ETHTaipei 2026 has concluded at Taipei, bringing Ethereum researchers, developers and financial institutions into a two-day program on how the technology works and where it can be used. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and speakers from Polymarket and Uniswap discussed protocol research, privacy, security and scaling. They shared proposed improvements to Ethereum alongside engineering lessons from building onchain applications.
Buterin puts censorship resistance, open source, privacy and security first
In the opening talk on Cryptonative Day, Buterin used CROPS to describe the goals blockchain should serve: censorship resistance, open source, privacy and security. His argument starts with the problem a developer wants to solve. Blockchain is a tool for meeting those goals, and the choice of which functions belong onchain should follow from that purpose.
Buterin also examined the risks of proprietary AI models, data surveillance and deanonymization. Privacy-preserving AI queries and verifiable public-safety cameras were among the examples he used to explain how local or open-source AI, anonymous networks, zero-knowledge proofs and trusted hardware could work together. In these designs, blockchain handles payments, verifiable commitments and public verification, while other functions run offchain.
Buterin and Polymarket detail ways to reduce verification costs and onchain data operations
In a separate technical talk, Buterin introduced EIP-8288, a draft proposal to aggregate signatures and proofs in the mempool. Each block would include a single aggregated STARK, reducing the need to transmit and record large proofs individually. The design targets the cost of signature and proof verification to make privacy tools and post-quantum security schemes easier to adopt. EIP-8288 remains in Draft status, with neither its specification nor an adoption timeline finalized.
Polymarket Senior Protocol Engineer Aditya discussed the engineering demands of roughly 30,000 markets a day and how the platform's new protocol reduces onchain reads and writes. Its modular design follows a "derive, don't store" principle, encoding market information in a 256-bit position ID and using lazy initialization and a replaceable oracle. Aditya said Polymarket had accounted for about 70% of Polygon block space at its peak. Internal team estimates suggest V2 could bring that share down to about 30%.
A new Institution Day examines blockchain in traditional financial markets
The Institution Day program covered digital assets, stablecoins, custody, real-world assets and compliance. In his keynote, Lin argued that blockchain would serve a limited market if it remained confined to native crypto assets. Bringing stocks, bonds and real estate into onchain systems requires cooperation with financial institutions, regulators and existing market participants.
Drawing on the history of the Internet, Lin argued that institutional participation need not undermine an open system. He compared regulation to a real-world protocol. Blockchain protocols set rules for exchanging value and data, while regulation provides shared rules for commerce. In his view, compliance, governance and user protection are issues the crypto industry must address as adoption grows.
Lin sets out three stages for Crypto Island Taiwan
Lin described three stages for Crypto Island: companies building digital asset reserves, the development of DeFi, and financial infrastructure moving onchain. He sees Taiwan's trade, supply chains and technology industries, alongside its crypto users and compliant service providers, as a base for applications such as cross-border transfers, supply-chain finance, asset tokenization and AI agent payments.
In Lin's Finance 2.0 model, the Internet exchanges information, blockchain exchanges value, and AI provides automation for financial services. He hopes that by 2030, Taiwan will be an important center for digital finance as well as technology manufacturing.
Research and financial applications share the program
Across its two-day program, ETHTaipei 2026 combined research on openness, privacy, security and onchain efficiency with discussions of banking, regulation, assets and Taiwan's industries. The format provided opportunities for researchers, developers, communities, financial institutions and enterprises to exchange ideas.
About ETHTaipei
ETHTaipei is a community-led Ethereum event that connects developers, researchers and communities in Taiwan and Asia with Ethereum teams worldwide. Since its first edition in 2023, the event has hosted more than 3,000 participants, 169 speakers, 129 talks and over 70 side events.
Dates: September 13-14, 2026 (Sunday-Monday)
Venue: POPOP Taipei, Nangang
Event information: https://ethtaipei.org/
Social: https://x.com/ethtaipei