Written by: David C, Bankless
Compiled by: Shaw, Jinse Finance
Last week, the annual Ethereum Community Conference (EthCC) attracted thousands of attendees in Cannes, and the Mediterranean heat did not dampen the enthusiasm of participants for the packed agenda.
While the broader discussions surrounding Ethereum, the Ethereum Foundation, and the Ethereum Community Fund are worth analyzing separately, the most striking signals from this conference came from the surrounding ecosystem—topics such as the tokenized market, mobile experience, and privacy infrastructure were frequently mentioned during interactions at the conference.
Privacy: Institutional Premise
During this week, hearing so much discussion about privacy was refreshing. People are interested not only from a technical standpoint (given the plethora of acronyms today such as TEE, FHE, MPC, ZK, etc.) but also from the perspective of everyday life. Many of the people I spoke to have previously used consumer-facing privacy applications like ZKP2P and expressed excitement about Aztec's relaunch.
When discussing the future direction of privacy protection, the focus is on more broadly integrating zero-knowledge proofs into daily on-chain activities, combined with trusted execution environments (TEE) to enhance security.
Indeed, multi-party computation and fully homomorphic encryption are recognized as top technologies worth pursuing, but they are generally considered too complex for practical application environments in their current forms (especially fully homomorphic encryption). However, Coinbase's Yehuda Lindell introduced their open-source multi-party computation (MPC) library—this move aims to raise security standards across the industry and address the shortage of MPC talent to drive relevant innovations.
In addition to discussing privacy as a key component of the vulnerabilities of our digital age, it is also a necessary condition for attracting institutions to join the blockchain.
Paul Brody, global blockchain leader at Ernst & Young, pointed out in his speech that privacy is not a feature that businesses can choose, but a prerequisite for using blockchain in actual business operations. Coordination, rather than computation, is the core bottleneck for enterprises. Although tokenized workflows and smart contracts can simplify contracts and reduce inventory costs, all of this is meaningless if sensitive information is leaked. Without privacy, no company will transfer high-value business logic or transactions onto the chain. This is even more true for institutions, especially in traditional stock trading where dark pools are already deeply rooted. We need solutions that allow large participants to go on-chain without having to disclose every step they take.
Tokenized Market: The Collision of Stocks and Blockchain
While Robinhood's announcement regarding tokenized stocks certainly attracted a lot of attention, I believe BackedFi also deserves credit as it launched xStocks on the same day, allowing people to purchase popular stocks like $SPY, $NVDA, and $TSLA on Solana.
At the EthCC conference, most people still believe these statements are merely stopgap measures. True, we can trade tokenized apple stocks, but that is not new. The real excitement lies in our ability to use it as collateral for lending and to incorporate it into yield strategies. So, we are currently in an awkward transitional phase—there is progress, but integration has not yet been achieved.
However, beyond tokenized stocks, there is widespread excitement around tokenization, especially regarding the tokenization of commodities. Given the recent performance of uranium ore, uranium digital assets have been mentioned in multiple discussions, while interest in tokenized gold continues to grow.
The model is clear: start with familiar assets, prove that the pipeline system works, and then venture into markets where the advantages of blockchain's round-the-clock settlement and fractional ownership clearly surpass traditional infrastructure.
Mobile First
One of the most exciting discussions at this conference came from the quiet rise of experimental enthusiasm around consumer crypto applications—almost without exception, these applications started being built from the mobile end. As most wallet activities currently come from mobile devices, developers (and users) have considered product design, user interaction, and native mobile workflows from the very beginning.
The upcoming redesigned version of Coinbase Wallet features social dynamics, which is particularly prominent as it not only prioritizes mobile but also integrates the native mobile experience into the design of the wallet.
Interestingly, there is great anticipation for mobile applications that bring convenience to perpetual contract trading on Hyperliquid, especially the two apps Lootbase and Dexari. Robinhood's announcement of launching its own perpetual contract platform further sparked enthusiasm. In summary, these applications showcase the endless possibilities brought by a thumb-first design philosophy: quick execution, clear visual effects, and a gamified interface.
The EthCC conference reinforced what we see online: cryptocurrency is no longer just an endless debate about architecture; it is dedicated to solving issues of coordination, compliance, and high-quality consumer-facing design. The question is not whether blockchain can support significant real-world applications, but how quickly we can make them usable, private, and portable, thus truly making an impact.