Devcon 7 On-site Insights: Leading in Technological Innovation, but Application Stories Still Need to Be Completed

Market Sentiment and Reality Gap

Since entering Q4, a suppressed mood has emerged within the Ethereum ecosystem. Since the launch of this year’s spot ETF, ETH’s price performance has failed to meet market expectations, driven by multiple factors. The rapid evolution of Layer 2 technologies has improved transaction efficiency but weakened the mainnet’s ability to capture economic value, leading to a gradual decline in demand for ETH. The DeFi hype that once supported Ethereum’s story has waned, and the market has yet to see sufficiently novel and attractive application scenarios. Meanwhile, Solana’s strong rise has become a direct benchmark, and in this comparison, FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) has spread within the Ethereum community.

Particularly, the ETH sell-offs by the Ethereum Foundation have sparked widespread dissatisfaction. Many community members believe that, amid ETH’s low price, this move disregards market sentiment and has raised questions about Ethereum’s leadership, with some even accusing it of “self-destructive future.” This negative sentiment continues to ferment on social media, with criticisms suggesting that Ethereum has become a “traffic code” for certain KOLs. Since late October, debates around Ethereum have been intensifying.

The Energy and Vitality on the Ground

It is precisely amid this negative wave that Devcon was held as scheduled, injecting confidence and positive energy into Ethereum. In mid-November, I attended Devcon 7 in Bangkok. As one of the most influential events in the blockchain space, the main venue was vibrant and diverse, with a friendly and open atmosphere. The schedule was tightly packed with information, making it challenging to keep up with every session. According to official data, 60% of attendees were participating in Devcon for the first time. When interacting with delegates, the most frequently mentioned words were “relaxed,” “colorful,” and “friendly.”

Three Focus Areas of Technological Innovation

During the conference, I encountered an interesting new concept—Provable Object Data (POD), a data structure used to store and manage data that requires zero-knowledge proof verification. GPC is a circuit used to verify these POD objects. In GPC, POD data serves as input, and the circuit checks whether the data meets predefined conditions, providing a verification result. The Zupass ticketing system showcased at the conference uses POD technology to ensure the uniqueness of each ticket. When users purchase tickets, the Zupass system generates a POD for each ticket, containing a unique identifier, basic information, purchase time, etc. After processing the POD data through the GPC circuit, on-site staff cannot see specific ticket details, only the zero-knowledge proof verification result.

In between sessions, at the exhibition area, hub, and交流 spaces, I discussed various topics with technical personnel and market participants from multiple projects, with ZK, Based Rollup, and Appchain leaving a deep impression.

Long-term Value of ZK Rollup

Aztec engineer Adam Domurad mentioned during discussions that ZK technology, with its fixed proof size and efficient verification, is highly suitable for blockchain scaling. Compared to OP Rollup, ZK Rollup uses zero-knowledge proofs to ensure transaction correctness, avoiding risks associated with node misbehavior and reducing redundant verification work. Currently, OP Rollup dominates mainly because users prioritize low costs and high speed over underlying technical advantages. The long-term value of ZK Rollup lies in its excellent security and scalability; many blockchains (including Ethereum itself) are redesigning architectures to maximize ZK technology’s potential. Additionally, ZK tech shows enormous application potential in privacy protection.

The Anon Aadhaar project showcased at Devcon is an example—developed by the PSE team supported by the Ethereum Foundation, it uses zero-knowledge proofs to verify Indian citizenship without revealing specific identity information. However, ZK Rollup still needs to optimize speed and costs to gain broader market acceptance. Adam is optimistic about the future, believing that as ZK tech matures, ZK Rollup has the potential to replace OP Rollup and become the mainstream scaling solution.

Cross-Chain Liquidity Design of Based Rollup

Ethereum researcher mteam, a 17-year-old student, is currently focused on researching Based Rollup. He shared with me the design advantages of Based Rollup as an independent execution environment. By sharing a sequencer, multiple Based Rollups can share liquidity without direct bridging, with liquidity flowing through the Ethereum mainnet across different Based Rollups. This design improves cross-chain operation efficiency and reduces reliance on a single bridging solution—an ideal cross-chain liquidity solution.

Decentralized sequencers in Based Rollup have higher operational costs than centralized ones, but multiple Based Rollups can share costs through block aggregation, significantly reducing individual operational expenses. In terms of performance, Based Rollup can achieve speeds comparable to other Rollups through an early confirmation mechanism, providing a fast user experience within Ethereum’s 12-second block time. Economically, Based Rollup returns most MEV profits to Ethereum, with primary revenue from user-paid gas fees. It also sustains itself through front-end service fees and smart contract execution fees, avoiding reliance on MEV profits.

Due to deep integration with Ethereum mainnet, Based Rollup inherits Ethereum’s high censorship resistance and trustworthiness, meaning future upgrades (such as stronger censorship resistance) will directly benefit Based Rollup.

Controversy Over Appchain Route

Carbon project leader Mark Richardson pointed out that DeFi currently faces two major challenges: liquidity fragmentation and complex user experience. He stated that while protocols like Uniswap develop Appchains to attract more value, this approach may further exacerbate liquidity dispersion. Cross-chain deployment and liquidity sharing mechanisms are more effective solutions.

Regarding Appchains, Mark believes that although they are a trend and can help protocols gain more value by allowing full chain control to optimize costs and user experience, from the perspective of the entire DeFi ecosystem, the Appchain route may not be optimal. He predicts that with ongoing development of cross-chain technology, multi-chain collaboration will become easier, and the specific chain where users trade will become less important. Therefore, he favors focusing on cross-chain solutions to address liquidity fragmentation rather than isolating protocols on their own Appchains outside the ecosystem.

He also mentioned that intent-based trading modes are becoming a major trend. This design helps users clearly express trading needs while achieving slippage-free trading and MEV protection. Regarding market trends, he believes “DeFi Summer” will be hard to replicate soon, but “Memecoin Summer” may emerge. In this context, DeFi applications need to seize opportunities and flexibly incorporate stability to meet user demands. He emphasizes that future project success depends not only on technological leadership but also on optimizing user experience through data analysis and multi-chain ecosystem coordination.

Ecosystem Outlook

Conversations with these builders made me realize that Ethereum’s current predicament lies in over-focusing on infrastructure development while lacking sufficiently practical and attractive applications. However, overall, Ethereum remains a leader in underlying technological innovation, which is crucial. Ultimately, other blockchains seem to be “copying” Ethereum’s path, even including the memecoin phenomenon.

Ethereum missed the memecoin opportunity partly because transaction speeds and fees were not fast enough, forcing some retail investors to switch to more suitable chains like Solana. However, Solana’s success is not only due to low transaction fees but also because it attracted many outstanding developers and focused more on end-user experience. These factors helped Solana stand out in the competition, attracting users seeking efficient, low-cost transactions.

But as Solana’s transaction fees and MEV continue to rise, the use of trading bots and advanced tools becomes common, which may lead to the loss of ordinary users. Remaining users are mainly traders using complex tools, similar to Ethereum’s early memecoin phase. Therefore, I believe other blockchains may emerge at specific stages, but overall, Ethereum’s ecosystem position and potential remain solid. Ethereum’s unique technological advantages and ecosystem depth make it difficult for other blockchains to replace in the short term.