Ethereum DevConnect 2025 was my first time attending any of the "official" Ethereum events (DevCon, DevConnect, CC), and my first time in Argentina. All I can say is: Thank You.

Before coming to Buenos Aires, I was becoming jaded and ambivalent to the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry. I’ve been grinding in an alt-L1 ecosystem since I started working in the blockchain space full-time in 2018, which has been a long ride of angry bag holders, opaque decision-making from the top, and weary developers slowly leaving to greener pastures. Additionally, the majority of the events I’ve been attending on behalf of this ecosystem have been business-focused (except for ETH Denver, although that has also expanded beyond its original scope).

Frankly put, I was beginning to lose my “what’s it all about” and couldn’t find my North Star for being in the crypto industry, a place I’ve called home since 2017.

Ethereum DevConnect in Buenos Aires undoubtedly brought me back from the edge. I met so many amazing BUIDLers, developers, ecosystem participants, artists, and generally great people. (Not to mention, I had the opportunity to practice my Spanish.)

In terms of connections, there are two things I’d like to point out: Argentinians are a nice fucking group of people, and Ethereans feel like a tribe of best friends.

First, the Argentines welcomed me (and all of us) with open arms, a mate of yerba maté, and plenty of steak. Seriously, thank you so much to all of the local hosts who welcomed me into your homes and for the asado. I will look back fondly on those nights of deep conversations and delicious meats for the rest of my life. After an introduction and a brief moment of conversation, the locals became friends who offered deep embraces at each chance encounter afterward.

Second, a new Etherean friend feels like a best friend. After so many conversations and connections, it wasn’t a feeling of sadness or remorse when we finally parted ways. It was more a sense of “see ya next time,” rather than “goodbye.” I don’t think I can say it any better than

@cripto_nita_ said, “funny how we keep saying “see you next event” like we all live in the same city.”

Overall, the connections here felt real. To everyone I met, we’ll pick up where we left off when we see each other in ETH Denver, ETH México, or DevConnect in Mumbai.

One thing was apparent: the people who were at DevConnect are unequivocally builders, and don’t give two shits about market direction, whether it’s in an uptrend or downtrend. We just so happened to be facing a downtrend during our week in Argentina, and almost no people were talking about price action. And the ones that did were laughing about it and moving on to our next discussion points.

DevConnect was filled with more curious minds and people than any event I’ve attended since ETH Denver 2019. And that was fucking rad.

Generally speaking, when meeting someone new, a conversation with a random person would start with vibes first, and then we’d talk about anything and everything BUT crypto. Only after a few minutes of chatting would we disclose what we’re working on, and then we’d get right back to vibing.

I realized something extremely valuable during my time in Buenos Aires: we are not defined by our projects or code. We are more than that, and as a community, we’re a vibration that rises all tides. We only leverage code and our projects to raise those vibrations and create better opportunities for ourselves, our friends, our family, and humanity.

I’m not just talking about my personal experiences working in one of the original “ETH killer” ecosystems, but also the other L1s that had side events at DevConnect. The alt-L1 landscape is hurting, and the participants in those ecosystems are frustrated.

Without mentioning names, I had the opportunity to talk to OGs in other alt-L1 ecosystems, and we’re all feeling the squeeze. We’re all feeling the growing pains that come with trying to attract and capture liquidity, developers, and users. It’s not unique to your ecosystem, and it’s not only happening to one. There’s a reason Ethereum is king - because the EVM landscape captures hearts, minds, developer share, and liquidity.

And, while we’re on the topic of other ecosystems… no one had a bad thing to say about Bitcoin. It was absolutely fantastic, not one BUIDLer was fixated on the other top dog of our industry. Not one person had a bad thing to say when I mentioned that I like both ETH and BTC as assets. In fact, several great conversations were held about how great both assets are, the roles they fill, and our hopes and ambitions for their futures. It was magical to be able to freely discuss two amazing blockchain networks without facing the wrath of singularly focused zealots.

So, what was it like inside the proper event? La Rural is a gargantuan fairground that’s located near the historic Palermo neighborhood in Buenos Aires.

Ethereum DevConnect was extremely well-attended throughout all six days of the conference, which is incredible stamina on behalf of both the attendees and the booths. Kudos to all who continued to show up. And kudos to the Ethereum DevConnect team for attracting and retaining a solid group of attendees in an era when side events continue to siphon attendees from the primary events.

Some of the most popular booths throughout the entire event were @aave, @lemonapp_ar, and @nounsdao. While I think Aave and Lemon had some killer swag that people were willing to spend a lot of time in line, the Nouns section was just straight-up vibes of artists and BUIDLers. Regardless of the reasoning, many props to those booths, as the vibrations were high in their parts of the conference floor throughout the entire event.

Each of the first five days featured a dedicated day of presentations, speakers, and panels on the Main Stage, which was a fantastic use of the time and an effective way to curate the conversations that attendees could expect to learn from. Personally speaking, my favorite day was @ETHConAR 2025, which was filled to the brim with BUIDLers from or working in Argentina. Y, por supuesto, todas las presentaciones fueron en español. Conference hosts take note and curate stages for different types of content on different days.

In that vein, I heed a warning message to the global developer and blockchain community: do not sleep on LATAM. Not only is the broad region a primary recipient of the freedom and empowerment that blockchain offers its users, but there are also a ton of people who are taking the reins and building the next generation of products with this technology.

From México to Argentina, and every country in between, there are passionate, intelligent, motivated people who are building in this industry, and I venture to guess we’ll see dozens of brand-name products continue to emerge from this region.

Blockchain was designed for individuals who have fallen victim to hyper-inflationary fiat currencies, repressive regimes that dictate who can and can’t access a bank, geofenced job opportunities, and capital markets that don’t work in their favor. Each country in LATAM has specific and direct needs that blockchain can address, and globally, we can expect a variety of solutions to emerge from the various parts of LATAM that will empower its people, as well as those worldwide.

I have to give a shoutout to one of the more engaging products I stumbled upon during my time in ETH México and DevConnect: @PistachioFi.

Pistachio is a mobile-first smart wallet that uses a sleek UI to give access to the best yield-bearing opportunities for your assets. When a user creates an account, a portion of their key is stored in their phone’s TEE, and the other portion on Pistachio’s servers. This means that if you lose your phone, you can still recover your account. It’s a non-custodial solution, so your assets always remain yours. You can swap within the wallet and deposit your assets into available pools. In the future, there will be a “Pod” feature that offers automatic portfolio rebalancing, and a “Card” feature, which will provide you with a bank account in the EU, Mexico, Brazil, and the US once live.

I continue to be excited about the future for L2s and how those teams will go about onboarding the next wave of institutions ::cough:: TVL ::cough:: and users. In that vein, @arbitrum hosted a fantastic side event in Arbiverse (shout out to @MarcinPress for inviting me), and @base had a strong presence, with a constantly filled booth at the event (shoutout to @carlosjmelgar and @oyealmond for the work you are doing in LATAM). I’m excited to be part of both ecosystems moving forward and to follow the paths they take in growing their communities.

Lastly, I’m delighted to see the progress that @Etherealize_io has continued to make on its path to institutional adoption. Historically speaking, Ethereum lost the battle for institutional onboarding because it simply didn’t have anyone in the rooms on Wall Street evangelizing on its behalf. In his keynote speech, @dannyryan said, “Wall Street demands decentralization.” Furthermore, the Etherealize team recently stealth-launched their GENIUS-compliant stablecoin on Ethereum. USDA+ enables banks to earn yield, on/off-ramp customers to the stablecoin, and access an interoperable network.

The future is undoubtedly part of the Ethereum landscape. And the L2-centric roadmap is most definitely where we’re headed.

Earlier this year, I was reinvigorated by the future of the EVM landscape as the discussion surrounding native rollups began to gain momentum. And, while we’re years away from integrating this functionality into the L1, I see the writing on the wall. EVM L2s are going to be a critical part of the tech stack that new blockchain projects, TradFi entrants, and developers seek to build upon. It’s not a maybe, it’s a definitive.

Certainly, we can expect to see innovation and interesting developments in alt-L1 ecosystems, but the majority of the world will be brought on-chain via the EVM route. Of this I am convinced. The tidal wave of Ethereum is too strong to fight against, and many will grab their surfboards and ride the wave as they onboard.

One of the key features Ethereum has been missing since day one has been privacy. Sure, no one knows who wallet 0xks…a29j is… until they tie your IRL identity to that wallet. There, everyone will be able to see your account activity. At this DevConnect, @VitalikButerin announced Kohaku, a privacy and security-focused toolkit for the Ethereum ecosystem. The Kohaku toolkit aims to enhance user privacy by incorporating Railgun and Privacy Pools into the wallet, allowing users to operate in a manner that’s “privacy by default.”

Alongside Buterin’s Kohaku announcement, several privacy-oriented sessions, side events, and an entire section of the floorspace were dedicated to projects and teams working in this space. Privacy is a right, not a choice, and Ethereum is acting in a manner that will make this a native part of the on-chain experience.

I’m sure there are many other caveats I've missed, nuances I haven’t touched upon, and events that took place I simply wasn’t privy to, but that’s the beauty of Ethereum DevConnect. It was Ethereum’s World’s Fair, catering to individuals and their interests across all spectrums.

I want to note that blockchain and crypto often feel like a short-term and zero-sum game. But, if you want to build in this space, it’s imperative to think with a long-term vision and play long-term games with long-term people. You never know where your relationships today will take you tomorrow.

I hadn’t really chatted with @MarcinPress since his early days in Neo, and he DMed me with an invitation to come check out Arbiverse, which was one of the highlights of my trip. So, don’t burn your bridges, and treat everyone with respect and kindness, because you might work together sometime in the future.

Regarding the event itself, I wish I had done a better job of registering for side events ahead of time. I want to give a huge shoutout to @BSmokes_, not only is he an incredibly humble and cool founder, but he also helped get me into some really great side events and meet some really incredible people. Thanks a ton, homey, this event was a blast, largely in part because of your presence and essence!

I also learned that if you have a compelling enough message, you can deliver the same speech three times at a conference. Shoutout to @ameensol for giving the Privacy Pools presentation on three different stages. The message was killer, the messaging was delivered impeccably, and you’ve shown me a new path to maneuver through the realms of conferences. And, anon, if you haven’t yet, go check out @0xprivacypools.

Lastly, I want to unequivocally state that Buenos Aires and Argentina are an absolutely fantastic part of the world. I didn’t get to meet as many founders and BUIDLers from and based out of BA or Argentina as I would’ve liked to. But being here has certainly confirmed my decision to become fluent in Spanish. I look forward to gaining a better command of the language to more effectively connect with the people of Argentina. But until then, I’ll keep studying Ethereum y seguiré estudiando español.

Peace, love, and see you at the next Ethereum event!