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Devcon 7, the latest installment of the Ethereum Foundation's flagship conference, was hosted from November 12-15, 2024, at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center in Bangkok, Thailand.
The annual pop-up hub for knowledge exchanges featured developers and thought leaders from around the global crypto community, all brought together to dig into the hottest topics around Ethereum today.
That said, this year the Ethereum community was spoiled once again with more than a few excellent Devcon presentations, though if you couldn't make it out to Bangkok, no worries. Here's a curated selection of 8 talks I think were among the best given at the event!
Ethereum in 30 Minutes
"Ethereum in 30 Minutes" by Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin explored the evolution of Ethereum as a decentralized world computer and ecosystem. This talk's a great one to share with anyone wanting a quick intro or refresher on Ethereum's grand vision and progress to date. He highlighted the shift from basic infra to applications, the interplay between the network and its Layer 2 (L2) solutions, and ongoing upgrade efforts around scaling and censorship resistance. The big idea? Ethereum is primed for builders to create transformative apps.
Are Blobs Good for Ethereum?
Moderated by Anthony Sassano, the panel "Are Blobs Good for Ethereum?" featured Ansgar Dietrichs, Tim Robinson, and 0xBreadguy discussing the bull and bear cases for Ethereum blobs and their impact on data availability, fee revenue, and ETH value accrual. They discussed challenges such as the risk of L2s switching to alternative data availability (DA) layers and the technical hurdles in scaling blobs. Overall, they concluded that blobs are a net positive for Ethereum, but they'll require continuous development and ecosystem alignment.
ETH++: A Roadmap to (Real) Decentralization in a World of Centralized Power
In this talk, Philip Daian outlined the existential threats of centralization to Ethereum and its proof-of-stake ecosystem, exploring how trends in block building, MEV, and reliance on centralized infrastructures, like AWS, could undermine the decentralized ethos of Ethereum.
Accordingly, Daian proposed a roadmap dubbed "ETH++" that prioritizes geoeconomic decentralization, permissionless participation, and distributed computing. A critical tool in this vision is Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs), which can help distribute computation and reduce reliance on centralized entities. However, TEEs are not a silver bullet, and Daian noted the ultimate goal is to push power to the edges of the network while minimizing centralization risks in new vectors like hardware manufacturing.
ETH Is Permissionless Money
In this presentation, Mike Neuder explored how Ethereum’s native asset, ETH, is the embodiment of permissionless, programmable property rights and is forging a new kind of monetary vision accordingly. Contrasting ETH with centralized assets like USDC and USDT, he emphasized ETH’s unique ability to scale financial utility and property rights through its rollup-centric roadmap, in turn hailing ETH as the foundation for a dynamic, globally accessible financial system that balances adaptability with long-term sustainability.
The REAL State of L2s
In his keynote speech, "The REAL State of L2s," L2BEAT founder Bartek Kiepuszewski critiqued the current state of L2s, emphasizing the urgent need for stronger security frameworks here. While the Ethereum ecosystem has grown to include many dozens of rollups with increasing TVL, Kiepuszewski highlighted critical shortcomings: many L2s lack proof systems, decentralized multisigs, and adequate data availability setups. In response, he noted L2BEAT's plans to enhance its risk framework to expose vulnerabilities and drive more accountability.
The Beam Chain
In this keynote presentation, Ethereum researcher Justin Drake introduced an ambitious "Beam Chain" proposal to redesign Ethereum’s consensus layer, calling it a pivotal evolution into the ZK era. The Beam Chain aims to replace the current Beacon Chain with a SNARKified architecture, enabling four-second slots, single-slot finality, quantum resistance, and improved decentralization through reduced staking requirements. While the proposal retains Ethereum’s rollup-centric roadmap, it would accelerate key upgrades that can better future-proof Ethereum for decades to come.
Unifying Ethereum Through Intents and ERC-7683
"Unifying Ethereum" by UMA and Across Protocol co-founder Hart Lambur explored the UX challenges posed by Ethereum's rollup-centric scaling roadmap. Lambur highlighted the need to make Ethereum feel like a unified experience for users across L2s, and toward that end he noted intents, and specifically the ERC-7683 cross-chain intents framework, could be used to support a wide range of cohesive settlement systems and modular architectures. This is the path to onboarding the next billion Ethereum users, Lambur argued.
Programmable Cryptography and Ethereum
In "Programmable Cryptography and Ethereum," gubsheep introduced programmable cryptography as a transformative "second generation" of cryptographic primitives that can revolutionize the Ethereum development scene for decades to come. These primitives enable arbitrary programs to run within other cryptographic systems, paving the way for Ethereum to support even more complex and privacy-preserving applications, from decentralized social media to private onchain AIs and beyond.
