adrianmcli

APAC Policy Lead @ethereum EN/中/日/한

[adrianmcli @adrianmcli]

Today, I’m transitioning to a part-time role with the EF, focused on APAC Policy.

This means I now have bandwidth for advisory/consulting work.

I first ran AlethZero back in 2014, started working in Ethereum full-time at Truffle/ConsenSys about 9 years ago, and somehow I am now 3+ years into my time at the Ethereum Foundation.

My background sits across Ethereum engineering, DeFi, ZK education, Asia ecosystem work, and law. I also work across English, Chinese, Japanese, and some Korean.

If you think I can be helpful, please reach out.

Still here, still working on Ethereum, ever since AlethZero in 2014.

[Georgios Konstantopoulos @gakonst]

we have a new EVM coming up soon that just wrapped audit, it has JIT baked in, it's really fast, and it's gonna be the future of foundry, reth, tempo and all the evm ecosystem using our stuff!

huge leap coming. stay tuned.

[Youbin Kang - Nonce Classic @youbin_kang]

"Why is Ethereum an institutional choice?"

I asked @adrianmcli (APAC Policy Lead at the Ethereum Foundation) this at the opening of Ethereum Korea One.

His answer was simple: institutions don't pick the newest chain. They pick the one they can still trust in 10 years.

Longest-running smart contract chain. Most decentralized. Most robust.

In Korea, the question has moved from "should we use blockchain?" to "which settlement layer can we trust?"

[adrianmcli @adrianmcli]

@spencecoin It’s 2026, that’s how it got approved 😞

[adrianmcli @adrianmcli]

@abbaskhan 💀💀💀

[adrianmcli @adrianmcli]

@suffo_cat_ing @Mirn_21 VPNs, just like China and Korea.

[adrianmcli @adrianmcli]

@ggmxbt @abbaskhan @MSilb7 For a very long time, Arbitrum and OP were the only two L2s worth talking about. But even from the early days, OP was seen as much more ideologically pure than Arbitrum. Arbitrun was a bit more pragmatic. They embraced the degen DeFi crowd while OP stayed relatively silent on it.

[adrianmcli @adrianmcli]

@DennisonBertram I wanted to build my own Tidbyt. Maybe with this, I’ll finally start! Thx Dennison!

[adrianmcli @adrianmcli]

@edwonedwon @Slatzism @wilding_gyres It’s laziness in relying on having a system. It’s one and done, and there will never be a need to look into it again.

[adrianmcli @adrianmcli]

@edwonedwon @Slatzism @wilding_gyres Agreed. But the problem is not in following rules and systems. The issue is that people don’t regularly review and improve systems as the world changes.

[adrianmcli @adrianmcli]

@Sandy1426563 @confirmedterfs @Slatzism @wilding_gyres Not in any modern society.

[Ethereum Korea @ethereumkoreaio]

9월 28일 여의도 콘래드 서울에서 열린 Ethereum Korea One Day 1 기관 컨퍼런스의 기록을 공개합니다.

참여하지 못해 아쉬웠던 분들을 위해 세션별 발언을 현장 분위기까지 느끼실 수 있게 그대로 정리했습니다.

보고서가 정리한 7가지 인사이트:
1. 질문이 "쓸 것인가"에서 "어떻게 쓸 것인가"로 바뀌었다
2. 퍼블릭이냐 허가형이냐보다 연결과 통제를 어떻게 설계하느냐가 핵심이다
3. 기관이 먼저 묻는 것은 통제권이다
4. 토큰화의 가치는 디지털 래퍼가 아니라 유동성, 정산, 담보에 있다
5. 에이전틱 AI는 새로운 결제 수요이자 결제 레일 경쟁이다
6. 한국의 병목은 기술보다 제도, 회계, 사업성이다
7. 기술보다 먼저 정할 것은 수요와 "왜 온체인인가"다

[KR] https://t.co/0o0LX3w0HM
[EN] https://t.co/AdkpRPXOep

[nikharami @nikharami]

@OpenAI Is p=np yet?

[adrianmcli @adrianmcli]

South Korea has +11M crypto investors and tokenized securities are set to arrive in Feb 2027. Building the channel between regulators, institutions and builders is exactly what this ecosystem needs. Glad to have played a role in this.

[Youbin Kang - Nonce Classic @youbin_kang]

1/ The Ethereum Foundation's public grants registry lists 1,173 funded projects. One of the ones added this quarter is called "Ethereum Korea Policy Coordination Layer." That one is ours.

Here is why it matters, even if you have never thought much about Korea.

[adrianmcli @adrianmcli]

@ykurotsu @mrjeffu Just copying the Trump playbook.

[adrianmcli @adrianmcli]

In this age of AI and software commoditization, there are only 3 things where you can have a moat:

1. Hardware
2. Human connections and trust
3. Legal and regulatory know-how

[adrianmcli @adrianmcli]

@DennisonBertram I think we’ve hit an asymptotic stage. The incremental intelligence is diminishing and taking 10x longer than a “less smart” model.

The real value comes from fast iteration and real feedback from the human user providing relevant context.

[adrianmcli @adrianmcli]

@capsulebutt I know people that were here for 5+ years but had to go back home because their parents got cancer, and now they’re back in Japan to continue their life… and now somehow it’s their fault for “not getting PR”???

[adrianmcli @adrianmcli]

@rstormsf Holy shit, hope you get the surgery quickly and get well soon.

[ross.wei @z0r0zzz]

today I am releasing the ultimate, and final DEX: zSwap.

The first decentralized exchange that runs 100% on the blockchain. As a complete DeFi stack that runs forever.

[adrianmcli @adrianmcli]

I am very sad.

[isabel @izonline]

After 5+ years, we're winding down POAP.

Over the years, we:
* minted millions of collectibles across hundreds of communities.
* did incredible collaborations with world-class organizations - Coinbase, Amex, WMG, Bayer, and a long tail of others, including countless in crypto.
* ran one of the biggest activations at Devcon, minting 8000+ collectibles over the course of a week.
* built an Airport Rally to let collectors get POAPs at airports around the world.

POAP meant something to a lot of people.

Unfortunately, crypto's funding cycles and distribution dynamics made it hard to build a sustainable company without cannibalizing the ethos that made POAP mean something. Building on a fragile and quickly evolving stack, in the middle of an incredible hype cycle, only added to the challenges.

Still, there are some big lessons I am carrying from the POAP story.

First: Customer communities are the most undervalued asset a company can have. If you build something with soul, people who use it and love it will take your brand everywhere. Do not underestimate the power of customer communities.

Second: Connection is still the point. It's easy to lose that thread when the conversation is about the latest bubbly tech or price speculation, but the people using POAPs at events, in classrooms, at hackathons were getting something real out of it.

Third: Longevity and brand equity are the only moats left. With the time to building and shipping something new collapsing quickly, and distribution becoming increasingly an engineering problem, customers increasingly want to make sure they can trust that the things they are buying will grow and evolve with the market, without changing radically.

Grateful for everyone who believed in what we were building. It's too soon for me to say what's next, but for now, I'm thinking a lot about what GTM looks like in the age of AI.