ETHEREUM’S BIG TENT: Ethereum conferences aren’t just for Ethereans anymore, CoinDesk’s Sam Kessler reports. Last week’s ETHDenver conference in Colorado, one of the year’s largest gatherings for developers and users of the Ethereum blockchain, drew in a cross-section of the blockchain industry. The broad swath of attendees might be a testament to Ethereum’s influence on other blockchain ecosystems, attracting onlookers from other crypto tribes. But it also might be a sign of rival systems looking to encroach on Ethereum’s success in making blockchains more programmable, with its vibrant ecosystem of software developers looking to create new applications. Bitcoin, in the midst of a developer renaissance with the advent of its own NFTs and decentralized finance (DeFi) services, had an impressive turnout of builders at the conference. So did Polkadot, the “hub-and-spoke” blockchain created by Gavin Wood, an Ethereum co-founder who used to market his new project as an improvement over the Ethereum model. Even Solana, the speed-focused network that’s long positioned itself as an “ETH Killer,” had a well-attended booth at Denver’s National Western Complex, the conference’s venue. John Paller, the conference’s founder and executive steward, told CoinDesk in an interview that there were “probably seven or eight layer 1s that are here, and we have probably 12 layer 2s.” According to conference officials, there were 20,000 “festival attendees.”
