BUIDL Vietnam Recap (Part 1): Building a Decentralized Foundation for Web3

With an estimated 16.6 million crypto owners, Vietnam is on top of the world when it comes to embracing the dawn of the age of Web3. As the global leader who is spearheading the rise of Web3, Vietnam played host to the latest event in the BUIDL franchise, BUIDL Vietnam.

From 16-17 June 2023, Web3 industry leaders from across the world congregated at the Independence Palace in Ho Chi Minh City for two days of technical presentations, panel discussions, and a hackathon for builders. BUIDL Vietnam focused on the foundation of Web3 particularly the aspects of infrastructural scalability, network security and user accessibility.

(1) Infrastructural Scalability

If Web3 is to fulfil its promise as the next iteration of the Internet, its foundation must be supported by an infrastructure that is highly scalable. Leading the way for the infrastructural scalability of Web3 is Nethermind who is leveraging Starknet’s protocol to tackle Web3’s scalability issues of high gas price and low transaction speed.

BUIDL Vietnam Recap – Nethermind

In his presentation at BUIDL Vietnam, Chee Chyuan, a developer from Nethermind, shared his thoughts on Nethermind’s approach to scaling the infrastruture of Web3 using its Cairo programming language which is powering Nethermind’s triple tool suite of Horus, Juno and Voyager. Horus is an open-sourced tool that allows the verification of Starknet smart contracts to be done in an user-friendly manner. Juno is a Starknet full node client that facilitates the decentralization of Starknet. As for Voyager, it is a Starknet block explorer that functions as a channel for interacting with ZK-rollups.

Source: Chee Chyuan (Nethermind)

(2) Network Security

With the coming to the fore of Web3, the use of digital assets such as cryptocurrencies is set to be increasingly prominent. As more financial transactions are undertaken using cryptocurrencies, the security levels of payment networks would be a critical factor in supporting the foundation of Web3. Thanks to the developments in central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), there have been some major headways in this regard.

BUIDL Vietnam Recap – University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City and Friedrich Naumann Foundation

In their presentation at BUIDL Vietnam, the joint research team from University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City and Friedrich Naumann Foundation highlighted the fact that a total of 114 countries which contribute more than 95% to the global GDP are exploring the use of CBDCs. Out of these 114 countries, 11 of them have fully launched their respective CBDCs. With cybersecurity being a key challenge as highlighted by the research team, the use of CBDCs by central banks would help secure the digital payment networks of Web3.

Source: Joint Research Team (University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City and Friedrich Naumann Foundation)

(3) User Accessibility

If Web3 is to be able to reach the masses, its foundation must be accessible to users. In this regard, the development of Web3 apps with intuitive user interface (UI) is key to making Web3 accessible to all and sundry through a friendly user experience (UX).

BUIDL Vietnam Recap – NEAR Protocol

In his presentation at BUIDL Vietnam, Illia Polosukhin, the Co-Founder of NEAR Protocol shared the features of the Protocol’s Blockchain Operating System (BOS) which can be used by developers to build fully decentralized applications on all chains. The multi-chain compatibility of NEAR Protocol’s BOS supports the user accessibility of Web3’s foundation by facilitating the integration of MetaMask and other wallets and apps. This enables new users to be onboarded and profile and assets to be transferred easily.

Source: Illia Polosukhin (NEAR Protocol)

The insights shared by the speakers of BUILD Vietnam during their presentations illustrated the roles of infrastructural scalability, network security and user accessibility as the triple pillars of Web3’s foundation. Stay tuned for our next recap post on BUIDL Vietnam to learn about the catalysts of the upcoming mainstreaming of Web3.