The second edition of “Blockchainn.connect()“, a blockchain technology event hosted by GAOGAO Singapore, was held on Friday, June 17. Like the first event, it was co-hosted with One&Co, a co-working space in Tanjong Pagar, Singapore. This time, over 80 people signed up including those on the waitlist! The previous event was a great success and its writeup can be found here: https://en.gaogao.asia/2022/04/22/5811/.
Blockchain.connect() 2nd Meetup
Meetup.com URL:
https://www.meetup.com/blockchain-connect/events/285737242/
Opening
Opening remarks were given by Lim Chee Keen, a software engineer at GAOGAO Singapore. In his address to participants, he highlighted the purpose of Blockchain.connect(), announcements and rules for future events plus promoting the newly created Slack channel.
Purpose of the event
– To foster strong relationships between members who are interested in Web3 and its underlying blockchain technology
– To share knowledge through presentations about out speaker’s case studies
Next, he introduced the speakers!
Speakers
We had three very interesting speakers lined up. A brief introduction was given about each of them and their backgrounds.
Talk 1: “ENS (Ethereum Name Service) domains – 15 ways you can use your .eth address” by Zhou Wen Han
Zhou Wen Han was the first presenter. He gave an introduction of the domain ENS (Ethereum Name Service), which points to an Ethereum address. This same address can be used for receiving NFTs.
It can also provide Ethereum-based authentication like Google’s OAuth. Through such authentication services, you can point to your own NFT and combine the gas costs that can perform multiple services into one.
Ethereum Name Service to get domains, https://app.ens.domains/, and https://www.ensdom.com/ to buy and sell ENS domains were introduced.
Talk 2: “Fitness Trainer to Blockchain Developer” by Justin Lee
This is the career journey of Justin Lee, who was a non-techie as recently as 2021, and how he switched paths to become a Web3 Blockchain Engineer.
He joined a programming school in early 2021 and then worked at AI Startup. In February 2022 he attended a Solana Hacker House event and was introduced to the Web3 world. At that time, he realized that the Web3 ecosystem was still young with little information and support available for developers. Soon after, he joined Hawksight, a Web3 start-up based on Blockchain technology.
Along the way, he felt that there was a gap in the market for Web3 engineers and started the podcast to help people make the transition. It is hosted on Spotify and named Zero to Three (jumping from no code experience to Web3.)
Justin also organises Solana OpenHaus Meetup every Thursday.
Talk 3: “State of UX in Interacting With Smart Contracts: Decreasing The Minimum Technical Literacy” by Joseph Low
Lastly, we had Joseph Low present key points needed to understand DeFi. His presentation was based on his own experience of struggling to understand how DeFi works.
He talked about staking and showed how to staking works by looking at the most popular examples on PackcakeSwap on the Binance Smart Chain.
Through the presentation, participants took quizzes to gauge everyone’s understand about staking in Blockchain, including what happens when they go through a centralized exchange (CEX). Examples of questions were “What kind of transactions are happening when staking is performed?” and “Why does staking require two steps, Approve and Deposit?”.
He explained that first, we have to approve the token contract in order for the staking contract to access our balance. Then, there is a step for the transmission from our balance to the staking contract. If the approval step is not taken, the smart contract cannot move tokens from my balance. He highlighted that some of these Smart Contracts are fraudulent contracts that are trying to get you to send money, so be careful when accepting terms on unverified contracts.
After Party
After the three talks, participants mingled in the common space of the One&Co venue.
Participants were highly enthusiastic and found themselves talking for over an hour.
Many have expressed a desire to participate in the future events, thus GAOGAO will continue to host them.
GAOGAO members were also able to interact with the participants.
Author’s Comments
There were talks on technology applications, Web3 engineer careers, and basic technology, and the topics covered were wide-ranging. The number of applications were very high, and I can sense the high level of enthusiasm for Web3/blockchain in Singapore. There are very few events that focus on engineers in particular, and I thought it was very valuable to be able to not only gain knowledge of the technology through this event, but also to meet other engineers interested in the same area.
Participants enjoyed the talks on a variety of topics, targeting everyone from beginners to those with knowledge. If you were not able to attend this event, please join us next time!
About the next event
The date has not yet been confirmed, but it will be held soon. Please become a member at the following page and wait for the next event announcement.
・Blockchain.connect() page
https://www.meetup.com/blockchain-connect/
Co-Organizer: One&Co
Thank you One&Co and staff for renting us the venue! We look forward to seeing you when you come to Singapore.
