Everyone is talking about based sequencing and native execution, but what exactly are they?. After attending an incredible workshop on Native Rollups by @drakefjustin (references included at the end of the thread), I thought it’d be a great time to share my recent learnings in

TL;DR: Focus beats “everything, everywhere, all at once.”. What works depends on your product, your stage, and your actual goal. 🎯 Define success.🛠️ Structure around it.⚖️ Accept the tradeoffs. A hackathon is just a container. What you put in is what determines the outcome.

There’s No Silver Bullet, Just Tradeoffs. You probably already know what drives submissions, engagement, and quality. The real challenge? Balancing them based on what you actually care about. A few practical takeaways:. - Align your bounties and workshops with your goals. This

Choose Your Strategy Based on Your Goal. Not all hackathons should be run the same way. Your structure should reflect what you actually want to achieve. If your goal is maximum awareness and volume:.- Prioritise easy-to-follow tutorials.- Make the bounty accessible.- Give

“Good Results” Are Contextual. There’s no single benchmark for a successful hackathon. Your goals and metrics should shift based on context:. - Are you hosting solo, with partners, or contributing as a partner?.- Is it your flagship event or a lightweight engagement?.- Are you

One Format, Many Strategies. Hackathons can serve multiple strategic purposes. Each angle requires a different setup, so defining your goal early is key. Here are some common (and sometimes overlooked) approaches:. - 🧪 Product testing + early feedback.- 📣 Buzz & visibility.- 🤝

Hackathon = Form, Not Function. A hackathon is just a format. It doesn't inherently define the goal. Even within a single event, different stakeholders might bring different, sometimes even conflicting objectives to the table. That’s why it’s crucial to ask yourself early on:. 👉

After running 100+ hackathons with teams around the world, I’ve seen what works and what absolutely doesn’t. Here’s a mental model to run a hackathon that actually delivers and avoids the biggest trap.

> Flight got canceled. > Rebooked, but the agent put me on the wrong date instead of the one I selected. > Had to rebook again. > The new flight is delayed, and now the connection is very tight. > Pretty sure our checked luggage won’t make it in time either. What next. ? 🫠

👨‍✈️ Pilot: No idea why, but Nice is unusually busy. The airport’s limiting arrivals to 10 per hour, so we’re stuck on board for at least an hour. 😏 Me, resisting the urge to raise my hand: It’s @EthCC, captain. We know.

Enjoyed the talk on narrowing the gap in TEE threat models and extending them for data center deployments. Timely and important. Worth a read👇.

The TUM Blockchain Salon keeps leveling up! Can’t wait to rub shoulders with giga brains at the 3rd TUM Blockchain & Cybersecurity Salon on May 27–28 at the TUM IAS in Garching. 🎆.

When two nerds marry, Valentine’s Day looks like this:. > Attend lectures about interop and DID in the morning.> Catch up on readings & writing in the afternoon.> Evening? Of course, on a double date with another researcher couple. also both studying blockchain . Romance, but

Happy New Year! 🐍 Just arrived in Zurich for @EthereumZurich! On Friday, I'll be giving a talk on lessons from Web2 open-source success that can be applied to Web3. Looking forward to seeing you all!.

Is GKR at Risk?. New work by @ronrothblum, @levs57, and @Khovr has just been released. They could break the soundness of a standard protocol by creating a circuit that lets them prove a false statement. What timing, given all the points mentioned above! Or maybe it’s just.

Responsible Disclosure in zkVMs. @fede_intern brought attention to a bug in Succinct’s SP1 zkVM, highlighting the critical role of transparent vulnerability disclosure. This raises important questions: Which projects are openly addressing them with the community? And what does.

TEE vs ZK. TEEs aren’t a full replacement for ZK. They’re fundamentally different technologies with distinct use cases, though they overlap in some areas. Concerns about TEE compromises often centre on trust assumptions, but risks can be mitigated through diverse hardware.

Multi-Prover Systems with TEEs. Many see TEE’s primary advantages in speed and cost efficiency, as zk-proof generation is typically slow and expensive. However, the crucial (and often overlooked) benefit of TEE provers is that they add a layer of security as 2FA. Projects like.

Side note: If you're a formal verification expert and interested in tackling this challenge, there’s funding available for zkEVM formal verification. The EF is committing $20m over 3 years to support this effort.

Critical bugs in zk rollups. Every zk rollup today still has critical bugs. These vulnerabilities aren't being exploited currently because centralised sequencers act as a safeguard. (It's not a bug, it's a feature.). As the ultimate goal is to achieve decentralised,.

Exploring recent discussions in ZK. Some thoughts and reminders for myself to dive deeper this weekend. > Critical bugs in every zk rollup .> Multi-prover with TEEs .> Responsible disclosure .> Is GKR at risk?. References are in the thread. If you have additional resources or.