03/08/2023
Check out the insights below (& video) from CryptoMondays Vilnius on 2023-07-31 where we talked about Crypto Mondays' origin story and shared impressions from EthCC 6 Paris.
Speakers: Sarunas Legeckas from Founderheads, Ignas Aničas from Strategy Labs, Laurent Bourquin from MEV Capital, Gabija Tuinaite from Mangrove.Exchange, Danielius Stasiulis from BitDegree and Lou Kerner from CryptoMondays & CryptoOracle Collective
Insights:
Lou's main point was that crypto is the solution for the community on the internet. Yet it is a bear market, these bull-bear swings, according to Lou, are called capitalism. Moreover, he's pretty sure the Metaverse is a thing - we're already in the Metaverse through our phones, we're just moving towards a more immersive version of it. Further, he echoed Gabija's point on the importance of Layer 2 solutions and mentioned that Layer 1 platforms are migrating to Layer 2 for better performance, like Celo.
Sarunas lauded the EthCC 6 Paris, appreciating the event's focus on development and innovation, and was impressed by the quality of attendees. The open exchange of new trends, the booming Liquid Staking in DeFi, and the potential for improved protocols were notable highlights.
Ignas noted that the "bad type of hype" is gone and only the serious builders remain. He mentioned a strong focus on account abstraction, an initiative aimed at making crypto wallets more user-friendly. He also recognized that well-known protocols like Uniswap are working towards bridging the gap with the retail market and building tools to onboard more users. Moreover, he highlighted Zero-Knowledge (ZK) as one of the hottest topics, a crucial element for maintaining privacy in blockchain transactions.
Laurent spoke in depth about 'zero knowledge proofs', a cryptographic methodology allowing transaction validation without content exposure, crucial for minimizing blockchain validation time and cost. He was critical of blockchain gaming, supporting only decentralizing in-game economies rather than running games themselves. Overall, he is considering DeFi to be the most compelling use case today.
Gabija echoed the hype around Layer 2 solutions and mentioned the anticipation around Ethereum's upgrade for data scalability. She sees a future where we have as many chains as websites on the internet, and we'll need a master app to manage it all. Uniswap is slowly converging in that direction.
The last participant, offering a unique investor's perspective, noted a heavy focus on infrastructure projects in the crypto investment landscape. He expressed concern about this sector becoming over-invested, while areas like gaming struggle for funds. Reflecting on the conference, he highlighted two emerging topics: account abstraction, which is making wallets more accessible to users, and block building, aimed at democratizing the process of capturing Maximum Extractable Value (MEV) in Ethereum transactions.
