Stories from Bangkok: Devcon SEA Scholars Program

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 reflections, some of which are highlighted below.

Meet The Scholars

Antonio Rodríguez-Ynyesto

Antonio is an industrial technologies and robotics engineer from Spain who took part in the Ethereum Protocol Fellowship Study Group. In Bangkok, Antonio participated in a CTF/scavenger hunt organized by the Red Guild. In his Learning Artifact, he discusses the real-world security challenges involved in the game.

Botao "Amber" Hu

Botao "Amber" is a social mixed reality researcher and experiential futures designer. Amber describes his Learning Artifact, FungiSync, as a mixed reality participatory ritual performance inspired by the mycorrhizal network "Wood Wide Web" to foster human plurality and collective wisdom. FungiSync was displayed as an interactive art installation at the Devcon venue, and attendees directly participated in it.

Celic Torres

Celic is the Lead counsel at Ethereum México & Ethereum Cinco de Mayo. She is currently pursuing a master's degree in law, where she is conducting research on the tax implications of cryptocurrencies and their potential as a tool for financial inclusion. In her Learning Artifact, Celic explores the challenges of taxing crypto-assets across jurisdictions and argues for specialized tax legislation to address legal uncertainties and prevent misalignment with existing frameworks.

Facundo Trotz

Facundo is a lawyer specializing in web3, and his current role at Kleros, a decentralized dispute resolution system, involves crafting the 'laws' that guide its jurors, assisting governments in leveraging Kleros to decentralize justice, and formulating governance frameworks for associated DAOs. In his Learning Artifact, Facundo discusses the challenges of defining and achieving "full decentralization" under regulatory frameworks.

Liliia Tulupenko

Over the past four years, Liliia worked at Ukraine's Ministry of Digital Transformation, leading all government communications related to crypto regulation efforts. She is passionate about exploring blockchain-based government solutions and has discussed Ethereum's potential for improving public services, highlighting opportunities that exist for Ukraine in her Learning Artifact.

Ryuta Aoki

Ryuta is an artist, artistic director, conceptual designer, system architect, software engineer, entrepreneur, and social sculptor based in Tokyo. Ryuta describes his Learning Artifact, SOTOROJI, as part of a series of spatial devices that lead from the ordinary to the extraordinary, utilizing the modern social affordance of "seeing a QR code and scanning it with a camera," just as soto-roji (the outer garden) in the Japanese tea ceremony serves as a space leading to a world of profound subtlety. SOTOROJI was featured as an art piece at the Devcon venue, viewed by thousands of attendees.

Kim Sheng Kai

Kim Sheng Kai is a content writer and the community manager of ETHKL, a Malaysia-based Ethereum community. Kim Sheng Kai's Learning Artifact covers different ways to contribute to the Ethereum ecosystem, stories from hosting ETH SEA Day, and the journey to growing the ETHKL community.

Tanja Mladenovic

Tanja is the co-founder of ETH Belgrade. She describes ETH Belgrade as more than just a local conference; through hackathons, meetups, a venture program, and a university, ETH Belgrade nurtures the growth of the Ethereum community worldwide. In her Learning Artifact, Tanja discusses observations from the Ethereum communities she visited on her road to Devcon and "doing things that don't scale."