Next Billion

This is an update from the Next Billion Fellowship Program. Applications are rolling and open for cohort 6 beginning in October 2025. Individuals interacting with an application have a user experience. Collectives interacting with a protocol have a world experience. There are many worlds that the Ethereum protocol touches; places where organizations, communities, or institutions experience trust through coordination. The Next Billion Fellowship is a program to support individuals working on new use cases and improving trust experience within the world computer. The stories of a global protocol are as diverse and varied as the humans that use it. In this update five Next Billion Alumni share stories about their Fellowship experience, and four new Next Billion Fellows are introduced. <div style="

We’re thrilled to announce that internship applications are now open for the first-ever Ethereum Season of Internships! The Ethereum Season of Internships is a collection of paid, fully-remote summer internships offered across the Ethereum ecosystem. It is designed to help establish more paths for the next generation of contributors to connect with Ethereum projects and apply their skills – whether in development, research, design, marketing, operations, or more. Our long-term goal is to make Ethereum an even more welcoming place for new talents. Over the past few weeks, 18 teams from across the ecosystem have created over 30 internship opportunities. Each position is paid, remote-friendly, and designed to offer real-world experience and mentorship. Whether you’re a developer, researcher, designer, or community builder, this is your invitation to

Every year, the Ethereum ecosystem welcomes thousands of builders through community events, hackathons, courses, bootcamps, and campus clubs. However, many newcomers struggle to remain engaged, as they face challenges securing structured early-career opportunities. The Ethereum Season of Internships directly addresses this retention gap by creating a coordinated collection of internship opportunities across the ecosystem.

Across different disciplines and geographies, builders are exploring how Ethereum fits into their work and communities. The Devcon SEA Scholars Program brought together 93 of these individuals in Bangkok who are bridging Ethereum with other worlds and pushing Ethereum's boundaries. This community of builders, thinkers, and creators was selected from over 800 applicants representing 86 countries. The program consisted of four categories: (1) Ethereum Community Organizers; (2) Law Students & Legal Professionals; (3) Artists and Sci-fi Writers, and (4) Other Builders. Each category was guided by a mentor and included a series of online gatherings leading up to Devcon. After attending Devcon for the first time – with financial support for those who needed it – the Scholars created "Learning Artifacts" to document their experiences and

The following is an update from Next Billion Fellow Mulenga Kapwepwe and her initiative "Summitshare". For more about the Next Billion Fellowship Program and to apply, please visit https://nxbn.ethereum.foundation/. Mulenga Kapwepwe, founder of the Women’s History Museum of Zambia posed a question in 2022 to a small group of younger tech enthusiasts in Zambia: Can something called “blockchain technology” offer any new usefulness for the preservation of history? She had started a new initiative aimed at digital humanities, and engaging with young people excited by technology who might want to apply their talents to the world of arts, culture, and history. The group of developers, designers, and artists she was working with shared their enthusiasm for “web3”, and together they discussed some of the properties

We’re excited to announce that applications for the Next Billion Fellowship Program are now open!

As a global public resource, technology must remain open, accessible, and dedicated to promoting the greater good. The Next Billion Fellowship Program is a testament to this vision, seeking to capture stories of communities whose lives are changing for the better. Today, we are proud to introduce seven individuals with remarkable stories to share. Their narratives offer a glimpse into their diverse contexts and possible futures — ones we cannot fully foresee but where humanity is uplifted. By drawing inspiration from the Next Billion Fellows’ stories, we hope to imagine a future where this open protocol of human coordination serves as a public good for billions of people.

Ethereum is growing, and diversity of human participation creates resilience throughout the ecosystem. The Devconnect Scholars Program is one small effort that aims to create resilience through community diversity. Better representation across human geography and demographics leads to diverse experiences and new perspectives that help the Ethereum protocol serve the coordination needs of all humans, not just a lucky few. Not only does better representation - leading to better geographical distribution of Ethereum nodes for example - help the security of the network, but we believe it is crucial in enriching our community and in making Ethereum stories tangible for more people. The Scholars Program brought to Devconnect Istanbul 22 builders from communities that are currently underrepresented in Ethereum. This post highlights just a few of