My First Encounter with the Global Crypto Community
The global community, from a distance
For a long time I saw the global crypto community from afar. I knew it through X, videos, articles, and stories about hackathons, hacker houses, Devcon, ETHGlobal, and pop-up cities. I also imagined it through books like The Infinite Machine by Camila Russo, which made me think about travel, wild ideas, projects being born at 3 a.m., and people from different parts of the world united by a common purpose.
All of that felt exciting, but also distant. Until it stopped feeling that way.
What I found was not just a series of events, but a global community that felt much more human, accessible, and welcoming than I had imagined.
Mexico City, Mobil3, and my first immersion
In August 2025 I had the chance to join a hacker house in Mexico City to take part in Mobil3. That was my first real immersion in spaces like these, and it marked a turning point for me. It is an experience that deserves its own post.
That was where I began to understand something important: the crypto community does not only exist on the internet. It also lives in shared houses, improvised dinners, long conversations about ideas that do not exist yet, and people who, despite having just met, behave like they have been building together for years.
Devconnect, ETHGlobal, and a month outside my country
A few months later, something even bigger arrived.
In November that same year Devconnect took place, and for the first time one of those major gatherings was happening so close to me, in Latin America. Not only that: ETHGlobal Buenos Aires also took place, one of the most important hackathons in the ecosystem.
Thanks to a hacker house organized by dev3pack, I had the chance to spend almost a month outside my country, focused on preparing for hackathons, networking, attending side events, and living with people from many different parts of the world.
Until then, I had never lived anything like that. Never before had I lived so closely with people who did not even speak my language. And yet, there was an immediate connection. The cultural exchange was everywhere: in the conversations, in the jokes, in the way of working, in the games, in the food, and even in everyday moments like cooking together.
More than a sequence of events, it was a very intense human experience.
Seeing Devconnect from the inside
Then Devconnect came, and for me it was astonishing. I volunteered, so I was not only able to live the event as an attendee, but also from the organization side. That allowed me to see another side of everything: the logistics, the energy, the number of people mobilized, and the level of dedication that exists behind every detail.
Meeting in person people I admired from X and discovering that I could talk to them with total ease. People who had seemed distant before were suddenly there, talking as if they were lifelong friends. That collision between the digital and the human was one of the most special things about the whole experience. I was even able to meet members of Team1, whom I was already talking to on Telegram. Seeing how those connections leave the screen and become real is something very hard to explain.
ETHGlobal Buenos Aires
Then ETHGlobal Buenos Aires arrived.
When I signed up, honestly, I did not feel like I was at that level yet. ETHGlobal had always seemed to me like a space of a very high level, one of those you follow from the outside, admiring the projects and wondering whether one day you will be able to be there. I had participated many times virtually in every event I could, so finally arriving at one in person was already important to me.
But being there was much more than fulfilling a pending goal.
After many hours hacking, working and pushing the project, I managed to get a prize. At that moment, interestingly, I did not feel the satisfaction I imagined. At first I felt disappointed with myself, perhaps because one always believes one could have done more. With time, however, that feeling changed. Today, when I look back, what I feel is pride, pride for having gotten that far.
What mattered most
But if I am honest, the most valuable thing was not only the prize.
The most valuable thing was the people.
The people from Dev3pack, Solene, Yulia and Mariam many others I met along the way made this whole experience have a much deeper meaning. Even though distances separate us today, they became very important to me despite the distance. That is something I did not expect so strongly: discovering that behind the events, the projects and the well-known names, there are friendships, support and memories that stay with you.
Looking back
Looking back, this was more than my first real encounter with the global crypto community. It was a reminder that the distance between watching from the outside and becoming part of it is often much shorter than it seems. For builders coming from places like Bolivia, that matters. It means we do have a place in the global conversation, and that showing up can change everything.