Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitask” as it was marketed to partygoers—she attended was thrown by Stani Kulechov, the founder of Aave, an open-source protocol through which people are able to lend or borrow various cryptocurrencies. The protocol is one of the more successful decentralised-finance applications. Mr Kulechov hails from Finland and the word “aave” is Finnish for “ghost”, which is the protocol’s logo.
It was a grown-up event—one which reflects a newfound maturity among a community more commonly known as anything but. Aave is a five-year-old company with a successful project it has spun off to be run by the community, through what is known as a “decentralised autonomous organisation” .
The party is not the only evidence crypto is a more mature industry now. Despite prices plunging into another so-called “crypto winter”, the market capitalisation of all tokens is still around $1trn, the same as in early 2020. Slumps no longer lead to questions about whether the end is nigh. At Devcon several firms announced that, despite the crash, they had raised capital from venture firms. UniSwap Labs, founded by the creator of UniSwap, another successful DeFi protocol, raised $165m at a $1.
Perhaps this is a reflection of the fact that the tech is getting better, too. Devcon came on the heels of “the merge”, when Ethereum switched the mechanism by which it adds data to its blockchain. The change essentially eliminated Ethereum’s carbon footprint overnight. The next technological improvements are likely to increase the scale and reduce the cost of transactions, which should make Ethereum useful for more than just financial applications.
Still, it would be unwise to assume that a pocket of maturity reflects the entire crypto community. A few days before Devcon, during a visit to Miami,considered attending another crypto party—this one favoured by bitcoin bros. It would have been in a nightclub in Wynwood, a neighbourhood filled with pastel-coloured buildings and crypto firms. The area is home to the headquarters of Blockchain.
There is no 'there' there. It can all be worthless in seconds.
Pump my bags