Local Ethereum #1

Welcome to the first Local Ethereum newsletter!

🌍 Beginning

The story of Ethereum is a story of geography. Ethereum is a global network and a global movement. It is local nodes spread around the world that give rise to the phenomenon that is Ethereum. As such Ethereum is deeply rooted in geography.

From local ETH communities and meetups to universities, from developers to startups, from policy to user adoption and more, Local Ethereum is a newsletter to cover the geo-story of Ethereum. Let’s start!

Artist: Liam Cobb(opens in a new tab)

Asia 🌊

India

• India topped(opens in a new tab) the Chainalysis global cryptocurrency adoption ranking(opens in a new tab) for a second year.
• Indian Railways Embraces Polygon NFTs(opens in a new tab) for MahaKumbh Tickets.
• At ETHIndia(opens in a new tab), Indians united to experience quadratic voting(opens in a new tab) through the Anon Aadhaar(opens in a new tab).
• The StackTooDeep Ethereum Hackathon 2025(opens in a new tab), running from January 31st to February 2nd, was hosted by the Blockchain Society(opens in a new tab) of IIT Roorkee(opens in a new tab), one of India's premier technical universities.
• ZuGrama(opens in a new tab), a 6-week pop-up village experiment in India inspired by Zuzalu, covers impact public goods, AI, cryptography, and more.

Malaysia

• ETHKL(opens in a new tab) meetup: From Data to AI Agents - From Code to No-Code(opens in a new tab). Jan 2025
• Scroll is doing a builder program, online and then a residency in Kuala Lumpur(opens in a new tab) from Jan 27th to March 17th, Malaysia. Apply now(opens in a new tab).

China Mainland

• Dapp Learning(opens in a new tab), one of the best Ethereum dev community in mainland China - January Sharing: Boundary Adaptation Automatic Market Maker Model(opens in a new tab).
• Panta Rhei(opens in a new tab), an Ethereum research community focused on advancing the study of the Ethereum protocol and its ecosystem, held its January meetup: Devcon SEA Continuum(opens in a new tab) on Ethereum roadmap and ZK tech.
• Deepseek AI(opens in a new tab) shakes the market.

Taiwan

• Digital Ministry Launches Taiwan's Own DID(opens in a new tab), further reading: Digital Ministry Launches Taiwan's Version of DID(opens in a new tab) (EN), 數位部提出台版 DID(opens in a new tab) (CN).
• Community Privacy Residency(opens in a new tab) (2025), a 2-4 week residency focused on researching, co-designing, prototyping, and building open-source applications for community privacy, with emphasis on Applications for Vulnerable Communities, Community Co-Design, and Privacy Infrastructure.
• Taipei Ethereum(opens in a new tab) Jan meetup, From zkEVM to zkVM(opens in a new tab).
• You can now buy ETHTaipei 2025 tickets(opens in a new tab).

Hong Kong

• Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced(opens in a new tab) that the ‘supervisory incubator’ is designed to help banks manage the risks associated with experimenting with blockchain or DLT implementation.

Japan

• Titania Research(opens in a new tab) and the local ZK community have launched Uzumaki, the first Ethereum research house in Tokyo, Japan(opens in a new tab).
• Sony’s Ethereum Layer-2 Blockchain 'Soneium(opens in a new tab)' Goes Live(opens in a new tab). Soneium leverages the OP Stack and Superchain architecture.

South Korea

• Lotte Group(opens in a new tab), South Korea's retail giant, deepens ties with Arbitrum(opens in a new tab), enabling crypto payments for its services.
• At KAIST(opens in a new tab), one of Korea's leading technology universities, the CS496(opens in a new tab) course combines Ethereum, cryptography and advanced mathematics for ambitious students.

Singapore

• Singapore Blocks Polymarket(opens in a new tab), Following Taiwan and France.

Vietnam

• Vietnam, a country ranked 5th in Chainalysis’ 2024 global crypto adoption index, plans to include crypto and digital asset exchanges in a fintech sandbox(opens in a new tab) for its new financial centers in Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang, pending approval in mid-2025.

Kazakhstan

• Almaty, Ethereum security mini hackathon at BlackIce hacker space(opens in a new tab) took place from 25th to 26th Jan 2025.

Bhutan

• Bhutan‘s new special administration region, Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC) has announced(opens in a new tab) that it will acknowledge digital assets like BTC, ETH as part of their strategic reserves(opens in a new tab).

Iran

• DeCaffeth Meetup #4(opens in a new tab) brought together Iran’s Ethereum developers, security researchers, and community builders to explore key topics shaping the Ethereum ecosystem and beyond.

Europe 🏰

Germany

• Deutsche Bank is using zkSync to build their own rollup(opens in a new tab). Further reading: The details of the Deutsche Bank Layer-2 (DE)(opens in a new tab).
• Protocol Berg v2(opens in a new tab): A decentralized protocol and infrastructure conference organized by the Department of Decentralization (DoD) - Call for Papers(opens in a new tab).

Switzerland

• Swiss Bank PostFinance(opens in a new tab) Launches(opens in a new tab) ETH Staking.
• UBS tests(opens in a new tab) zkSync's layer-2 technology to explore if it could scale its current Key4 Gold program.
• Ethereum Zurich(opens in a new tab), organized by UZH Blockchain Center and DuctTape Events, took place from January 30-31, 2025.

Ukraine

• The ETHKyiv Impulse Hackathon(opens in a new tab) begins on February 1st, 2025, offering $20,000 in prizes. It’s organized by the amazing ETHKyiv(opens in a new tab) team.
• Ukraine set to legalize cryptocurrency in early 2025, without tax breaks(opens in a new tab).
• Valeriia Panina, a Next Billion Fellow, studied(opens in a new tab) how everyday Ukrainians adopt cryptocurrencies and blockchain apps, mapping their use cases and behaviors.

Italy

• Italy’s largest bank Intesa(opens in a new tab) makes first spot bitcoin purchase(opens in a new tab).
• NapulETH(opens in a new tab) and the University of Naples Federico II(opens in a new tab) are exploring a master's program in blockchain development(opens in a new tab).

Sweden

• Recent Ethereum-related research from KTH Royal Institute of Technology: 1) Geth Rebuild: Verifiable Builds for Go Ethereum(opens in a new tab); 2) Proving and Rewarding Client Diversity to Strengthen Resilience of Blockchain Networks(opens in a new tab).

Netherlands

• Netherlands’ third-largest bank ABN AMRO(opens in a new tab) pilots(opens in a new tab) tokenized trading on Ethereum.

Serbia

• ETH Belgrade(opens in a new tab), one of the strongest communities in the Balkans, launched ETH Belgrade University(opens in a new tab), focusing on Zero Knowledge, Web3 security, and Solidity.

Poland

• ETHWarsaw(opens in a new tab) meetup(opens in a new tab) on blockchain oracles, Jan 2025.

Romania

• ETHCluj(opens in a new tab) meetup(opens in a new tab): 1) Features for Experienced Developers in Remix IDE; 2) Scaling Ethereum: A Deep Dive into the L2 Landscape, Jan 2025.
• ETHCluj 2025 conference tickets are out now! Buy Now(opens in a new tab).

North America 🗽

United States

• Etherealize(opens in a new tab), launched(opens in a new tab) in January 2025, is an institutional marketing and product arm for the Ethereum ecosystem.
• The SEC approved(opens in a new tab) Bitwise’s filing for a Bitcoin-Ethereum ETF.
• Gary Gensler, the former SEC Chair, returned to MIT to teach—where he had previously led the popular ‘Blockchain and Money(opens in a new tab)’ course.
• Glad to hear of Ross Ulbrict's pardon(opens in a new tab) and we are actively seeking(opens in a new tab) the same relief for Virgil(opens in a new tab).
• Another court orders treasury to lift Tornado Cash sanctions(opens in a new tab).
• The Crypto and Blockchain Economics Research (CBER) Forum, Call For Papers(opens in a new tab).

Latam 💃

Argentina

• The city of Buenos Aires has created 300k DIDs(opens in a new tab) using Quark ID(opens in a new tab) and zkSync.
• It is estimated that about 19%(opens in a new tab) of the Argentine population uses some cryptocurrency, that is, 8.6 million people.
• Ripio(opens in a new tab), one of Argentina's exchanges, integrated(opens in a new tab) with zkSync Elastic for their LaChain.
• ETHKipu(opens in a new tab), an active Ethereum community from Latin America, has shared their 2024 annual report(opens in a new tab).
• Aleph(opens in a new tab) returns with a four-week pop-up city, featuring bootcamps, a hackathon, AI tracks, and more.

Brazil

• ERC55(opens in a new tab), a local Ethereum dev community, is organizing regular meetups.
• Modular Carnival(opens in a new tab), a crypto hackathon and conference in Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil, will be hosted from February 26 - March 1, 2025.

Honduras

• Ethereum TGU(opens in a new tab), a local community active since 2018, recently released their Q4 2024 update(opens in a new tab).

Africa 🦁

Nigeria

• Over half the population in Nigeria (84%(opens in a new tab)) report owning a crypto wallet in 2024 according to the annual multi-country web3 perception survey conducted by Consensys and YouGov.

Kenya

• Kenya prepares to legalize cryptocurrencies(opens in a new tab) in policy shift.
• Magma(opens in a new tab): A two-week in-person residency for Africa’s top founders. April 2025 in Kenya.

Zambia

• Summitshare(opens in a new tab) launches "The Leading Ladies of Zambia" virtual exhibit, a project led by Next Billion(opens in a new tab) Fellow Mulenga Kapwepwe(opens in a new tab).

Egypt

• Blokkat's Arabic Blockchain Developer Bootcamp(opens in a new tab) offers a 12-week online course in Ethereum development, from basics to Zero Knowledge, with hands-on projects and job connections.

Oceania 🏄

Australia

• Immutable(opens in a new tab), a Sydney-based Ethereum L2 for NFTs and blockchain gaming, has signed 500+ games and is now at 1.8M MAU(opens in a new tab).
• Melbourne, Ethereum Melbourne(opens in a new tab) Jan meetup, 7702 Workshop: Odyssey chapter 1 reading club(opens in a new tab) at 29th Jan 2025.

Thanks for reading, and have a nice day! 🌸

Best regards,

Riely and the Geodework team.

❤️❤️❤️

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