Between Risk and Hope: ETH Cali and the Colombia Ethereum Community

Title: Between Risks and Hopes: ETH Cali and the Colombian Ethereum Community

Author: ShanhaiWoo ShanHaiWu

Source:

Repost: Mars Finance

Cali, Colombia’s salsa dance capital, is also the birthplace and growth hub of ETH Cali. Here, a comprehensive offshore industrial and service park, Zonamerica, hosts an innovative ecosystem, an active entrepreneurial community, and tax incentives for resident companies, attracting ETH Cali to establish itself here. In addition to office spaces, nearby within a five-kilometer radius of Zonamerica, Universidad del Valle and Universidad ICESI have become important hubs for ETH Cali events and connecting with students.

The Growth Trajectory of the Colombian Ethereum Community

William Martinez, who prefers to call himself a core member rather than a founder, shared with us the current development status of the Colombian Ethereum community. The Ethereum Colombia community adopts a geographically and locally organized structure, forming a network of local Ethereum communities including ETH Medellin, ETH Bogota, ETH Caribe, ETH Eje Cafetero, ETH Arauca, and ETH Cali.

Both ETH Arauca and ETH Cali were established after Devcon VI was held in Bogotá in October 2022. Unfortunately, Emerson David Silva, the community leader of ETH Arauca, was tragically killed last year while promoting Ethereum in a high-risk area. Today, the main active Colombian Ethereum communities are ETH Bogotá, ETH Medellín, and ETH Cali.

Like other Colombian Ethereum communities, ETH Cali aims to promote Ethereum adoption within the local community. William stated that Cali has a strong pool of technical talent, but they have limited knowledge of Web3. Therefore, ETH Cali focuses on education and outreach, developer meetups, and integrating Web3 frameworks and tools into cutting-edge fields like artificial intelligence, trying to open a window for local tech talent to access new technological paradigms.

“Emerson and ETH Arauca’s story is heartbreaking,” William said, “but it also strengthens our resolve to continue building a developer community.”

ETH Cali Wallet: An Open-Source Wallet for Practical Use Cases

Technology-driven development has always been the main theme of ETH Cali community growth, reflected not only in numerous technical activities but also in the team members involved. Currently, the community has 9 core members and 6 contributors, almost all with strong developer backgrounds.

At Devconnect’s ETH Latam Hub, we met Cristobal Valencia, a core developer of the community. He is building a new ReFi project: ReFiUP. According to Cristobal, ReFiUP aims to create an on-chain protocol called ReFi Universe Protocol that coordinates global efforts to clean the planet. Users can earn tokens and verifiable certificates by collecting various types of trash, while companies can purchase these certificates to reduce their carbon emissions. The process employs AI agents to verify user activities and uses zero-knowledge proof technology to protect user privacy.

The inspiration for ReFiUP came from an offline event supported by ETH Cali. In June this year, ETH Cali partnered with the local environmental organization Lapapaya to provide technical and logistical support for a small marathon event in Cali. During the race, participants could earn tokens and NFT certificates as rewards based on the amount of trash they collected. The event collected over 150 kilograms of recyclable waste, and more than 60 participants successfully claimed on-chain rewards via ETH Cali Wallet.

“Our goal is to attract community members and new users to participate, and to explore the possibilities of cryptocurrency through this open-source wallet designed for real-world applications,” William explained. ETH Cali Wallet is built on Privy, supporting email registration, and incorporates zkPassport.id as a anti-sybil attack mechanism. It also uses account abstraction to sponsor gas transactions. ETH Cali has open-sourced the wallet’s codebase, allowing other developers to focus on building application logic without re-developing user login or anti-sybil mechanisms.

From Events to Influence: ETH Cali’s 2026 Plan

Looking back over the past three years, ETH Cali has hosted over 40 offline meetups, attracting more than 100 Web2 developers, with Web3 members growing from 5 to over 250. Meanwhile, the community has supported more than 10 local Web3 projects, established partnerships with 5 universities, and gradually engaged with senior leaders, government agencies, and key institutions to help them understand the technology through practical applications.

“We focus on genuine builders, not hype,” William said. Regarding future plans, he outlined specific goals for ETH Cali towards 2026:

• Establish an ETH Cali center or hacker house for the local tech community as a long-term space for developer交流 and collaboration.

• Collaborate with universities such as ICESI, USB Cali, and Universidad Santiago de Cali to promote research focused on cryptography, blockchain, and artificial intelligence.

• Cultivate over 100 Web2 developers into Web3 through structured projects like Speed Run Ethereum and Cyfrin Updraft.

• Partner with the Ethereum Foundation Secretariat to transform a university DeFi course into a free, accessible Web3 learning program for local developers and communities.

• Build and operate its own RPC infrastructure to provide stable and reliable technical support for the local ecosystem.

• Experiment with new technologies, including robotics, to create more practical learning and experimentation environments.

• Strengthen cooperation with Ethereum communities in Cluj, Prague, Naples, Rome, India, and China, making Cali an active node in the global Ethereum network.

These goals are not merely about numbers or scale expansion but revolve around the question of “how to make technology truly effective.” For ETH Cali, the ultimate aim of community building is not just about events but whether the technology can respond to broader real-world needs.

Ethereum’s Next Leap: Real Products and Services

In William’s view, Latin America faces some structural challenges, such as cross-border payments, global currency access, currency devaluation risks, and limited participation from the global tech community. Ethereum technology can play a tangible role in addressing these issues.

He believes that the next breakthrough will come from shifting focus from speculation to truly global products and services. With improved internet access, mature data infrastructure, and the proliferation of AI tools, Latin America is poised to accelerate innovation and play a more significant role in open-source technology and global collaboration.

“A suitable time window might be late 2026 or early 2027,” William said. “We might hold a pop-up city event, bringing together local builders, institutions, governments, entrepreneurs, developers, and researchers to collaboratively envision Cali’s next stage of development.”

Conclusion

Technological development is never a straight line but more like a spiral ascent. The Colombian Ethereum community, represented by ETH Cali, exemplifies this: despite setbacks and fluctuations, it continues to accumulate strength, passing on core Web3 values such as collaboration, permissionless innovation, and open-source culture to more people.