According to the Ethereum co-founder, he would like to visit Ukraine and see for himself what it is like. Vitalik Buterin, co founder of Ethereum, surprised attendees at the Kyiv Technology Summit yesterday in support of the war-torn nation. The appearance was closely guarded by security reasons, CoinDesk was told by the organisers.
Buterin’s presence in Kyiv is especially notable because Ethereum’s highly-anticipated merger is just days away, and the war in Ukraine has intensified around Europe’s biggest nuclear plant.
Buterin, the keynote speaker on the summit’s closing panel, stated that “I have been closely following Ukraine since the war began.” “I came to see the Blockchain, Ethereum and crypto world for myself. To let Ukraine know that many people care about you and support you,” said Buterin.
Buterin was present in Kyiv during a time U.S. Secretary Antony Blinken made an unannounced surprise trip to Kyiv. Blinken was not able to attend the Kyiv Tech Summit.
The conference, which took place during wartime, brought together 30 tech professionals, Buterin being the most prominent. Also present were two government officials: Mykhailo Fedorov (the country’s vice prime Minister and Digital Transformation Minister in IT Development) and Alex Bornyakov Federorov’s deputy, and the face of Ukraine’s use of cryptocurrency).
2022 Kyiv Tech Summit focuses on a hackathon with 500 hackers
This three-day event focused on 500 hackers, who submitted nearly 50 projects to a hackathon that was crypto-related. The hackathon was held to support Ukrainians fighting for freedom. The most prominent themes were decentralized electoral votes, CBDCs and the role Web3 and Blockchain in fighting disinformation.
Buterin, who has made substantial monetary contributions to Ukraine’s war-time efforts, also stated that he was able to see the kind of projects people in Ukraine were involved in, what their priorities were, and what implications this would have for Ethereum, Web3 and Blockchain.
CJ Hetherington co-founder of summit said, “It was amazing to have Vitalik along with us on the ground and important figures from The Ministry of Digital Transformation.” “Kyiv Tech Summit” is more than a tech conference. It is a protest, movement, and an embodiment the unbreakable spirit in Ukraine.
The summit featured other speakers such as Kiril Khomiakov (general manager of Binance Ukraine), Illia Polosukhin cofounder of NEAR Protocol and Pavlo Kartashov (director of the Ukrainian Startup Fund).
