Hey friend! Remember us? We know it has been a while.
In fact, the world seems to have changed drastically since we last met in Berlin in 2018 for ETHBerlin and in 2019 for ETHBerlin ZWEI.
Central-bank-issued fiat currencies devalue faster every year, with annual inflation rates of supposedly stable currencies like EUR or USD hitting new highs each month. Over the last two years, the global crackdown on privacy, freedom of movement, and the right to transact by governments worldwide put us on the edge of a new dark age of regression.
"Without the freedom to transact, you have no other constitutional rights."
Punk6529: On the freedom to transact.
We are seriously concerned about the state of the world, but equally so about the state of the blockchain space. While we are absolutely over the moon for the ever-growing mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, certain developments leave a bitter aftertaste, and we fear that the most essential values are about to get lost along the way. We take this as a call to action and want to do our part
Please welcome ETHBerlin's official third edition:
With ETHBerlin³, we aim to go back to the roots and remind our community what it's all about: We want to invite you to Berlin to hack the system, now more than ever. We want to emphasize the original cypherpunk vision and build on it. In addition, we aim to teach and educate a new generation of hackers about what you can achieve with cryptography, blockchain, and peer-to-peer network technologies.
"We must defend our own privacy if we expect to have any. We must come together and create systems which allow anonymous transactions to take place. People have been defending their own privacy for centuries with whispers, darkness, envelopes, closed doors, secret handshakes, and couriers. The technologies of the past did not allow for strong privacy, but electronic technologies do."
Eric Hughes: A Cypherpunk's Manifesto.
Our big question for you is: How do we get from yield farming fruit tokens, VC chains, making the rich richer and a never-ending race to the top to an open and an inclusive system that makes a difference in people's lives? Which anarchist and privacy-preserving tools can we build that enable independence from governments and mega corps?
We will encourage hackathon tracks, workshops, and supporters at ETHBerlin³ to focus on the following key aspects:
Berlin has a dark history of financial scandals, hyperinflation, and bank runs. Since inflation is again about to eat the world, we'd like to use this as a reminder that the system we live in is not infallible, and it's up to us to progress towards change. The fiat currencies we use every day are hardly backed by anything at this point (money printer goes brrr); we just choose to believe in one thing over another. We can choose to build the (financial) future we want to live in; nothing really hinders us!
In the previous years, ETHBerlin always tried to make a difference by pioneering the use of decentralized technologies and nurturing the ecosystem. Significant projects emerged from our hackathons, such as IPFS Pinata or the Goerli Testnet. And legend has it that even the Dune Analytics founders started their career at ETHBerlin.
Are you committed to making a difference? Expect us.