This city was the Blockchain capital before we even spotted it, and here is how the story began.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…

After the initial meetings in Miami, where Vitalik met others aligned in vision, he shared his ideas for Ethereum, Dr. Gavin Wood and Dr. Aeron Buchanan, some of Ethereum’s OGs, hopped in a car and drove to Berlin, scouting a place where they could run Ethereum’s initial operations. By then the project had been founded and seeded around, but Berlin as a city, was a major factor of the starting point, as Gavin considered it a great place to live, build, and of course, a buzzing city where they could enjoy their free time.

DEVCON0, the first Ethereum developers conference, took place in Berlin from November 24th to 28th, 2014. That day, Gavin, Co-Founder of Ethereum and its former CTO, kicked off the conference with a speech that would set the foundation for the community, which is constantly growing in the city: “Welcome! Our mission: dApps” was its title.

We won’t do a deep dive in repeating DEVCON0 because it’s already been written — and recorded! Check the videos.

If it’s not obvious already, the takeaway from the history of Ethereum is that the operations side chose Berlin as a place to start, and as a place to #BUIDL. It is only natural that we recognize these beginning and at the same time, we continue making history, building the future of Ethereum and Blockchain. We want to do our very best to make our beloved city a hub where you can relax, build, and interact in real life with others.

Moreover, did it ever cross your mind that Berlin does not have a city center per se — even though we do have Mitte — but diverse districts with their own centers, all different to each other? Berlin as a city, is as decentralized as it gets.

As with ETHBerlin, Berlin offers a unique setting that no other place can offer: things happen in casual environments. Networking events are not part of our ethos. However, friendships and spontaneous meetings are. Ideas arise from hanging out at Görlitzer park over beers sitting on the lawn. We don’t need much money to subsist here, hence we are not here to become millionaires. We just want to make our contribution to the decentralized future.

Our commitment to the ecosystem is transparent and organic.

ETHBerlin comes from a grassroots movement, but additionally from the spontaneity and freshness that arises from friends sharing the same goals and ideas. We’re crazy, misfits, troublemakers, we’re the round heads in the square holes — as the Think Different Apple ad stated — wanna join us?

Stay tuned for more updates.