Seeing that he would be there, I dropped in on the Ethereum meetup in Hong Kong this Saturday. Vitalik would speak on Zero Knowledge Proofs, updates and Metropolis. It all went down at Metta, a great space with amazing views, and was hosted by Hong Kong’s wonderful Jehan Chu of Jen Advisors.

In 90 minutes:

We heard from Validity Labs, a Swiss company offering live workshops in blockchain development. They also offer Blockchain as a Service (Baas), and mentioned that they are seeking full-stack developers in Hong Kong.

Vitalik spoke at length about Zero Knowledge Proofs, which he breaks down in this medium post, and Minimal Slashing Conditions (medium post), regarding staking & interest when the platform goes to a proof of stake model. Vitalik said that they are close to implementing a Stage 1 version of this, and the full version with Metropolis.

Some notable quotes from Vitalik at the meetup:

“Increasing adoption everywhere…”

“In a future with general purpose blockchains, Ethereum will likely be one of the big ones.”

“Wanxiang Blockchain Labs are making good inroads into China.”

“Not many users yet in North Korea…does anyone want to change that?”

Good talk, great space, interesting people as always.