The Next Block Expo (NBX), the Blockchain Festival of Europe, took place in Warsaw, Poland, May 15-16, 2024, and hosted over 2,000 participants for a weekend of networking and learning with Web3 founders, developers, and enthusiasts from all over the world. The conference was sponsored by prominent companies such as Google, Polygon, Kraken, Maker, and PwC, with several others representing the largest data providers, crypto exchanges, miners, brokers, consultants, crypto networks, and more. The Kaspa Ecosystem Foundation (KEF, Kaspa Foundation) sponsored members of Kaspa's core contributors and Kaspa supporters at the event. Kaspa core developer Shai "Deshe" Wyborski participated in three events - a panel, workshop, and conference, and Eyal Yablonka hosted the panel. 

In addition to participating in informational sessions, the Kaspa Foundation also purchased a booth to interact with attendees and share the magic of Kaspa. At the conference, the Kaspa logo was prominent on the NBX website, newsletter, mobile application, and TV screens around the venue. Kaspa contributors also gave away $KAS to visitors through a faucet, handed out merchandise, spoke with participants, and answered their questions about Kaspa. Additionally, according to Julien Daubert, Kaspa was the top trending project at NBX.

Appearing on the first day of the conference on the Main stage In Current Shape of Mining: Lost in the Desert or Under the Radar? was a panel hosted by Kaspa developer Eyal Yablonka and included Kaspa developer Shai Wyborski, Krzysztof Półjanowicz, CEO of OnlyBestMiners, and Valentine Pleser from Green Mining DAO. 

Eyal Yablonka is a product manager and a core member of the Kaspa FOSS project, working on bringing DeFi to Kaspa. Shai "Deshe" Wyborski is another core contributor of Kaspa and our very own KASMedia wizard genius. He is currently working on his Ph.D in quantum cryptography and a co-author of the PHANTOM GHOSTDAG. OnlyBestMiners sold the best crypto mining devices to Poland and Europe and was represented by their CEO, Krzysztof Półjanowicz. The last participant on the panel was Valentine Pleser from Green Mining Dao, a Berlin-based Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), where owners receive 5-15% of a sustainable ROI from carbon-neutral-mined Bitcoin. 

Later that day, Shai Wyborski held his workshop Don't be Weighed Down by Your Past: High Throughput on Very Limited Storage on the Builder's Stage. The presentation, seen below, explained Kaspa's storage mechanisms and Took a deep dive into their pruning and UTXO management mechanisms. The talk was split into two parts: part 1: Pruning—securely discarding ledger data, and part 2: Mitigating UTXO Bloat. 

On the closing day of the conference, Shay had another talk, Conventional Wisdom about PoW and How Kaspa Proves it Wrong, on the Main Stage. 

In addition to participating in the NBX conference, the Kaspa Foundation also hosted a Kaspa Fam Meetup at the Tel Aviv Poznańska restaurant where they expected to host 50 Kaspa friends.

Be sure to check in with any Kaspa volunteers at Consensus from May 29 - 31, 2024, in Austin, TX, and at The Science of Blockchain Conference 2024 (SBC'24) from August 7-9, 2024, at Columbia University in New York City. Follow KASMedia to stay up to date. 

Please see the Kaspa Ecosystem Foundation for the event proposal and recap.