Ethereum builder conference
About
ProtoLayers Conference aims to bridge the gap in the market for technically-oriented crypto events. We bring together researchers, developers, and blockchain specialists to catalyze breakthroughs and shape the future of blockchain technology.

Speakers

Joanna Zeng
Co-founder and CEO
SOON
Tibor Tribus
CEO
MAYA-ZK
Jan Kalivoda
Tech Lead at Ethereum team
Ackee Blockchain
Nader Dabit
Director of Developer Relations
EigenLayer
Prabal Banerjee
Co-Founder
Avail
Rehan Nek
Ecosystem Manager
Starkware
Leona Hioki
Co-Founder
INTMAX
Kyle Koshiyama
Dev Rel Engineer
Fhenix
Zack Xuereb
Engineer
Aleo
Sasha Aldrick
Developer Relations
RiscZero
Nikolay Volf
Founder and CEO
Gear
Jake Hartnell
CEO
Layer
Yarden Shechter
Co-founder and CEO
Othentic
Paco Villetard
Co-Founder
OnlyDust
Elias Tazartes
CEO Co-Founder
Kakarot ZK-EVM
Alexey Yashunsky
Researcher
=nil; Foundation
Andrew Zhou
Co-founder and CTO
SOON
Furkan Akal
Researcher & Technical Writer
Inco
Alex Gaines
Integration Engineer
Across
Francesco
DevRel
Consensys
Anett
DevRel
Last Network
Norbert Vadas
Protocol researcher
Gevulot

Agenda

Stage: 
13:00 - 13:20

Wake Framework - Swiss Knife to Ethereum Tooling

Smart contract development often involves using different tools serving different purposes like testing, analysis, deployment, or vulnerability scanning. We introduce a comprehensive open-source Python toolkit tailored for everyday Solidity development. The Wake tool is presented with simplistic real-world examples compared with other open-source options. This talk covers the following scenarios: unit testing and cross-chain testing, fuzzing, vulnerability and code quality issue scanning, work with the editor (including enhancement with custom detectors and visualizations).
Speaker(s):
Jan Kalivoda
Ackee
13:25 - 13:45

Workshop: How Open-source Can Boost Your Dev Skills

Open-source isn’t just about writing code or joining random projects; it’s a hands-on way to build real skills. We’ll explore how contributing to open-source can make you a stronger developer, give you real blockchain experience, and even earn fair rewards along the way.
Speaker(s):
Paco Villetard
OnlyDust
13:50 - 14:10

Solving cross chain interoperability using AI

Networks made up of AI agents can interact with other agents and solve the cross chain interoperability problem. Fragmentation and interoperability is a key topic these days. So we will deep dive into the impact AI can have on this. This is interesting not only from a tech angle and how it is enabled but also from the user angle where the user does not need to go through hoops to move assets/perform actions on multiple chains.
Speaker(s):
Rehan Nek
Starkware
14:15 - 14:35

Reinventing the language for PLONKish circuit design: a quest for conciseness

Circuits are often regarded as a sort of nuisance, an evil we have to endure for the sake of zero-knowledge proofs. More than often, efforts are put into adjusting circuits to meet traditional programming paradigms. However, a better approach may be to embrace circuits as they are, leveraging their strengths while acknowledging limitations. This talk introduces a new, concise language for PLONKish circuit design, simplifying the creation of complex circuits.
Speaker(s):
Alexey Yashunsky
Nil-foundation
14:40 - 15:10

Workshop: Build Cross-Chain dApps with Across SDK

Learn to integrate the Across SDK to add cross-chain functionality to your dApps. We'll cover implementing actions like bridging and swapping, bridging and minting NFTs, or bridging and depositing into yield strategies. Discover how this enables access to liquidity across the Ethereum ecosystem and L2s, simplifying user experience by eliminating manual bridging.
Speaker(s):
Alex Gaines
Across
15:10 - 15:45

Break & Networking

Speaker(s):
15:45 - 16:05

Are OP Rollups More Expensive than ZK Rollups?

It is a common goal for most rollups to become ZK in the coming years. Being a ZK rollup is better for: finality (no 7-day challenge period), therefore also for interoperability, for scalability of data availability, and for scalability of full nodes. Let's see under which circumstances ZK rollups can be cheaper than optimistic rollups in overall costs by computing the cost of securing an optimistic rollup and the opportunity cost of capital.
Speaker(s):
Elias Tazartes
Kakarot ZK-EVM
16:05 - 16:25

Scaling zk-Rollups with Hardware: What's Possible and What's Not

In this talk, I’ll discuss insights from over a year of zk-rollups in production, focusing on what hardware acceleration can realistically achieve for the Halo2 proving system. Moving beyond MSM and FFT optimizations, we’ll explore achievable gains in speed and cost efficiency with GPU acceleration and address the remaining challenges. This session aims to clarify hardware’s role in scaling zk-rollups.
Speaker(s):
Tibor Tribus
MAYA-ZK
16:25 - 16:45

AVS Development Cycle

What is AVS? What low-level components are needed for AVS development? This talk will explore AVS use cases, and my experience working with over 30 AVS teams and building alongside the Eigen team.
Speaker(s):
Yarden Shechter
Othentic
16:50 - 17:10

The Multi-dimensional Blockchain Developer

There will never be a blockchain virtual machine flexible enough to build what's needed to realize the full potential of trustless applications. Therefore, we need a much larger number of verifiable offchain services and compute, and we need much simpler ways to build offchain services. This talk discusses what this looks like within the context of AVSs, EigenLayer, and similar restaking platforms.
Speaker(s):
Nader Dabit
EigenLayer
17:10 - 17:30

Understanding the broader Ethereum ecosystem

This talk will discuss insights and strategies for navigating the broader Ethereum ecosystem, covering critical tools, resources, and developments within the Ethereum community to help developers work effectively and understand ongoing changes.
Speaker(s):
Anett Rolikova
LAST
17:30 - 17:50

Ultimate Application Layer for Ethereum

Learn about Gear.exe's approach to deploying applications that can serve Ethereum with great UX/UI, unlimited computation power, without introducing liquidity fragmentation or parasitic L2s.
Speaker(s):
Nikolay Volf
Gear.exe
13:00 - 13:20

Account Abstraction and Future of Wallet Experiences

In this talk, we explore how MetaMask Snaps can revolutionize the user experience by moving beyond the traditional Secret Recovery Phrase (SRP). Through Snaps, developers can introduce custom features such as multi-factor authentication (MFA), account abstraction via ERC-4337, and integration with non-Ethereum protocols. The session highlights the extensibility of MetaMask and how third-party developers can bring innovative account management solutions, paving the way for a more seamless and secure Web3 experience.
Speaker(s):
Francesco Andreoli
Consensys
13:25 - 13:45

Why and How to Build Decoupled SVM Rollup

An in-depth analysis of SVM rollups, covering its architecture, low-level components, and use cases for decentralized applications and services.
Speaker(s):
Joanna Zeng
SOON
13:50 - 14:10

FHE L2 and Coprocessor in Action

High level introduction to FHE and how it compares to other PETs like zk, mpc etc. Then I will go over how to build in solidity using FHE.
Speaker(s):
Kyle Koshiyama
Fhenix
14:15 - 14:35

Unlocking Boundless Execution with Steel

On-chain execution is limited by the gas limit per block. This is fine for simple execution, but most real-world applications require significantly more capability than what is currently available, even on layer 2 rollups. With Steel, developers can carry out the same EVM execution they would on-chain, but at a much larger scale. This EVM execution is within a boundless and verifiable environment off-chain within the zkVM, allowing for an unprecedented amount of scaling for EVM applications.
Speaker(s):
Sasha Aldrick
RISC Zero
14:40 - 15:00

How to Decentralize Proof Generation?

Certain protocol design principles of third-party proof providers can heavily impact the risks related to liveness, censorship resistance, and the protocols' decentralization. Teams looking to outsource proof generation need to be aware of the potential trade-offs faced when making decisions on where to source zk-/validity proofs from.
Speaker(s):
Norbert Vadas
Gevulot
15:00 - 15:45

Break & Networking

Speaker(s):
15:45 - 16:05

Full Stack Decentralization

Exploring full-stack decentralization, presenting tools and frameworks necessary for achieving decentralized applications end-to-end.
Speaker(s):
Jake Hartnell
Layer
16:05 - 16:25

Enabling FHE Confidential Compute

An introduction to FHE-based confidential computing within blockchains, illustrating new possibilities for privacy-focused applications.
Speaker(s):
Furkan Akal
Inco
16:25 - 16:45

Private Programmability with Aleo

Deep dive into Aleo's architecture and how it enables client-side zk proving to compute transactions and preserve the privacy of its users.
Speaker(s):
Zack Xuereb
Aleo
16:50 - 17:10

Unlocking New Possibilities with Stateless Architecture in L2

An overview of stateless architectures in Layer 2, emphasizing efficiency and scalability gains achieved by client-side ZK proofs combined with stateless frameworks.
Speaker(s):
Leona Hioki
INTMAX
17:10 - 17:30

Delivering Amazon-like App Experiences

Exploration of cross-chain interoperability challenges, highlighting how appchains and Layer 2s can work together to create seamless, Amazon-like user experiences.
Speaker(s):
Prabal Banerjee
Avail
Topics
Restaking solutions
EIPs incubator
Account Abstraction
ZK vs Optimistic rollups
Fully Homomorphic Encryption
ZK Endgames
Virtual Machines for Blockchain

Target audience

- Developers & Builders
- Blockchain specialists
- Researchers

Past event speakers

Francesco Andreoli
Head of developer community
MetaMask
dcbuilder
Research engineer
Worldcoin Foundation
Nader Dabit
Director of Developer Relations
EigenLayer
Eric Marti Haynes
Blockchain Engineer
Nethermind
Anett
DevRel
Last Network
Paco Villetard
Co-Founder
OnlyDust
Gajesh Naik
Engineer
Eigen Labs
Josef Gattermayer
Co-founder, CEO
Ackee Blockchain Security
Kate Stapleton
Global community lead
Axelar
Wes Floyd
EigenLayer
Filip Rezabek
PhD student
Technical University of Munich
Marine
Infra Partnerships
Optimism
Eomji
Head of Research and Operations
Encode Club
Past editions

ProtoLayers
in Prague

30.5.2024
ETHPrague side event
In numbers
Projects
15+
Signups
216
Attendees
110+
Talks
14+
Panels
2