Kartik Talwar

ETHGlobal · Oct 9, 2025

In this fireside chat at Pragma Prague 2025, Kartik Talwar sits down with Friederike Ernst, co-founder of Gnosis, to explore Circles - a revolutionary approach to personal currencies. They discuss how Circles reimagines money creation using modern cryptography, eliminating banks as intermediaries while maintaining a web-of-trust model. The conversation covers practical implementation, group currencies, liquidity challenges, and real-world adoption strategies for this alternative monetary system that puts currency issuance directly in users' hands. 00:00 Introduction to Friederike Ernst and Circles concept 00:47 Defining Circles: Modern money with today's technology 01:26 How traditional money creation works through banks 02:40 Moving money issuance to individuals with cryptography 03:20 Settlement vs issuance: The role of banks in Circles 03:58 Circles mechanics: 24 daily issuance & demurrage 04:38 Personal currencies and the web-of-trust model 05:16 Protocol routing through trust connections 06:27 Abstracted pathfinding for transactions 07:02 Solving Sybil attacks through local network curation 07:37 Incentives for maintaining trust networks 08:10 Addressing liquidity challenges in daily transactions 08:45 Group currencies as liquidity solutions 09:27 Example: Self group implementation 10:02 Multiple identity solutions (Worldcoin, BrightID) 10:40 Pricing non-fungible personal currencies 11:15 Group currency valuation dynamics 11:49 Market-driven liquidity fragmentation 12:23 No enforced restrictions on currency behavior 12:56 Complementarity with proof-of-personhood systems 13:25 Agnostic identity verification approach 14:12 Decentralized ownership of currency networks 14:55 Circles adoption journey since 2020 launch 15:44 Challenging dollar dominance in global trade 16:22 Changing perceptions about money as technology 16:56 From cognitive shift to practical usage 17:31 New user-friendly app with QR code payments 18:04 Price stability and co-payment strategies 19:14 Localized pricing with group currencies 20:40 Incentivizing network growth and adoption 21:47 Positive early adoption experiences 22:24 Network effects and personal incentives 23:03 How to sign up for Circles V2 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🇨🇿 *Pragma Prague* Pragma Prague 2025 was held on May 29th at Holešovice Market in Prague, Czech Republic and was an in-person summit for builders and leaders in the web3 ecosystem. This event was in collaboration with ETH Prague. Watch the full Pragma Prague YouTube Playlist here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXzKMXK2aHh7vLS72NelQ2dOx2VgPNxJZ&si=lQumFEDOqD_CNswb ETHGlobal's Pragma series takes place in cities around the world, and is designed to be a different kind of event. Pragma is a one-stage conference with founders-only on stage, bringing together a small group of curated attendees and speakers to discuss the future of web3 and reflect on the past. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ Follow Friederike Ernst X: https://x.com/tw_tter ✅ Follow Gnosis X: https://x.com/gnosisDAO ✅ Follow Kartik Talwar X: https://x.com/TheRealKartik ✅ Follow ETHGlobal X: https://x.com/ETHGlobal​ Warpcast: https://warpcast.com/ethglobal Website: https://ethglobal.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UCfF9ZO8Ug4xk_AJd4aeT5HA _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Are you interested in Ethereum development and entrepreneurship? 👉 Sign up for the next ETHGlobal event: https://ethglobal.com/events 🎁 Get exclusive access and perks with ETHGlobal Plus! https://ethglobal.com/plus 📣 Want us to throw an event in your city? Tell us where! https://ethglobal.com/city _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

ETHGlobal · Oct 9, 2025

Panagiotis Kakalis from Tools for Humanity presents Worldcoin's mini-app ecosystem at ETHGlobal Prague 2025. Learn how to build and monetize mini-apps with instant access to 20M+ verified users through World ID's proof-of-personhood system. The workshop covers the Mini Kit SDK features (notifications, crypto payments, user verification), demonstrates creating a mini-app in minutes, and explains how to qualify for hackathon prizes by leveraging World ID's anti-bot capabilities. Discover success stories like Auto (1 token/day airdrops) and Credit ($5M raised) while exploring the growing $40M TVL ecosystem. 00:00 - Introduction to Worldcoin's Human Verification Network 00:43 - Mini-App Advantages: Instant 20M User Access 01:17 - Mini Kit SDK Features & Proof-of-Personhood 01:56 - World App Store Discovery & Quality Standards 02:31 - Growth Metrics: 1B Impressions, 500k DAU 03:12 - Global User Base: 160 Countries, 12M Verified 03:54 - $40M TVL Opportunity in Emerging Ecosystem 04:33 - Roadmap: Scaling Distribution & Wallet Features 05:14 - Success Stories: Auto, Plus, Credit 05:52 - Developer Resources & Submission Portals 06:31 - Live Demo: Creating a Mini-App in Minutes 07:25 - Template Setup & Local Development 08:31 - QR Code Testing with World App 10:36 - Payment Flows & Contract Whitelisting 12:33 - Hackathon Criteria: World ID Integration 13:18 - Q&A: App Review Process, SDK Differences 15:15 - Transaction Sponsoring & Gasless UX 17:23 - Deployment Options & Verification Toggles 20:09 - Verified vs Non-Verified User Experiences 21:34 - Closing: Show of Hands for Mini-App Builders _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🇨🇿 *ETHGlobal Prague* This workshop is specifically for ETHGlobal Prague, a 3-day hackathon held May 30 - June 1 2025, bringing together the most skilled web3 developers, designers and product builders from all around the globe for a weekend-long adventure to advance the Ethereum ecosystem! Watch the full ETHGlobal Prague 2025 playlist here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXzKMXK2aHh5Vv-ZobDU2YMWekDFYvOqd&si=SoQ5O2TOAK8RkYf- _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow ETHGlobal* X: https://x.com/ETHGlobal​ Warpcast: https://warpcast.com/ethglobal Website: https://ethglobal.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ETHGlobal _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _Are you interested in Ethereum development and entrepreneurship?_ 👉 Sign up for the next ETHGlobal event: https://ethglobal.com/events 🎁 Get exclusive access and perks with ETHGlobal Plus! https://ethglobal.com/plus 📣 Want us to throw an event in your city? Tell us where! https://ethglobal.com/city _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

ETHBerlin · Sep 4, 2024

ETHBerlin04 May 24-26, 2024, CIC Innovation Campus Keynote: Puja Ohlhaver, Mikhail Nikulin - The Silent Strings of Proof of Personhood Experiments in PoP (where each person has a single, unique identity) have increasingly been touted as a mechanism for tracing information provenance, distributing UBI, and facilitating governance over systems of AI. This talk chronicles Idena's experiment in Proof of Personhood from launch in August 2019 to a crisis in May 2022. ETHBerlin04 - https://ethberlin.org A Department of Decentralization event - https://dod.ngo The video discusses the concept of "proof of personhood" and its implications for democratic governance, economic distribution, and the authenticity of information in the age of generative AI. The speaker shares their experience with a study conducted on Idena, a blockchain protocol that aims to verify unique human identities to enable democratic processes and potentially govern AI. They critique the protocol based on a research paper titled "Compressed to Zero, the Silent Strings of Personhood," highlighting both its ambitions and challenges. Idena's founder explains that it was the first blockchain with a one-person-one-vote consensus algorithm designed to prevent bots and account trading through identity staking. The goal was to create a decentralized network operated by individuals, countering centralization issues seen in proof-of-stake systems. However, as Idena grew, suspicious patterns emerged suggesting automation or human farms where individuals were paid to perform validation ceremonies without understanding or controlling their private keys. This raised concerns about the integrity of the proof of personhood concept and whether it can be compromised by such practices.