written by @deca12x

The Ethereum ecosystem’s developer community is at a critical junction in its evolution. In the early days, Ethereum events were all about hackathons and hype - scrappy “build something in a weekend” affairs that fueled the Wild West vibe of crypto’s infancy. But as the technology and community matured, a new builder retention funnel model has emerged, supporting developers not just at hackathons (the start of their journey) but all the way through to launching startups. This article traces that evolution: from an era of abundant hackathons towards a more mature approach where a variety of event formats nurture builders from MVP to product-market-fit to pre-seed startup.

In the Ethereum world, we define the term builder funnel as the journey of a builder from an initial idea to a viable startup, and the corresponding support that ecosystem sponsors provide at each stage. Broadly, this funnel has three stages:

1. Stage 1 - MVP (Awareness & Ideation): A team hacks together a minimum viable product. From the builder’s perspective, this means exploring a new idea and creating a prototype. From the sponsor’s perspective (e.g. an L2 network or protocol project), this stage is about top-of-funnel awareness - getting developers to learn about and try their tech. The classic events here are hackathons and bootcamps, which generate excitement and introduce builders to new tools.

2. Stage 2 - Iteration (Grants & Refinement): At this stage, builders refine their project, gather user feedback, and work toward product-market fit. They might not be ready to form a company yet, but the idea has potential. Sponsors support this middle of the funnel by providing grants, mentorship, and longer-form programs. The goal is to keep promising builders engaged after the hackathon buzz, helping them iterate on their project instead of abandoning it. This is where things like extended buildathons, hacker house residencies, and community mentorship programs come in.

3. Stage 3 - Pre-Seed (Startup Formation & Deals): Here the builder’s journey shifts to forming a real startup - incorporating a company, raising funds, and striking early partnerships. From the sponsor’s viewpoint, this bottom-of-funnel stage is about retaining the best projects on their platform. It involves helping teams launch companies, join accelerators, connect with investors or even providing direct funding. Event formats like incubators, accelerators, and startup-centric conferences support builders in turning their prototype into an investable business.
   

Sponsors (the companies, foundations, or protocols that power these ecosystems) increasingly recognize that they need programs that cover all three stages to truly retain builders. In other words, it’s not enough to attract developers at a hackathon, you have to guide them from first commit to first check. Each type of event in the Ethereum community can be seen through this lens of supporting builders along that funnel.

During roughly 2019 to 2023, the Ethereum industry was like the Wild West. The technology was immature, user experience was clunky, and scalability issues were still being solved. The crypto markets went through manic booms and busts: ICO frenzies, DeFi yield farms, NFT crazes, meme coins attracting many opportunists and short-term speculation. Developer tooling was in flux, and truly mainstream-friendly dApps had yet to emerge. In this environment, much of the event landscape catered to builders and not end users, as the industry focused on DevX (developer experience) in order to get the infrastructure layer ready for prime-time.

It’s no surprise that hackathons became the de facto way to engage developers in that era. Hackathons were abundant: weekend sprints, often attached to major conferences or run by organizations like ETHGlobal, or countless other ‘indie’ hackathons sprouted up constantly. Flush with capital from the 2021 bull run, crypto companies poured money into sponsoring these events. The result was an explosion of hacker participation and prize pools: for example, in 2022 alone ETHGlobal hackathons drew over 14,500 developers who built 3,000+ projects, with nearly $4 million in bounties awarded (free food, swag, and sizable prizes became standard fare). It was a builder’s paradise: learn new tech, meet like-minded hackers, maybe win $5k for a weekend’s work.

From the builder’s perspective, hackathons were (and still are) fantastic playgrounds. You get a crash course in new protocols, mentorship from experts, and the camaraderie of coding through the night. And unlike traditional startup pitches that might yield only feedback, a hackathon gives you a shot at instant cash rewards for a winning demo. From a sponsor’s perspective, however, cracks in this strategy started to show. The hope was that hackathon sponsorships would seed lots of new startups building on your platform, but reality looked different. Often a sponsor might offer a bounty and get only a handful of project submissions using their APIs, SDK or protocol. Of those, many are rough hacks or half-deployed concepts. The few that truly impress, the polished winners, are typically built by veteran devs who already have jobs or their own startups. The $5,000 prizes and glory may incentivize cool demos, but a weekend hack is rarely enough to birth a sustainable project.

Indeed, many sponsors had unrealistic expectations of hackathons. Despite the proliferation of hackathons in the Wild West phase, few tangible, widely adopted products emerged from them. Hacks were more often throwaway prototypes or built to chase prizes rather than form the basis of real startups. Many sponsors began to recognize that while hackathons generated awareness (getting developers to read your docs and play with your SDK), they did not on their own create long-term retention of those developers. A team might win a bounty using your platform and then disappear, or pivot to something else entirely after the event.

In the worst cases, the hackathon model could even backfire. Some projects treated hackathons as an opportunity for “open-source debugging”, essentially encouraging hackers to build with a new tool or protocol that wasn’t quite production-ready, in hopes of getting feedback or finding bugs. But handing eager builders half-baked tech is a recipe for disappointment. There are war stories of developers spending precious hackathon hours fighting an unstable API or poorly documented SDK from a sponsor, only to swear off that platform afterwards. One can imagine a frustrated hacker saying, “Never again will I build on that protocol,” after being burned by a hackathon experience. In such cases, the sponsor’s push for awareness actually soured their reputation with exactly the builders they wanted to court.

The Wild West era was a learning period. Ethereum’s core technology was still being proven out, and the event landscape reflected a top-heavy funnel: lots of energy at Stage 1 (hackathons, conferences) and not much beyond. But this began to change as Ethereum entered its next phase.

Around 2024, Ethereum’s ecosystem started showing signs of maturity - a transition from the freewheeling Wild West to a more structured, institutional age. Several factors converged to drive this shift:

• Technical Maturation (UX & Scalability): The long-standing challenges of usability and scalability were finally being addressed. Layer-2 networks (rollups) came of age, massively reducing transaction costs and boosting throughput. By late 2023, Ethereum’s rollup-centric roadmap had effectively solved the cost problem for users, but it also fragmented the developer experience (suddenly there were many L2 environments, bridges, and new complexities). Realizing this, the community placed new emphasis on improving user experience and cross-chain interoperability. The Ethereum Foundation (EF), historically focused on core protocol research, explicitly broadened its scope to include application layer development and developer experience. In short, the tech was finally getting ready for prime time, and attention was shifting from just infrastructure to actual applications and smoother onboarding.

• Emergence of “Killer Apps”: As infrastructure improved, so did hopes for mainstream adoption. By 2024 we saw glimpses of real use-cases (from decentralized social networks to on-chain gaming and beyond) that could bring the next wave of users. This created pressure to nurture builders capable of delivering those “killer apps.” The speculative projects of the past were giving way to more serious startups aiming to solve real problems. Ethereum’s narrative was changing: it was no longer just “come build the world computer for its own sake,” but build something people will use, and we’ll help you get there.

• Rethinking Developer Retention Strategy: With maturity came introspection. Ecosystem leaders began asking why many hackathon projects fizzled out. The hard truth was that Ethereum had possibly been over-indexed on hackathons at the expense of follow-through. In contrast, rival ecosystems like Solana were gaining ground by offering structured startup support (think incubators, grant programs, etc.), not just weekend hacks.

• Closing the Funnel Gaps: In response to these trends, many Ethereum-aligned organizations started investing in Stage 2 and Stage 3 support. They realized that sponsoring a hackathon is only the first step; to actually retain talent, you must help the standout teams continue building after the hackathon. Over the past two years, we’ve seen a flurry of new initiatives: grant programs, online builder cohorts, hacker houses, longer-term residencies, and accelerators all aimed at keeping promising builders in the ecosystem. In essence, Ethereum’s builder funnel is finally being filled in from top to bottom.
  

It’s worth noting that not everyone has caught on evenly. Some companies adjusted their strategy to use hackathons more surgically, for example, only as one element in a broader pipeline (perhaps using hackathons for outreach and then funneling participants into grant programs or incubators). These teams understand hackathons as top-of-funnel events: great for exposure and recruiting, but incomplete alone. Other projects, however, continued to lean heavily on hackathons without providing follow-up support. A few even doubled down on hackathons for the wrong reasons, like treating them as bug-bounty outings for unfinished tech. As discussed, that can backfire when builders have a bad experience. The direction of the industry clearly favors those adopting a more holistic builder support model.

The transition phase (from onboarding focus to full builder funnel focus) was kicked off with a year of oversaturation - for instance during ETHCC 2024 in Brussels there were over 500 side events, for an overall audience of 10,000 participants. Scores of hackathons and conferences emerged aiming for overly ambitious impact on the sector. Looking at the ecosystem as a whole, more money is now being channeled into nurturing developers at various stages than ever before.

With the stage set, let’s look concretely at how the event landscape for Ethereum builders has diversified to increasingly cover Stage 1, 2, and 3 of the funnel.

As the ecosystem matured, new event formats emerged (and older ones refocused) to support builders at each step of the journey. Below is an overview of the key formats and programs, categorized by which stage of the builder funnel they serve:

• Online Bootcamps (6-8 weeks): These are structured programs held virtually to teach developers new skills and help them build an MVP. For example, Encode Club’s bootcamps and programs like Dev3pack or Cyfrin Updraft offer a curriculum, mentorship, and often an online demo day. They serve as a gentler on-ramp than a 48-hour sprint, ideal for newcomers who want to learn and build with guidance. As Stage 1 events, bootcamps spread awareness of specific technologies (often sponsored by a protocol or L2) and produce initial prototypes by the end.

• Pre-Hackathon Bootcamps (IRL, 1 week): Some initiatives have tried combining education with an in-person experience right before a hackathon. For instance, Urbe Campus is a week-long intensive workshop that runs immediately prior to a major hackathon or conference. Participants get up to speed on various tools and even form teams, so by the time the hackathon starts, they’re better prepared to build something meaningful. This boosts the quality of hackathon projects and helps newcomers get over the learning curve.

• Hackathons (48-72 hour sprints, online or IRL): The classic Ethereum hackathon is still very much alive as a Stage-1 event. Major series like ETHGlobal (which runs hackathons worldwide and online) have become a staple of the ecosystem. The local ‘indie’ hackathons such as ETHRome, ETHWarsaw, ETHDublin, have however found themselves under pressure to reinvent themselves, some focusing on the conference element, some on permanent co-working and event hubs and others on nurturing their local developer community, often through courses in the local native language. At hackathons, sponsors put up bounties for the best use of their tech. The hackathon’s primary role in the funnel is outreach and inspiration: it’s about getting as many developers as possible to play around and build something in your ecosystem. As we discussed, hackathons alone rarely yield polished products, but they generate excitement, new ideas, and awareness. They are the

• Hacker Houses (IRL, 1-4 weeks): The concept of a “hacker house” took off as a way to keep the magic going leveraging the cross-pollination effects stemming from temporary co-living. Promising teams (or solo devs) are invited to live and work together for a short period. These are often sponsored residences where lodging, workspace, and mentorship are provided. For example, programs like Sozu Haus, Kismet Casa, Hacker Hotel, or Jessy’s Hacker House have hosted builders often during major conferences and industry events. In a hacker house, builders can take that v1 prototype and continue polishing it in a supportive, distraction-free environment. It’s mid-funnel: the goal is to turn MVPs into real projects, with help from peers and mentors. Sponsors benefit by deepening relationships with the builders and guiding them to integrate more with their ecosystem (for instance, optimizing an app for their chain or tooling).

• Pop-up Builder Villages: Taking the hacker house concept to the next level, we’ve seen pop-up villages (a.k.a. as popup cities): temporary communities centered around building and learning. These can range from short-term builder retreats (1-2 weeks) like Oz City or Urbe Village, to longer experimental communities lasting a month or two, like Zuzalu, Edge City, or Crecimiento. Such events blend hacking with a broader community experience - on the surface it may be seen as a dense period of co-working, co-living and events, or a summer camp for entrepreneurs and builders. However, digging deeper we find a proliferation of culture and values and an ‘energy’ that supports all involved to push forward.

• Extended Online Hackathons (“Buildathons”): Another trend has been longer-duration online building contests, sometimes called buildathons. For example,

All of these Stage-2 initiatives share a common purpose: to keep builders building. They acknowledge that innovation doesn’t happen in a 48-hour vacuum. By providing community, resources, and a bit more time, these formats significantly increase the chances that a hackathon project evolves into something real. They are the middle of the funnel that Ethereum sorely lacked in earlier years. In addition to these types of events, Stage 2 is also increasingly supported through grants - the allocation of no-strings-attached funding for teams to deliver their projects up to a predetermined point.

• Startup Incubators/Accelerators (IRL): Traditional accelerators have existed in crypto for a while (e.g. Techstars’ blockchain programs or outfits like ConsenSys Tachyon), but recently we’re seeing more ecosystem-specific incubators. Crecimiento Rayuela and Odisea are examples of Ethereum-aligned accelerators that have emerged, and even big conference organizers are adding incubation programs (Token2049’s Nexus program, for instance). These usually offer mentorship, connections to investors, and networking to early-stage teams. The twist in Web3 is that accelerators might be funded by protocol treasuries or foundations aiming to grow their ecosystem. Being in an accelerator helps a founding team into Stage 3 - incorporating a company, building a pitch, and raising capital. For sponsors, this stage is about cementing loyalty: if a new startup gets its initial break via your chain’s accelerator (and perhaps a grant of tokens), there’s a good chance they’ll remain committed to your platform.

• Online Accelerators and Grants Programs: Not all incubation needs to be in-person. Encode Club’s accelerator programs are run virtually, connecting teams with mentors and investors over a few months. Many L2s and protocols also have grant programs (some call them “ecosystem funds” or “labs”) that function like a lightweight accelerator - they give milestone-based funding and guidance to projects building useful things in their ecosystems. For example, the Optimism Grants Council or Polygon’s developer funds have seeded many projects through this approach. These online programs enable global participation and can funnel teams into bigger opportunities.

• Week-long Conferences (Networking & Deals): Major Ethereum conferences - Devcon, ETHDenver, ETHCC (Paris), ETHSingapore, ETHTaipei, ETHPrague, and many more are key meeting grounds for startups, investors, and corporate partners. A team that finished Stage 2 in a hacker house might head to ETHDenver to pitch at the startup competition or meet VC firms at side events. Sponsors often use conferences to announce new programs or follow up with teams they’ve been mentoring remotely. Essentially, conferences are often the gatherings where

Across all these formats, the Ethereum community is covering the full builder funnel better than ever before. The once-missing middle (Stage 2) is now a growing tapestry of hacker houses, pop-ups, and online sprints. Stage 3, which always had some presence (e.g. accelerators), is expanding and being deliberately linked back to earlier-stage events. The full journey might look like: attend hackathon → win small bounty → join a hacker house or online cohort → get a grant → enter an accelerator → pitch at a conference and raise seed funding.

The evolution of Ethereum’s event landscape - from hackathon mania to a holistic builder funnel - mirrors the broader maturation of the crypto industry. In the Wild West phase, the focus was on getting anyone in the door and seeing what happened. It was chaotic and exciting, but it also incentivized quick wins and one-off projects. Today, in this more institutional age, the approach is increasingly about nurturing builders through a journey and aligning them with the ecosystem’s long-term success.

This shift isn’t just about creating successful startups; it’s also intertwined with the ethos and vision that underlie Ethereum. The community often talks about building a better world through decentralized technology - securing financial systems, protecting privacy, enabling coordination without centralized trust. If the first decade was about proving that blockchains work, the mid-2020s and beyond are about proving that blockchain-based applications can genuinely benefit society. To do that, the best minds and developers need to be empowered to move from ideas to impact. That means supporting them at every step, not just handing them a prize check and wishing them luck.

In conclusion, Ethereum’s event landscape has transformed from a scatter of hackathon campfires into a coordinated series of beacons lighting the way for builders. The Wild West days had their charm and lessons, but the community’s growing focus on builder retention at all stages is a sign of wisdom earned. It means more projects will survive the journey from idea to startup, more teams will stay within the Ethereum orbit, and more meaningful innovation can take root on this platform. If Ethereum is to remain a leading platform in the face of competition, this is how it will do it - by cultivating its builders. As the saying goes, bear markets are for building, and now the Ethereum ecosystem has built the very framework to ensure that building never stops, from hackathon weekend to seed investments and beyond.

written by @deca12x

The Ethereum ecosystem’s developer community is at a critical junction in its evolution. In the early days, Ethereum events were all about hackathons and hype - scrappy “build something in a weekend” affairs that fueled the Wild West vibe of crypto’s infancy. But as the technology and community matured, a new builder retention funnel model has emerged, supporting developers not just at hackathons (the start of their journey) but all the way through to launching startups. This article traces that evolution: from an era of abundant hackathons towards a more mature approach where a variety of event formats nurture builders from MVP to product-market-fit to pre-seed startup.

In the Ethereum world, we define the term builder funnel as the journey of a builder from an initial idea to a viable startup, and the corresponding support that ecosystem sponsors provide at each stage. Broadly, this funnel has three stages:

1. Stage 1 - MVP (Awareness & Ideation): A team hacks together a minimum viable product. From the builder’s perspective, this means exploring a new idea and creating a prototype. From the sponsor’s perspective (e.g. an L2 network or protocol project), this stage is about top-of-funnel awareness - getting developers to learn about and try their tech. The classic events here are hackathons and bootcamps, which generate excitement and introduce builders to new tools.

2. Stage 2 - Iteration (Grants & Refinement): At this stage, builders refine their project, gather user feedback, and work toward product-market fit. They might not be ready to form a company yet, but the idea has potential. Sponsors support this middle of the funnel by providing grants, mentorship, and longer-form programs. The goal is to keep promising builders engaged after the hackathon buzz, helping them iterate on their project instead of abandoning it. This is where things like extended buildathons, hacker house residencies, and community mentorship programs come in.

3. Stage 3 - Pre-Seed (Startup Formation & Deals): Here the builder’s journey shifts to forming a real startup - incorporating a company, raising funds, and striking early partnerships. From the sponsor’s viewpoint, this bottom-of-funnel stage is about retaining the best projects on their platform. It involves helping teams launch companies, join accelerators, connect with investors or even providing direct funding. Event formats like incubators, accelerators, and startup-centric conferences support builders in turning their prototype into an investable business.
   

Sponsors (the companies, foundations, or protocols that power these ecosystems) increasingly recognize that they need programs that cover all three stages to truly retain builders. In other words, it’s not enough to attract developers at a hackathon, you have to guide them from first commit to first check. Each type of event in the Ethereum community can be seen through this lens of supporting builders along that funnel.

During roughly 2019 to 2023, the Ethereum industry was like the Wild West. The technology was immature, user experience was clunky, and scalability issues were still being solved. The crypto markets went through manic booms and busts: ICO frenzies, DeFi yield farms, NFT crazes, meme coins attracting many opportunists and short-term speculation. Developer tooling was in flux, and truly mainstream-friendly dApps had yet to emerge. In this environment, much of the event landscape catered to builders and not end users, as the industry focused on DevX (developer experience) in order to get the infrastructure layer ready for prime-time.

It’s no surprise that hackathons became the de facto way to engage developers in that era. Hackathons were abundant: weekend sprints, often attached to major conferences or run by organizations like ETHGlobal, or countless other ‘indie’ hackathons sprouted up constantly. Flush with capital from the 2021 bull run, crypto companies poured money into sponsoring these events. The result was an explosion of hacker participation and prize pools: for example, in 2022 alone ETHGlobal hackathons drew over 14,500 developers who built 3,000+ projects, with nearly $4 million in bounties awarded (free food, swag, and sizable prizes became standard fare). It was a builder’s paradise: learn new tech, meet like-minded hackers, maybe win $5k for a weekend’s work.

From the builder’s perspective, hackathons were (and still are) fantastic playgrounds. You get a crash course in new protocols, mentorship from experts, and the camaraderie of coding through the night. And unlike traditional startup pitches that might yield only feedback, a hackathon gives you a shot at instant cash rewards for a winning demo. From a sponsor’s perspective, however, cracks in this strategy started to show. The hope was that hackathon sponsorships would seed lots of new startups building on your platform, but reality looked different. Often a sponsor might offer a bounty and get only a handful of project submissions using their APIs, SDK or protocol. Of those, many are rough hacks or half-deployed concepts. The few that truly impress, the polished winners, are typically built by veteran devs who already have jobs or their own startups. The $5,000 prizes and glory may incentivize cool demos, but a weekend hack is rarely enough to birth a sustainable project.

Indeed, many sponsors had unrealistic expectations of hackathons. Despite the proliferation of hackathons in the Wild West phase, few tangible, widely adopted products emerged from them. Hacks were more often throwaway prototypes or built to chase prizes rather than form the basis of real startups. Many sponsors began to recognize that while hackathons generated awareness (getting developers to read your docs and play with your SDK), they did not on their own create long-term retention of those developers. A team might win a bounty using your platform and then disappear, or pivot to something else entirely after the event.

In the worst cases, the hackathon model could even backfire. Some projects treated hackathons as an opportunity for “open-source debugging”, essentially encouraging hackers to build with a new tool or protocol that wasn’t quite production-ready, in hopes of getting feedback or finding bugs. But handing eager builders half-baked tech is a recipe for disappointment. There are war stories of developers spending precious hackathon hours fighting an unstable API or poorly documented SDK from a sponsor, only to swear off that platform afterwards. One can imagine a frustrated hacker saying, “Never again will I build on that protocol,” after being burned by a hackathon experience. In such cases, the sponsor’s push for awareness actually soured their reputation with exactly the builders they wanted to court.

The Wild West era was a learning period. Ethereum’s core technology was still being proven out, and the event landscape reflected a top-heavy funnel: lots of energy at Stage 1 (hackathons, conferences) and not much beyond. But this began to change as Ethereum entered its next phase.

Around 2024, Ethereum’s ecosystem started showing signs of maturity - a transition from the freewheeling Wild West to a more structured, institutional age. Several factors converged to drive this shift:

• Technical Maturation (UX & Scalability): The long-standing challenges of usability and scalability were finally being addressed. Layer-2 networks (rollups) came of age, massively reducing transaction costs and boosting throughput. By late 2023, Ethereum’s rollup-centric roadmap had effectively solved the cost problem for users, but it also fragmented the developer experience (suddenly there were many L2 environments, bridges, and new complexities). Realizing this, the community placed new emphasis on improving user experience and cross-chain interoperability. The Ethereum Foundation (EF), historically focused on core protocol research, explicitly broadened its scope to include application layer development and developer experience. In short, the tech was finally getting ready for prime time, and attention was shifting from just infrastructure to actual applications and smoother onboarding.

• Emergence of “Killer Apps”: As infrastructure improved, so did hopes for mainstream adoption. By 2024 we saw glimpses of real use-cases (from decentralized social networks to on-chain gaming and beyond) that could bring the next wave of users. This created pressure to nurture builders capable of delivering those “killer apps.” The speculative projects of the past were giving way to more serious startups aiming to solve real problems. Ethereum’s narrative was changing: it was no longer just “come build the world computer for its own sake,” but build something people will use, and we’ll help you get there.

• Rethinking Developer Retention Strategy: With maturity came introspection. Ecosystem leaders began asking why many hackathon projects fizzled out. The hard truth was that Ethereum had possibly been over-indexed on hackathons at the expense of follow-through. In contrast, rival ecosystems like Solana were gaining ground by offering structured startup support (think incubators, grant programs, etc.), not just weekend hacks.

• Closing the Funnel Gaps: In response to these trends, many Ethereum-aligned organizations started investing in Stage 2 and Stage 3 support. They realized that sponsoring a hackathon is only the first step; to actually retain talent, you must help the standout teams continue building after the hackathon. Over the past two years, we’ve seen a flurry of new initiatives: grant programs, online builder cohorts, hacker houses, longer-term residencies, and accelerators all aimed at keeping promising builders in the ecosystem. In essence, Ethereum’s builder funnel is finally being filled in from top to bottom.
  

It’s worth noting that not everyone has caught on evenly. Some companies adjusted their strategy to use hackathons more surgically, for example, only as one element in a broader pipeline (perhaps using hackathons for outreach and then funneling participants into grant programs or incubators). These teams understand hackathons as top-of-funnel events: great for exposure and recruiting, but incomplete alone. Other projects, however, continued to lean heavily on hackathons without providing follow-up support. A few even doubled down on hackathons for the wrong reasons, like treating them as bug-bounty outings for unfinished tech. As discussed, that can backfire when builders have a bad experience. The direction of the industry clearly favors those adopting a more holistic builder support model.

The transition phase (from onboarding focus to full builder funnel focus) was kicked off with a year of oversaturation - for instance during ETHCC 2024 in Brussels there were over 500 side events, for an overall audience of 10,000 participants. Scores of hackathons and conferences emerged aiming for overly ambitious impact on the sector. Looking at the ecosystem as a whole, more money is now being channeled into nurturing developers at various stages than ever before.

With the stage set, let’s look concretely at how the event landscape for Ethereum builders has diversified to increasingly cover Stage 1, 2, and 3 of the funnel.

As the ecosystem matured, new event formats emerged (and older ones refocused) to support builders at each step of the journey. Below is an overview of the key formats and programs, categorized by which stage of the builder funnel they serve:

• Online Bootcamps (6-8 weeks): These are structured programs held virtually to teach developers new skills and help them build an MVP. For example, Encode Club’s bootcamps and programs like Dev3pack or Cyfrin Updraft offer a curriculum, mentorship, and often an online demo day. They serve as a gentler on-ramp than a 48-hour sprint, ideal for newcomers who want to learn and build with guidance. As Stage 1 events, bootcamps spread awareness of specific technologies (often sponsored by a protocol or L2) and produce initial prototypes by the end.

• Pre-Hackathon Bootcamps (IRL, 1 week): Some initiatives have tried combining education with an in-person experience right before a hackathon. For instance, Urbe Campus is a week-long intensive workshop that runs immediately prior to a major hackathon or conference. Participants get up to speed on various tools and even form teams, so by the time the hackathon starts, they’re better prepared to build something meaningful. This boosts the quality of hackathon projects and helps newcomers get over the learning curve.

• Hackathons (48-72 hour sprints, online or IRL): The classic Ethereum hackathon is still very much alive as a Stage-1 event. Major series like ETHGlobal (which runs hackathons worldwide and online) have become a staple of the ecosystem. The local ‘indie’ hackathons such as ETHRome, ETHWarsaw, ETHDublin, have however found themselves under pressure to reinvent themselves, some focusing on the conference element, some on permanent co-working and event hubs and others on nurturing their local developer community, often through courses in the local native language. At hackathons, sponsors put up bounties for the best use of their tech. The hackathon’s primary role in the funnel is outreach and inspiration: it’s about getting as many developers as possible to play around and build something in your ecosystem. As we discussed, hackathons alone rarely yield polished products, but they generate excitement, new ideas, and awareness. They are the

• Hacker Houses (IRL, 1-4 weeks): The concept of a “hacker house” took off as a way to keep the magic going leveraging the cross-pollination effects stemming from temporary co-living. Promising teams (or solo devs) are invited to live and work together for a short period. These are often sponsored residences where lodging, workspace, and mentorship are provided. For example, programs like Sozu Haus, Kismet Casa, Hacker Hotel, or Jessy’s Hacker House have hosted builders often during major conferences and industry events. In a hacker house, builders can take that v1 prototype and continue polishing it in a supportive, distraction-free environment. It’s mid-funnel: the goal is to turn MVPs into real projects, with help from peers and mentors. Sponsors benefit by deepening relationships with the builders and guiding them to integrate more with their ecosystem (for instance, optimizing an app for their chain or tooling).

• Pop-up Builder Villages: Taking the hacker house concept to the next level, we’ve seen pop-up villages (a.k.a. as popup cities): temporary communities centered around building and learning. These can range from short-term builder retreats (1-2 weeks) like Oz City or Urbe Village, to longer experimental communities lasting a month or two, like Zuzalu, Edge City, or Crecimiento. Such events blend hacking with a broader community experience - on the surface it may be seen as a dense period of co-working, co-living and events, or a summer camp for entrepreneurs and builders. However, digging deeper we find a proliferation of culture and values and an ‘energy’ that supports all involved to push forward.

• Extended Online Hackathons (“Buildathons”): Another trend has been longer-duration online building contests, sometimes called buildathons. For example,

All of these Stage-2 initiatives share a common purpose: to keep builders building. They acknowledge that innovation doesn’t happen in a 48-hour vacuum. By providing community, resources, and a bit more time, these formats significantly increase the chances that a hackathon project evolves into something real. They are the middle of the funnel that Ethereum sorely lacked in earlier years. In addition to these types of events, Stage 2 is also increasingly supported through grants - the allocation of no-strings-attached funding for teams to deliver their projects up to a predetermined point.

• Startup Incubators/Accelerators (IRL): Traditional accelerators have existed in crypto for a while (e.g. Techstars’ blockchain programs or outfits like ConsenSys Tachyon), but recently we’re seeing more ecosystem-specific incubators. Crecimiento Rayuela and Odisea are examples of Ethereum-aligned accelerators that have emerged, and even big conference organizers are adding incubation programs (Token2049’s Nexus program, for instance). These usually offer mentorship, connections to investors, and networking to early-stage teams. The twist in Web3 is that accelerators might be funded by protocol treasuries or foundations aiming to grow their ecosystem. Being in an accelerator helps a founding team into Stage 3 - incorporating a company, building a pitch, and raising capital. For sponsors, this stage is about cementing loyalty: if a new startup gets its initial break via your chain’s accelerator (and perhaps a grant of tokens), there’s a good chance they’ll remain committed to your platform.

• Online Accelerators and Grants Programs: Not all incubation needs to be in-person. Encode Club’s accelerator programs are run virtually, connecting teams with mentors and investors over a few months. Many L2s and protocols also have grant programs (some call them “ecosystem funds” or “labs”) that function like a lightweight accelerator - they give milestone-based funding and guidance to projects building useful things in their ecosystems. For example, the Optimism Grants Council or Polygon’s developer funds have seeded many projects through this approach. These online programs enable global participation and can funnel teams into bigger opportunities.

• Week-long Conferences (Networking & Deals): Major Ethereum conferences - Devcon, ETHDenver, ETHCC (Paris), ETHSingapore, ETHTaipei, ETHPrague, and many more are key meeting grounds for startups, investors, and corporate partners. A team that finished Stage 2 in a hacker house might head to ETHDenver to pitch at the startup competition or meet VC firms at side events. Sponsors often use conferences to announce new programs or follow up with teams they’ve been mentoring remotely. Essentially, conferences are often the gatherings where

Across all these formats, the Ethereum community is covering the full builder funnel better than ever before. The once-missing middle (Stage 2) is now a growing tapestry of hacker houses, pop-ups, and online sprints. Stage 3, which always had some presence (e.g. accelerators), is expanding and being deliberately linked back to earlier-stage events. The full journey might look like: attend hackathon → win small bounty → join a hacker house or online cohort → get a grant → enter an accelerator → pitch at a conference and raise seed funding.

The evolution of Ethereum’s event landscape - from hackathon mania to a holistic builder funnel - mirrors the broader maturation of the crypto industry. In the Wild West phase, the focus was on getting anyone in the door and seeing what happened. It was chaotic and exciting, but it also incentivized quick wins and one-off projects. Today, in this more institutional age, the approach is increasingly about nurturing builders through a journey and aligning them with the ecosystem’s long-term success.

This shift isn’t just about creating successful startups; it’s also intertwined with the ethos and vision that underlie Ethereum. The community often talks about building a better world through decentralized technology - securing financial systems, protecting privacy, enabling coordination without centralized trust. If the first decade was about proving that blockchains work, the mid-2020s and beyond are about proving that blockchain-based applications can genuinely benefit society. To do that, the best minds and developers need to be empowered to move from ideas to impact. That means supporting them at every step, not just handing them a prize check and wishing them luck.

In conclusion, Ethereum’s event landscape has transformed from a scatter of hackathon campfires into a coordinated series of beacons lighting the way for builders. The Wild West days had their charm and lessons, but the community’s growing focus on builder retention at all stages is a sign of wisdom earned. It means more projects will survive the journey from idea to startup, more teams will stay within the Ethereum orbit, and more meaningful innovation can take root on this platform. If Ethereum is to remain a leading platform in the face of competition, this is how it will do it - by cultivating its builders. As the saying goes, bear markets are for building, and now the Ethereum ecosystem has built the very framework to ensure that building never stops, from hackathon weekend to seed investments and beyond.