One reporter’s view into the culture of this year’s Devcon.
Leaving the Corinthia Hotel, Devcon4's official lodging accommodation, I traverse a twirling bridge to arrive at the Prague Congress Centre, a massive conference space with four floors dedicated to all things Ethereum. A large Blockchains LLC[1] ad greets me as I make my way to the building.
Registration lines are long and easily protrude into the plaza outside the center, to be expected for an event comprised of thousands of attendees. The conference badge, a staple of any convention, is rainbow-colored to match Devcon4's room names (ranging from Spectrum and Prism to Malachite and Rose Quartz). In true blockchain fashion, the badge displays the event's one-word Wi-Fi password: buidl.
Besides your usual convention services like a coat check and a swag booth, the first floor of the annual Ethereum developer conference features a selfie area[2] where attendees can take photos against a backdrop of memes, such as doge and the event's own spin on Nyan Cat[3], Deva the Devcon4 Unicorn.
Plus, much like the conference's website[4], which allows individuals to play with meme-inspired images on the landing page, attendees can collect stickers from the event's designated Flair Zone and decorate their badges to their hearts' content.
Although Day 0 is technically not the first day of Devcon4 (the opening keynote takes place on Wednesday, October 31), the day's schedule is packed with programming, with panels for projects like the Ethereum Name Service[5], Whisper[6], and Ethereum Mist[7]. First-day speakers include Ethereum heavyweights Vlad Zamfir[8], Nick Johnson[9], and Piper Merriam[10], among others.
If anybody has grown tired after hours of
