ETH Denver: Element Recap
ETH Denver was a celebration of community, building, and collaboration. More than 12 thousand people from all over the world flooded the…
ETH Denver was a celebration of community, building, and collaboration. More than 12 thousand people from all over the world flooded the city for a week of conferences, meetups, a hackathon, and parties, of course. You could feel the excitement in every interaction, and you could see it in the faces of friends and partners meeting in real life again. It was the sound of the global Ethereum community filling the space and working together towards a shared vision.
We feel happy and humbled to know that Element played a key role at the conference, contributing to the body of knowledge around DeFi primitives and governance through various presentations and panels. We sponsored ETH Denver and Gitcoin’s Schelling Point conferences and gave talks on governance, the dynamics of fixed rates in DeFi, and building community.
We participated in panels about collaboration between protocols and the future of DeFi, mentored teams during the hackathon, and hosted the Degens Balls party in partnership with Yearn, Fractional, and Gitcoin. We also hosted our second full-team offsite in Denver after the conference. Unfortunately, Covid put many of our team members out of commission, but everyone stepped up and lent a hand: running errands, cooking meals, lifting spirits, and bringing the team together!
It was intense, to say the least. And the best way to get ready for a year during which we will see massive innovations and new trends emerge in the space. We can’t wait to share more of what we’re cooking up at Element and what our role in this exciting year will be, but for now, let’s recap what went on in Denver!
ETH Denver
Element Finance was a Cypher sponsor of ETH Denver. We gave talks and participated in different panels, and we had our booth, where our team spent a lot of time speaking to old and new friends, partners, and people who were just getting started in the space.
We were energized by the overwhelming interest in what we’re building at Element. Thanks to everyone who dropped by to learn more about fixed yield markets and to discuss the possibilities around new structured products within DeFi.
How Fixed-Rate Primitives Work in a World of Degens and Rugpulls
Will Villanueva, Element’s co-founder, and CEO presented “How Fixed-Rate Primitives Work in a World of Degens and Rugpulls.”
Will covers the fascinating story of 0xsifu, what happened with Abracadabra, the entire Wonderland scandal, and how that affected the markets overall. You can see the presentation at the link below!
You can also read a summary on this Twitter thread by a member of the Element community.
Why Crypto Protocols Are Failing at Governance, and How to Fix It
Charles St.Louis, Element’s COO and Head of Governance, presented “Why Crypto Protocols Are Failing at Governance and How to Fix It” at the Temple stage on Friday!
His presentation focused on how governance systems have evolved from more archaic models during our more primitive existence thousands of years ago, to more complex and effective systems that have emerged over time. He spoke about how dynamic blockchain systems have allowed for rapid prototyping and testing of new governance models in ways that were not possible before.
Charles argues that we’re facing critical challenges in DeFi. Even though there’s no single solution that fixes all of our problems, a flexible, upgradable, modular governance system can adapt and evolve with us more efficiently and with less turmoil.
You can read a recap of his presentation in this Twitter thread!
The Rise of Symbiotic DeFi Protocols and The Future of DeFi
Windra Thio, Element’s Head of Growth & Strategy, participated in two panels during ETH Denver. Windra discussed some of the upcoming trends we’re likely to see during 2022 and touched on cross-team collaboration in the space.
You can watch both of his participation in the links below!
The Rise of Symbiotic DeFi Protocols
The Future of DeFi
Other than his participation in the panels above, Windra posted an exciting Twitter thread with his biggest takeaway from ETH Denver: “We need to focus less on being competitors (with each other) and focus more on our products and users.”
Check it out in the link below!
Schelling Point
We were one of the main sponsors at Gitcoin’s Schelling Point. The conference focused on making the case to build on open blockchains like Ethereum. It covered some of the latest emerging narratives and touched on practical ideas and common frameworks through which we can help to accelerate DeFi understanding and adoption.
Will Villanueva presented “Building a More Collaborative DeFi: A Path from Degen and Rug Pulls to Legitimacy”.
His presentation is focused on the principles that Element has taken in building a community and some of the theories and thesis on the future of how we will continue to build and make it stronger.
You can also check out a brief summary of the presentation in this Twitter thread ;)
The Degens Ball
We hosted the Degens Ball party with our friends from Yearn, Fractional, and Gitcoin at the Temple nightclub in Denver. More than one thousand people attended! We put a lot of time and effort into curating the music for the party and finding the right spot to host it because we wanted it to be a memorable night for everyone. After listening to more than 50 DJs, we decided to go with Aaron Bordas, a legendary Denver DJ who did a lot to develop the techno scene in the city. We had a fantastic time and are happy that all of our friends and partners could attend!
Offsite: Survivor Edition
Many of our team members got Covid and had to isolate for several days (in some cases longer) at the hotel or at the Element Airbnb (aka Elf House) in Denver. We were diligent about having everyone rapid test prior to the offsite. Nonetheless, the offsite turned out to be an incredible experience with lots of bonding, fun, and fascinating conversations. Since our last offsite the team has grown by 2X and this was the first time many of our team members were able to meet IRL.
Facing adversity together as a team, we provided support and care to our fellow team members that were down with the virus — no person left behind. We came out stronger and tighter as a group, confident that we can overcome any challenge together!
One thing for sure, we’re proud of our team for stepping up and showing great compassion and keeping with the spirit of collaboration and friendship, even during tough times. We even had time to surprise Alim for his birthday with Denver’s finest cupcakes!
What’s Next
2022 will see our team travel to many of the Ethereum conferences taking place around the world. If you didn’t have a chance to meet the team in person, there will be many more opportunities!
We will also host another offsite with all of our team members to do more strategic planning and to work and spend time together, ideally far away from anywhere that has any season except summer!
Finally, we’re excited about the upcoming updates that we will be sharing soon. So stay tuned for announcements on our Discord server and Twitter!
Here’s to an exciting 2022 in DeFi, everyone!
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