ARRIVE + FORM
Workshops, opening ceremony, team formation, brainstorming, then the room turns into a working studio.
FIELD NOTE 01KRIS HAAMER / TOKYO, JAPANAPRIL 2023
ETHEREUM / DEFI / ZK / BUILDERS
ETHGLOBALTOKYO
Three days of building, preceded by a city-wide week of summits, cafés, DAO conversations, workshops, and late-night meetups.
14—16 APRIL2023
TORANOMON HILLS FORUMTokyo, Japan
01THE WEEKEND IN NUMBERS
East Asia’s first ETHGlobal became much more than a weekend.
ETHGlobal Tokyo opened the organization’s 2023 in-person season and its first event in East Asia. Seventy percent of attendees came from Asia, more than 400 local Japanese hackers joined, and 35% of hackers were new to web3.
1,500+ATTENDEES
1,070HACKERS
311PROJECTS
59COUNTRIES
$375K+PRIZES
38PARTNERS
02THE 36-HOUR RHYTHM
BUILD + TEST
Protocol mentors circulate, teams refine their scope, and the venue stays focused on getting a working idea over the line.
SHIP + SHARE
Projects are submitted, judged, and presented. Eleven finalists emerge from 311 submissions.
03SIDE EVENTS / ATTENDED
The events I can verify.
This attendance log was reconstructed from registration emails, same-day notes, and timestamped photos. Registrations without corroborating evidence are deliberately omitted.
CREATOR
Web3 Creator Economy [LIVEPEER JAPAN] Meetup
A Livepeer Japan session on the creator economy at NIB Shibuya. Timestamped photos place me in the room before the evening’s next event.
NIB ShibuyaSOURCE ↗
FOUNDERS
Founder Stories ⚡ Tokyo
An evening of founder storytelling at WeWork Iceberg. My ticket, same-day venue note, and photos from the session line up.
WeWork IcebergSOURCE ↗
SUMMIT
Pragma Tokyo
ETHGlobal’s curated single-track summit at Digital Garage. Photos place me in the audience through the afternoon.
Digital GarageSOURCE ↗
PUBLIC GOODS
GreenChill — Exploration of the Nature of Public Goods
A Fracton Ventures gathering in Yoyogi Park exploring the nature of public goods through conversation and outdoor activities.
Yoyogi ParkSOURCE ↗
ECOSYSTEM
BNB Chain Innovation Roadshow — Tokyo
An AKINDO-produced evening of keynotes, ecosystem pitches, an ideathon, and networking at CryptoBase.
CryptoBase, NIB ShibuyaSOURCE ↗
FIELD NOTE / 2023
“Ideas move through people.”
The useful part of a hackathon is not only what ships on Sunday. It is the compressed network around it: the workshop that unlocks an approach, the mentor who redirects a build, and the conversation that continues after the venue closes.
Tokyo’s surrounding cafés, summits, dinners, and community sessions made that network visible.
04RESEARCH NOTES
Sources and archive
Event figures and the core schedule come from ETHGlobal’s official event page and recap. Side-event attendance was reconstructed from private archive signals including tickets, reminders, same-day notes, and timestamped photos; automated post-event emails were not treated as proof on their own. Public links identify each event without publishing those private records.