zkSummit was wonderful. I had a great time there and spent a bunch of time with people from many different teams. After Real World Cryptography, a small evening conference in Paris, and the gigantic and overwhelming ETHCC, zkSummit felt like exactly the sweet spot I needed.
I woke up at 5 am, which was not fun, and flew to Lisbon, which was also not fun. It’s not that I don’t like flying so much as I really find taking the train infinitely more convenient, even when it takes much longer. In this specific case, though, the train trip would have taken almost three days, which didn’t feel great for a two-day event. I might do it next time, nonetheless, because the journey is part of the trip, etc.
My colleagues were stuck in the Paris airport for over 12 hours, so I supported them from afar while enjoying indecent quantities of seafood instead of having all the 1:1s we had planned.
When we arrived at the Lisbon conference center, I immediately knew this was going to be a good day. The venue was the exact right size; there was easy access to fresh air, a relatively quiet coworking room, and two big conference rooms with an extra one for workshops.
We sat for the intro, where we enjoyed Anna Rose’s recap of the history of ZK − I felt like this was a great moment to ground us and get us out of the latest hype cycles, if only for a few minutes.
I wish all events would take the time to remind us of greater trends, context, and where we come from!
We then hopped from one talk to the next and took advantage of a break to put Hylé on the ZK map.
https://x.com/sylvechv/status/1843615894163075373/video/1
At the end of the morning, I was feeling a bit too tired to try and understand increasingly complex talks, so I went to the coworking room and found a group of very nice people working on a ZK Hack puzzle. I’m happy and yet vaguely ashamed to say that this was my peak performance of the week.
https://x.com/AlexAsteure/status/1843617908628603241
Outside of this obvious joke, I’m glad I sat there. My « teammates » were two engineers from zkVerify (another member of the zkBoost Consortium) and an independent developer from Brazil. While we worked hard on our puzzle, they were doing a user interview, and I’m thankful they let me sit with them and listen to all the precious insights that were discussed!
I was impressed with the Cursive team’s activation during the event: a fun NFC card that you could tap to get people’s socials, but also use MPC and FHE to find common interests and check out if you had shared hot takes. Also, there was a leaderboard. I fought valiantly, even though I hadn’t heard that there was a prize to win… so I didn’t claim my prize, and I still don’t know if I even qualified for one. What can I say? Competition motivates me more than cash… although I’d have liked one of their gorgeous NFC rings. Their blog post about zkSummit 12 isn’t out yet, but it looks like they did a similar activation during zkSummit 11.
Finally, it was time for our very own Lancelot’s talk on the side stage, where he introduced delayed proving and why our lean blockchain is opening a new design space for provable apps. I recommend checking out my livetweet below, or even better, the full 15-minute talk when it will be available on YouTube.
https://x.com/hyle_org/status/1843670263222940037
The afterparty, which was more after than party, was my chance to spend time with interesting people and talk about different kinds of ZK-based projects. It was also a time when I saw some familiar faces, including the brilliant blogger Lauri, who was the very first non-Hylé crypto person I ever followed on Twitter!
The day began with our Fancy Petit-Déjeuner, which was held in a lovely restaurant that I will 100% visit if I ever return to Lisbon.
It was a quiet place with outdoor space. There, people could have casual, low-key conversations, the perfect segue to the afterparty. It was by far my favourite way to start the day, and I made friends, too! Morning events, with no alcohol and quiet conversations, are my thing.
I also managed to peddle all of our T-shirts, which brings me deep satisfaction.
We then made our way to the Risc Zero brunch party, which was… more of a party than the afterparty somehow. It had sangria, lemonade, shrimp tacos to die for (as a French person who loves shrimp, at least), a live band (!), and a huge terrace. Once again, I met up with new friends, enjoyed the sun, shielded myself from the rain (the weather in Lisbon is a real ride), danced a bit, and had too much to eat. Again.
https://x.com/Agni_deneve/status/1844018144672928191
The final « side event » was trying to go home. Our flight ended up being only two hours late, so we considered ourselves lucky… but of course, my journey only landed me to another hotel, as I am currently finishing my workweek in Paris in the office!
https://x.com/sylvechv/status/1844039317632831743
Side events are Actually Cool™ if there’s just one at any given time.
Conferences are Actually Cool™ if you don’t have intense decision paralysis.
I desperately need naps when I travel.
The « ZK map » was fun. It’s extremely cheap and participative, and everyone wants to take a photo or video and play with it.
This industry still hasn’t found out about business cards. You can put your Telegram QR code on them, too − why won’t anyone trust me on this? In the meantime, scanning the Cursive NFC cards was pretty good.
Meeting people at conferences is much less demanding when you already recognize a few faces. I’m expecting conferences to feel exponentially easier with experience!
I’m going to try and stick to a « one conference per quarter » regimen.
I’m not going to DevCon, which feels very big and very far away: while I’m very relieved that I’m not going to this mega-event, I’m also devastated to miss a marketing track, given how rare they are.
I’ll keep a close eye on the (European) calendar for Q1 2025 and would genuinely love to see a marketing event. If there’s one, I’ll 100% make the case for attending!