My takeaways from #ETHDenver2024
One thing is clear, this space is moving SO fast! What I saw really shows how advanced things are from DEFI, to Web3 Social Media, Quadratic Funding On-chain analysis models, etc.
Here are the lessons learned below 📜 👇
@shimmernet @iota
One thing is clear, this space is moving SO fast! What I saw really shows how advanced things are from DEFI, to Web3 Social Media, Quadratic Funding On-chain analysis models, etc.
Here are the lessons learned below 📜 👇
@shimmernet @iota
1. The biggest takeaway from Eth Denver is that everyone thinks either a) IOTA is a forgotten token and no one knows about Shimmer and b) our negative reputation still persists as I ran into someone from UCL University.
What does this mean? This means that to really repair our reputation and become known we must be at these conferences!
Every token in the top 20 has booths at these conferences. The leading builders, the leading investors, and the leading influencers go to these conferences. They don't care about a quick news article, they want to see who is active and who is putting the time and investment into these conferences!
I truly hope the ecosystem fund takes up this effort as the IF over the years has never put the funds and time into having a presence at these conferences. Of course, the @TangleTreasury will be looking to support one or two conferences a year, though hopefully our network can be present at more.
What does this mean? This means that to really repair our reputation and become known we must be at these conferences!
Every token in the top 20 has booths at these conferences. The leading builders, the leading investors, and the leading influencers go to these conferences. They don't care about a quick news article, they want to see who is active and who is putting the time and investment into these conferences!
I truly hope the ecosystem fund takes up this effort as the IF over the years has never put the funds and time into having a presence at these conferences. Of course, the @TangleTreasury will be looking to support one or two conferences a year, though hopefully our network can be present at more.
2. Builders, builders, builders!!!
Wow, I was not only amazed at what builders were building but also "How" their builders felt about their ecosystem.
Builders are doing so much innovative things with DEFI, reputation, consensus, etc. The mLum|Lum model is really interesting and innovative which no one else is doing, but most of our DEFI is a few years behind. This is just the truth. I'm not saying that is some negative thing, it is simply the fact we have to understand if we are to catch up. The great thing is, we can! We have a great network it will just take time. We need to support builders that want to either catch up, create innovation, or both. The point is, "We can do it, we can support our current builders and attract new ones!"
Another thing is when I talked to builders in Hedera, Polka Dot, Kilt, and others; they were so positive! It was as if they felt they would truly change the world. This came from a position where they felt supported by the ecosystem organizations! This was very key and present in their passion.
I think this is important because recently there have been a lot of builders that just never felt supported or struggled with our changing tech. From the Treasury standpoint, we can really focus on builders in a way to simply supports them with technical and financial support. We do have some great builders in our community, we need to foster those builders and also create a community and ecosystem that welcomes more. We need to "build" a space that welcomes builders, and then, seek them out.
What more impressed me was the builder's ambition to bring other chains into their own. Whether it is trying to bring Bitcoin ordinal applications into and on Hedera, or supporting integrations with Ethereum, there is a big focus on interoperability rather than, 'one chain to rule them all'.
Wow, I was not only amazed at what builders were building but also "How" their builders felt about their ecosystem.
Builders are doing so much innovative things with DEFI, reputation, consensus, etc. The mLum|Lum model is really interesting and innovative which no one else is doing, but most of our DEFI is a few years behind. This is just the truth. I'm not saying that is some negative thing, it is simply the fact we have to understand if we are to catch up. The great thing is, we can! We have a great network it will just take time. We need to support builders that want to either catch up, create innovation, or both. The point is, "We can do it, we can support our current builders and attract new ones!"
Another thing is when I talked to builders in Hedera, Polka Dot, Kilt, and others; they were so positive! It was as if they felt they would truly change the world. This came from a position where they felt supported by the ecosystem organizations! This was very key and present in their passion.
I think this is important because recently there have been a lot of builders that just never felt supported or struggled with our changing tech. From the Treasury standpoint, we can really focus on builders in a way to simply supports them with technical and financial support. We do have some great builders in our community, we need to foster those builders and also create a community and ecosystem that welcomes more. We need to "build" a space that welcomes builders, and then, seek them out.
What more impressed me was the builder's ambition to bring other chains into their own. Whether it is trying to bring Bitcoin ordinal applications into and on Hedera, or supporting integrations with Ethereum, there is a big focus on interoperability rather than, 'one chain to rule them all'.
3. Governance
I listened to a great talk about Governance and the intricacies involved. The reality is that nothing is perfect nor will it be anytime soon. My takeaway was that Web3 governance is so extremely complex that it should be built in an agile form that can change with the environment and the technology. Also, we will make mistakes! Aragon talked a bit about the issues they are facing and how they will overcome them.
What I think is great is to understand an ecosystem, a foundation, and a treasury; we will all make mistakes. We will build and develop something that at the time is absolutely perfect; however, within six months the technology changes, and what you have built is obsolete. This is simply the nature of web3. Yet being afraid of making a mistake and waiting, then waiting some more, to try and make the perfect product is much more detrimental than taking action!
The only way to innovation is through building a product, and then innovating based on the lessons learned from the initial product!
I listened to a great talk about Governance and the intricacies involved. The reality is that nothing is perfect nor will it be anytime soon. My takeaway was that Web3 governance is so extremely complex that it should be built in an agile form that can change with the environment and the technology. Also, we will make mistakes! Aragon talked a bit about the issues they are facing and how they will overcome them.
What I think is great is to understand an ecosystem, a foundation, and a treasury; we will all make mistakes. We will build and develop something that at the time is absolutely perfect; however, within six months the technology changes, and what you have built is obsolete. This is simply the nature of web3. Yet being afraid of making a mistake and waiting, then waiting some more, to try and make the perfect product is much more detrimental than taking action!
The only way to innovation is through building a product, and then innovating based on the lessons learned from the initial product!
4. Investors!
I talked to a couple funds and VCs and all thought IOTA was great and innovative back in 2017 and 2018 but then they stopped following and totally lost interest. A few did say they read something about the UAE but didn't know any specifics.
My takeaway here is that a big announcement of RWA's on the Tangle will be great but this needs to be followed by constant showing of ecosystem activity. How do we get that? Enterprise adoption cases like RWA's are without a doubt important; however, if we also don't have smaller activities like DEFI, Community Dapps, and actual implementations then we won't ever be known.
When it came to EBSI, no one knew about it. I think that is a great example. Where EBSI is massive but if it isn't implemented and actually used on the public layer-1, (not a private or side chain like EnergyKnip), the global crypto community just doesn't care. They want to see and know what is "being used".
This is something we should think of over the next couple of years. Sure, we need long-term government adoption that takes 5 to 10 years, but what will we support that will be built and showcase our networks in the next 1 to 2 years?
Even today, the IOTA Foundation inflated the funds, and the price will support the running costs for the next 3 to 5 years; however, if the enterprise and government adoption applications don't go live for more than 5 years we can very well see a situation where the IF is broke and looking to inflate more funds. So I really hope the Ecosystem funds focus not just on the long-term but the short-term as well.
Also, it was very clear that investors like transparent ecosystems. They like to see and know what is going on. This should be a focus for our ecosystem to attract investment and builders in the coming years.
I talked to a couple funds and VCs and all thought IOTA was great and innovative back in 2017 and 2018 but then they stopped following and totally lost interest. A few did say they read something about the UAE but didn't know any specifics.
My takeaway here is that a big announcement of RWA's on the Tangle will be great but this needs to be followed by constant showing of ecosystem activity. How do we get that? Enterprise adoption cases like RWA's are without a doubt important; however, if we also don't have smaller activities like DEFI, Community Dapps, and actual implementations then we won't ever be known.
When it came to EBSI, no one knew about it. I think that is a great example. Where EBSI is massive but if it isn't implemented and actually used on the public layer-1, (not a private or side chain like EnergyKnip), the global crypto community just doesn't care. They want to see and know what is "being used".
This is something we should think of over the next couple of years. Sure, we need long-term government adoption that takes 5 to 10 years, but what will we support that will be built and showcase our networks in the next 1 to 2 years?
Even today, the IOTA Foundation inflated the funds, and the price will support the running costs for the next 3 to 5 years; however, if the enterprise and government adoption applications don't go live for more than 5 years we can very well see a situation where the IF is broke and looking to inflate more funds. So I really hope the Ecosystem funds focus not just on the long-term but the short-term as well.
Also, it was very clear that investors like transparent ecosystems. They like to see and know what is going on. This should be a focus for our ecosystem to attract investment and builders in the coming years.
5. Final takeaway - We need to support building in the short term!
That is basically it. We can't wait any longer, we need to get active. We need to create an ecosystem that 'welcomes' and 'supports' builders. Then, we need to let people know we are alive by being at conferences and running hack-a-thons. Then we need to show we have a transparent ecosystem and an Iota Foundation that supports builders that are looking to build community projects and Dapps for the short-term, not just focusing on the long-term.
I met Levi who is heading the Layer-1 Smart Contract team and was impressed to hear when asked, "So should we have builders build on EVM or simply wait for Layer-1 Smart-Contract". His response was, "Just build!"
We need to build, and foster building, so we can show the crypto world we are alive. We need to show them we have the IF and the TCT that supports growth, supports builders, and will do this transparently! The Tangle Treasury has shown we can do this and I hope the Ecosystem Fund starts to follow this as well.
Again, given the fact that literally every person I ran into either a) didn't know IOTA at all, or b) knew IOTA in 2018 but hasn't heard of them since; clearly we have to do something "different" than what we have been doing for the past six years.
We 'can' be in the top 20 easily, and the above are actual steps that can get us there!
That is basically it. We can't wait any longer, we need to get active. We need to create an ecosystem that 'welcomes' and 'supports' builders. Then, we need to let people know we are alive by being at conferences and running hack-a-thons. Then we need to show we have a transparent ecosystem and an Iota Foundation that supports builders that are looking to build community projects and Dapps for the short-term, not just focusing on the long-term.
I met Levi who is heading the Layer-1 Smart Contract team and was impressed to hear when asked, "So should we have builders build on EVM or simply wait for Layer-1 Smart-Contract". His response was, "Just build!"
We need to build, and foster building, so we can show the crypto world we are alive. We need to show them we have the IF and the TCT that supports growth, supports builders, and will do this transparently! The Tangle Treasury has shown we can do this and I hope the Ecosystem Fund starts to follow this as well.
Again, given the fact that literally every person I ran into either a) didn't know IOTA at all, or b) knew IOTA in 2018 but hasn't heard of them since; clearly we have to do something "different" than what we have been doing for the past six years.
We 'can' be in the top 20 easily, and the above are actual steps that can get us there!
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