'We've never done anything to this scale before,' ETHDenver founder says

In Ethereum's first few years, John Paller, co-founder of ETHDenver, was struck by a conference circuit in which no one actually built anything. So in response, he organized a hackathon-style "community innovation festival" in 2018. 

“I just kind of took the reins,” said Paller during an interview with The Block, adding that he connected with and received support from central figures of the Ethereum ecosystem, including ConsenSys founder Joe Lubin, blockchain investor and entrepreneur Dmitri Buterin, and numerous others.

“Before you know it, it just started snowballing,” said Paller, noting that the event saw “1,500 people from 40 countries show up and airdrop into Denver” in 2018.

ETHDenver is now one of the longest-standing free-to-attend open source development hackathons in the Ethereum ecosystem. This year the festival will attract teams from across the globe to compete for more than $3 million in prizes, bounties and investments from Feb. 24-March 5.

Pushing innovation every year

Pushing innovation drives the team behind ETHDenver, which is always “dogfooding new things” internally to help the festival set itself apart and evolve each year, according to Paller.

To overcome one of last year’s biggest challenges — accommodating space for participants — ETHDenver has expanded by including the National Western Conference buildings in its event space, Paller said, which means ETHDenver event grounds will cover just under 1 million square feet.

This year’s ETHDenver celebrates the “Year of the Spork” with the addition of a new golden spork mascot, and will feature “a fully immersive blockchain arcade” in a partnership with Blockade Games, including AR-, VR-, and AI-driven experiences and demonstrations, Paller said.

Developer room and board

The event is also hosting up to 600 developers with free sleeping quarters and food. “So literally all they have to do is get themselves to Denver and, like, everything's paid for,” said Paller, adding that those who hack, build, and submit a project could make anywhere from $15,000-$25,000 “just for hanging out and building a project” over the weekend.

ETHDenver also is expected to be fully web3 engaged, Paller added, with a community token that can be exchanged for free food as well as vendors ready to take crypto payments.

“We've never done anything to this scale before,” said Paller.