🇧🇷Brazil Crypto Report: ETH Rio Edition 🌴
🇧🇷Brazil Crypto Report: ETH Rio Edition 🌴
A recap of the highlights and themes coming out of Day 1 of the main event and the pre-event activities
bd (bom dia) everyone,
I’m back from my trek in the Himalayas and am hanging out Austin, TX right now for SXSW. It pains me to not be at ETH Rio with everyone - looks like a ton of fun!
Nevertheless, Day 1 is in the books and I’m awake at 3am with jet lag so I thought I would throw together a post from afar with some of the highlights that I've observed.
Former Senator Eduardo Suplicy stole the show with an impromptu singing act during a fireside chat about universal basic income with Celo’s Camila Rioja. I would argue it’s a contender for best rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Blowing in the Wind” ever sung by a Brazilian. Well worth spending 20 seconds to listen.
Please read on, and I’ll try to send out another one tomorrow recapping Day 2.
Abraços,
Aaron
Fun in the Sun
It’s a bit of an adage in the conference business to say that people buy tickets to see the speakers but come for the experiences and the networking. All you have to do is take a quick look at some of the happy hour and party pictures floating around on Twitter to see that rule applies here.
AVSA + Cami Russo Redux
One of Day 1’s can’t miss sessions was the mashup of two of Latam’s most notable crypto personalities - Cami Russo of The Defiant and author of “The Infinite Machine” and Alex Van de Sande - a Brazilian OG who’s been one of the central figures in Ethereum since 2014.
Keep Buidling
Similar to ETHDenver a few weeks back, there appears to be healthy emphasis on hacking, building and community development (a healthy relief from the mindless coin schilling conferences from a few years ago)
Here is a helpful Twitter thread showcasing crypto projects local to Latam that have a presence at ETH Rio.
Dreams Fulfilled
The event marks a dream fulfilled for many in the Brazil crypto scene who have been grinding for years and have been unable to convene for the last two. A lot has changed in those times, and for Brazilian crypto OG Solange Gueiros ETH Rio marks a special moment.
Bankless Brasil Ponta da Vista
Brian Sander from Bankless Brasil was kind enough to put together a quick post highlighting his experience thus far.
Before everything starts, I want to point out that this is the first big Blockchain event in Brazil and perhaps even in Latin America. After some post-pandemic time without going to crypto events, it's great to be able to arrive, meet and be able to talk and connect with people who work with us every day but who have never seen each other before. That's crypto, take out the pfps (profile pictures) and chat IRL (in real life).
So, summary of these 3 days:
First, shout out to everyone who was here these first 3 days and arrived and talked to me or some of my partners from Bankless or any other protocol, let's go!
First day, on Friday, there was a Hackathon/Bootcamp at Fábrica de Startups. 90% of the activities are taking place there. Only the exhibitions of NFTs that are happening at the Museum of Tomorrow.
Second day, on Saturday, there was the continuation of the Hackathon/Bootcamp + LaunchPad with pitches from various investors, VCs, Ethereum Foundation and etc; many good people who are building Web3 in Brazil. At the end of LaunchPad there was a Chainlink MeetUp, it was a moment of networking and relaxation.
On the third day, on Sunday, there was a continuation of Hackathons activities and the second day of LaunchPad with people from various protocols from Brazil, LatAm and the whole world with investors, VCs, Blockchains. Lots of connections and involvement of ideas.
My takeaway is finally being able to meet a crowd that I only knew on my pc screen. You can sit and chat, have a beer with these guys, it's been an incredible experience so far. The highlight of the event, so far, has been the side-events that are taking place around the city. Saturday had a Meetup and some people will go out to know the city after the event.
This Sunday, in addition to the Harmony Boat Party, there was also another meeting after the event at Mureta da Urca. The last of the day was the LaunchPad Dinner with investors at Restaurante Marius no Leme.
And there's still a lot to happen!
In the second we have the main event, with several speakers and a lot of networking.
Fostering Inclusion
The organizers made a classy move to open up Day 2 for more women attendees after receiving some criticism about the event being too bro-heavy.
I’ve never found it to be fair when event organizers bear the brunt of blame for the gender disparities within crypto, as events are just a snapshot of the broader industry at any particular moment. But everyone wants to shoot the messenger. Nevertheless, props to the organizers for making a good decision here.
Carbon Neutral
Moss, the Brazil-based tokenized carbon credit platform, will ensure that the event is carbon neutral by purchasing carbon credit tokens to offset emissions stemming from the event. The total amount purchased will be the equivalent of roughly 58k km traveled by a gasoline-powered car, per a formula that takes into account travel, displacement, waste disposal etc.
Luis Felipe Adaime, founder and CEO of Moss, highlighted the new opportunities posed by this arrangement.
“This partnership for compensation reinforces that blockchain technology came not only to bring more security and transparency to business but also to generate new market opportunities. Moss' MCO2 is a great example of this.
This initiative will give the event a Carbon Neutral seal and ideally set a precedent for future crypto events to follow.
Luiz Hadad, ESG curator and Ethereum Rio volunteer, explained:
“Compensating for the event's emissions was a consensus among all the organizers. Ethereum Rio will also have social impact initiatives, such as an open day with educational content in Portuguese, tickets for NGOs and underserved communities at the conference, bootcamp and hackathon. We hope that these initiatives will inspire other events to follow the same path”,