Hello from ETHDenver!
This year, there’s a lot of pressure on the ETHDenver crew to make this community gathering the biggest and best event in ETHDenver history.
The Mint Gold Dust team checked into the VĪB Hotel. A short walk from the hackers at the #BUIDLHub building on Brighton Blvd in the RiNo Arts district.
Many of the local hotels in @RiNo are new and efficient. The Source Hotel is a 4 star hotel with a delicious restaurant and a hot tub on the top floor! At the base of the hotel you can find a marketplace and food hall, be sure to check out the amazing Reunion Bread! Small batch beautiful baked goods. Mmmmm.
The VĪB is a Best Western and does what it says in the name (~vibe~). There is a gym on the ground floor and a cute cafe with friendly staff. Brent and Preston at the VĪB have been exceptionally accommodating and helpful!
We quickly dropped our suitcases and went out for a ride on electric scooters to explore the venues and to discover new cafes and restaurants in the area.
Our first impressions were that there are plenty of construction sites and new buildings, a large number of cranes in the sky, and lots of art murals in the area where we are staying. Any city I’ve visited with this many cranes was going through a major growth phase. The economy here in Denver is growing quickly, it’s very obvious.
We screwed around on our electric scooters and rode over to check out the National Western Complex, the giant structure that has housed some of the largest event gatherings in Denver. This venue is a strong symbol of community here in Colorado, and it’s now the new site of the ETH Denver community.
We then scooted over to the Hacker Hall.
Greek food and taco trucks were waiting outside, prepared for the hungry developers inside the building. We entered, went through a secure checkpoint, and made our way to registration. We easily picked up our badges and visited all the tables that were displaying swag and information about the different teams BUIDLING.
There was certainly a buzz about the venue! People hugging each other, greeting one another from all over the world, excited to get started and happy to see familiar faces! Opening speeches were made, and the excitement began.
The space is similar to the Sports Castle from last year, but the devs are all on one main floor. It’s larger, with two stages set up specifically for project owners to present their work and their bounties.
We visited teams with bounties on offer. One that drew our attention was the Liquality team.
Liquality’s multi-chain NFT minting feature, and STK made it an even more interesting bounty to try to capture.
We spent time at the River House where Liquality has taken over a club / living room / bar space where hackers meet for breakfast and to begin coding for the bounties.
Some of the early arriving teams here are @ConsenSys, @Discoxyz, @Opolis, @metawebvc, @satori_nft @Valts and so many more, and we’re just getting started!
As we rode around to explore further, we noticed all of the murals, collecting names of artists and taking pictures of their creations. Many of the muralists in this industrial area have something special. Wide open spaces and new walls to tag!
The team visited the Blue Sparrow coffee shops and ate delicious salad and pizza at Cart Driver. We also enjoyed an amazing dinner at Uchi with friends.
In our downtime, we shopped at SteadBrook, as well as an outdoor vintage clothing marketplace in the side yard at The Denver Central Market. We found an amazing foosball table, friendly people, and strong, elegant jewelry at OXB. While eating french fries in the sun, we also shopped online at locally-owned Idiot Cult, for a refreshingly cheeky sample of the fashion flavor in Denver.
We enjoyed a magical evening at Nocturne Jazz Club, listening to live jazz while sipping champagne.
Our team is looking forward to a scheduled guided meditation and relaxation session at Pravana Massage.
One of the things that Mint Gold Dust is doing while we’re here is meeting with developers and artists from the Denver community to see how we can support them as well as collectors in Colorado.
In partnership with Illust, we’ve geo-dropped several NFTs around Denver.
We have a handful of pieces near Improper City, which is a great watering hole with an outdoor area for those who can brave the cold.
We went out on a scavenger hunt for these beautiful NFT assets, and they look fantastic placed in the real world. The amazing talent of the artists is showcased while the surrounding environment brings each work to life. Installations of this type make our reality even more layered and exciting, creating compelling images for us to interact with.
We still have 6 days of ETHDenver and multiple side events to attend with over 25,000 people! The State of Colorado / Denver has been put on the map by the Decentralized and Web3 Community!
Take a look at last week’s 79Au zine featuring the Illust <> Mint Gold Dust culture walk which showcases amazing NFT curations at venues around Denver!
Check out the Illust ETHDenver event maps here: Click to view maps.
Ready to get started as an artist or collector on Mint Gold Dust? Check out our Metamask start up guide to get started. Ready to start minting? Apply to talk with our curatorial team today.
