Consensys: Looking back at EthCC2024, five insights into the future of Ethereum

Original author: Consensys

Original translation: Felix, PANews

The seventh Ethereum technology and community event, EthCC, was held in Brussels, Belgium from July 8 to July 11. There were 350 speakers at the event. Consensys published a summary of the event and put forward five insights. The following is the full text.

This year’s EthCC was special as Brussels hosted thousands of developers from around the world. EthCC week came at a time when SEC litigation was underway, global regulation and how to carve out a clear path for Web3 were in the spotlight. Despite the occasional heavy rain, Brussels was a great host city with beautiful natural scenery, high urban density, and event venues, restaurants, and bars all within a few minutes’ walk.

The Ethereum ecosystem has made a lot of progress since we published the EthCC Recap in 2023. However, there is still more work to do to realize the vision for the future. While discussions about regulation were not at the top of the agenda at the conference, many exciting topics were discussed: including identity, L2 security, user privacy, better user experience, and the power and threats of AI.

EthCC 2024 will be held in Brussels

Here are five takeaways for EthCC 2024. Hopefully, by this time next year, we’ll have made enough progress in these areas to keep Web3 builders motivated and encourage new adopters.

1. Web3 UX is still not great, but it has made great progress

At the last EthCC, most of the discussion was focused on improving Web3 UX to better onboard users. In fact, Vitalik’s speech was titled “The History of Account Abstraction”, in which he stated that account abstraction will drive the next wave of mass user adoption of Ethereum. This year’s focus is different because we have made some progress in this area and various teams have launched their own smart contract account products.

A key highlight was the release of a new toolkit by Consensys through the Red Balloon Challenge: an alpha version of the MetaMask Delegation Toolkit, which allows users to enter Web3 games without the need to use wallet extensions or applications, mnemonics, or pay gas fees.

This shift tells us that we have moved from merely discussing improvements to Web3 UX to major players building innovative solutions to address this issue, with teams like Coinbase, ZeroDev, Privy, and others building and launching their own smart contract account products.

2. More consumer dapps are the next key requirement to drive web3 adoption

If you read last year’s EthCC summary, this is a recurring theme. Unfortunately, unlike the clear progress in Web3 UX, we have not seen progress in this area. It is well known that Web3 must have sufficiently attractive consumer dapps in order to attract the next billion users. Many people are arguing why this problem still exists.

Some believe the root of the problem is that funds have primarily flowed to infrastructure builders rather than consumer dapps, which are likely to exit more quickly, while others believe that a lack of regulatory clarity has caused dapp developers to turn to infrastructure.

Regardless, ConsenSys is committed to addressing these issues, both in our litigation with the SEC, which seeks to gain greater regulatory clarity, and in our Scale initiative, which is actively seeking out and funding ecosystem builders.

3. To improve the security and transparency of L2, collaboration between teams needs to be strengthened

It’s no longer news that L2 rollups are the future of Ethereum scaling. While we’ve seen a lot of innovation around L2s, especially in zero-knowledge rollups, discussions on how to make proof systems more transparent were a common theme throughout the week.

The meeting also emphasized the need for Optimistic Rollup teams to strengthen cooperation to improve fraud prevention mechanisms. Developers agreed that existing solutions have problems and are vulnerable to Sybil attacks, which undermine the security, settlement speed and decentralization of fraud prevention systems. This was an important theme at this years EthCC, especially among blockchain security experts.

4. AI will open up a new dimension for blockchain dapps

Another key point is that AI combined with blockchain has huge potential to unlock new possibilities for dapps. Deep learning models excel at processing large amounts of data to identify patterns, make predictions, and enable decision-making processes by leveraging neural networks that mimic the cognitive processes of the human brain. Combined with the transparent, decentralized, and censorship-resistant economic settlement layer of blockchain networks, this combination will enable immutable data storage and trust-minimized digital interactions.

One widely discussed use case is leveraging AI’s data analytics capabilities to improve security by detecting fraud and scams through the vast amounts of data available on blockchains. However, we have yet to see widespread adoption of AI in dapps. The integration of blockchain and AI can unlock entirely new business models, improve operational efficiency, help automate repetitive tasks, enable more secure and efficient data exchange, enhance decision-making through AI-driven smart contracts, and increase overall trust and transparency in critical infrastructure and economic processes.

5. Never underestimate the power of neighborhood events in building community

This year, more people were talking about the side events they attended than the main event. Could it be that the one-on-one time with speakers and product teams made the side events more engaging? Consensys hosted over a dozen side events this year, all of which were packed with people interested in meeting and chatting with the team.

A lot of this can probably be attributed to the location in the heart of Brussels. It is very walkable and attendees can easily walk from one event to another in a 2 minute walk. I dont think this fragmentation (as some call it) is a bad thing. Ethereum itself is permissionless and I dont think it is as negative as some people say. However, there have been many suggestions on the X platform to improve this and refocus on the main events.

Joe Lubin on stage at the Consensys AVS Day event

See you at Cannes EthCC 2025, the builders of Web3

EthCC 2024 was a huge success. The diversity of the panels and the increase in female participants enriched the discussions and reflected a broader, more inclusive community.

Next year’s EthCC will be held in Cannes, France. We look forward to new insights and innovations emerging. As Vitalik hinted, he outlined a strong roadmap for Ethereum, highlighting its unique strengths and the need to address its shortcomings.

As we continue to build and innovate, we remain committed to defining the high standards of the Ethereum community and believe we are on the right path to a decentralized future.