ETHDenver goes beyond cringe to utility, culture and beyond

As ETHDenver draws to a close, builders across Web3 leave with new ideas, developments and utilities led by a unique and multi-hyphenated culture and community interested in everything from wallets to services, privacy, dank sharding, folk music, video games and art.

ETHDenver draws heavily on its unique culture

Cringe aside, people coming together irl is cool. To all the haters:

The cringe song is now the most expensive Song A Day to sell in auction.

5.5 eth, with just under a day to go.

Thanks to @CupOJoseph for the giant swing! And let’s see if @k06a comes back swinging! pic.twitter.com/1DlzwTKMuf

— jonathan @ EthDenver (@songadaymann) March 5, 2023

Privacy pools and zero-knowledge roll-ups dominate tech-side

On the sidelines of ETHDenver, Ameen Soleiman revealed the launch of Privacy Pools, a follow-up to the banned mixer Tornado Cash, which has been sanctioned by the US government and its founder imprisoned in Holland due to its association with North Korean hacking groups. Soleiman, who goes by @ameensol on Twitter, claims that Privacy Pools will enable users to conduct private and mostly untraceable transactions while also discouraging unlawful activities such as money laundering.

13/ Our demo is live – https://t.co/Nt4b2Tgx1D

Now, users have the option to help regulators isolate illicit funds, without revealing their entire transaction history.

Let’s watch a brief video of it in action: pic.twitter.com/An9lWx6jfr

— ameen.eth (@ameensol) March 4, 2023

Zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) rollups also dominated several ETHDenver meetups. Polygon showcased their latest zkEVM rollup and even gave out some free Polygon swag. On what to expect from Polygon’s zk rollup, see CryptoSlate’s summary of Jordi Baylina‘s recent engineering and technical explanation.

Come and say hi and grab some cool swag @EthereumDenver #ETHDenver #zkDeFi #zkEVM @0xPolygonZK @0xPolygonDeFi pic.twitter.com/Hmr2DF9rav

— 0VIX (@0vixProtocol) March 3, 2023

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