My journey from a community organizer to being a Devcon Scholar has been interesting and not too difficult to replicate. I started my journey in web3 trying to learn by myself with tutorials and courses. Although it is not imposible to do it that way, I found a better way.
And that is COMMUNITIES! And it my case those are Ethereum Costa Rica, AsoblockchainCR and Dojo Coding.
When I found Ethereum Costa Rica everything changed for me. I started sharing my experiences on the community and pitching my project that I was building. Hallos (prev checkmyticket) is a NFT ticketing platform where the tickets for the events are collectibles that the owners can use to get benefits like access to exclusive content.
I started getting more and more support each time I pitched my project until eventually I got my first client! Ethereum Costa Rica was my first client where I sold the tickets for the Ethereum Costa Rica Day, which eventually led me to where I am now.
Because I got so much support from the community I realized I needed to share my knowledge and help onboard people. So I dedicated part of 2024 to give back to the community and help organize the Ethereum Pura Vida event. We started doing the Road to Ethereum Pura Vida, which was a tour to universities and talks about Blockchain and how to get involved in the ecosystem.
Those talks in universities, virtual events and the work done by Beja with the Dojo Coding Community led to a exponential growth in the Costa Rican blockchain community. That interest by the new people onboarded allowed us to bring new opportunities to developers that wanted to learn more.
So we started with the Optimism Module organized by InBestProgram that graduated 25 students with Solidity and smart contract development knowledge. With Alberto, Andy, Beja, Alfredo and me as professors.
And with that success we started the Ethereum Developer Pack from ETH Kipu. With +70 people that started the course and +40 that graduated. This was the biggest and most successful Ethereum Developer Pack.
A lot more happened during the year that I am not adding here, but all this work lead us to the Ethereum Pura Vida event in October 2024. One of the biggest blockchain events in Costa Rica. Focused on onboarding developers in the ecosystem. A total success that reflected all the work done by the organizers and the support from the community.
Now, how the support of volunteers like me lead to the success of this years onboarding of developers? It takes effort, but it is simple. Sharing your knowledge with everyone around you. It can be through virtual or in person material, but everything that involves sharing your experience and knowledge with people around you ends up impacting people. And that impact can cause a chain reaction of people sharing their knowledge too.
Everything that I shared with the community and the work that I have been doing led to my acceptance on the Devcon Scholars program. When I first heard about Devcon Bogotá and how it impacted the communities in latam, I knew I had to go to Devcon Thailand. Even if I had to work extra or apply for scholarships. But when I saw the Devcon Scholars program, I applied and in the interviews I talked about my work in Ethereum Costa Rica and I got in!
The Devcon Scholars program supported the people applying with the airplane ticket, hotel accommodation, visa fee, food and transportation. That is the best scholarship I have seen. And 100 people got it!
This program was the door to the best blockchain event of my life. There, I met friends I had previously only known virtually and finally saw them in person. I met the founders of products that I use and had the opportunity to make amazing contacts. All of this with the objective of growing my project and also bringing more opportunities to the Costa Rican blockchain community.
Also spent time with my friends from Costa Rica! And randomly met 2 Costa Ricans we didn't know that also were in Devcon!
I also participated in ETH Global Bangkok, the biggest hackathon yet with $750,000 dollars in prizes. And won a prize!
This was one of the best experiences I have had in terms of learnings and connections. I can’t wait for the next Devcon event!
But now, how does this translates into community growth for 2025?This year a lot will come to the Ethereum Costa Rica community. A soon to announce Hacker House in the beach, meetups, universities blockchain clubs, hackathons and much more! All thanks to the contacts and learnings from Devcon and work from the community.
Want to be part of this? Want to join the community?
Join the Ethereum Costa Rica Telegram
Join the Ethereum Costa Rica newsletter
DM me on Twitter if you have any questions.
Lets build the future of Costa Rican blockchain communities!
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