An Ethereum Masterclass
Published on Nov 29, 2025
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gm Bankless Nation,
Devconnect was last week and honestly we're just now processing what an amazing week the Bankless Team had in Buenos Aires. In addition to a fantastic main event (we summarized some top announcements below), Bankless held its own Summit, and it was a sold-out, smash hit.
And don't worry, we recorded everything.
All of the individual recordings below are gated to paying subscribers, but this should be just one more signal that it's time for you to upgrade your account. With our Black Friday deal you can lock-in an entire year of Bankless Citizenship for $149.
Thanks for being a subscriber,
luma 🫡
Sponsor: Unichain — Faster swaps. Lower fees. Deeper liquidity. Explore Unichain on web and wallet.
. . .
Bankless Summit was an unabashed success.
We wish everyone reading this email could have been in Buenos Aires for the event, but we hope these recordings can help distill some of the learnings from it.
Without further ado, here are the 12 TED-style talks from Bankless Summit II. Take advantage of our Black Friday deal and give them a listen!
(We've also created a killer landing page for Citizens to click through each of the talks.)
How Ethereum Changed Argentina | Mariano Conti
Ethereum veteran @nanexcool takes the Bankless Summit stage in his hometown of Buenos Aires to deliver one of the most authentic, lived-experience talks in crypto.
He explains how Argentina’s inflation and capital controls made it an early hub for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and stablecoins, shares his journey building Maker and using one of the first DeFi loans in the world, and shows why Argentina remains one of crypto’s strongest real-world testbeds.
How Ethereum Changed Argentina | Mariano Conti on Bankless
Where crypto utility becomes real life
Ethereum's DeFi Centric Strategy | Dankrad Feist
In the second talk of the Bankless Summit, Ethereum researcher Dankrad Feist makes the case for a DeFi-centric Ethereum L1 as the path to long-term value and relevance.
He explains why DeFi remains Ethereum’s most powerful fee engine, why DA revenue cannot replace it, and how Ethereum can become the world’s liquidity layer by anchoring borrowing, lending, and real-world assets directly on L1.
Ethereum’s DeFi Centric Strategy | Dankrad Feist on Bankless
Ethereum’s future runs through DeFi
Scaling Ethereum 2026: Why & How? | Ansgar Dietrichs
In talk #3, Ethereum researcher @adietrichs explains why crypto has entered a new era he calls real world Ethereum.
He shows how Ethereum is shifting from a decade of exploration to a phase where real adoption, real users, and real scaling needs are finally here. Ansgar walks through how the L1 roadmap is adapting, why short-term execution now matters as much as long-term vision, and how Ethereum plans to scale the base layer over the next year with concrete gas limit increases and engineering upgrades.
Scaling Ethereum 2026: Why & How? | Ansgar Dietrichs on Bankless
From exploration to real world execution
A Network Theory of Money | Luca Prosperi
In the fourth talk, event sponsor M0's CEO Luca Prosperi warns that stablecoins have created a centralized, fragile monetary layer beneath otherwise decentralized blockchains.
He explains why money should be seen as a network, how today’s system concentrates value and risk, and why crypto must redesign its monetary architecture instead of rebuilding Wall Street onchain.
A Network Theory of Money | Luca Prosperi on Bankless
Rethinking the network behind money
Ethereum's Next 5 Years | Tomasz K. Stańczak
In the fifth talk of the Bankless Summit, Ethereum Foundation leader Tomasz K. Stańczak gives a rapid-fire tour of Ethereum’s next five years, from scaling and developers to institutions and global adoption.
He shows how the EF is reorganizing to support founders, L2s, enterprises, and researchers while pushing Ethereum toward a world where all assets and applications run on open, permissionless infrastructure.
Ethereum’s Next 5 Years | Tomasz K. Stańczak on Bankless
The road ahead for Ethereum
P2P Networking: How Ethereum Talks To Itself | Raúl Kripalani
In talk #6, Raúl Kripalani dives into Ethereum’s peer-to-peer networking layer, the invisible plumbing that keeps the chain online and decentralized.
He shows how execution and consensus networks move data, why bandwidth and latency quietly cap Ethereum’s scaling roadmap, and how new upgrades like erasure coded broadcast and ETHP2P will unlock faster blocks, more blobs, and stronger global resilience.
P2P Networking: How Ethereum Talks To Itself | Raúl Kripalani on Bankless
The pipes that keep Ethereum alive
1000x the L1: The Path To Infinite Compute | Michael Dong
In the seventh talk, Michael Dong of Brevis explains why zero-knowledge proofs are the key to scaling Ethereum by 100 times and unlocking entirely new computing paradigms.
He shows how verifiable computing replaces wasteful on-chain recomputation, how real-time ZK proving can transform Ethereum’s consensus layer, and how modular ZK coprocessors will power the next generation of applications from DEXs to stablecoins.
1000x the L1: The Path To Infinite Compute | Michael Dong on Bankless
How ZK unlocks real scaling
Lessons From Argentina's Stablecoin Fintech Era | Marcelo Cavazzoli
In our eighth talk of the Bankless Summit, Lemon CEO Marcelo Cavazzoli shares how building for everyday Argentinians facing 93% currency debasement led Lemon from a simple Instagram login BTC app to a dual wallet that beats Binance in market share by fusing local fintech rails with crypto dollars.
He explains how Lemon’s next chapter is turning that wallet into a Web3 super app platform, where third-party mini apps built on Ethereum give millions of users access to global financial services without ever needing to know they are using crypto.
Lessons From Argentina’s Stablecoin Fintech Era | Marcelo Cavazzoli on Bankless
Building real crypto products for millions
The Last 8 Years: Ethereum, Burnout, & Coming Back | Danny Ryan
In talk #9, longtime Ethereum researcher Danny Ryan steps back and shares the personal story behind eight years of helping ship proof of stake, surviving burnout, and even facing an unexpected SEC investigation.
He walks through how he stumbled into Ethereum, helped lead the Beacon Chain and the Merge, hit exhaustion, rediscovered balance, and ultimately found a renewed sense of purpose in working on open financial systems with clear eyes rather than naive optimism.
The Last 8 Years: Ethereum, Burnout, & Coming Back | Danny Ryan on Bankless
Honest reflections from Ethereum’s front lines
Why No Big Stage 2 Rollup? | Luca Donno
In our tenth talk of the Bankless Summit, L2 researcher Luca Donno explains why no major rollup has reached Stage 2 and what must change for true decentralization to finally happen.
He breaks down the hidden complexity inside modern proof systems, why current rollups remain dependent on security councils, and how native rollups could let L2s inherit Ethereum’s safety and client diversity directly from L1.
Why No Big Stage 2 Rollup? | Luca Donno on Bankless
The hard truth about rollups
The Bot Economy: When AI & MEV Collide | Shea Ketsdever
In our eleventh talk, Flashbots researcher Shea Ketsdever explores the rise of the bot economy and how software is rapidly taking over digital markets.
She explains why bots dominate everything from trading to ticket sales, how auctions and programmable privacy can turn chaotic bot competition into better outcomes for users, and why crypto is uniquely positioned to build markets that are fair, efficient, and trust minimized.
The Bot Economy: When AI & MEV Collide | Shea Ketsdever on Bankless
Turning bot chaos into coordination
x402 & The Agentic Internet | Lincoln Murr
In the final talk of the Bankless Summit, Coinbase product lead Lincoln Murr explains how x402 revives the long-dormant internet payment standard and why the rise of AI agents makes it newly essential.
He outlines how agents will consume and pay for services across the web, why internet native payments need stablecoin rails, and how x402 can unlock agentic commerce at global scale by giving both humans and bots a simple, universal way to send value online.
x402 & The Agentic Internet | Lincoln Murr on Bankless
Turning HTTP 402 into global crypto rails
. . .
WHAT YOU MISSED
Ethereum Devconnect 2025
📈 The Conference
- Devcon 8 announced its Q4 2026 destination as Mumbai, India
- The Ethereum Foundation announced integration of Tor hidden services for nodes, clients, and users to enhance privacy and introduced the Ethereum Interop Layer
- 1inch unveiled its new Aqua liquidity protocol
- Aave introduced the Aave App, deployed its V4 testnet, and previewed Aave Pro
- Base is heading to Stage 2 decentralization in 2026, per Jesse Pollak
- Coinbase launches $ETH-backed loans to borrow up to $1M
- Dune unveiled multiple new products, including dbt Connector, Datashare, and the Sim API
- Ethproofs has set its sights on +10,000 home provers for zkAttesting
- Etherscan removed Base, Optimism, and BNB Chain from free API tier
- WalletConnect unveiled its WCN 2.0 network details
- Vitalik said quantum computing could break elliptic curve cryptography before the 2028 U.S. presidential election
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