i’m heading back to shenzhen, guangzhou, & shanghai for 2 weeks to visit tech HQs & factories producing all kinds of things - hardware, textiles, packaging, & more. why? in 2024, i spent almost every weekend for 6 months taking the high speed rail from hong kong to guangzhou to renovate a 70m^2 apartment in the heart of the city. i worked with a design architect, but sourced every item myself. i visited 100+ factories, warehouses, & showrooms specializing in every individual item - dining tables as hidden extensions within an island, pullout beds from the living room drawers, 4 in 1 door locks (facial recognition, passcode, fingerprint, or key) from tear down to move-in ready, the process took exactly 6 months. it was a tedious process, but the manufacturing flexibility & velocity are truly unmatched by any other place in the world. you do not need to be an expert. you can go to the factory and they will teach you everything. you just need to have an eye for aesthetics and know what you want. you can ship a living environment fully optimized for you in 6 months. think about what you can ship in a year.

i joined my first @ETHGlobal hackathon without even knowing what a crypto wallet was. zero. niente. coming from web2, i thought web3 was a “someday thing.” spoiler: 3 days later i left with a live project, new connections, and a big “why didn’t I do this sooner?” 🚀 📝 just published a full recap of my first 2 ETHGlobal events (prague + cannes 2025), written from a web2-to-web3 lens. covering application, food, venue, project, prizes, sponsors, scholarships, opportunities, etc.⬇️🧵

Finalist at my first @ETHGlobal! 🧑‍🍳 One month ago, I spoke at @ethereumhouseSF about the future of crypto UX: if we want to bring the next billion people on-chain, onboarding has to feel effortless. This weekend, I had the chance to bring that vision to life. With @Boewu_ and @hrishabhayush, we built Primer, a seamless payment layer for Amazon. Of course, the largest e-commerce platform doesn’t accept crypto, so we hacked around it with gift cards and some reverse-engineering. USDC moves to a merchant wallet in the background, so checkout feels just like paying with a credit card. While we hid all that complexity, the path there was anything but straightforward. From pivots and power naps in bean bag chairs at 3 AM to sprinting five blocks back for finalist judging, the weekend was a blur of scrappy moments that made the end product all the more rewarding. As a result, we were honored to demo live on stage as a Top 10 Finalist (!!). Thank you to @TheRealKartik and the entire ETHGlobal team for hosting an amazing event. Thank you to @CoinbaseDev for recognizing Primer as one of the best onchain apps using CDP! We ideated on Primer during the @ritualfnd fellowship :) This is just the beginning. As we continue building out Primer, Aaron, Hrishabh, and I are envisioning a merchant API that brings stablecoin payments everywhere securely. This includes all wallets, chains, and even zkTLS for privacy - we want to work with everyone! If you share this passion, I’d love to chat! Demo video for ETHGlobal below👇

Here's a quick recap of ETHGlobal New York!! 🗽 - 950 attendees - 690 hackers - 51 countries - $275,000 USD in prizes - 275 projects - 10 finalists

This is the highlight for me volunteering at @ETHGlobal NYC 🇺🇸 where 2 ten year olds built a Crypto Education Platform and presented it to the judges

The next era of payments won’t be cards. Sneak peek of Primer, built in 36 hours for @ETHGlobal NYC using @CoinbaseDev! Full demo coming later today👀

someone just deposited $100 on @livestakes 100 fuckin dollars real money cash > here is how we got our first ever customer: 2 days ago, we connected with the @doodlifts and made a partnership deal that @flow_blockchain would power our first ever betting pool -> @ETHGlobal NYC - - - - - - - - - -starting at $2000- - - - - - - - - - - wtf that means? to make the prize bigger, we partner with companies/blockchains to power our betting pools. that was our first ever! > but why would anyone give us money? - we make cool content - builders love us - sponsors are our friends > our first friend was @TheRealKartik who gave us the EthGlobal spotlight opportunity and believed in us. also thanks to @cxqmaggie and the EthGlobal spotlight team of being there for literally anything. love you all > @doodlifts, whom I appreciate for seeing the livestakes vision early on, also believed and helped facilitate the funding in such a short period of time. dood is a g. > @Haezurath also believes in us, 4 weeks ago he scheduled weekly meetings to see the success of this happening. but the 100? you can see it in the pics below. this is not a stunt. I am just excited sharing the small wins. we are no where near where we want to be. but last month we where nothing. just an idea. crazy what you can achieve in a month. (stats post dropping after NYC market). let's see how far this can go. I really don't know. but it's fun af

if you're locked in hacking at @ETHGlobal nyc here's everything you need to know: people are betting real money on you winning on > if you win, you get 15% of all profits from bets on you > how to maximize your betting volume: 🌟 make a draft submission on ethglobal website and add your github ((important) ✅ verify your profile on ✍️ post your project idea on x (tag @livestakes) 💸 tell people to bet on you (add your username in post) 👀 build in public all weekend 📍find us at: - livestakes booth (we'll show you live bets) - telegram (check bio) and come in for questions some hackers already have $100+ in bets let the games begin lock in and WIN🏆

The #1 ALL TIME hackathon winner, spotted in NYC. here is the story: > someone made $430 by betting $7 on @deapinkme last hackathon. > her team earned $68.4 in profit share > today, she is with her father hacking at @ETHGlobal NYC > her father is the #1 All Time hackathon winner with total winnings of $40,911. > his X account is @JordanSt3000 with less than 150 followers. we are talking about an ALL TIME WINNER that looks like an underdog. >they are both competing in EthGlobal NYC > probably nothing > find their profiles in the comments and ask them what they are building to > place your bets accordingly

BackupBuddy made it into the @globaltimesnews Thanks to @ETHGlobal