Rostyslav Bortman is Head of Blockchain Development at IdeaSoft and founder of the ETHKyiv community. He is one of the leading figures in global and Ukrainian Web3 development and a driving force in the development of the cryptocurrency community.
He has developed many outstanding Web3 products, and this year’s Ethereum Hackathon organized by him and his team in Kiev was attended by his close friend and devoted colleague Vitalik Buterin.
We talked about the future of the Ethereum market and ecosystem, the Web3 sector in Ukraine and its details.
How did you get involved in blockchain development? What attracted you to the Web3 industry?
Smart contract. In 2016, a university professor came to me and suggested a thesis topic called ‘Smart Contracts on Ethereum.’ I agreed. Since then I haven’t been able to get away from Solidity and Ethereum. I am completely fascinated by the concept of decentralization and the absence of intermediaries.
At the Encrypted Conference 2024, Vitalik Buterin noted that Ukrainian Web3 developers have made significant progress in creating innovative solutions. What do you think about this and how do you see the contribution of Ukrainian developers to global blockchain development?
First of all, there are many different ways to contribute. Either go mainstream and build a deep product with a good foundation that will have a direct impact on Web3 development, or become a developer on a team building the future of Web3. Contribute to the open source community.
Of course, among the awesome teams at Web3, you can often find Ukrainian developers building cool things on their teams, which is pretty cool. But we don’t have a lot of Ukrainians developing products that go into the mainstream. We still need to resolve this issue.
I think the Ukrainian Web3 community is just starting to develop. As the organizer of the largest hackathon in Ukraine, I can say that there is still a lot of work to be done on the startup-building culture. People are focused on making money and don’t want to take risks, and they don’t express a desire to build something of their own because outsourcing provides stability.
My team and I are trying to change this and build a hackathon culture in the country. Because I’m convinced that this is one of the most effective ways to show developers that it’s cool to create your own products. It will take time for people’s mindset to change and for Ukrainians to start influencing global blockchain development through their products.
Do you think Ukrainian startups can compete internationally in the field of Web3 and blockchain technologies? So how?
Of course it can. The Web3 market is a global market, so it doesn’t matter which country it’s deployed in. First of all, UX, the use case of the product, is important. Anyone who creates great products that people need can compete in this market.
‘Make what people need. Build really simple experiences.’ – Jesse Pollak.
Over the past few years, many Web3 projects with Ukrainian roots have emerged. Are there any Ukrainian blockchain development projects you can mention?
Global Ledger. I also like Trustee Plus. It’s simple, convenient, and solves consumer payment problems. HackenProof.
It’s also important to note that I’m only talking about things I personally like, as the concept of success varies from person to person.
You are the founder of the Kyiv Ethereum Community. What is this community’s greatest achievement? What impact do you think this has had on the development of Ukraine’s blockchain ecosystem?
We have been organizing meetups since 2021. We have already held about 25 different events. We have collaborated with BNB Chain, Scroll, Diia education, etc. You can view all events at kyivethereum.com.
Recently we organized ETHKyiv, attended by Vitalik (Buterin) and 3 other people from the Ethereum Foundation (and many other guests from various cool Web3 protocols). We have secured giants like EtherFi, Scroll, Intmax, Zero1, Circles, The Graph Builders Dao, etc. as backers. Additionally, 123 hackers visited the location offline and participated in the hackathon.
We raised $8000 for FPV drones for the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF). And all this despite the war.
In your opinion, what role does the Kyiv Ethereum community play in the development of the Ethereum ecosystem?
I believe that the strategy of developing communities around the world is the right one, because only local leaders, not global foundations, can have the greatest impact on people in specific countries.
Role and influence do not depend on me, but on the community. There is little I can do on my own, but we are doing our best to create favorable conditions for the development of the Ethereum community in Ukraine. It’s about bringing together amazing founders, visionaries, and leaders.
You are one of the founders of ETH: Kyiv Hackathon. How do you think hackathons and developer conferences contribute to the development of the Ethereum ecosystem? What are the main challenges you see while organizing a hackathon?
Let’s start with the sad ones. I am the sole organizer of ETHKyiv 2024 (of course together with the Kyiv Ethereum team). Sergiy Sevidov was officially a co-organizer, but in reality he did not perform his duties and did not participate in the organization of this event. Therefore, calling him one of the organizers would be unfair to the team involved in organizing it.
Unfortunately, it turned out that he was managing the ethkyiv.org domain and social media, where our team produced all publications related to the ETHKyiv hackathon. He refuses to give up his social media and domain (although he has nothing to do with Ethereum in Ukraine and has done nothing to develop it, his only goal is to use the ETHKyiv name). Because he wants to host his own event. From there, you can claim ETHKyiv 2024 as your own and sell it to sponsors and partners. My team and I have already turned this page and created new social media.
Now to answer your question:
I believe that hackathons have a direct impact on the development of Ethereum in Ukraine because I believe developers are the main asset of the ecosystem. That is why our main mission is to onboard Ukrainian developers to Ethereum. As for conferences, I can’t answer that because I’m mainly focused on builders.
There were a ton of challenges, but it’s an hour-long story. There were many problems with the coordination of contractors and all the details in the Taikai network and elsewhere, communication, management, involvement of sponsors, hackers, judges and speakers, media publications. This story deserves a separate publication.
Over the past few years, many blockchains and protocols have emerged in the Web3 space, such as Base, Whitechain or Near. In your opinion, what impact does this have on the Web3 market and blockchain development?
Base is a very good influence for Web3 because it develops a builder culture around Web3 and promotes the message that buildings are cool. They’re focusing on consumer app development, which I think is the right thing to do, and I think Base is where we’re going to see a lot of cool innovation in Web3.
How do you see the future of this diversified Web3 market? Would it be better to have an oligopoly of a few large networks?
I’m an ETH Maxi so it’s hard for me to think about it. There are so many new and exciting things happening on Ethereum every day that there isn’t enough time to keep up with other ecosystems.
However, while other blockchains will likely take some market share, we believe Ethereum will remain the clear leader. For me, the principles of Ethereum are closer to my heart. So I’m here, and most people in the community are here too. And I think that’s what makes Ethereum the best.
As blockchain technology becomes more deeply integrated into finance, do you think DeFi could replace traditional centralized banks? Is DeFi infrastructure suitable for large-scale financial transactions?
Right now, consumer payments are one of the biggest priorities for the industry, including at Base (we wrote about this here ). I don’t think DeFi will replace centralized banking in the next few years. But I think that step by step it will become more convenient and popular, the number of users will increase, and strategically it will have some features in the future. It is a hybrid system that can completely abandon traditional centralized banking if necessary.
With the launch of the Ethereum ETF and rumors of the Solana exchange-traded fund, will it be possible to bring tokens from other blockchains to the stock market? Does the blockchain industry need such a trend?
I don’t think we’ll see a Solana ETF in the near future. There are objective reasons for this.
First, the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission – Author’s Note) considers Solana a security. Second, the fund owns 12% of SOL (or more, I don’t know the exact number, but it’s a significant disadvantage). Third, if we talk about the typical path to ETFs (as is the case with BTC and ETH), Solana still needs 2-3 years to go all the way.
As for other assets, I think the cryptocurrency market needs to become much more mature first. Because now all these memecoins and assets that are meaningless and have billions of dollars in capital look very strange.
NFTs have seen better days in terms of popularity. What potential do you see in this technology? How can NFTs be used to reach their full technological potential?
NFTs aren’t going anywhere, but in 2021, they’re not the ones everyone has heard of. NFT is an active and future token standard for Real World Assets (RWA). They will tokenize everything possible into NFTs. From real estate to virtual worlds to in-game items. I have no idea what will happen to the NFT monkey.
Which areas of Web3 development do you think could become trends in the near future?
Account abstraction, SocialFi, decentralized messaging, consumer apps (including payment apps), cross-chain interoperability, GameFi.
You used to teach your own courses at Sigma Software University. So how do you evaluate the role of these educational initiatives in nurturing new professionals for the Web3 and blockchain industries?
I believe it is very important. As far as I know, the situation in Ukraine is not very good.
I want to see us move faster and move with more passion. If you would like to teach a Solidity course, please remember that we are always here to support you. Now, let’s talk.
I like the example of Argentina. Argentina has integrated Ethereum and Solidity into its school curriculum in Buenos Aires. I think we need to move in this direction. I’ve already texted a few friends about this topic.
In your opinion, how do you communicate the benefits of blockchain technology or specific Web3 projects to the public?
Create what people need. Build very simple experiences. Building applications that people use is what it’s all about. They (Mass – author’s note) will come to you. If we look at what is happening in the world now, freedom of expression will one day become a very important aspect. So I think the demand for decentralization, security, and censorship resistance will grow.
Where do you see the Web3 industry in 5-10 years?
This is a very difficult question. I think there will be a lot of applications that will become mainstream and users won’t even know they’re Web3-based. During this time, I think major UX issues will be solved and the industry will find killer use cases. I think we’ll see the same mass adoption in the next 10 years.
What motivates you most to continue working in this field?
I am interested in principles such as decentralization, censorship resistance, and self-management. I like to remove trust where it shouldn’t remain. I like removing middlemen and automating smart contract terms. I believe this is the future, and overall we are moving in the right direction. I love being a part of this and am grateful for it.
People are also motivated. It’s so inspiring to see such a concentration of incredibly smart and open-minded people.