Local Ethereum #6

June 2025 Roundup

July 04, 2025

Artist: Liam Cobb(opens in a new tab)

Greetings Ethereum Pioneers! 👋

Welcome to Local Ethereum, a newsletter where we cover the geo-story of Ethereum.

We explore and document the latest stories on Ethereum technology and community from every corner of the earth. Love what you read? Subscribe here for fresh updates. Let's dive in!

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Asia 🌊

• India: Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal(opens in a new tab) steps up as Polygon Foundation CEO. Polygon and GSR's DeFi-focused L2 Katana chain launches on mainnet(opens in a new tab). Fileverse(opens in a new tab) launched dSheets(opens in a new tab).
• Malaysia: The grassroots community in KL is thriving: ETHKL(opens in a new tab) meetups are ongoing. Etherscan publishes an excellent Ethereum ecosystem newsletter called Block(opens in a new tab), thanks to TY(opens in a new tab) and Harith(opens in a new tab).
• Taiwan: DeFiHackLabs(opens in a new tab) launched Unphishable(opens in a new tab), an interactive Web3 anti-phishing training platform designed to help you identify scams before they empty your wallet. Taipei Ethereum Meetup Medium(opens in a new tab) page, one of the best technical writing columns in Chinese media.
• Hong Kong: The FSTB and SFC launched a public consultation on legislative proposals(opens in a new tab) to regulate virtual asset custodian services.
• Singapore: Guidelines for digital payment token service providers(opens in a new tab) on Notice PSN02 for the prevention of money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism. ShanhaiWoo(opens in a new tab), a month-long builder village in Singapore, is back this September.
• Japan: EDCON 2025(opens in a new tab) is coming to Osaka! Unpredictable RANDAO(opens in a new tab) by Banri, Vita, and Hiro from Titania Research(opens in a new tab). Awesome VOLE(opens in a new tab) by Shouki(opens in a new tab). Intmax(opens in a new tab), a stateless Layer 2 protocol on Ethereum, launched on mainnet(opens in a new tab).
• Korea: The Bank of Korea paused its CBDC project as local stablecoin adoption picks up speed(opens in a new tab). A recent survey(opens in a new tab) by Hana Financial Research Institute(opens in a new tab) found that 27% of respondents already own digital assets, while 70% of all respondents (and 86% of current holders) plan to buy more crypto within the next year.
• Vietnam: Vietnam has one of the world's largest crypto adoption rates, WHY(opens in a new tab)? The recent crypto legislation(opens in a new tab) opens doors to new business opportunities.

Europe 🏰

• U.K.: Aztec(opens in a new tab) published a ZKPassport Case Study(opens in a new tab). Noah(opens in a new tab), a stablecoin firm, closed a $22M seed round(opens in a new tab).
• Germany: Sparkassen(opens in a new tab), Germany's largest banking group, planned to introduce cryptocurrency trading services(opens in a new tab) to its retail customers. You can now watch all Protocol Berg v2(opens in a new tab) talks here(opens in a new tab).
• France: Ledger unveils(opens in a new tab) Recovery Key, a PIN-protected physical card for tap-to-recover crypto wallets.
• Switzerland: Jordi Baylina(opens in a new tab) has moved the Polygon zkEVM team into a standalone startup, ZisK(opens in a new tab).
• Poland: A comprehensive Poland Ethereum Ecosystem Overview(opens in a new tab). ETHWarsaw(opens in a new tab) launched the Kolektyw3(opens in a new tab), a curated community space for Polish builders. ETHBelgrade 2025(opens in a new tab) in numbers(opens in a new tab): 1,000+ attendees, 100+ speakers, 280+ hackers, 80+ projects submitted.
• Ukraine: ETHKyiv 2025 hackathon(opens in a new tab), 3 days, 200+ hackers.
• Serbia: A comprehensive Serbia Ethereum Ecosystem Overview(opens in a new tab). Tenderly CTO Bogdan Habić(opens in a new tab) on the importance of developer tools and Community Events like ETH Belgrade(opens in a new tab) for innovation. Curvy(opens in a new tab), one of the youngest startups from Serbia, won first place at Starknet Hacker House(opens in a new tab) at EthCC.
• Czech Republic: This is the 4th year of ETHPrague(opens in a new tab), 1,000+ attendees(opens in a new tab), 600+ hackers(opens in a new tab).
• Romania: 3 fun facts(opens in a new tab) about ETHCluj(opens in a new tab) and the Romania Ethereum ecosystem.
• Others: Unveiling ZKsync Airbender(opens in a new tab), the world's fastest open-source RISC-V zkVM. Central Ethereum Europe(opens in a new tab), the Zero-Knowledge Kid of the Ecosystem.

North America 🗽

• CCI on Inside Washington's strategic overhaul of Crypto Policy in 2025(opens in a new tab).
• Stablecoin & payment:
  • Big tech giants like Apple, Airbnb, and X are in early discussions(opens in a new tab) with crypto firms about using stablecoins.
  • Shopify(opens in a new tab) and Base built the smart contract rails to bring stablecoin payments to checkout.
  • Kinexys by J.P. Morgan is launching JPMD(opens in a new tab), a USD deposit token for institutional clients, on Base.
  • Stripe acquired Privy(opens in a new tab), a web3 wallet infrastructure company, following its acquisition of the stablecoin platform Bridge(opens in a new tab).
  • June 2025: Stablecoin Summer(opens in a new tab) by Grayscale.
• Robinhood launches stock tokens, reveals an Arbitrum-powered Layer 2 blockchain(opens in a new tab), and expands its Crypto Suite in the EU and US with perpetual futures and staking(opens in a new tab).
• SharpLink closed a $425m private placement led by Consensys Software Inc., positioning itself to become the largest publicly-traded ETH holder(opens in a new tab) globally.
• Etherealize published "The Bull Case for ETH(opens in a new tab)". ETH is the Digital Oil for the Digital Economy.
• Eigenlayer(opens in a new tab) introduced EigenCloud(opens in a new tab), a developer platform for developers to build verifiable and trustless web2 applications and services.
• Ethereum House SF(opens in a new tab), a local hub for Ethereum builders, researchers, founders and investors in SF's Frontier Tower.

Latam 💃

• Argentina: Devconnect ARG tickets(opens in a new tab) are live now! ETH HOUSE Argentina(opens in a new tab) by Ethereum Argentina(opens in a new tab), ETHKipu(opens in a new tab) and Buidlers(opens in a new tab). Say hi to Uniswap House in Buenos Aires(opens in a new tab). Aleph(opens in a new tab) announced the biggest hackathon in Latam(opens in a new tab), taking place August 29-31.
• Brazil: Brazil sets flat 17.5% tax on crypto profits(opens in a new tab), ending exemption for smaller investors.

Africa 🦁 & Oceania 🏄

• We'd love to learn more from you! Share what's happening in your region 💬

🦄 Wonder where to find the best jobs and opportunities in Ethereum? Try out Ethereum Job Board(opens in a new tab)!

Global Ecosystem Update 🗺️

• Again, sharing the Ethereum Foundation's R&D team structure under Protocol(opens in a new tab), followed by the strategic goals: 1) Scale L1; 2) Scale L2; and 3) Improve UX.
• Ethereum Foundation Treasury Policy(opens in a new tab) and Defipunk.
• The 2025 Onchain UX Report(opens in a new tab) shows growing concern: 44% of users manage multiple wallets for safety, 18% say security is their top issue with wallets, and over half want wallets and dApps to do more to protect them.
• EF Protocol research updates(opens in a new tab). Learn more from ladislaus.eth's note(opens in a new tab).
• Scale and harden L1:
  • Vitalik wants 10-100x the L1 gaslimit(opens in a new tab). Ethereum core dev MariusVanDerWijden(opens in a new tab) shared that all major Ethereum clients signaled that they consider a move to 45M gas per block safe(opens in a new tab). Learn more from ethPandaOps(opens in a new tab) on Scaling Ethereum: The Path to 45M Gas Limit and Beyond(opens in a new tab).
  • The first Trillion Dollar Security (1TS) initiative report: an overview of the existing security challenges in the Ethereum ecosystem(opens in a new tab).
• Scale blobs: Road to Shipping PeerDAS to Mainnet in 2025(opens in a new tab) by Jimmy(opens in a new tab) from Lighthouse(opens in a new tab).
• Improve UX: Barnabe(opens in a new tab) walks through how the Ethereum Foundation is improving every layer(opens in a new tab), from block production to interop standards to embedded wallets.
  • Protocol: a) Shortening the Ethereum L1 slot time(opens in a new tab) from 12 to 6 seconds; b) Fast Finality; c) Fast safe confirmation rule.
  • Interop: a) Bridges; b) Intents; c) Faster withdrawals; d) Sequencers and confirmation services; e) Token issuance; f) Interop UX.
  • Apps: Apps compatibility; App <> Wallet UX.
  • Wallet: EF Interop wallet, introducing Kohaku(opens in a new tab): a prototype wallet purpose-built for interop, crosschain UX, and privacy; Clear signing; Embedded wallets. Learn more(opens in a new tab) from Josh Rudolf(opens in a new tab)'s notes.
  • Accounts: Account abstraction.

Opportunities 💡

• Ethereum Job and Opportunity Board(opens in a new tab) by Geodework and BuidlGuidl.
• Devconnect Scholars Program(opens in a new tab) is still accepting applications! If you are working in community, art, legal, R&D or related fields, apply now! Deadline extended to July 6th.
• Sony Block Solutions Labs is launching the "Soneium For All(opens in a new tab)" incubator.
• Ream Labs(opens in a new tab) is looking for contributors to build the Ethereum Beam client in Rust. If you are interested, please ping Unnawut(opens in a new tab).
• Some of the most interesting open research problems:
  • Ethereum protocol research: Open Problems in Ethereum Research(opens in a new tab) by EF.
  • MEV space: Flashbots Research Problem Database(opens in a new tab).
• Ethereum Foundation Zero‑Knowledge Education Team (EF ZKET)(opens in a new tab) 2025 Core Program in 7 cities: Taipei(opens in a new tab), Da Nang(opens in a new tab) (Vietnam), São Paulo(opens in a new tab) (Brazil), Quito(opens in a new tab) (Ecuador), Buenos Aires(opens in a new tab) (Argentina), Tokyo (Japan), Seoul (Korea).

High lighted Events in July ✨

• RWA Summit Day(opens in a new tab), July 1, 2025, Cannes, France
• ETHCC(opens in a new tab), June 30 - July 3, 2025, Cannes, France
• UZH-International Summer School- Deep Dive into Blockchain(opens in a new tab), June 30 - July 18, 2025, Zurich, Switzerland
• EPFL-ETH Summer School on Lattice-based Cryptography(opens in a new tab), July 7-11, 2025, Lausanne, Switzerland
• ETH Huangshan Hackathon(opens in a new tab), July 7-13, 2025, Huangshan, China
• NapulETH(opens in a new tab), July 17-19, 2025, Naples, Italy
• MXNB Hackathon(opens in a new tab), June 17 - July 14, 2025 Build the Future of Payments, Online
• Unite DeFi Hackathon(opens in a new tab), July 25 - August 6, 2025, Online
• Ethereum's 10-year anniversary(opens in a new tab), July 30, 2025, Global

Thanks for reading, and have a nice day! 🌸

Best regards,

Riely and the Geodework team.

❤️❤️❤️

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