If you liked it then you shoulda put a dApp on it

(Edit: this article is written in first person and second, because I wanted to share my ETHBuenosAires experience — MP)

As protocols get upgraded, dApps go from contained lab environments straight into the main net jungle to fight the mythical high gas costs monsters (I am being ironic — I do know how and why gas works that way) and potentially critical bugs are squashed; communities also need to evolve.

ETHBuenosAires was for me, the perfect testnet environment. I had it easy, I just went there to volunteer, wrote some nice things, had fun tweeting, talking to builders, everything went smoothly. I think from the UX perspective if you wanna call it that, this was incredible.

While ETHBuenosAires was concluding, ETHBerlin was firing up. And we understood that it was our duty to take all the teachings from the amazing Argentinian team, all the know-how and evolve it. The ETHBuenosAires team provided the foundation grounds, an invaluable element. They shared with us their lessons learned and the platforms they used. ETHDenver also reached out to offer the same, and we gladly take all feedback — they also got the Colorado coin, so the Berlin coin is a continued effort but again — we started nothing. All credit goes to them, and to Bounties Network.

As a responsible, global community, in constant evolution as is our ecosystem, we need to understand that it is not enough to absorb these teachings and foundations and just replicate. We don’t need to top our precedents, but to raise the bar of our own event because they already did a lot of the hard work for us. In order for the community to grow, we need to evolve and generate a sustainable growth of independent community initiatives that are interconnected by the same ethos, the same culture (and most times, the same people as this train is not really one that makes stops).

As organizers, sponsors, as hackers, as mentors, judges or speakers, we cannot just expect to show up at a hackathon, enjoy the vibe, the parties, the content, hack and get some prizes and recognition. That’s already been well-tested, praised and we know the model works and that we love it. We need to give something back to the community. Mass Adoption will only kick off once we start to adopt the Web 3.0 stack ourselves. If we are building a tool but not sharing it with friends to test it, then how will we evangelize the wider audience?

With this in mind, ETHBerlin has pledged to gather as many dApps as we can find and have our community test them and use them. If we have a working dApp, then why do we keep using the old centralized closed source apps? “Because they are easy to use” is not the answer. We got a bunch of UX guys working to make our dApps as usable as the old ones, so we need to help them out. We, the ETHBerlin community, are a great user base to test the grounds before mass adoption. But we cannot tell others about the wonders of decentralization without having tested what we are building before. So we need to first be aware of what’s going on, explore it, and then move on to suggest alternatives to a wider audience.

So, as our friend and collaborator, Mr. Ligi said, we need to eat our own dog food (a delicious one — by the way). Let’s educate by example and not with empty words.

So, without further do, the ETHBerlin collective is proud to announce our further contribution to the ecosystem. We haven’t come up with a name yet, but for now, let’s call it “If you like then you shoulda put a dApp on it” (yes its a Beyoncé reference — in tech — deal with it).

• Bye centralised messaging systems, hello Status!: so, why are we still using telegram when the guys from Status have successfully shipped a working chat dApp that protects your data? Are you not tired of the Nigerian Princes popping up in your private messages saying you need to help them get some BTC out of a wallet? Well then drop that c**p. You shoulda dropped it when they ICOd already. At ETHBerlin our only mobile chat is the Status one. We will have desktop Riot, who we believe adjusts to our principles as well, as a back-up. But to grow the community, we need to do it in a secure manner, so this is it. Drop your telegram and your slack. Find your dream couch-surfing, engage with your friends and discover people on the #ETHBerlin channel, you can add us, and if we do the same, you’ll see our identity. Cue to Maciej from Status: dude, ship the reply feature.
• We got a coin, b***es: this has been announced before, so there is not much more to add. Bounties Network has created the Berlin coin for us, alongside a bounties platform where you will be able to tip speakers, mentors, anyone with a cool shirt, complete challenges to adopt other dApps- the person that wins the most BRLN at the end of the hackathon, shall be prized and named Der/das dAppmeister/in Supreme.
• Inception: as we said, we’re implementing Status- but Status is not only a chat. Status is a mobile Ethereum client and a wallet too. So when it came to the time to see which wallet to use for BRLN, it was a no-brainer to integrate the Bounties Network into Status, and a partnership was formed. ETHBerlin helps businesses too. Inside the Status client, we are working on other integrations, you’ll see them on the list.
• Blockparty: forget Eventbrite and their sketchy data policy. Makoto & team will be helping out by deploying Blockparty contracts for our community events. Learn more here. Also, we need people to help them audit the contract, if you are a flawed smart contract sommelier (or auditor) please help us. Blockparty will also live inside the Status client.
• Livepeer: OF COURSE WE ARE NOT STREAMING ON YOUTUBE. That’s a garbage fire full of ads we don’t want (seriously, there has been one saying that crypto has three uses HODL, invest and trading — I AM DEAD SERIOUS). They are also taking down vids and streams a piacere. We ain’t having it., Livepeer it is. And we’re ramping it up by testing the implementation of Livepeer (again) via the Status client for mobile support. Yay.
• Oh hai decentralized virtual reality: we cannot say much yet about this point, but expect waves. And VR lands. We’ll let you jump to conclusions.
• Hotels go Blockchain (coming this week!): Winding Tree is a blockchain powered travel ecosystem. We haven’t partnered with any hotels because we heard from this dApp and we wanted to wait till they were ready. Now you can book your fancy schmancy hotel via the dApp with a special discount. Moreover, you will be in control of your data, reviews, and more. Through dApps like this, we will not encounter any more nasty surprises from rigged Trip Advisor/Google ratings :)
• The mighty Olympia by Gnosis steps into the scene providing one of the most important things for us: we wanted to create a people’s choice award, and started thinking how to do it: a TCR? A raffle? Some centralized voting app? NO! We chose to run the PM catalyzed by Gnosis for this and other fun queries. In the end, the people’s choice award winners will also receive a prize from the Open Track Bounty. Your feedback matters to us, and we wanted to provide a robust platform for you to become a hackathon judge as well (however — don’t try to game it — Lama the product manager for Olympia and team are evaluating scenarios and assessing risks. You don’t want to provoke Lama, she’s badass)
• Additionally, we are setting up a bounty for people that adopt ENS — for a more secure Web 3.0

While we wait for other dApps to come onto the scene, we are still testing these that we have. We are also working on a knowledge base where you will be able to see all the frameworks, toolkits, wikis, stacks and challenges that our sponsors are putting together for you to try to win their prizes. In our next post, Helena, our PR hero will be introing some of our sponsors, while we build together the ultimate resource library for our most respected hackers.

ETHBerlin stands strong: we think that dApps are the future, so we’ll do whatever it takes to push adoption, and inspire you to build more of them. There is room for all. Stay tuned for more integrations into the ETHBerlin dApp roster, and the knowledge base. We know this is quite a lot of information, but seeing your applications, we know you can take it, challenge us and contribute to switching the paradigms.

BUIDL HARD OR GO HOME.

You’ve got a working dApp? Do you think there is room for it to be used for something at our event? Contact us! joinus@ethberlin.com