Shuttle more than 20 conference venues, interview 75 participants, and conduct simple exchanges on the feelings of the conference and industry trends. Let's take a look at how investors, developers, and encryption enthusiasts view the current development of each track.

The interviewees were generally satisfied with the quality of the event. The site attracted many core teams (founders and CTOs) from top projects. The fly in the ointment is that there are too many venues, making it difficult for participants to find a venue. The organization is more like a DAO. For sideeven, the participants were more enthusiastic.

In terms of track direction, zk is a popular direction this year, but some interviewed investors said that the valuation is slightly higher. Of course, there are also investors who are firmly optimistic about the track, saying that the valuation is within a reasonable range. In addition, GameFi and SocialFi are the two main directions of innovation, and "breaking the circle" has become a key word this year. Of course, the Shanghai upgrade is indispensable for the Ethereum Conference. LSD and MEV have also attracted the attention of many participants, but most people think that the storage that has been hyped before seems to have potential, but development still needs to be waited and watched. Maybe this year Binance’s Greenfield can help There are new developments in the storage racetrack. Compared with last year's fiery DAO, this year's venue is pitifully small.

BlockBeats organized and excerpted Will's interview content, and through these participants, we hope to help readers find the next trend.

Investor's point of view

Matt Huang

1) Feelings of participating in the conference in Denver: I am an entrepreneur, and I like the feeling of a developer very much. There is really a large group of developers here, and the core blood of the ecology is seen. I love sitting next to developers and chatting, I love it.

2) Investment direction: Many middleware industries are returning, evolving, and accelerating. In the past, vertical integration has been done, but now many industries have matured to division of labor. The industry value chain, api, sdk, developer access, and the industry are highly mature.

3) But the challenge is still to play with yourself, 50-50, without breaking the circle, it is more difficult to come in, everyone likes to play by yourself, it doesn't matter if you praise yourself, breaking the circle is very important, let's compare how to break the circle.

A certain J fund investor

1) For individuals, unless the founder of the project or the relationship is particularly good, the information gap is too fast to level up, and it is not worthwhile to be a first-level, unless it is Meiben Computer, which is actually very complicated.

2) There is no particularly new thing in the narrative. Many of them are developer tools, not ETH-level, but the narrative of tools on ETH, so it is difficult to capture value at the economic level, and what can be captured are relatively old thing.

3) The overall Chinese ecological niche has improved, much better than the 19-year bear market. But the Chinese have no right to speak. Still need foreigner head organization to bring,

4) Still feel that application layer development is in its early stages.

5) Things that were thought to be powerful back then, but now more powerful projects have emerged, I don’t know if they will work. Including MEV, LSD, ZK, and middleware all feel this way, and the track is very crowded. There are 3-4 projects that are working on the decentralized execution layer in a circle. API, security, and racetracks feel the same way. It sounds a bit aesthetically fatigued.

6) The Internet is vertical, connecting users, and the bottom layer of Web3 is horizontal. Everyone is almost covered, and the same layer is competing. We all know what we are talking about, but we don’t know which one is better.

Investor Zhenzhen

1) Many cores are creators and fans. With the rise of the fan economy, how to treat fans better is a question worth thinking about. Earn has a lot of supervision, and it is difficult for many consumers to enter.

2) Domestic entrepreneurs should express more opinions. You should speak up, and don’t talk about it if you have done it. For example, Fantasy Westward Journey can be found out to tutor games or tutor apps, and you will be more confident and vocal.

Elaine Yang, Investor, Waterdrip Capital

1) Experience of participating in the Denver Conference: The overall quality is much higher than that of Consensus, Token 2049. The founders and developers will be able to directly link with the founders on the booth platform. It should be very efficient for organizations to sit here at the BOOTH booth.

2) The focus of discussion at the conference: The overall theme of the Ethereum ecosystem is still centered around L2/ZK/wallet/security/storage/DEFI, and more developer tool platforms are centered on API and SDK middleware. Last year, financing was very good , AI and Social entrepreneurs who talk about SBT and reputation systems are coming out.

Rick, NGC investor

1) Feelings of participating in the Denver event: The overall satisfaction of the event, I found a lot of new ones, more projects, better quality, innovative projects, willing to actively express ideas, and I feel different from going online.

2) From the perspective of investment, the narrative changes are not so different. There are some wallets and ecology, LSD, the new version is very bright, and ZK is the feeling of the light of the Chinese. The summary is very rewarding.

3) Personal feeling trend conclusion, in the past two years, there will be opportunities in the social layer, applications or opportunities for some application chains, and opportunities for downstream industries. Humanistic care Denver is very friendly, with good law and order, NFT liquidity, AMM and DeFi also have opportunities.

alephcrypto.xyz Investor Victor

1) The application of smart contracts is very important. The first and second floors, the first floor has been completed, and the second floor is close to completion. Although there are some sporadic problems on the first floor, such as the second block reorganization of Polygon, it has a great impact on the bridge. Threat, but the eth main network has not had any problems for several months. The second layer chain and rollup are waiting, and there are many centralized and semi-centralized bridges, just waiting for zk, the second layer will be closed, and the application will explode , based on smart contracts, build some infrastructure on the dapp layer. So I am very concerned about the value released in this field. The most important thing about the blockchain is that it is useful, and there must be user-oriented products.

2) Views on the storage track: storage is very scarce, and storage is a vacancy that needs to be filled. For existing projects, it is divided into 3-4 levels. The most primitive one is storage in the smart contract of Ethereum, the table bowl inner. Ethstorage is equivalent to hot storage, things on the desktop, AR is equivalent to things in the refrigerator, cold, not particularly large, and the efficiency of retrieval is high. ipfs belongs to warehouse and hard disk track. Similar to garages, it is solved in layers. Similar to computer theory, Ethereum solves the problem of computing, and storage has not been solved well.

Anonymous investor Ferris of a certain fund

1) There are many Builders, which are too different from those in China. It is basically difficult to see original projects in China. There are more copies in China, and there are more people talking about technology and landing development. Domestic circles. Something must have happened here. There is no media here, there are a lot of domestic media, and there are few real projects. It is also very similar to other foreign countries, and it is also the same as Lisbon style. Another difference from China is the team. Here, many go it alone, and there are very few grassroots. One idea is done, and there are people who lead the investment. Domestic ones are for making money, while overseas ones are for freedom. Asian culture is empiricism, inductive, and flaunts superficial things, and here it will be based on logic. There are not so many hardcore developments in Lisbon, and there are large-scale hardcore developments here. The scale of Lisbon is small, the aura here is very strong, and there is nothing to be afraid of. Lisbon is more relaxed and soft-tempered. Impressive project, not too impressive, micro-innovation.

2) Seeing two directions, privacy, the public chain with privacy as the main force, and ecology, I am very brave in doing things that are head-scratching. Regulations were not taken into account. There is also a Desci. I feel that after the next DeFi, the next thing that can promote the industry, but it is far away, without detailed research, but the vision is very good, but it is difficult to implement.

3) Several projects will be promoted, and micro-innovation is also meaningful. I haven’t seen it before. Defi micro-innovation is normal, because the big problem has been solved, and traditional finance has been brought up. I still pay more attention to DeFi.

Investment perspective suggestions and feedback:

1) Be sure to find out your own positioning, changes in domestic and foreign markets, the location of your business, and the capital behind it, to see where your strengths lie.

2) I saw some bad projects, Web2 is bad, and Web3 is far-fetched, some are hardware and software. Web2 losers come again, more complicated than web2, how to succeed.

3) This time I came to read two in depth. I saw the big positions, and I was disappointed. The team’s starting point and technical ability are relatively good, but it is more difficult to implement. In the end, the story can only be told for one round, and the second round is still quite difficult. Cosmos is better than ETH, and the consensus is better. Many Builders go up and attract more project parties. The other two rollups will have new projects, but that is a part of ETH. Abi's DeFi is progressing very fast. BNB resources are also good, but I don’t think it is a public chain, it is an extension of Binance, so it will bear the risk of Binance. Sui and Aptos showed little interest.

4) Doing things and making money are two different things. Doing things is definitely difficult, and I definitely hope that the entire ecology will develop.

hackathon participant

Hackathon Mentor Greg

1) Feelings of participating in the Denver Conference: The second time in Denver, last year was also there, with twice the number of people, most of them, 35,000 people participated, and 7,500 hackers. Last year it was just a showcase, but this year I was a mentor and almost didn’t go up. I spent all my time talking about Hackers, chatting with everyone, and talking about technology instead of selling my own products. It feels great to be a mentor.

2) Views on the zk track: For narrative, zksnark has finally, after talking for 5 years, finally works, L2 is also easy to use, the AA field finally has standards, and it is on the mainnet, every year Progress, zk, L2, are cheaper, faster, and more people can interact, so it is a good thing. AA is very useful, I spend a day tutoring and have no time to study. Developers are faced with very small and very specific problems. This hackathon emphasizes that novices are on the road. It takes 2 weeks, usually 3 days, and there will be many courses. There are many tutorials at the beginning, which is a very good thing. So many people are newbies.

3) Feelings as a developer: It is difficult for many Web2 developers to understand Web3, and it takes a while to understand the difference. is a huge learning curve. This year is different. Last year, VC threw money, but this year it has tightened a lot. There are millions of Web2 developers, tens of thousands of web3 developers, and some of the best developers are in Web3 because it is easier to make money. I talked to a few developers, and they are all resigning, because it is easier to raise money, and the things that are built can directly make money. You can build things at a very low cost. I am also an investor myself. I will invest in some familiar companies that I have come into contact with, and I know the CEO or CTO very well. Generally, find an experienced CTO, and I will be in charge of the commercial part.

developer point of view

Ethstorge Developer Zhou, Qi

1. Views on the event: This event is very good, most of them are builders, very global, Asia, Africa, many developers, it is a feast, the projects are very diversified, and all aspects of ecology are participating. The entire exhibition The pavilion has been greatly optimized, and everyone has enough space to show themselves.

2. Views on the storage track: With the release of BTC NFT, everyone has a very strong demand for ETH on the pure chain, but ETH’s native storage is still a big problem. The eth foundation just announced its support for Ethstorage, which shows that they Also layout this piece.

Filecoin developer Jenks

1) zk is very popular, I believe in its future, I am very optimistic about it personally.

2) Distributed track is a turning point.

3) The ETH Foundation did not do any activities or activities.

4) Personally think that eth has set a precedent, whether it is eth is still uncertain, bitcoin is a promise, eth is issued, and the mainstream problems can be solved by iteration, which is not a good reference. Although btc solves the trust problem, it is a very expensive thing. Eth solves many problems relatively cheaply. The most frightening thing is that it is simple and can achieve human coordination without relying on the state, so it is a revolution, just like tools such as personal computers, printing and writing.

an anonymous developer

1) Views on the track: track, no opinion, Web3 is a good bear market, if you don’t invest in this cycle, you will regret it, the infrastructure is still pretty good, if you die, you will die, and the next cycle that survives will be good.

2) The feeling of participating in the Denver event: The event is mainly about Builders, and the technical background is very good. There are many opportunities, and everyone knows it. There is no business exchange, storage, big market, and FIL. Head, there will also be new ones , At present, Arbitrum's ecological volume is not large enough. I am optimistic about BNB Greenfield, which has strength, but it may not be able to occupy the ecological market. It is difficult to say the market recognition. ZK's early investment is not overheated, and middleware is very optimistic.

Hexlink developer Shu

1) Feelings about the event: This event is more focused on dev, and the chats are very diverse, but the currency and voice are much larger, and the projects are more diversified. If you see mining or projects that do not require dev on con, this is The side focus is on the topic of web3. Although it is called ETH, projects that do not actually belong to eth will also appear.

2) Feelings about the DID track: I am working on the ID track. This track is hot. When AA appears, everyone is optimistic. Last year, many people thought it was not sexy. This year, the attention has increased significantly, and there are more and more projects. .

3) Views on other tracks: In addition to ID, I am also optimistic about NFT utilities (nft other than PFP) and wallets with a better experience, as well as the fan economy, which can be very well diverted to web3, because they can move to kol benefits Fans come here.

A Defi+NFT project developer dy:

1) How to see your own Defi and NFT track: Defi is relatively mature, and there is still room for it. The latest track of NFT is only 2 years old, and there is still a lot of room for development. The industry structure is different every year. We believe that everything can be NFT. Most of the early industries are pictures and PFP games, but the degree of concentration will gradually change in the next few years. Now there are multi-media NFTs, such as sports and music. , The application of Defi in NFT is still relatively early. There are some brands in the market that provide intuitive services and lack many financial preparations, such as derivatives, leverage, and liquidity agreements.

The entire industry is still exploring diversification, and there will be multiple NFTs of different types and dimensions in the next few years. For example, in the second half of 2022, many large web2 companies will issue their NFTs to motivate their users and give back to the community, which is also a way to bring confidence and endorsement to the industry. NFT in the entire industry is gradually returning to rationalization and increasing functionality. Although the hype still exists, the market will gradually develop towards a healthy development. At the same time, NFT is a good channel to enter the circle. Many people do not understand currency, but they like the intuitive visual impact of NFT. Come into the circle. This brings a good entry point for Web3 to break the circle. This is also one of the reasons why the NFT circle in the bear market is relatively resilient.

2) Activities: The activities are good, there are enough people, and the projects are extensive. Because of the epidemic, everyone flies over, and there are people trying on every track. It doesn’t matter whether they succeed or fail. The hot spot zk is very hot and intense, and the pressure of cex is relatively high, so there are not many people coming , venture capital, chatted a few times, felt warmer, watched more and invested less, there are quite a lot of Chinese.

Developed by Jessy

The public chain is very active. VC investors are not so active. There are more and more cooperation between projects. American projects are interested in Asia.

Cooperation is better. Domestic and foreign countries have very different views on one thing. Domestic encounters with foreign countries are average. For example, some new public chains have a small and weak overseas voice. Either way, they all revolve around defi, which is very core, and if you are too far away from money, you will be far away from Party A's attention.

DeveloperNick

1) Feelings of participating in the Denver event: In order to participate in the Hackerhouse event, I feel that the standard is high, and East Asia is not as good. There are many good developers in the mainland. The audit starts halfway, and it cannot be rewritten after the end. It is better if it is earlier. The only way to intervene in the early stage is to talk to the CTO. If you have a good ml, you can use it as soon as it is done. The Hacker event is very good, especially the github event. There are 100 rooms, which are better than the main venue. The overall participation The company is very good,

2) Opinion on zk track: the best, participated, focus on devs, better than 2049 and nyc con, all investors, too many investors, few projects, unbalanced, looking for developers, trend, last year It’s all dao, it’s all down, zk is the biggest, everyone is messing around, zkevm or something, the public chain, I don’t think it’s overheating, from a security point of view, zk and upgrades are a big theme, this year there are many security Regarding the auditing issue, looking back at the issues in these two fields, I am more optimistic about the technical point of view and think that it is possible to achieve, and there will be many development opportunities.

A GameFi agency developer Alex

1) Views on the track: Gamefi track, a decentralized protocol for game assets, can be mortgaged with game assets to release loans. The essence of the business is Defi, but it involves NFTfi, Nft, gamefi and Infra. The industry is in the early stage of a big explosion , just like the reason for Internet mass is games, web3 is the same. From cryptokitties in 2017 to axie in 2021. Now gamefi is in the early stage of the third wave. The first two waves are all pixel-level games. The experience is not good, but the influence is obvious to all.

From 2017 to 2021, many powerful teams began to develop 3A games, taking into account the economic model and playability. The feature is freetoplay. The playability of the game is very good, but it does not need to spend money to become a high-level player or a senior player. Krypton gold is needed, so part of the incremental value is presented in the form of NFT. This is reasoning from business logic. In addition, from the first principle, why games are the next big explosion, people play games to escape from real life, not to like reality.

In the future, the Metaverse will become a mirror image or a parallel existence. The property rights system in the real world will be rebuilt in the virtual world, including no rights, property rights, mortgages, loans, and derivatives, all of which will be redone, so we can see personal assets Most of them will exist in the form of virtual assets, and providing loan and mortgage solutions for virtual assets has become one of the applications. According to research, in the next 3-12 months, there will be many 3A games released. It can be seen that as long as 1-2 games are sought after, the game or even the next bull market will be led.

2) Views on the event: I feel very similar to the Colombian devcon for the Denver event. It is a grand event that is really geared towards developers and respects ideas. Whether it is Bogota or Denver, the environment is a bit shabby, the food is average, and the venue is also Big factory, but brimming with sparks of innovative and decentralized thinking. The level of the speakers is very high. Regardless of investors or project parties, they can express a lot of insights that represent the direction of development. Moreover, the hackathon cycle of the Denver gathering is very long, which creates a good atmosphere for developers.

student

Tsinghua Association student Luna Lau

1) Feelings of participating in the Denver Conference: Coming to Denver from Tsinghua University, I feel that the industry information that Chinese and overseas students can access is very different, and the degree of participation in the industry is also very different. For example, in terms of Web3 entrepreneurship, Chinese students will encounter more resistance, and it is difficult to directly obtain the most cutting-edge resource support in the industry. Therefore, we need to constantly motivate ourselves, get out of the comfort zone of Web3 Chinese, and take the initiative to learn and participate in English activities.

2) Tsinghua alumni resources are rich: On the other hand, the richness of Tsinghua alumni resources in Web3 is actually far beyond my previous expectations. Tsinghua itself has a very strong spirit of teaching brothers and sisters in many traditional fields. , I can feel that this precious spirit has been carried over to the encryption industry. I personally sincerely hope that the Tsinghua Blockchain Association can do a good job of inheritance and go further in the world.