ETH Warsaw Sparks Poland's Rise as the Premier EU Blockchain Hub

cryptonews.com:

The European Union seems to have gotten its blockchain king - Poland - judging by the overwhelmingly positive feedback from the attendees of ETH Warsaw.

The conference and hackathon was held in Poland's capital between August 31 and September 3, "organized by a passionate group of local Ethereum enthusiasts."

Per a blog post, ETHWarsaw is "a community-led, grassroots conference and hackathon organized by active members of the Web3 community working in blockchain-focused companies around the world."

It claims to be the biggest event of this type in the CEE region (the EU member states that were part of the former Eastern bloc). 

One of the participants, who led a panel at a side event, was the WOO Network. They described the experience as "an absolute blast" and "an epic event." 

Per WOO's blog post,

"Coinciding with the inaugural Warsaw Blockchain Week, [ETH Warsaw] played a pivotal role in solidifying Poland's position as a thriving blockchain hub within the EU."

The conference had six tracks covering a number of topics, including decentralized finance (DeFi), governance, and Layers 2 (L2s), among other areas.

"Overall, the event had a stronger turnout than the previous year," the post said.

The previous edition, says the website, saw more than a thousand participants and 130 hackers competing, winning $69,420 in bounties.

The second edition saw Valspin, which provides hedging contracts for ETH stakers, take the first prize. 

"There is guaranteed to be appetite for these products. We intend to pursue the project further," team members Robbie Kruszynski, Caron Schaller, and Lumi said.

Another winner was Split3, described by its creators as "a new easy way for expense management and debt settlement, all powered by the magic of Web3