ETHDenver, arguably one of the most influential crypto industry conferences of the year, draws over 20,000 builders, entrepreneurs, and investors from around the world to share ideas about building the decentralized future. As its name suggests, the conference is hosted by members of the Ethereum community (hat tip SporkDAO). Agoric was among the non-EVM chains represented this year, and we certainly made a splash 😉.
In addition to the main conference, there were multiple events where Dean Tribble, Agoric OpCo’s CEO, talked about Orchestration and the multi-chain future. We met other builders, and got to hear the latest innovations from around web3. Check out a summary of our attendance at each event below. We’ve included videos of Dean’s talks where possible. Keep an eye on our social media for more official recordings as they become available.
Day 1: AppChain Day & ETHDenver
AppChain Day
The first event we visited was AppChain Day, hosted by DoraHacks and DoraFactory. The event brought together the many of the most innovative builders working on appchains and related tech to discuss topics including novel scaling solutions, MEV, real-world assets on Cosmos, and many more.
We got to meet with the DoraHacks team, people from Akash, Evmos, and Shade Protocol, as well as independent builders. Interoperability was a common theme running through all of these conversations — developers are looking for new and interesting ways for their projects to interact with other platforms and blockchains — which is a big reason for why we introduced Agoric Orchestration.
At AppChainDay, Dean sat on a panel called IBC Expansion for Appchains with Muto, co-founder of Ethos Stake; Karel Kubat, CEO at Union; and Robin Bisschop, co-founder of Abstract Money. The panelists discussed how (as Dean put it) IBC is similar to TCP in web2, and how to best navigate the system of interconnected appchains.
“We have won. Appchains are a thing. We succeeded. But from a user perspective, they have thousands of options and don’t know where to start.” —Dean Tribble
🎥: IBC Expansion for Appchains Panel
ETHDenver
At ETHDenver, Dean took to the Neptune Stage in the BUIDLHub to present Orchestration to developers from the Ethereum ecosystem.
The presentation focused on helping general audiences with a wide range of technical backgrounds understand the opportunities Orchestration presents, and the means by which Agoric can achieve them. Some key points from Dean’s talk:
👉 The interchain is a >$2T ecosystem of islands of value waiting to be orchestrated
👉 Connecting things has been very technically challenging until now
👉 Agoric is uniquely equipped to make building multi-chain applications easier
During his talk, Dean also made two significant announcements:
The Orchestration API is coming! The Orchestration API is a tool that will make composing intricate DeFi applications out of multiple IBC-enabled chains as easy as calling traditional APIs from a web server.
We’re hosting our largest hackathon yet: - the Orchestration Virtual Hackathon! Coming Q2 ‘24, the hackathon will span three tracks and take place over 45 days with workshops and webinars along the way. Teams will be competing for $75k in prizes.
📨: Don’t miss a single API or Hackathon announcement!
And it’s always nice to run into friends!
Orchestration Splash
Along with Inter Protocol, Union, Squid, Rise In, and Calypso, we hosted an unforgettable night in Denver at the Aquarium, emceed by Agoric’s own Jeet Raut (specially dressed for the occasion). Guests enjoyed discussions featuring speakers from teams like dYdX, Noble, Union, and Alchemy.
Roundtable: Orchestration & Chain Abstraction
Mod: Juri Maibaum (Frens Validator)
Speakers: Dean Tribble (Agoric OpCo), Jack Zampolin (Strangelove), Dougie DeLuca (Figment Capital), Karel Kubat (Union)
Highlight: “The purpose of IBC has never been to be a user facing protocol, it's supposed to fade into the background… We're just starting to see those first experiences [with IBC behind the scenes], but what we're going to see over the next 6-12 months is that exact experience roll out broadly across the entire crypto space.” —Jack Zampolin @ Strangelove
Roundtable: DeFi & Interoperability
Mod: Rowland Graus (Agoric OpCo)
Speakers: Paul Erlanger (dYdX), Ebrahim Elbagory (UX Chain), Fig (Squid), Jelena Djuric (Noble)
Highlight: “In the traditional SaaS world, any kind of UX friction is a retention problem. It's a point where people drop off. [In crypto], we assume that because people are super excited to ape into the next thing that they'll just deal with the friction points and be okay with it, but that's actually not the case.” —Jelena Djuric @ Noble
Roundtable: Multi-Chain DX
Mod: Kris Bennett (Agoric OpCo)
Speakers: Joe Schnetzler (Calypso), Gülcan Yayla (Rise In), Jason Windawi (Alchemy)
Highlight: "Yes for the users it's all about the experience, but it also feels very different when blockchain isn't even part of the dialogue. It makes me wonder what the industry will be like when [Account / Chain Abstraction] comes to fruition, which it clearly will — and will be good for the space!" —Jason Windawi @ Alchemy
🎥: Orchestration Splash Roundtables
Bonus: Calypso Demo
As a special endcap to the night, Joe and John of Mystic Labs were on hand with a brand new demo of Calypso in action. Calypso is a multi-chain DeFi portfolio manager in development that leverages Agoric’s Orchestration capabilities. The team showed off an early look at their multi-chain staking widget, their first product, which they’re planning to release later this year.
🐬: Calypso Multi-Chain Staking
Day 2: Chain Abstraction Day & ATOM Denver
Chain Abstraction Day
Chain Abstraction Day was an event that brought together the top minds in crypto working on tough UX challenges to discuss research and share ideas. Co-hosted by Agoric, NEAR, and Frontier Research, along with participation of the CAKE Working Group, the day-long event sold out several times over — a clear signal how important these concepts will be as the industry matures.
🎥: Dean @ Chain Abstraction Day
ATOM Denver
Cryptocito and the crew behind Cosmoverse returned to Denver for ATOMDenver, the largest event to-date in the ATOMxyz series of global conferences. Speakers at ATOMDenver included leadership from Akash, Agoric, Archway, Comdex, Noble, Passage, Secret Network, and ZetaChain, among others.
Day 3: Frictionless
We spent two days on the ETHDenver conference main floor taking meetings and connecting with other teams, learning from conversations with people who understood what Orchestration does and what it can do for their project.
Spotted in the wild, one of the Ugly Sweaters 👀
Our last event of the conference, Frictionless by Shade Protocol, brought together builders focused on privacy and user experience in the Cosmos ecosystem for conversations around new user friction, developer onboarding, privacy, and interoperability in an intimate, screen-less setting.
The mood in the room felt as serious as the ideas being discussed. Over the course of the evening, there were speakers from Shade Protocol, Secret, Agoric, Union, DoraHacks, Persistence, Mystic Labs, and more, on five panels. Dean was on the last panel (IBC & DeFi, The Frontier of Possibility), where he discussed how IBC is enabling entirely new DeFi use cases emerging out of multi-chain interoperability.
Follow Agoric on X for the drop of the Frictionless video!
Key Takeaways
The consensus among developers from the EVM, Cosmos, and other ecosystems is a strong endorsement of Cosmos technology's reliability; for instance. The overarching theme of the event highlighted that the concept of multi-chain and interoperability is on everyone's mind, underscoring the inevitability of devising an Orchestration plan.
In this emerging scenario, developers will find that Agoric offers the simplest and most effective solution. Moreover, the potential for uniting the interchain with other ecosystems is vast, representing opportunities surpassing $2 trillion, contingent upon our collective ability to collaborate and integrate our efforts effectively.
What’s Next for Orchestration
Dive further into our takeaways from ETHDenver and hear about what’s next for us during our Orchestration Monthly call coming up on Spaces next Thursday, March 14.
Want to catch Dean speaking IRL? Follow the Agoric Events Calendar to see when we’ll be in your region next.
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