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Devconnect Chronicles from Turkey: Ethereum Narrative is Outdated, Chaos is the Cryptographic Ladder.

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In Turkey, almost every crypto industry practitioner strongly believes in the approval of ETF. Some say that Blackrock's application is very professional and never goes into battle unprepared; others analyze that the global market sentiment has put tremen

The Original Title: "Devconnect in Turkey: Ethereum Narrative is Outdated, Chaos is the Cryptographic Ladder"

The Original Author: @0x_claudia, PKU Blockchain Vice President

Have you ever seen a slope that is close to 90 degrees? A small road paved with marble bricks, traffic that is always congested, and taxi drivers in Turkey who can quickly rush up with just one press of the accelerator. When taking a taxi in Istanbul, you never know what kind of surprise you will get, from fluctuating prices to wild speeds, and you might even encounter a taxi driver who is trading cryptocurrency in the exchange as soon as you open the door.

"I never believed in Lira, I always felt like my money would go to zero." This country, located at the intersection of the Eurasian continent and sitting on the entire Strait of Malacca, is facing the deconstruction and restructuring of its economic system. The borderless currency and the accompanying cryptocurrency industry are also flourishing in this ancient Roman city of gold.

During Devconnect, I randomly interviewed 10 taxi drivers, fully participated in 13 Side events, visited hundreds of streets, and tried to open up the 99% religious nation and blockchain industry from the physical world, to glimpse into today, yesterday, and the future.

1. Volatility and War: The Future of Cryptography

The official currency of Turkey, the lira, is experiencing an unprecedented plunge.

Due to geographical location and global economic trends, economic fluctuations in both Europe and Asia will have a huge butterfly effect on Turkey's currency system. Since the beginning of this year, the depreciation of the lira has exceeded 50%. For local residents in Turkey who are familiar with Crypto, USDT/USDC is undoubtedly the best choice.

Interestingly, some people hold stablecoins but do not purchase other crypto currencies. To some extent, in this country that connects Eurasia and even the world, many residents only want the stability of wealth.

Kucoin released a report in September stating that in the past year and a half, the adoption rate of crypto among the Turkish population has increased from 40% to 52%.

Among the ten drivers I interviewed, 5 of them knew about Bitcoin, 2 held stablecoins or crypto, and 1 of them didn't understand my question due to poor English proficiency. When I asked about compliance issues, one driver enthusiastically told me that the country banned crypto-related payments two years ago. However, from his frequent gestures and tactful expressions, I thought of the most common slogan in my political textbook when I was a child: "Anything not expressly forbidden by law is allowed".

At the end of the conversation, he covered his mouth and whispered, "You know, I have a friend who has gone to jail because of having too much credit limit."

Local friends helped me translate a Turkish payment report, which showed that in Turkey, the number of ETFs, POS, and bank cards has skyrocketed.

·By September 2023, the total number of electronic transfer transactions in Turkey will be 2.1 billion, with a total value of 3.5 trillion Turkish lira.

· The total number of POS transactions in September 2023 was 1.5 billion, with a total value of 238 billion Turkish lira.

· The number of bank cards in circulation in September 2023 is 394 million, and ATMs are everywhere, but the exchange rates vary slightly in different regions.

It is somewhat similar to the Korean market. When discussing trading Meme and altcoins, there are some deviations between the local Top and the international Top. The top three local exchanges with the highest recognition among those interviewed are: Paribu, Bitçi, and BTCTürk.

In the global city of Istanbul, which links the world, the advertisement of BTCTürk is prominently displayed in the center of every boarding gate. The queen of many cities, cryptocurrency, is thriving.

二、冷饭新炒：以太坊的新叙事后继无力？

translates to

2. Cold Rice Reheated: Is Ethereum's New Narrative Powerless?

From Hong Kong in April, to Paris in July, then to Singapore in September, and Turkey in November, I have participated in all Ethereum Staking events, and also paid attention to other related fields such as ZK and gaming.

Overall, the narrative of Ethereum has reached a point where it is difficult to have shining moments. Many people come with high expectations, but leave with a slight sense of disappointment.

The concept of Plasma has once again come to the public's attention. In Vitalik's speech, he mentioned that Plasma can avoid data availability issues and greatly reduce transaction costs. However, it is actually a reheated dish with mixed reviews.

If we classify the theme of this conference, it is actually very simple, mainly the following three: L2 Wars and Full Chainization, Staking and Restaking, Autonomous World and Full Chain Games.

L2 Battle and Omni-chain

During this Devconnect, the activities of Layer2 became the highlight.

除了 Polygon、Arbitrum、Zksync 等老牌公链，Starknet、Linea、Scroll、Taiko、Manta 等也各有千秋。和以前卷性能不一样，目前 L2 的竞争早已不单单是底层的基建，更多的重点开始转向卷商业和用户。

Except for the well-established public chains such as Polygon, Arbitrum, and Zksync, Starknet, Linea, Scroll, Taiko, Manta, and others also have their own advantages. Unlike before, the competition in L2 is no longer just about the underlying infrastructure, but more emphasis is being placed on commercial and user adoption.

Many first-tier funds have already given up on laying out Infra and the overblown Layer2, turning to investing in Consumer applications. Just like ghost cities in real estate, many public chains currently have no applications, no users, and only a bunch of nodes. The old routine of doing Odyssey, attracting studios to develop, pulling in a bunch of projects through grants, and then issuing coins has become too familiar to many people. The ecological growth of public chains urgently needs new ways to play.

「Look, people here are literally degens when it comes to crypto, main cause is the high inflation and continues drop in local currency , so anything can generate income for them, they are open for it!」

Currently, on one hand, Ethereum's narrative is losing momentum, while on the other hand, the BTC ecosystem is thriving. For the current market, more opportunities lie with individuals rather than institutional investors with large capital or VCs focused on high-value investments. What will be Ethereum's next step? What exciting developments will the next cycle bring?

This industry is rising at the boundary between order and chaos, and moving from uncertainty towards transparency.

Just like many local practitioners in Turkey, who are looking forward to the Crypto policy in 2024, every digital nomad who comes to Turkey gathers in the ancient Roman city, recharges their faith, and then returns to various parts of the world.