EthCC[7] - EthGlobal - 9 Amazing Days In My Life

It started on July 7th and ended on July 15th.

The EthCC[7] and then the EthGlobal.

EthCC[7] is the Ethereum Community Conference. It gathers together the best of the best and the brightest of the brightest. Builders who build the new world. A new Web, Web3 which is coming to change the life of all people.

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How Did that All Start For Me?

Thanks to my cooperation with Talent Protocol I got the news about a voting process for an EthCC and EthGlobal scholarship. I joined, and I finally got into the winning 10 top positions.

I would like to thank all the builders who voted for me.

And, of course, the sponsors of these scholarships:

• Talent Protocol
• EthCC
• EthGlobal and
• Celo

Nothing would have been realized without them.

Day 1 - Arriving at Brussels

With my air-flight tickets, the accommodation and the conference and hackathon tickets paid, I happily took off on Sunday the 7th for Brussels.

I spent the day strolling around the beautiful city of Brussels. The hostel, La Troupe I checked-in, was in a very convenient location in the old center of the city, which was amazing.

Late in the evening, I had the first encounter with Talent Protocol team and the other scholars. We had a nice welcome dinner in a very beautiful restaurant, Le Bistro - Porte de Hal.

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I am so glad to meet new people from other countries. They were from Italy, Turkey, Colombia, Argentina, Mexico and Portugal! Different cultures and languages. Meeting people from other countries is always an eye-opening experience.

We walked back to the Hostel late at night. The very good weather helped, and we got some nice night sleep to get ready for the first day of the conference.

Day 2 - EthCC[7] Day 1 - Monday, July 8th

Arriving at the EthCC[7] venue, the first day, I found everything to have been organized so well! From the swag bugs, to maps, to WiFi, to coffee, water, bus tickets allowances, everything.

Numerous presentations taking placing at the same time in different buildings and rooms. The most beautiful theatre was the Gold Hall. I just wanted to stay there the whole day.

If I had to pick up one talk that I really enjoyed was the talk given by Stani Kulechov

Later on, I also attended a workshop organized by my friends at Talent Protocol. We worked on organizing ideas around data points related to builders performance. For example, how many pull requests a builder has submitted to an open source project. It was really cool working with other scholars in the same room.

Day 3 - EthCC[7] Day 2 - Tuesday, July 9th

Day #2 was full of presentations about Web3 Usability and building applications that would be easy for standard non-tech users to use. I believe it was one of the best days in the conference, because I learned about all the new tools and technologies that are now in place to make the UX much-much easier.

Two of my best presentations:

• Griff Green : Bringing Safety & Simplicity to Wallets
• Chintan Turakhia : Building the Future of Onchain Adoption: Simplifying Wallet

Base Event

After the main EthCC[7] event, we met with other builders and entrepreneurs at an event organized by Base. It was at Casa Louise Café Restaurant.

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It was really exciting to meet with young people pitching their products with a bottle of beer or glass of wine on their hands, talking about technology as well as about different countries and cultures.

Euro 2024 - 1st Semi Final

I shouldn't forget to mention that later on in the evening we watched the Euro 2024 semi-final match between Spain and France, in one beer pub close to the Hostel. It was a two floor pub with its walls, on both floors, covered with large TV screens, almost end-to-end!

Day 4 - EthCC[7] Day 3 - Wednesday, July 10th

This was the day I have mostly been waiting for. It was the day Vitalik Buterin was supposed to present in the Gold Hall.

So, I arrived in the hall quite early to make sure that I can sit in a front row seat.

And I managed.

It was an amazing speaker, communicating with the audience, making jokes and ... with a non-stop speaking speed! I thank God I was there. I hope that I will see him again in the future.

But not only that. I also watched Consensys CEO, Joseph Lubin chatting about the past and the feature of Ethereum and the blockchain world in general.

And finally, Gavin Wood, the third co-founder of Ethereum, now running Polkadot Network.

All these three, in the same room, giving awesome speeches! An unforgettable experience.

Ribs Dinner

And the best dinner till that day, landed on the 4th day in Brussels. I went with my best friends, Francisco and Ruben to a really niche restaurant: Beef Ribs - All that you can eat - In Amadeo

You may not like ribs, and in particular beef ribs, but I can tell these were delicious. And the decoration inside the restaurant was one-of-a-kind. Walls full of books. I haven't seen that ever before:

Euro 2024 - 2nd Semi final

With full stomach we headed to the same beer pub we went the previous day, in order to watch the 2nd semi-final, England against the Netherlands.

This match was better than the one the previous day. I really enjoyed it!

Day 5 - EthCC[7] Day 4 - Thursday, July 11th

I spent most of the day in a co-working space, working, leveling up, listening to music and drinking nice coffee.

And then in the fantastic co-working space on the top floor of the EthCC[7] venue, in Enigma hall, working with my friend Ruben on Talent Protocol AWS Migration.

Together with Ruben, we visited a couple of stands in the exhibition, and we collected beautiful swags:

Day 6 - EthGlobal Day 1 - Friday, July 12th

Brunch Time

Half of the day spent in a Base and Talent Protocol organized event, Builders Brunch Club. At a very beautiful café, called Le Phare du Kanaal.

This is where we had a delicious brunch and we connected with other builders.

This is also where we gave our official interview as EthCC Scholars. Ohhh, they told me that I have a very nice voice. Maybe, I can think about doing some radio ;-).

EthGlobal Visit Venue

Then, we visited the EthGlobal Venue and we started working on our project:

Very beautiful venue, with a lot of different rooms and wide areas to connect and work with colleagues on our project.

Day 7 - EthGlobal Day 2 - Saturday, July 13th

My role in the team was design and implement the Solidity Smart Contract. It was awesome experience working with more experienced developers on this subject area. I learnt a lot.

This is here the repository of the project we delivered. The folder nft contains the smart contract that I have implemented.

Day 8 - EthGlobal Day 3 - Sunday, July 14th

Our Project - Builder Cards

Everything was ready on our side quite ahead of time. The deadline was 9a.m., but we had submitted our project about 8 hours before.

Our project?

Builder Cards

Here is the link to the submitted project for those we might be interested.

Designed and implemented by a fantastic team of five:

And we finally presented for bounties to 3 booths, Base, Blockscout and Dynamic and to the final judges:

Final Judgement

10 out of 355 projects were selected as the best projects of the EthGlobal Hackathon. The project of my team was in the first 10, but nevertheless, it was the experience that counted more, for me, rather than the actual final prize.

Closing Note

8 nights, 9 days of my life which I will not ever forget. Amazing experience. I have learnt so many new things about Blockchain and experienced how fascinating this new world is. A new world being built by young and not only builders from around the world.

Again, I should not forget to thank again

• Talent Protocol
• EthCC
• EthGlobal and
• Celo

They sponsored this whole week for me, including air flight tickets, which was, of course, a catalytic factor in me getting part in these events.