EthCC 6

Devconnect

Here I cheated, because it is not a conference in itself but a week of activities. Since we are not going to have a Devcon this year, I think it is a great opportunity to connect with other devs and know many projects in the web3 universe. Recommended if you are interested in networking.

When? November 13-19

Where? Istanbul, Turkey

Web: https://devconnect.org/

EthNewYork

An event that is part of the Eth Global hackathon series, but in an iconic city. If you have an idea and want to receive financing, this is a great opportunity. Plus, there’s the chance to learn and network. Recommended for developers who want to make their project a reality.

Web: https://nyc.ethglobal.co/

Ethereum Argentina

Great opportunity for Latin America, especially those of us further south. There will be many experts and activities and much of the content in Spanish. Recommended for developers in Latam.

When? August 16-19

Where? Buenos Aires, Argentina

Web: https://ethereumargentina.org/

Eth Online

If you don’t have the resources to attend an event in person, you can apply to this hackathon, which is 100% remote. Although the richness of face-to-face is lost, the comfort of being at home may increase productivity and ideas. Recommended for those who can’t travel.

When? October 6-27

Where? Online

Web: https://ethglobal.com/events/ethonline2023

Are you going to participate in any of these events? Did you participate in ETH Denver? Will you attend any other event that is not listed? Leave a comment !

We are always looking for Web3 talent !

Mighty Block is one of the partners of Forte, a platform to enable game publishers to easily integrate blockchain technologies into their games. We believe blockchain will enable new economic and creative opportunities for gamers around the world and have assembled a team of proven veterans from across the industry (Kabam, Unity, GarageGames, ngmoco, Twitch, Disney), as well as a $100M developer fund & $725M funding, to help make it happen. That’s where you come into play.

Feel free to browse all our current open job opportunities in the following link

The post The best 2023 web3 conferences to participate appeared first on Mighty Block |.

Whether you are a developer or a user, it’s important to understand the core concept behind ZK-Proofs because it will help you understand not only what the product is trying to achieve in matters of security and privacy but also how they are trying to achieve them.

What is a Zero-Knowledge Proof?

ZK-Proof is protocol that involves a Prover and a Verifier and enables the Prover to demonstrate the truth of a statement to the Verifier without disclosing any additional information beyond the veracity of the statement. Essentially, it allows the Prover to prove to the Verifier that they possess knowledge of a specific piece of information, without disclosing it.

How does it work? An intuitive explanation

The Ali Baba cave is a well-known story used to give an intuitive explanation of how the ZK-Proof protocol works. This story is based in a circular cave with one entrance and a magic door opened by a password located in the middle of it. It involves two actors, Bob the verifier and Alice the Prover.

Alice wants to prove to Bob that she knows the password that opens the door placed inside the cave without telling him the word itself. To do that they follows three simple steps:

1. Alice chooses a random path to enter the cave while Bob waits outside without looking at her.
2. Bob goes to the entrance of the cave and screams a path.
3. Alice returns to the entrance using the path that Bob screamed in step 2.

If Bob screams A, and Alice returns using A it can mean two things: either Alice entered the cave through B and knows the password or entered through A and cheated. After all, there is a 50% chance of getting it right.

The key is to iterate this process until it becomes highly improbable for Alice to have cheated in every repetition, given that each time Alice is correct, the probability of cheating is halved.

Where can we apply ZK-Proofs?

Any scenario where someone needs to demonstrate the validity of some statement without giving up the information that validates it is suitable. In web3, ZK-Proofs can enhance privacy.  For instance, they can be used to anonymize transactions between peers, as done in the ZCash z-address to z-address transactions, or to enable anonymous voting for decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).

Given the fact that the ZK-Profs are a general cryptography concept, applications can also be found for web2: financial institutions could leverage ZK-Proofs to demonstrate that a person’s income falls within a specific range, without disclosing the precise income amount or  or as a proof of identity, demonstrating that the possession a valid government issued document, without giving it up. 

ZK-Proofs are perfect for this kind of scenario because they can provide strong privacy guarantees without compromising the integrity of the data managed by the system.

Conclusion

Zero-Knowledge proofs have the potential to make the web3 space a more private and safer environment for the users. But as Uncle Ben said in the best Spider-Man movie: “with great power comes great responsibility”. We can’t ignore the fact that these tools can also be used by bad actors to perform illicit activities such as money laundering and illegal transactions. As we continue to develop and apply this technology, it is crucial to consider methods for combating its misuse without sacrificing its benefits. As web3 enthusiasts and developers this can’t be ignored and should be discussed along with the development of ZK-Proof based solutions.

We are always looking for Web3 talent !

Mighty Block is one of the partners of Forte, a platform to enable game publishers to easily integrate blockchain technologies into their games. We believe blockchain will enable new economic and creative opportunities for gamers around the world and have assembled a team of proven veterans from across the industry (Kabam, Unity, GarageGames, ngmoco, Twitch, Disney), as well as a $100M developer fund & $725M funding, to help make it happen. That’s where you come into play.

Feel free to browse all our current open job opportunities in the following link

The post Zero-Knowledge Proofs: An intuitive introduction appeared first on Mighty Block |.

What are Soulbound Tokens?

Soulbound tokens are a special kind of digital asset that is linked to a user or  wallet and cannot be moved or exchanged. They are unique non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that are created on a blockchain network and are designed to be permanently associated with the user that mints this token.

As you can see, NFTs can be resold in secondary markets or transferred between addresses while soulbound tokens will stay in the minted address. As soulbound tokens cannot be transferred or traded to other users, they are highly secure and immutable.

How do Soulbound Tokens Work?

Soulbound tokens are created on a blockchain network using smart contracts, these smart contracts contain the logic that determines the ownership and usage rights of the soulbound token. Once a soulbound token is created, it is linked to a specific user or account and will belong to that user forever.

What Can Soulbound Tokens (SBT token) be Used For?

SBT token have a wide range of potential use cases due to their unique properties. 

Lets see some real examples of their uses:

Gaming: SBT token can be used in the gaming industry as in-game assets or to represent the actual player’s gaming identity. We are in an early stage but there are platforms developing this concept of gamers identity such as Dequest or Soulbound. This kind of platform provides you two major benefits, in one hand, it awards you NFTs and levels up your soulbound token while you complete quests in different games. On the other hand, it lets you build a reputation as a gamer across different games. I believe that players will have the ability to identify fellow individuals who share similar gaming experiences and proficiency levels.

Digital Identity: Soulbound tokens can be used as a form of digital identity, where each user has a unique token that represents their identity on a blockchain network. This can help prevent identity theft and fraud by providing a secure and verifiable way to prove ownership of digital assets. Binance use this concept for users who finished their KYC process:

There are plenty of more use cases that are still under development, for example:

The common factor between all these examples is that a user needs legitimate proof of an event or ownership that they have and cannot be transferred.

Conclusion

Soulbound tokens are a groundbreaking innovation in the world of blockchain technology and have the potential to transform various industries by providing unique and secure ways to represent ownership and control over digital assets. 

We mention some real use cases that are in their first stages and many others that still need development. In my opinion, to see soulbound tokens in our daily lives, we still need time and development for the technology to evolve so it’s more user friendly and the masses can adopt them.

During my recent interaction with the Dequest dApp, I had the opportunity to utilize soulbound tokens and it was really easy to do the account setup process and receive my initial soulbound token. I did some initial quests but since the app is still in beta I didn’t have the opportunity to play a game, win a quest and see some in-game rewards but for sure, when a first release is available I will give it a try. 

I have high expectations for the integration of this technology with other web3 concepts, such as zero knowledge proof, as I believe they will complement each other exceptionally well.

We are always looking for Web3 talent !

Mighty Block is one of the partners of Forte, a platform to enable game publishers to easily integrate blockchain technologies into their games. We believe blockchain will enable new economic and creative opportunities for gamers around the world and have assembled a team of proven veterans from across the industry (Kabam, Unity, GarageGames, ngmoco, Twitch, Disney), as well as a $100M developer fund & $725M funding, to help make it happen. That’s where you come into play.

Feel free to browse all our current open job opportunities in the following link

The post Understanding Soulbound Tokens: The Future of Cryptocurrency appeared first on Mighty Block |.

CCP Games has raised $40 million in funding to make a new triple-A blockchain game set in the Eve universe.

The new game is a big project and that’s why Reykjavík, Iceland-based CCP Games went beyond its owner Pearl Abyss to look for external funding. Andreessen Horowitz (A16z) led the round, with participation from Makers Fund, Bitkraft, Kingsway Capital, Nexon, Hashed and additional participants.

This financing will allow CCP Games to build upon the discoveries of its research and development team to enable the full-scale development of a new triple-A title utilizing blockchain technology, said CCP Games CEO, Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, in an interview with GamesBeat.

With key game systems developed on-chain, this new project will also leverage smart-contract
blockchain technology, focusing on persistence, composability and truly open third-party development
to create a new relationship between virtual worlds and players.

“Since its inception, CCP Games’ vision has been to create virtual worlds more meaningful than real life.
Now, with advancements made within blockchain, we can forge a new universe deeply imbued with our
expertise in player agency and autonomy, empowering players to engage in new ways,” said Pétursson. “This financing has marked an exciting frontier in our studio history as we begin our third decade of virtual world operations. We are humbled by the confidence from our partners in the development of this new title.”

Eve Online launched in May 2003. In September 2018, Black Desert creator Pearl Abyss of South Korea bought CCP Games for $425 million. It was a huge sum for a company running a game that has been around for almost 20 years and is still a big success. But this new idea called for outside investment.

Innovative Approach to Game Development

“CCP Games is a pioneer in virtual worlds and digital economies with 25 years of experience creating
living sandboxes with unparalleled depth,” said a16z General Partner, Jonathan Lai, in a statement. “They’re a veteran team and we believe in their ambitious vision to deliver incredible player experiences at the intersection of best-in-class game design and blockchain technology.”

“The depth and nuances of EVE have become a frequent point of reference in blockchain gaming and we
are therefore thrilled to support the team’s impressive vision of expanding the EVE Universe utilizing this
technology,” said Makers Fund principal Alli Óttarsson, in a statement. “As a former employee, it’s a great personal joy to be reunited with CCP and to witness their continued passion for creating truly meaningful virtual worlds.”

“We’ve long marveled at stories of interstellar war, spaceships forever lost, and the constant challenges
of staying ahead of emergent, sovereign play patterns,” said Bitkraft Ventures partner Carlos Pereira, in a statement. “Hilmar and the team’s experience is unmatched, and we’re excited to see how they use blockchain to let players dream further.”

Alongside independent financing, this new title’s production is separate from current and previously disclosed projects, including Eve Online, which is now in its landmark 20th year.

We are always looking for Web3 talent !

Mighty Block is one of the partners of Forte, a platform to enable game publishers to easily integrate blockchain technologies into their games. We believe blockchain will enable new economic and creative opportunities for gamers around the world and have assembled a team of proven veterans from across the industry (Kabam, Unity, GarageGames, ngmoco, Twitch, Disney), as well as a $100M developer fund & $725M funding, to help make it happen. That’s where you come into play.

Feel free to browse all our current open job opportunities in the following link

The post CCP Games raises $40M for new triple-A Web3 game in the Eve universe appeared first on Mighty Block |.

Custodial Wallets

Custodial wallets are those that are managed by a third party. It is the closest thing to a “web2” application (such as a social network) since users will authenticate themselves in the way they do in the applications they use in their daily lives using, for example, their email and a password.

Advantages of Custodial Wallets

• It is very easy to use.

• Recovering an account if I lose my password is quite accessible.

Disadvantages of Custodial Wallets

• You are not the owner of your private keys and therefore do not have full control over your funds.

In resume, it’s a centralized solution for a decentralized world.

Regular Self Custody

In these type of wallets, it is the user who must be in charge of storing and securing their private keys. Among these we find: browser wallets, desktop wallets, some apps and hardware wallets.

Advantages of Regular Self Custody Wallets

• Now we really own our accounts

• The security of our account depends on ourselves and not on third parties.

Disadvantages of Regular Self Custody Wallets

• It’s not uncommon to lose access to an account or get hacked.

MPC Wallets

MPC (for Multi-Party Computation) allows multiple parties to participate in the signing of a transaction. Each part will have a private key and thanks to complex cryptographic algorithms the desired signature is achieved.

Advantages of a MPC Wallet

• It is a decentralized procedure since it does not store private keys in a third party.

• Reinforces security thanks to complex cryptographic algorithms.

Disadvantages of a MPC Wallet

• It can be a bit more complex in its usability

• Requires more than one physical device which can make it difficult to recover funds.

• It is not compatible (today) with hardware wallets.

Smart Wallets

These are managed by smart contracts and therefore not only allow to store and transfer but also can execute pieces of code that add functionality such as multisignature.

Advantages of Smart Wallets

• They have flexibility without losing decentralization.
• You can even add logic to pay fees with ERC20 tokens.

Disadvantages of Smart Wallets

• The code can expose vulnerabilities and make transaction costs more expensive.

So, which one should I use?

I believe that there is no silver bullet wallet, but I can give you some clues as to which one is best for you. 

• You are not a technical user and you want the easiest to use? Custodial wallet.
• I’m a technical user but I’m not careful with my keys. I prefer to have an easy way to recover my account => Custodial wallet
• I am a technical user and I want a simple way to manage my account, and I am also very careful with my keys => Self custodial
• I am a technical user who doesn’t take good care of his keys, but who thinks that multi-factor authentication would work for him => MPC
• I am a technical user who would like to customize the use of his wallet to even adapt it to decentralized applications => Smart Wallet

Why do I recommend a centralized wallet in some scenarios? Because I think it’s the easiest way to start. And if what we are looking for is adoption, it is important first that everyone can use a wallet, and then become experts and choose the most suitable one.

I hope that with this article you now have a clearer idea about the different types of cryptocurrency wallets that exist.

Which wallet do you think is the most appropriate for you? Let me know in the comments !

We are always looking for Web3 talent !

Mighty Block is one of the partners of Forte, a platform to enable game publishers to easily integrate blockchain technologies into their games. We believe blockchain will enable new economic and creative opportunities for gamers around the world and have assembled a team of proven veterans from across the industry (Kabam, Unity, GarageGames, ngmoco, Twitch, Disney), as well as a $100M developer fund & $725M funding, to help make it happen. That’s where you come into play.

Feel free to browse all our current open job opportunities in the following link

The post Different types of cryptocurrency wallets: The one you need appeared first on Mighty Block |.

Listen to experts in the field discuss the latest developments and future potential of using blockchain, the latest news related with blockchain technology and the gaming industry.

Tune in to stay informed and ahead of the curve in the world of blockchain and gaming:

Episode 9: Educación y Seguridad en Web3

In this episode, we chat with Pablo Sabbatella about Education and Security. Two concepts that go hand in hand and are key when onboarding the next billion users of Web3.

Episode 8: Puede Blockchain desplazar a las bases de datos relacionales?

We chat with Javier Villegas, an expert in relational databases, about the differences between various types of storage. Additionally, we discussed the technology that best applies to each specific case.

Episode 7: Descentralizando la identidad con Web3

If you’re interested in learning more about decentralized identity in Web3, then you won’t want to miss our latest podcast episode. Our expert guests, Milton Berman, share their experiences and insights into the potential of decentralized identity.

In this episode, you’ll learn about the benefits of decentralized identity, including increased privacy and security. Our guests also discuss the practical applications of this technology.

Whether you’re a developer, entrepreneur, or simply curious about Web3, you’ll find something valuable in this episode. So be sure to tune in and discover the potential of decentralized identity for yourself!

Episode 6: Emprender en Web3

Check out our latest podcast episode featuring the CEO and founder of Mighty Block, Franco Breciano. In this episode, we dive deep into the world of web3 and the future of the business ventures in this exciting new space.

Episode 5: De space invaders hacia Crypto traders

Recommended for gamers and those who want to learn more about this world! How have video games evolved to web3? What is coming in the future? In this episode, Sebastian Perez (Tech Lead at Mighty Block) and Uri Chami (Solidity Developer at Mighty Block) discuss these topics.

Episode 4: El camino de Web2 a Web3

In this episode we talk with our guest Milton Berman, WakeUp Labs founder and CEO, about the process through web2 to web3

Episode 4: Resumen del mundo Crypto 2022

2022 was a year of unprecedented events for the cryptocurrency ecosystem. With Diego Gurpegui Improve-in Co-founder and CTO we took a look back at the most important events of the year.

Recommendation: Visit our blog to more web3 news

Episode 2: Bitcoin vs Ethereum: The final game.

Episode 1

In our first episode we talk with Emiliano Canedo (web3 researcher and digital artist) about Ethereum: The merge, the history and the future.

We are always looking for Web3 talent !

Mighty Block is one of the partners of Forte, a platform to enable game publishers to easily integrate blockchain technologies into their games. We believe blockchain will enable new economic and creative opportunities for gamers around the world and have assembled a team of proven veterans from across the industry (Kabam, Unity, GarageGames, ngmoco, Twitch, Disney), as well as a $100M developer fund & $725M funding, to help make it happen. That’s where you come into play.

Feel free to browse all our current open job opportunities in the following link

The post The Mighty Block podcast appeared first on Mighty Block |.

Could we adapt those go to market strategy elements to be our baseline for building fantastic products that the community needs? Well, spoiler alert, we can. 

What is the Go-To-Market Strategy?  

A GTM strategy is a tactical plan detailing how we are planning to execute a successful product launch, a new market expansion, or a new customer target.

It’s designed to mitigate the risk that includes the launch of a new product. 

Or, what we product people usually think, anything and everything which ensures that you build the right product so when you implement the Go-To-Market strategy, it will impact the end user positively and the business, resulting in you keeping your job

Now that we have a clear understanding of what is, let’s see the most common components of a go to market strategy and how we can adapt those to our web3 products: 

Main elements of a good GTM

Product Market Fit 

Having a clear reason, a purpose, and a problem to solve is really important. At the moment that you are formulating the GTM, asking why are we building something is the main thing to ensure that we are not just in love with our product. 

Sometimes, we know we believe that we can create needs for our ideal customer, but that it’s not entirely true.

There has to be a deeper reason for people to consume our products, even if it’s not straightforward. Web3 is not an exception.

To understand the product market fit, we need to be embedded in the web3 community, understand what motivates them, what challenges they have and how we can help solve them. 

However, if we want to bring web3 to the masses, we need to understand which problems the people outside of Web3 have that our technology can help solve. 

But first, we need to define the problem. Don’t try to create a need to be solved with blockchain.

Audience and buyers

In web3 we are familiar with what we call our early adopters, our community. They are the ones that are going to engage with the product or service even before we release it. Building a community is an essential step in our Web3 Go-to-Market marketing strategy. 

A community is going to allow us to perform early validations, confirm our assumptions, test the product, and even participate in the decision-making process. 

Competitive Landscape 

Who else is doing what you are trying to do? 

We used to ask some questions to identify competence such as: 

• What is the actors’ market share?
• Who is leading? 
• What am I offering that is different from theirs?
• What are their weaknesses? 
• How loyal are the users to the competitors? 

There are several frameworks and tools that can help you to understand your landscape. 

The most famous are the SWOT analysis, the Porter five forces, and a BCG (from Boston Consulting Group) matrix.

Are those valid for web3? Well, they have existed for a long time, and they are still valid tools, but in this particular industry, we should ask ourselves some additional questions: 

• Do we have a community that already supports us? If we don’t, it’s time to create it. 
• Is our product solving a problem that can’t be solved with web2?
• What do we offer that a “traditional” product does not? 
• How easy is it for our buyer persona to switch to our tech? Is this for the masses? Or is it only for tech-savvy people? 

Distribution

This is the key to how your potential users are going to access our product. For a regular one, we have tho techniques: marketing-intensive and sales-intensive. But in web3, I will say that we can have a new one: Community-centered. 

And what does that mean? 

As I mentioned in the previous sections, we need to create a strong community if we want to succeed in this world. 

Go to community strategy is focused on building and engaging with a community of early users, that could help us to increase interest in our product as well as have early feedback. 

But how to start building a community

The same as we have MVPs (Minimum Valuable Products), we could have MVCs (Minimum valuable communities). And here we have a couple of steps to start thinking about building a community from the very beginning:

First: Build

• Define and share your core proposition & how co-creation works
• Bootstrapping a community: use tools and applications that are already popular with these users: Discord, Twitter, Telegram, and even some web3 tooling like Crew
• Depending on your product, a common practice is sharing tokens & retroactive airdrops with early contributors

Second: Engage

• Gradually opening and broadening up
• Depending on your organization/company structure, you can progressively decentralize governance and ownership over to the community
•  Prepare an onboarding journey for new members, especially for those that are newbies in the web3 ecosystem.

Third: Sustain 

• Getting members to actively participate, engage and contribute
• Creating the right dynamics between regular members, active contributors, and the core team

Go to community timeline

And how is that going to help us with the Distribution? 

Communities are leading the web3 revolution. Having early adopters with influence in the community could help us to bring real engagement to our product. 

But to reach the masses, we still need to apply some of the traditional GTM strategies for distribution. 

It’s because of that, that Web3 Go-to-Market and Go-to-Community need to be complementary, and we cannot have one without the other if we want to reach a broader audience. 

Then, Is Go-To-Community the new Web3 Go-to-Market?

As we saw in the article, one strategy does not replace the other. And both need to coexist if we want to reach a broader audience.

What we need? Conquer a different niche from the tech-savvies and web3 early adopters.

We have to mix traditional go to market strategy components with the new ones, to let them engage with our product but then educate them about this new paradigm. 

We are always looking for Web3 talent !

Mighty Block is one of the partners of Forte, a platform to enable game publishers to easily integrate blockchain technologies into their games. We believe blockchain will enable new economic and creative opportunities for gamers around the world and have assembled a team of proven veterans from across the industry (Kabam, Unity, GarageGames, ngmoco, Twitch, Disney), as well as a $100M developer fund & $725M funding, to help make it happen. That’s where you come into play.

Feel free to browse all our current open job opportunities in the following link

The post Elements of Go-To-Market Strategy for Web3 appeared first on Mighty Block |.

Introduction to the Expansion and Free Sewer Pass Mi

Yuga Labs, the creative studio behind Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), has announced an expansion to its non-fungible token (NFT) ecosystem that starts with a free mint and a skill-based game.

The unique drop, which involves multiple steps, begins on Jan. 17 with a free mint for existing Bored Ape Yacht Club/Mutant Ape Yacht Club holders called Sewer Passes. These tokens are the key to unlocking a skill-based game called Dookey Dash, which opens for gameplay on Jan. 18.

Gameplay and Rewards for Sewer Pass Holders

Dookey Dash will be playable to anyone who holds a Sewer Pass, including those purchased on the secondary marketplace. Holders are able to play the game an unlimited amount of times, with the goal of receiving a score higher than 0 to validate their Sewer Passes and “transform them into a mysterious power source.”

The results of this wacky process will reveal itself on Feb. 15 when Dookey Dash gameplay ends.

“Sewer Pass holders will compete for the highest score and earn their new power source,” BAYC wrote in a series of tweets on Wednesday. “The highest single-run score on your specific Sewer Pass and accompanying wallet that achieved the run will determine what it reveals.”

The team also hinted that whatever is revealed will “evolve throughout 2023” and will be used in future “battles.” You can read a long explanation of the mechanics of the game here.

The Otherside and the Narrative Experience

It’s clear that this new NFT mint, which began with a silly and NSFW animated video on Dec. 21 called “The Trial of Jimmy the Monkey,” is part of Yuga’s broader plans to develop an interoperable metaverse experience called “The Otherside.” The platform will allow players to own land and turn their existing NFTs into playable characters.

“All of the projects that we have are deeply important to us,” Wylie Aronow, one of the co-founders of Yuga Labs, told CoinDesk in an interview last month. “Where we see the Otherside is at that intersection.”

According to the road map of Yuga Labs’ latest project, NFTs created from this month-long experiment will be part of a narrative experience called “Chapter 1” at a later date.

We are always looking for Web3 talent !

Mighty Block is one of the partners of Forte, a platform to enable game publishers to easily integrate blockchain technologies into their games. We believe blockchain will enable new economic and creative opportunities for gamers around the world and have assembled a team of proven veterans from across the industry (Kabam, Unity, GarageGames, ngmoco, Twitch, Disney), as well as a $100M developer fund & $725M funding, to help make it happen. That’s where you come into play.

Feel free to browse all our current open job opportunities in the following link

The post Yuga Labs Announces Skill-Based NFT Mint appeared first on Mighty Block |.

The “prode”

During the World Cup it’s very traditional that every group of friends would have a ‘dealer’ that would organize what we call ‘Prode’. This is basically a betting game that consists in everybody submitting their guesses on match results and some type of point system is set up, for example:

• 10 points if you guess winner and scores
• 7 points if you guess winner and one of the scores
• 5 points if you guess winner but not score
• 2 points if you guess one score but not winner
• 0 points otherwise

This same person gathers money (the same amount) from everybody. After all matches have been played, the group gathers, the ‘dealer’ shows the results and rewards the winners (usually first, second and third places) with all the money gathered.

This system is heavily dependent on the ‘dealer’ keeping everything orderly and transparent, usually this ends up with discussions about rules, points, how much money was gathered, if the dealer changed any result, etc. This leads naturally to:

• Ban this type of betting in a professional setting (since it can create issues between the team) or change the dynamic of the game, where the company funds the reward and there’s not betting per sé.
• Ban the ‘dealer’ from participating in the betting.
• Even when all the above happen, there is still a sense of distrust in the dealer after the game ended.

As the World Cup was getting closer and closer and everybody at the office started gossiping about the players, the news (and even one of our coworkers went to Qatar himself!) a light bulb went on. What if we make this heavily centralized and ugly betting game into a trustless system facilitated by Blockchain and Smart Contracts? (A smart contract football game!)c.µ.

Just like that, our minds started running, we were thinking of ways to make this happen. How would it look? Where do we take the results from? Do we use an oracle? How do we split the reward? What would happen if there is a tie?. As programmers we could not help our anxiety in any other way than coding the damn thing. 

We spent 4 hours making this solidity Smart Contract in the dirtiest way possible, following no guidelines of clean, scalable and sustainable code. After all it was an MVP of a joke, we were not planning to really do this, right?

Ok, let’s back up. How did we end up here? Why on earth are we working on an MVP of a joke instead of working on our clients needs on company time?

Mighty blocks culture policies

At Mighty Block we take culture very seriously. A very important exercise was done approximately 6 months ago, were HR gathered ‘the most important thing that you value from a teammate’ and distilled a list of core values that we as an organization value.

At first sight, it doesn’t sound at all special. Just another set of empty words that nobody follows. Well, this is where Mighty Block makes the difference. 

You can read more about that process here, but TL;DR, the HR team listed the things that we REALLY value, not just a poster on a wall, these are the things that we want to keep and grow:

Quarterly face-to-face workshops

Mighty Block is a fully remote company, we have teammates all around the world yet once a quarter we try to meet face-to-face. Our HR team makes a great effort to make this week as productive, fun and fulfilling as possible. These meetings really help to spark inspiration and to show our new team members how we put into practice the core values. It’s not forced indoctrination, rather it’s simply making how we work transparent to the whole team and since our core values express that, the newcomers can sense and learn that.

What does all of this have to do with the ‘Prode’ project? Well, everything. Our ‘real’ project (the one our client was paying for) was under control and the client was happy with our productivity at the time. We were not crunching nor under a lot of pressure. On the other hand, we were sure that if the Prode project failed, nobody would tell us off, it would go against most core values and if we succeeded building the Prode and found ways to circumvent all the issues, Mighty Block would support us and facilitate all the resources needed to make it happen. 

It was a can’t lose type of situation

Only in that state of mind can you make progress in a relaxed, healthy, fun and productive manner. It was not only important, it was the key for being able to make this project a reality, otherwise it would have been a comment, a joke, a thought, but never a real thing.

The smart contract was just the beginning

Writing the smart contract was just the beginning of our adventure. After this rush of adrenaline and inspiration we had a rough, untested and dirty smart contract that did the thing. We had a Prode v0.1. After making sure that no big barrier would prevent us from making the World Cup Prode a reality, we pitched our smart contract football game idea with HR, they loved the project and we started thinking on what else we should add. Ideas started flowing, adrenaline went down and we planned our next steps.

How to make this work in a professional setting? The smart contract plays the ‘dealer’ role here, so that helps a lot but also Mighty Block funded the prize. So no betting, just a company game.

But interacting with a smart contract is a very annoying thing, we needed a frontend and that’s where the rest of the team comes to play. Most of the development of this project happened in the span of 5 days, during one of our quarterly workshops. While Ignacio and I were writing (and now testing and refactoring) the Smart Contract, the rest of the team heard our conversation and started asking questions, everybody was excited to try it!

Julian, our frontender, was one the excited coworkers, he offered to build a frontend for us. He had no experience making a dApp, so it was a learning experience for everybody involved. I helped to connect the frontend with the Smart contract while Ignacio was finishing tests and HR was deciding the proper prize.

During Julian’s process he had questions about UX, Constanza, our UXer, helped with that. 

Overall it was a team project, a great experience not only for building the technology and then playing with the game we created on real time during the world cup, but also a bonding experience. Next time I have a question I’m more confident asking Constanza, Julian or Ignacio. The whole team sees this vibe of having fun and building stuff together, and wants to join in, the best example of this is our participation rate of 95%, almost the whole team played the game. This is a positive feedback loop that we need to nourish and nurture, that’s our philosophy, that’s why we have core values and that’s why we do what we do.

Follow us

We are always looking for Web3 talent !

Mighty Block is one of the partners of Forte, a platform to enable game publishers to easily integrate blockchain technologies into their games. We believe blockchain will enable new economic and creative opportunities for gamers around the world and have assembled a team of proven veterans from across the industry (Kabam, Unity, GarageGames, ngmoco, Twitch, Disney), as well as a $100M developer fund & $725M funding, to help make it happen. That’s where you come into play.

Feel free to browse all our current open job opportunities in the following link

The post Culture, team, and games amidst the World Cup appeared first on Mighty Block |.

What is Devcon?

Devcon is a global conference for Ethereum developers that was created in 2014 and is held every year in different countries and continents:

• Devcon 0: Berlin (2014)
• Devcon 1: London (2015)
• Devcon 2: Shanghai (2016)
• Devcon 3: Cancun (2017)
• Devcon 4: Prague (2018)
• Devcon 5: Tokio (2019)
• Devcon 6: Bogotá (2020)

2020? Well… It was planned for that year but you can guess what happened. Therefore, this edition was not just another edition: it also meant its definitive return. Because of this, people came from all over the world and that leads me to the next paragraph.

People from all over the world

The fact that it was the return to face-to-face was a great attraction for people from all over the world. Networking opportunities and meeting new people are for me the best things about attending this kind of conferences. You can have a coffee and also an interesting conversation with people who are not from your circle of acquaintances and may not even live on your continent. And there are also specific and funny spaces to generate new links and conversations…

Side events

These meetings are happening around the conference. Events can be from breakfast to after office and even rave parties. It is a great time to generate more informal and relaxed conversations, but it also provides opportunities to discuss technical details and do business. If you were busy watching presentations at the conference, side events are the right place to chat. Regarding presentations, if you were busy there it was because…

First class speakers

The best-known experts in the Ethereum world as Vitalik Buterin were on the grid of this conference. In addition to the technical content, it was very valuable to have the opportunity to approach a speaker and interact directly on the topic of the talk. This is clearly not an option in virtuality. Most of the experts have been present at events prior to the Devcon such as…

EthBogota and EthLatam

EthBogota is one of the hackathons organized by the Ethereum Foundation. It was the weekend before Devcon so the people could attend both events on the same trip. More than 1000 people participated in this competition with more than 500K USD in prizes. The day before the Devcon, a special event was held for the Latin American community that had already had an edition in the city of Buenos Aires: EthLatam. Both events added to the Devcon gave the opportunity to bring many experts closer to a region that seems to emerge as a point of interest…

Latam as a point of interest

Latin America is one of the regions with the highest adoption of cryptocurrencies and blockchain-based projects partially due to economic needs but mostly due to a high technical level and a great capacity to undertake. It is very interesting to see the projects that have come out of this region, such as OpenZeppelin. One of the remarkable progress was in digital identity, and one of the most interesting topics discussed in the conference was Zero Knowledge Proof…

ZK is the future

Something that surprised me was to see a lot of technical content on this topic. Undoubtedly, it is something that will be critical in the coming years and that all of the projects will adopt in one way or another. My recommendation if you are in the web3 industry: learn about Zero Knowledge Proof.

Personal opinion

Personally, it was a great satisfaction to attend the event, being face to face one more time with the community and of course meet new people. The technical content was outstanding, but I must confess that I have to rewatch a lot of the talks to get the most out of them (I think I should do it more often). If you haven’t had a chance to go, stay tuned for next year, and don’t forget to contact me for coffee and a chat there.

We are always looking for Web3 talent !

Mighty Block is one of the partners of Forte, a platform to enable game publishers to easily integrate blockchain technologies into their games. We believe blockchain will enable new economic and creative opportunities for gamers around the world and have assembled a team of proven veterans from across the industry (Kabam, Unity, GarageGames, ngmoco, Twitch, Disney), as well as a $100M developer fund & $725M funding, to help make it happen. That’s where you come into play.

Feel free to browse all our current open job opportunities in the following link

The post Why Devcon is the most important event for web3 developers appeared first on Mighty Block |.