ETHIndia 2026: Weave the Infinite Loom of Ethereum

What does the future actually look like, and who gets to build it?

It’s a big question, but it captures what we wanted to explore with ETHIndia this year. Since 2018, ETHIndia, through hackathons, grants and fellowships, has been a Schelling point for builders and everyone who wants to build a decentralized future - but this time ETHIndia returned as a conference instead. Because in an era where building is no longer a blocker, we felt compelled to pause and think about what we should be building.

We covered a fair amount of ground - from Ethereum to Deep Tech to Digital Infrastructure to (C)ensorship, (R)esistance, (O)pen Source, (P)rivacy and (S)ecurity, and even a blindfolded simultaneous chess match with a super GM alongside plenty happening in between 👀

I’m taking you on a lil’ trip behind the scenes and through the highlights of the event, so grab a cup - it’ll be worth your while!

Road to Devcon 8, Mumbai, India:

The story starts a little earlier, at Devconnect Argentina in 2025, when it was announced that Devcon 8 would be coming to Mumbai. Devcon brings together people building, researching and contributing to Ethereum from around the world. For ETHIndia and our fellow communities that had spent years bringing people into Ethereum, having everyone come to our doorstep meant a lot. So many communities had helped build towards this moment, and now we had the chance to welcome the wider ecosystem home.

ETHIndia 2026 was a part of that gathering as one of Devcon’s community-led stages.

🚕 The Famous Kaali Peeli Taxis of Mumbai:

In the lead-up to Devcon, we had a lot of fun dreaming up ways to bring the excitement from around the world to ETHIndia's home ground. Kaali Peeli Podcasts was one of them, shot during ETHMumbai. It was a whole different experience for us as well. It started with a random idea - we scouted throughout the day to find the right taxi for our needs - kitted it out with our camera gear and of course with our whole zeal to bring together a bunch of builders to experience Mumbai rides as they talked about their journeys in the space and their expectations for Devcon.

And of course, we had our share of fun in front of the camera too (Fidget Clicker FTW!!!)

🧵Weaving the Infinite Loom of Ethereum

While these conversations were taking shape, we were also thinking about how ETHIndia 2026 should look and feel. What could connect Ethereum’s way of building with the place welcoming it this year?

Ethereum has changed, and so has the world we’re building it in. Years of work by developers, researchers, maintainers and communities have turned ambitious ideas into infrastructure people can use. Each contribution gives someone else something to build on. That spirit became the starting point for Swayam (The idea of "one's self" or here we are saying individual actions are building and creating identities), the theme behind ETHIndia 2026, which you can notice in our brand identity.

We found a parallel in India’s handloom and craft traditions, where patterns pass between families and generations where people work independently, following a shared set of rules while adding variations of their own. Over time, a recognisable visual language emerges without a single author directing it all.

We brought that idea to life with a bare grid at the centre and familiar Indian patterns blooming from its edges ,and that’s how this year’s branding came together. Of course, we couldn’t resist turning some of these patterns into merch.
Here’s a peek at some of the ETHIndia 2026 merch:

🚀 The D-Day:

We began the day with check-ins and an opening keynote by Rashmi Abbigeri and Denver Dsouza, setting the tone for the day.

And… for the first time, we had Mr. V at ETHIndia in-person! (After years of Google Meet appearances, we finally got to retire the meeting link :P)

We kicked off with a fireside chat featuring Vitalik Buterin  (co-founder of Ethereum) & Siddharth Shetty (global CEO & co-chair, networks for humanity) with Denver Dsouza (CEO & co-founder of Devfolio & ETHIndia) as moderator. The conversation explored what Ethereum and India’s Digital Public Infrastructure could learn from each other, and how AI could reshape the way we coordinate and build things.

Full Fireside Chat: In Conversation: Vitalik Buterin & Siddharth Shetty

We had talks, fireside chats and panel discussions happening throughout the day. Here’s a list of them:

Panel Discussions:

1. Institutions Onchain: Aaryamann Challani, Ruchir Dalmia, Simone D'Amico & Rashmi V Abbigeri (Mod)
2. Tokenizing Bharat: Pramod Rao, Pramod Mishra, Sanmesh Kalyanpur & Rohit Malekar (Mod)
3. Open Coordination at Scale: Kashvi Parekh, Yash Saraswat, Smit Khakhkhar & Chandresh Jain (Mod)
4. Ethereum Request for Startups: Viraz Malhotra, Saumya Saxena, Binji Pande,  Francesco Andreoli & Denver Dsouza (Mod)
5. India Deep Tech: Aaryaman Vir Shah, Dhanush Bakthavatchalam, Arnav Bansal & Angad Daryani
6. CROPS of India: Nisarga Adhikary, Srinivas Kodali, Vijay Krishnavanshi & Satyaki KC (Mod)

Fireside Chats:

1. Ethereum x Robotics with Tomasz Stanczak & Arnav Bansal
2. Digital Public Infrastructure with Julian Gordon, Jasminder Singh Gulati & Denver D'souza (Mod)

Long Talks:

1. India Policy Landscape by Jaideep Reddy
2. The Lid Leaks: What Mumbai's Dabbawalas Teach Private Finance by Aaryamann Challani

Lightning Talks:

1. Proof of Solvency for Tokenised Assets by Sudipan Sinha
2. Kokio by Arpit Kumar
3. MOHAR by Vidit Choudhary
4. Epoch: From "Defined financial outcome" to execution by Abhimanyu Shekhawat
5. Introducing Rath Terminal by Aniket Sharma

Blindfold Simul

Anddddd... Annnddd!! Amid the extensive discussions, we dabbled in something fun during the lunch break.

The most awaited ... A blindfolded simultaneous chess match with the Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi, in partnership with @verantaxyz, powered by @shoonyastore and yours truly, @ETHIndiaco, moderated by Parth (who kept the fun banter going along the way).

Behind the scenes, before the games began, I remember Vidit asking our emcee, Parth, to distract him with some jokes during the games to make the play more challenging for him and more interesting for the audience. And guess what? ... even with all this, he won both games, played simultaneously - BLINDFOLDED - GM for a Reason!♟️

The Closing Ceremony (Not drawing the curtains yet)

And just like that, we were nearing the end of the day (but not the end of ETHIndia, both literally and metaphorically)

For us at Devfolio, ETHIndia started as a small seed and watching it blossom, with so many communities growing alongside it and making it their own, has been special. Community leads from across India - from east to west and north to south, came together on stage to share their experiences of building in the Ethereum ecosystem. It was a pretty wholesome moment, seeing the spark in their eyes as they spoke about their journeys and their hopes for a better future.

A big shoutout to all the communities who have been building with Ethereum along the years 🎉
To celebrate their work and contributions, we released the Ethereum India Magazine - it brings together the stories and milestones, recognizing the hands that shaped the Ethereum journey in India and beyond. You can check the digital copy here and we hope you find a familiar face, a story that resonates or a community you'd love to be part of. Maybe it’ll even inspire you to start your own 🤝

Ethereum India Magazine 2026

Shaping Ethereum, one community at a time: people, places and experiments that keep India’s Ethereum ecosystem moving.

Following this, we hosted the ETHIndia Institutional Dinner and Open Doors Mixer at NMACC Arts Cafe, bringing together people from finance, policy and the ecosystem to connect and explore what’s next for Ethereum’s institutional adoption in India.

ETHIndia Institutional: Ethereum for Institutional Finance in India

Briefings, convenings and coordination on Ethereum for Indian banks, market infrastructure and regulators. From ETHIndia.

ETHIndia Institutional

Make India Beautiful Again

And that wasn’t the end yet ... the next day, we hosted a townhall, Make India Beautiful Again, at the India Community Hub, bringing together a panel of people tackling civic issues firsthand: Bittu Tabahi (an environmental activist who has been single-handedly cleaning water bodies around him), Virendra, Walking Project, alongside Arnav, Reddy & Denver.

The overall ethos of Ethereum has been around making the world a better place and this has been a breakthrough year for citizen-led action on fixing and beautifying public spaces. We thought it was important to bring the community together at Devcon to talk about it. The discussion focused on making civic action feel manageable: starting with one street or neighbourhood, documenting what needs fixing, sharing the small wins, and working with local officials along with tech tools to make those changes last.

When Agents Build and Agents Judge

Swarnim Walavalkar and Denver Dsouza from the Devfolio team also gave a lightning talk titled When Agents Build and Agents Judge: Lessons from an Agent-Native Hackathon, sharing learnings from Synthesis, an agent-native hackathon hosted on Devfolio that brought together 1,500+ builders, 680+ projects, and 28 Ethereum ecosystem partners.

The Open Source Network State

Last but not least, we had Balaji S. Srinivasan (Author of the Network State & Founder of the Network School) on the 6th of Nov talking about The Open Source Network State, exploring how online communities can evolve into pop-up villages and eventually new cities, building real-world societies around shared values.

AAANNDDDD that’s a wrap for ETHIndia 2026 🎉

A big thank you to all the speakers, partners, attendees, organizers, volunteers, vendors and everyone who contributed towards making ETHIndia' 26 happen. And a huge shoutout to the entire Devcon team for helping bring it all together to India 👏

Quick Links of ETHIndia 2026

• Photo Album
• All Recordings from ETHIndia CLS
• ETHIndia Website

We hope to see you again soon. Until the next one, Never Stop Building!!🛠️

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