Ukrainian Blockchain Week 2024: results of the main crypto event of the year in Ukraine
- In June 2024, a large-scale series of Ukrainian Blockchain Week events took place.
- UBW’24 united significant events such as Incrypted Conference and Online Marathon, ETHKyiv and KUMEKATHON hackathons, as well as Web3 Education, Bitcoin UA Meetup, and other events.
- This series of events demonstrated the large potential of the Ukrainian crypto sphere and surprised everyone with its scale.
In June, the large-scale series of events took place in Kyiv as part of the Ukrainian Blockchain Week 2024.
The organizer was the Incrypted team, which combined a number of events into one, namely:
- ETHKyiv and Solana KUMEKATHON hackathons;
- Incrypted Conference 2024 and a three-day online marathon;
- Bitcoin UA, KEC & NYM, and Solana meetups;
- Web3 Education and VC <> Startup Connect events. Kyiv edition.
Thousands of guests and participants, representatives of hundreds of leading Web3 companies, and crypto industry personalities — all this is UBW’24 by Incrypted. We will tell you about the results and details of these events below.
ETHKyiv
The first ever Ukrainian hackathon ETHKyiv took place on June 21-23, 2024. It gathered more than 175 participants, including partners and sponsors of the event. Developers competed for the prize fund of $100,000, and the event was attended by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.
The winners of the hackathon were the following teams:
- BunnBattle;
- KYD;
- Smart Posluhy.
The event also included four workshops, including Uniswap V4 Hooks and Farcaster Frames.
‘We have long dreamed of Ukraine making a name for itself on the map of the blockchain community, and ETHKyiv hackers have done it. We have once again proved that our developers make a significant contribution to the development of future technologies,’ said Rostyslav Bortman, founder of Kyiv Ethereum Community.
The organizers also noted that among the speakers and sponsors of ETHKyiv were representatives of ether.fi, Eigen Layer, Pendle Finance, Ethereum Foundation, ConsenSys, and other industry players.
Web3 Education
The educational event organized by Solus Group in collaboration with Incrypted received a lot of positive feedback. The event was aimed primarily at students.
The number of participants exceeded 125 people. According to the organizers, the speakers were mostly students and people who rarely speak in public.
‘We did not invite popular speakers for one reason — the event was aimed at giving students the opportunity not only to present their startups, but also to get to know the companies they will work for or are already working for,’ said Nikita Smokhorzhevsky, Head of IR at Solus Group.
The meeting discussed popular areas in the blockchain and cryptosphere for students, the development of the industry in general, and gave young people the opportunity to present their projects.
Solana KUMEKATHON! and Meetup
One of the events that attracted a lot of attention was the KUMEKATHON! hackathon and the related Solana Meetup event.
Organized by the Kumeka Team and Incrypted teams, the meeting was attended by over 300 people. Participants discussed the potential and development of the ecosystem of one of the world’s leading blockchains, new project ideas, and talked to Daniel Albert, Executive Director of the Solana Foundation.
Other speakers at the meetup included:
- Vadym Hrusha, CEO and co-founder of Trustee;
- Mister — founder of Hapi Protocol, Scamfari, HERE Wallet;
- Chris Fiore — Chief Growthmaster at Step Finance.
A large-scale hackathon became a special reason for pride for the Ukrainian Solana community represented by the Kumeka Team organization. KUMEKATHON! was held from June 14 to 20, 2024.
About 300 participants and representatives of 52 projects competed for the opportunity to receive valuable awards, and the prize pool amounted to more than $200,000. The event was supported by more than 15 major partners.
It is worth noting that the hackathon included a workshop with SuperteamDAO, an Open Dialogue meetup, and a closed meeting with representatives of the Ukrainian cryptocurrency community. During the latter, the participants discussed with Dan Albert various topical issues and challenges for the industry, both technical and regulatory.
VC <> Startup Connect. Kyiv edition
The first event in Ukraine organized by the Cointelegraph Accelerator team in cooperation with Solus Group and Incrypted. The event brought together representatives of the Web3 industry, including venture capitalists, innovative companies, and opinion leaders.
VC <> Startup Connect. Kyiv edition focused on the business audience and gathered more than 250 participants. At the meeting, they discussed the latest industry trends, legal regulation, and project launches in Ukraine and abroad.
According to Solus Group, the event participants made hundreds of useful contacts. The company believes that in the future, these contacts will form sustainable business relationships and provide an incentive for market development.
Bitcoin UA Meetup
The event dedicated to the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin UA Meetup, took place on June 20. The meeting was attended by several dozen people, and its central topic was the issue of privacy in the Bitcoin network.
Harry Halpin, co-founder of Nym Technologies, spoke about the significant role of privacy in the digital world.
In addition, speakers and guests of Bitcoin UA Meetup discussed the mechanism of returning the Internet ‘to the ownership of users’ with the help of Bitcoin. The meeting also touched upon the benefits of open technologies in the context of the war in Ukraine and many other issues.
KEC & NYM Meetup
Almost 120 participants registered for another event called KEC & NYM Meetup.
More than four hours of meaningful and useful discussions and five top speakers. Among them were Nym CEO Harry Halpin, developers and ambassadors of the company, and Bitcoin enthusiast Alexander Kiriy.
In addition to a large number of interesting topics and networking, guests of the event were able to take part in a special workshop. Experts explained in detail what data a regular router collects, what the risks are, and how to protect yourself from network intruders.
Incrypted Conference 2024 and Online Marathon
The central events of UBW’24 were a three-day online marathon and a large-scale Incrypted Conference event. They were attended by key players of the crypto market, representatives of the Ministry of Digital Transformation and the Cyber Police Department of Ukraine, as well as many specially invited guests.
The Incrypted Online Marathon was held from June 20 to June 22, 2024. As part of the event, everyone could see the speeches of many speakers from among the progressive players in the crypto sphere. They discussed L2 solutions, restaking on the Ethereum ecosystem, cryptocurrency ETFs, Web3 startup support, and many other topics.
Among the marathon speakers were Austin Federa, head of the Solana Foundation, CEO of ether.fi Mike Silagadze, Near Protocol co-founder Ilya Polosukhin, Binance CMO Rachel Conlan, Hacken CEO Dmitry Budorin, SafePal CEO Veronica Wong, 1inch co-founders Anton Bukov and Sergey Kunz, WalletConnect CTO Derek Rein, as well as representatives of Consensys, Eigen Labs, Polkastarter, Matter Labs, Linea, Filecoin Foundation, ChainGPT, HERE wallet, and many others.
In total, more than 18,000 people watched the marathon on YouTube and X (formerly Twitter).
On June 23, 2024, Ukrainian Blockchain Week reached its culmination at the Incrypted Conference. On this day, the event’s attendees witnessed numerous discussions, individual presentations, awarding of hackathon winners, and the appearance of unexpected guests.
The conference was attended by Vitalik Buterin, who shared his thoughts on the Ukrainian community in an exclusive interview with our editorial team. He supported the developers and participants of UBW’24, awarded the winners of the ETHKyiv hackathon, and received the NFT cat with the personal signature of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a gift.
The co-founder of Ethereum was also presented with Incrypted branded merchandise, symbolically becoming a part of our team.
Also, don’t forget that during the conference, we announced the launch of a user account. You can read more about this innovation below:
