Building Web3 culture in Ukraine: Rostyslav Bortman’s mission

Sensible contracts. In 2016, my professor on the college got here to me and provided me a subject for my thesis – ‘Sensible contracts on Ethereum’ or one thing like that. I agreed. Since then, I couldn’t tear myself away from Solidity and Ethereum – I used to be fully taken by the ideas of decentralisation and the absence of intermediaries.

At starters, there are other ways to contribute: to construct a profound product with a superb basis that can go mainstream and have a direct influence on the event of Web3, or to be a developer in a staff that builds the way forward for Web3, or to contribute to open-source communities.

In fact, among the many cool groups in Web3, you’ll be able to typically discover Ukrainian builders who construct cool issues in a staff, and that’s very cool. Nonetheless, we don’t see a large variety of Ukrainians growing merchandise that go mainstream. We nonetheless must work on this.

I feel that the Ukrainian Web3 neighborhood is simply beginning to develop. Because the organiser of the biggest hackathon in Ukraine, I can say that we nonetheless have numerous work to do on the tradition of constructing startups. Individuals are centered on incomes cash and don’t need to take dangers, categorical no need to construct one thing of their very own, as a result of outsourcing gives stability. 

My staff and I intend to alter this – to construct a tradition of hackathons within the nation, as a result of I’m satisfied that this is among the simplest methods to point out builders that constructing your individual product is superior. It can take time for folks’s mindsets to alter, and for Ukrainians to begin influencing international blockchain improvement with their merchandise.

In fact they will. The Web3 market is international, and it doesn’t matter wherein nation it’s constructed. To start with, the product use case, UX, is vital. Anybody who makes a cool product that folks want can compete on this market. 

‘Construct one thing folks want. Construct a useless easy expertise,’ – Jesse Pollak.

World Ledger. I additionally like Trustee Plus – it’s easy, handy, and solves the issue of shopper funds. HackenProof.

It’s also vital to notice that the idea of success is completely different for many individuals, so I’m solely talking concerning the ones I personally like.

We’ve got been organising meetups since 2021. We’ve got already held about 25 completely different occasions. We’ve got collaborated with BNB Chain, Scroll, Diia training, and lots of others. You may see all our occasions right here – kyivethereum.com.

Lately, we organised ETHKyiv, which was attended by Vitalik (Buterin) and three different folks of the Ethereum Basis (and lots of different company of varied cool Web3 protocols). We managed to get such giants as EtherFi, Scroll, Intmax, Zero1, Circles, The Graph Builders Dao, and others as sponsors. Additionally, 123 hackers visited the placement offline and took half within the hackathon.

We raised $8000 for the FPV-drones for the Ukraine Armed Forces (UAF). And all this regardless of the conflict.

I consider that the technique of growing native communities around the globe is the best one, as a result of solely native leaders, not the worldwide Basis, can have the best influence on folks from particular nations.

The position and affect relies upon not on me, however on the neighborhood. I alone can do little, however we’re doing all the pieces in our energy to create beneficial situations for the event of the Ethereum neighborhood in Ukraine – collect cool founders, visionaries, and leaders.

Let’s begin with the unhappy stuff. I’m the one and solely organiser of ETHKyiv 2024 (with my Kyiv Ethereum staff, in fact). Sergiy Sevidov was formally a co-organiser, however, actually, he didn’t fulfil his duties and didn’t take any half within the organisation of this occasion. Due to this fact, calling him one of many organisers can be unfair to the staff that was concerned within the organisation.

Sadly, it turned out that he controls the ethkyiv.org area and social media, wherein our staff made completely all publications associated to the ETHKyiv hackathon. He refuses to surrender the social media and the area (though he has nothing to do with Ethereum in Ukraine and did nothing to develop it, his solely objective is to make use of the ETHKyiv title), as a result of he needs to carry a few of his personal occasions there and declare ETHKyiv 2024 as his personal to promote it to sponsors and companions. My staff and I’ve already turned this web page and created new social media.

Now, to reply your query:

I consider that hackathons have a direct influence on the event of Ethereum in Ukraine, as a result of I feel that builders are the principle asset of the ecosystem. That’s the reason our primary mission is to onboard Ukrainian builders to Ethereum. As for conferences, I can’t reply as a result of my primary focus is on builders.

There was an unbelievable quantity of difficulties, however this is able to be a narrative for an hour. There have been numerous issues with contractors and the quantity of coordination, communication, administration of all the main points, comparable to on Taikai community and elsewhere, involvement of sponsors, hackers, judges and audio system, and media publications. This story deserves a separate publication.

Base has an excellent influence on Web3 as a result of they’re growing a tradition of builders round them and selling the message that constructing is cool. They’re centered on growing shopper apps, which is the best factor to do, in my view, and I feel that’s Base is the place we’re going to see numerous cool improvements in Web3.

I’m an ETH Maxi, so it’s onerous for me to consider that. There are such a lot of new and fascinating issues taking place in Ethereum day-after-day that I merely don’t have sufficient time to observe different ecosystems. 

Nonetheless, I feel that different blockchains are prone to take some market share, however Ethereum will stay the undisputed chief. For me, Ethereum’s rules are nearer to my coronary heart. That’s why I’m right here, and most people in the neighborhood are right here as nicely. And I feel that’s what makes Ethereum the very best.

At the moment, shopper funds are one of many largest points which can be a precedence within the business, together with, for instance, Base (I wrote about it right here). I don’t assume that DeFi will exchange centralised banking within the coming years, however I feel that step-by-step, it’s going to grow to be extra handy and in style, the variety of customers will develop, and strategically, sooner or later, we can have some hybrid techniques with the flexibility to fully abandon conventional centralised banking if needed.

I don’t assume we are going to see a Solana ETF within the close to future. There are goal causes for this. 

Firstly, the SEC (US Securities and Alternate Fee – writer’s word) considers Solana a safety. Secondly, the funds personal 12% of SOL (or extra, I don’t know the precise determine, however it’s a vital drawback). Thirdly, if we speak concerning the traditional path to ETFs (as was the case with BTC and ETH), Solana nonetheless wants 2-3 years to go all the best way. 

As for different belongings, I feel that the cryptocurrency market has to grow to be way more mature first, as a result of now all these memecoins and belongings with no which means and billions of {dollars} in capitalisation look very unusual.

NFTs are usually not going anyplace, however not the NFTs that everybody has heard about in 2021. NFT is a token customary that will likely be and is already being actively utilized in RWA (Actual World Belongings). They may tokenise all the pieces they will with NFT. From actual property to objects in digital worlds and video games. I don’t know what is going to occur to NFT monkeys.

Account abstraction, SocialFi, decentralised messengers, shopper apps (together with fee apps), cross-chain interoperability, GameFi.

I consider it is extremely vital. So far as I do know, the scenario in Ukraine is just not superb. 

I would love to see us transfer quicker and have extra enthusiasm. If anybody needs to run Solidity programs, bear in mind that we’ll all the time assist you. Come, let’s speak. 

I like the instance of Argentina – they’ve built-in Ethereum and Solidity into the varsity curriculum in Buenos Aires. I feel we should always transfer on this route – I’ve already texted to a number of of my pals on this subject.

Construct one thing that folks want. Construct useless easy experiences. Create purposes that folks use, that’s all. They (lots – writer’s word) will come to you. Sometime, freedom of speech will grow to be a vital facet, taking a look at what is going on on this planet now. So I feel that the demand for decentralisation, safety, and censorship resistance will develop.

This can be a very troublesome query. I feel there will likely be numerous purposes that can go mainstream and customers won’t even know that they’re Web3-based. I feel that in this time, the principle UX issues will likely be solved and we can discover killer use circumstances within the business. I feel we are going to see the identical mass adoption within the subsequent 10 years.

I’m eager on the rules of decentralisation, censorship resistance, self-custody, and so on. I wish to take away belief from the place it shouldn’t stay. I wish to take away intermediaries and automate the situations in good contracts. I consider that that is the long run, and we’re shifting in the best route on the whole. I like being concerned on this, and I’m grateful for it. 

Individuals are additionally motivating. Such a focus of extremely good, open-minded folks could be very incentive.