Web3 Events: Keeping Connections, But What About the Philosophy?

Since diving a bit into the Web3 world last week, I’ve shared my personal observations on the events I’ve attended and their impact.

But was it really the context and impact of the events that changed, or just how they affected me? I wanted to take a broader look at this and also talk a bit about event culture for those unfamiliar with this world.

At First, There Were Only Developers

In the early years, Web3 events had a pretty straightforward goal: to bring developers together to create, share knowledge, and grow the open-source culture. Achieving these goals meant improving the network or project being developed, and doing it with the support of the community.

Events like Devcon (2014 Berlin, 2015 London) and ETHGlobal hackathons (like ETHWaterloo 2017) had strong manifestos: to explain decentralized technology and grow the community within the framework of Ethereum’s manifesto.

In the blockchain world, these events were initially very content, production, and community-focused. They were more about “What are we building?” and “How can we build it?” But over time, it feels like those questions have been replaced by “Who got funding?” “Which sponsors are here?” and “Where’s the networking space?”

More Connections, Less Context

Events like Token2049 (first held in Hong Kong in 2018), Breakpoint (since 2019 in Miami & Amsterdam), and Permissionless (since 2022 in Austin) now feel more like global networking hubs.

To be fair, they’re ideal places for making connections. And as the ecosystem develops and grows, these connection-focused events and the importance of networking are increasing. But by their nature, fundamental topics like content, idea generation, and vision sharing take a backseat.

Meanwhile, events in both areas continue. Even if their impact is debatable, developer events and hackathons still hold their ground alongside commercial events, and maybe that’s how it should be.

On the other hand, the context of conveying the Web3 narrative and perspective to the masses is weakening. The power of these events to influence new users might be more limited now than ever.

When Did “Community” Become Just a Discord Link?

There was a time when answering “Does it have a community?” was one of the biggest factors in a project’s credibility. Now, answers like “We have a Discord channel” or “We have a weekly community meetup” seem sufficient.

But being a community isn’t just about being in the same space. It’s about speaking the same language, sharing the same values. It’s not just about brand value, but believing in the value created there, a sense of belonging.

Cosmoverse’24 - Dubai

Events are evolving, and so are communities.

This transformation is actually quite natural. Like any new technology, Web3 is trying to find its rhythm. Some events focus on visibility, others on the financial side of the ecosystem.

But in this process, we mustn’t lose certain things: the power of events to inspire and build.

Personally, I’m still searching for the excitement of encountering a new idea, a new question, a new person, and sometimes I find it.

(A small note here: I want to give a shoutout to my dear friends Zafercan Cakir, Crypto Cito, and all the teams involved for organizing the Cosmoverse Labs event, which I still think is the best developer event in the ecosystem and where I often find that excitement.)

Next week, let’s look somewhere else: I’ll tell the story of our small but consistent event, KriptoCuma, which has been held every week since 2018. Unlike big organizations, we’ll talk about what localness, continuity, and sincerity have built.

But the question I want to ask this week is:

Are Web3 events still really building communities? Are they still explaining blockchain, Web3, decentralization to more people? Or are we just getting more crowded while the distance between us keeps growing?