Two weeks ago I attended to (and organized) Ethereum México 2024 in Mérida, Yucatán. What an experience. First I want to thank to every attendee for come. Really, thank you very much. To take over 600 people away from CDMX was a big challenge. Then of course, the core team and volunteers that led successfully the whole event, what amazing organization.
This post is a collection of thoughts and reflections based on different talks that I have with people across four days. There is not an order of relevance.
#1 People are here for the longterm
Last year a lot people were in the hope of a bull market, sharing what coins were they buying, holding, farming or investing. This year was a huge difference. I had zero talks about prices (maybe because the crab market of the last months) but instead all the interactions I had were about building products, growing communities, raising money, how to jump from web2 to web3. Some people are pivoting their initial ideas about their communities, products or even themselves, they are trying to find sustainable ways to keep in the game for the years to come. Please, take a look into my talk about Squad Staking for Obol Collective. It could be a no brainer for your community (or yourself).
I had the opportunity to share my journey with some few people and they are struggling with some of the same internal conflicts that I had 2 years ago before I quit my job; lack of quality time with their loved ones, lack of “free time” to do the things that they love, not enough opportunities to grow and more. I hope they take my history as inspiration to follow their dreams.
Some of the projects that caught my attention during this weekend were Starkfit a fit app that will integrate prediction markets features, Bando and on/off ramp for Mexico, XOC a mexican peso stablecoin, Chipipay an app for pay services with crypto, and Metrics Garden an Impact Studio with 3 areas. They were onboarding people with different activities and 1:many talks during the event. There were more interesting projects that pitched during Ethereum Mexico event, take a look into them.
Also, it seems that prediction markets (PMs) are the the new black. Different builders were discussing how to integrate PMs into their products. Different ideas appear during the side events, even there was a guy brainstorming a PM dapp that allows to bet on how many side events will be on Devcon and which ones will be oversubscribed or not.
#2 A new city, a new community
To host a big event in a new city is a beautiful experience. First you have a different climate, architecture, culture, food and people. Merida welcomed us with +35°c and 70% of humidity. Everyone were sharing their experiences about the weather, but happy to be in a different city with their PFP friends, eating regional meals and visiting touristic places like Chichén Itzá (one of the New 7 Wonders of the World), Progreso, Paseo Montejo and different Cenotes.
With a new city comes a new challenge, convince everyone to travel to a place which is not a major city. We took the challenge and onboarded universities from the region, convince people that Ethereum Mexico 2024 will be great, and it was. We had confortable chairs (a huge painpoint last year), a beautiful venue with A/C and great sound, marquesitas in the entrance room and a lot of merch in the POAP Island (if you want people happy, please consider adding one to your next event). I feel happy with the results even before checking the feedback form and prepare reports about it.
The community is great. Most organized their side events before or after the main event. Some side events were held in the morning or afternoon on the same days. But they did not overlap. Again, thanks.
#3 People are worried about governance tokens
One of the most recurring talks I had this weekend was about governance tokens and participating in DAOs. While some of the attendees are interested in participating in DAOs at the same time they are concerned about large unlocks and VCs dumping the price. DAOs have been struggling to find revenue streams that can accrue value for the token and incentivize holders to hold the token (and perhaps delegate it) rather than sell it. There are upcoming airdrops like Eigenlayer, Scroll, Eclipse and others where people are afraid of using their allocation to become delegates and then being dumped by the whales. An incentive mismatch? Maybe. But I think the L2s protocols are still finding PMF and have a couple of years to figure this out. For example, I find very interesting the Timeboost proposal from the ArbitrumDAO, basically it will introduce a new ordering policy to capture MEV for the DAO, there are risks of course, but it’s an interesting approach and probably we’ll see similar proposals in other L2s DAOs in the next cycle.
In other hand, plutocratic models were delegates with a lot of power have a stronger voice seems to not be the best solution out there. Sometimes delegation becomes a popularity contest (what should be the alternativa? meritocracy?). Potential delegates know this and they are worried to don’t get “enough voice” if they become delegates. I heard several times this concern with current DAOs like Optimism, Arbitrum, zkSync, and even project without an active governance like Scroll, Linea, Eigenlayer, etc. My advice during this talks was “Just do it, try it”. I tend to believe that latam needs a broader representation into DAOs and raise the hand and share unpopular opinions is key to improve the current models. I have added to my reading list Plurality: The Future of Collaborative Technology and Democracy by Audrey Tang, E. Glen Weyl and the Plurality Community.
I would like to share that I’ve been thinking to become part of three governances in the coming weeks, right now I’m preparing my delegate statement for Ether.fi. But then I would like to get involved in the Obol Collective and Eigenlayer. I will announce them when the time comes.
#4 Not another conference. A Mexican celebration
I won’t be tired to advocate that Ethereum Mexico is not another conference. At least for me, the vibes that I have seen in Mexico are pretty far away from other events. People were laughing all the time, smiling, sharing their own experiences about life, not only in crypto. And everyone see the event as an opportunity to escape from the rabbit hole and have quality times with their virtual friends. But in real life. Ethereum Mexico provides the opportunity to visit one of the most beautiful cities in Mexico, visit Chichén Itzá, the Progreso beach, eat Marquesitas at Paseo Montejo and enjoy a lot of Cocos. Everyone was so relax and happy that was impossible not to be part of the party!
Our opening ceremonies for both days were regional dances. Beautiful artist delighted us with their talent, and the gifts were around everyone. We gave different kinds of gifts to all the attendees, no matter if you were a newcomer, an attendee, a sponsor, partner, speaker, volunteer, staff, everyone took in one away or another a piece of Ethereum Mexico.
I’m proud to be Mexican, to be part of Ethereum Mexico team, to see hope in the eyes of the participants, because you know,
the eyes chico, they never lie.
See you next year.