Five years ago, a wildly ambitious project went live. Its creators envisioned a “world computer” that would transform not just money but a vast range of social interactions, pushing the boundaries of what could be done with cryptography and distributed consensus. Ethereum had arrived.
From its technical aspirations to unicorn memes, Ethereum is a culture on its own. It has spawned inventions – from digital cats to yield farming – previously unimagined and now faces a major overhaul – Eth 2.0 – to keep up with the market’s demands.
CoinDesk is marking the milestone with Ethereum at Five, a cross-platform series featuring special coverage, a limited-run newsletter and live-streamed discussions on Twitter. New issues and sessions launch daily from July 27-31.
Oh, and watch out for the Easter eggs.
Ethereum at Five Newsletter
Each morning during the event, our editorial team will publish a newsletter that covers the waterfront from Ethereum’s culture and lifestyle to innovations like decentralized apps, DAOs, decentralized finance and enterprise solutions, and closes out by asking the big questions about the hotly anticipated Ethereum 2.0.
Don’t know what any of that means? Led by editors Marc Hochstein, Elaine Ramirez, Christie Harkin and Zack Seward, our limited-run newsletter will be packed with educational content that eases the newbie into Ethereum, while offering the thoughtful deep-dives loyal CoinDesk readers know and love.
CoinDesk reporters and analysts Ian Allison, Leigh Cuen, Brady Dale, Nate DiCamillo, Will Foxley, Christine Kim and Hoa Nguyen will guide readers through the five years of Ethereum’s evolution, including Ethereum’s efforts to upend the banking industry, its challenges in scalability and enterprise adoption, its Woodstock moment and its status as a global lifestyle brand.
Meanwhile, we’ll provide bite-sized lessons to ease readers into the concepts of smart contracts, enterprise blockchain, yield farming and more and offer recommended reading from the CoinDesk vault.
CoinDesk Live
Our live-streamed discussions welcome DeFi pioneers Hayden Adams and Robert Leshner, “The Infinite Machine” author Camila Russo and former ConsenSys exec Andrew Keys.
Sessions kick off daily at 4 p.m. ET and will be live-streamed on social media and the CoinDesk homepage. We’re hosting a Discord community to keep attendees engaged throughout the week.
On top of that, we set up a hotline at +1 (661) 4-UNICRN (+1-661-486-4276) to share tidbits of the Ethereum history and culture through untold stories. Go ahead, call us.
CoinDesk Live Agenda
Peace, Love and Unicorns: The Culture of Ethereum – Monday, July 27, 4 p.m. ET
- Speakers: Amanda Cassatt, Leigh Cuen, Tonya M. Evans, Andrew Keys
Ethereum prides itself on its inclusive, unicorns-and-rainbows vibe, which is a far cry from the libertarian, cypherpunk, mountain-man culture of Bitcoin. Come for a discussion about how this diverse, freewheeling and extremely social approach to software development made Ethereum what it is today. Stay for fun memories from a panel of veteran Ethereans from their nonstop global tour of conferences, meetups and festivals.
$55 Million Shockwave: How the DAO Hack Changed Ethereum – Tuesday, July 28, 4 p.m. ET
- Speakers: Griff Green, Emin Gun Sirer, Matt Leising, Taylor Monahan
The theft, the chain split, the legal aftermath – perhaps no single event shaped Ethereum’s trajectory as much as the DAO hack of 2016. Bloomberg’s Matt Leising sits down with the key protagonists to reflect on the events and their after-effects four years on.
Ethereum’s Bankless Bankers – Wednesday, July 29, 4 p.m. ET
- Speakers: Hayden Adams, Rune Christensen, Will Foxley, Robert Leshner
Smart contracts were supposed to substitute signatures with software. These ideas have gone from science fiction to a $3 billion market, thanks to the boom in so-called decentralized finance built on Ethereum. An unlikely crew has emerged as the leading figures of this movement. We’ll talk to them about how we wound up here.
Year Zero: From Those Who Were There – Thursday, July 30, 4 p.m. ET
- Speakers: Anthony Di Iorio, Anthony D’Onofrio, Adam Levine, Camila Russo, Ken Seiff
Getting the “world computer” operational was no easy task. Hear about the 24/7 coding, the infighting and the instant millions minted in that process. Camila Russo, author of the new book “The Infinite Machine,” digs into Ethereum’s highs and lows with the programmers, entrepreneurs and investors who got in on the ground floor.
Inside the Hype Machine: Behind the Scenes of the ICO Boom – Friday, July 31, 4 p.m. ET
- Speakers: Christie Harkin, Brad Laurie, Hartej Sawhney, David Wachsman
Smart-contract auditors, PR pros, YouTube influencers: Meet the service class that was caught up in 2017’s ICO gold rush, selling metaphorical shovels to prospectors seeking billions in instant riches. We relive the good, the bad and the ugly of that era through their eyes.
