The Ecuadorian Ethereum community will be very active in 2024, and this article will review the latest developments in its ecosystem.
Ecuador, the Country of Orchids
If Ethereum is an infinite garden, Ecuador is the corner of orchids. Ecuador's surprising variety of these flowers is due to the biodiversity and variety of climates and microclimates in its natural regions: out of every ten wild plants, 4 are orchids, which equals 24% of Ecuador's native flora.
Not only do orchids grow in Ecuadorian territory, but the ETH Ecuador community also blooms vigorously, and we will learn more about them in this article.
Ecuador is a country of orchids, but it also has other particularities. One of them is its currency: the dollar. Ecuador officially adopted the dollar as its legal tender in 1999 after the country suffered a significant economic and inflationary crisis in the late 1990s. Along with El Salvador and Panama, Ecuador is one of three countries that currently use the dollar as legal tender in Latin America (excluding Insular America territories).
According to the World Bank's website, Ecuador's economy "has slowed substantially due to increased insecurity caused by organized crime, disruptions in oil production, climate events, and political uncertainty" in recent months.
A year ago, in May 2023, Guillermo Lasso, the former president of Ecuador, dissolved Congress. Last August, Ecuadorians went to extraordinary elections to choose Daniel Noboa, the current president, who will serve his term until May 2025. Ecuadorians will have to go to the polls again next year to elect their new head of state.
In this context, the Ethereum community in Ecuador is organizing to reach students, universities, NGOs, and governmental actors, showcasing this technology as an alternative to the already known paths and as a complement to new ideas for sectors that demand a more transparent, open, and inclusive Ecuador.
ETH Cuenca 2024: Beyond Quito
Cuenca is located in the Andean mountains of southern Ecuador. It is known as the "Athens of Ecuador." The richness of its architecture and culture earned Cuenca the designation of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
While ETH Ecuador has had several events in previous years in the capital, on May 10th, Cuenca hosted its first Ethereum event. In the prestigious facilities of the University of Cuenca (UCUENCA), the only public university in the city, the community connected with new actors, users, and organizations. With more than 120 participants, ETH Cuenca took place on that Friday afternoon, where organizers noticed the growing interest in blockchain in the region.
In addition to students, speakers, and teachers, ETH Cuenca featured members of CEDIA (Ecuadorian Corporation for Research and Academia Development), an NGO based in Cuenca that has agreements with multiple organizations. Their presence underscored the commitment of different sectors of Ecuadorian society to adopt disruptive technologies like blockchain.
Organizers and Attendees
Among the prominent speakers was Jose Antonio Fernandez de Cordova, who shared data on the national cryptocurrency landscape in Ecuador. In his presentation, he highlighted that crypto remittances in the country reach 8 million dollars annually through exchanges, mainly from the United States to Ecuador. He also emphasized the capacity of the country's cooperatives to support these transactions with BTC and other digital assets, noting the transformative potential of blockchain in the local economy.
You can watch Jose's talk and all the event's presentations on the ETH Ecuador YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@ethcuador
The event also featured Nicolás Muñoz, a renowned YouTuber from Cuenca. One of the series he promotes on his channel is called "Brands that Impact," which attracted the attention of many local attendees. In his presentation, Nico explained how to convert cryptocurrencies into dollars (USD), offering valuable insights into decentralized finance and the local fintech ecosystem.
ETH Ecuador: Quito, the Next Destination
In 2022, under the slogan #RoadToDevcon, the Ethereum community organized an event for 150 people called #ETHQuitoDay. In 2023, the community also organized the "Blockchain Week Ecuador 2023."
Thanks to these previous experiences and the persistence of its organizers, the community has matured. With more experience and operational capacity, ETH Ecuador members are organizing a three-day event in collaboration with the University of the Americas (UDLA), the University of San Francisco (USFQ), and the National Polytechnic School (EPN).
The event, which will take place this week on May 28th, 29th, and 30th, has a rich agenda and will cover various topics, from compliance and privacy to asset tokenization and technical subjects like ZKP.
You can check the agenda and register here:
Post-event: Regional Meetups and a Programmable Cryptography Course in Cuenca
One of the strongest lessons from Latin American communities is the importance of consistently maintaining regional meetings. It's okay to hold super conferences or spectacular hackathons, but sometimes, a small monthly meetup is more than enough for Ethereum and Web3 enthusiasts to meet and exchange opinions, visions, and educational resources.
For the people of Cuenca, in addition to future monthly meetups, there will be an in-person opportunity to learn programmable cryptography from the "Privacy & Scaling Explorations" team, a group of researchers and developers from the Ethereum Foundation.
https://x.com/EthTricolor/status/1795107896071528773
Registrations for this course close on May 31st; you can access it here.
Undoubtedly, all these actions by ETH Ecuador will bear fruit in the coming months.
Do You Want to Join ETH Ecuador?
Do you live in Ecuador? Are you visiting the country and want to connect with the Ethereum community? Do you want to collaborate with the organizers? Here are some useful links.
Join their Telegram community
Follow updates on their X profile
Follow updates on their Instagram profile
Subscribe to their YouTube channel
Visit their website
We hope this information has given you a more complete overview of the Ethereum community in Ecuador. We will bring more news soon. You can mint this article as a free NFT (only network fees apply) by pressing the "Mint" button at the beginning of the article.
See you soon!
Romina, Kipu Impact
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