Back to Basics: introducing ETHBerlin
ETHBerlin just popped up spontaneously, when a couple of friends were just chatting at Full Node’s watercooler, the Golem office. It wasn’t…
ETHBerlin just popped up spontaneously, when a couple of friends were just chatting at Full Node’s watercooler, the Golem office. It wasn’t planned. Zeppelin was visiting, everyone was curious about their idea to organize ETHBuenosAires, and the conclusion was obvious: ETHBerlin had to happen.
Innovation hubs such as Factory, that lead the path on promising technological projects and sharing ideas among them, have been present in the city for a long time. Factory’s CEO, Ramin G. Far is a blockchain enthusiast who is constantly engaging with the community, and when ETHBerlin proposed the idea to Factory, there was no doubt that it had to happen there.
This group of friends reached out to ETHGlobal, the entity spearheading some of the largest Ethereum-based hackathons worldwide, and shortly after the first calls with the non-profit organization, ETHBerlin was set to be one of the next hackathons in the ETHGlobal series.
Berlin is a city that’s unique, burgeoning and collaborative. It offers the perfect setting for building new tools, and most importantly, to build a community that’s strong enough to claim that the German metropolis IS a Blockchain hub.
This city was the Blockchain capital before we even spotted it, and here is how the story began.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…
After the initial meetings in Miami, where Vitalik met others aligned in vision, he shared his ideas for Ethereum, Dr. Gavin Wood and Dr. Aeron Buchanan, some of Ethereum’s OGs, hopped in a car and drove to Berlin, scouting a place where they could run Ethereum’s initial operations. By then the project had been founded and seeded around, but Berlin as a city, was a major factor of the starting point, as Gavin considered it a great place to live, build, and of course, a buzzing city where they could enjoy their free time.
DEVCON0, the first Ethereum developers conference, took place in Berlin from November 24th to 28th, 2014. That day, Gavin, Co-Founder of Ethereum and its former CTO, kicked off the conference with a speech that would set the foundation for the community, which is constantly growing in the city: “Welcome! Our mission: dApps” was its title.
We won’t do a deep dive in repeating DEVCON0 because it’s already been written — and recorded! Check the videos.
If it’s not obvious already, the takeaway from the history of Ethereum is that the operations side chose Berlin as a place to start, and as a place to #BUIDL. It is only natural that we recognize these beginning and at the same time, we continue making history, building the future of Ethereum and Blockchain. We want to do our very best to make our beloved city a hub where you can relax, build, and interact in real life with others.
Moreover, did it ever cross your mind that Berlin does not have a city center per se — even though we do have Mitte — but diverse districts with their own centers, all different to each other? Berlin as a city, is as decentralized as it gets.
As with ETHBerlin, Berlin offers a unique setting that no other place can offer: things happen in casual environments. Networking events are not part of our ethos. However, friendships and spontaneous meetings are. Ideas arise from hanging out at Görlitzer park over beers sitting on the lawn. We don’t need much money to subsist here, hence we are not here to become millionaires. We just want to make our contribution to the decentralized future.
Our commitment to the ecosystem is transparent and organic.
ETHBerlin comes from a grassroots movement, but additionally from the spontaneity and freshness that arises from friends sharing the same goals and ideas. We’re crazy, misfits, troublemakers, we’re the round heads in the square holes — as the Think Different Apple ad stated — wanna join us?
EVENT FACTS:
Wanna learn more about the Hackathon, speaker applications, sponsorships, or volunteering? Click here or follow us on Twitter for memes, updates and some surprises :)
Date: September 7th to 9th, 2018
Main venue: Factory Görlizer Park
Supporting venue: Factory Mitte
Capacity:
- 500/700 hackers
- 1000/1200 total attendees
ETHBerlin is committed to inclusion, diversity, education, and above all, to the Ethereum Community improvement. We will not sell any tickets for this event.
Some tickets will be available for free for things such as Day 1: conferences, or the Day 2 workshops. We will release separate applications in due time.
Volunteers, Speakers, Sponsors and Hackers will have access to all events (although they will need to sign up for some due to capacity restrictions)
ETHBerlin is organized in joint collaboration with ETHGlobal and with the incredible support of Factory Berlin.
