🥷 PadawanDAO: Why the Ethereum community pays for young people to travel to conferences
If you study the history of technology, you see a repeating pattern: the kids are our future. Last year, I sparked off a little idea on Twitter: Why don’t we send young kids to Ethereum conferences?
The first technology conference I went to in 2009 changed my life. The conference was called Teens in Tech. It was free to attend and I drove through the night from Cornwall to London to get there. I was so obsessed with not missing it I didn’t sleep or go to the bathroom which led to a very embarrassing moment while stuck in London traffic 🥲
But I made it. It was free to attend.
So many happy memories
I met Josh Buckley, who is now a “former teen”. He would go on to age a little bit. This year he is turning 30. This is a huge accomplishment given his British background.
Josh and I have been friends ever since we met. The Buckley & Burton friendship has been filled with love for over a decade. I drove Josh from LA to SF for his YC interview. He has helped me put my life back together after many failed startup attempts.
My point is this: the people I met with at my first serious conference changed me.
Forever.
How can I help some kids get their start?
A few months ago an idea popped into my caffeinated morning brain: why not send a few cool kids to Lisbon for their first Ethereum conference? They could be my little spies on the ground. I blurted it out on Twitter:
Things just went nuts after this. I received thousands of Direct Messages, hundreds of offers of support, and began to coordinate a huge mass of people. It was incredibly rewarding to see kids take on the task and terribly taxing to filter through the insidious scammers & broken beggars.
In the end, we sent a bunch of awesome young minds to ETH Lisbon. They kept sending me fantastic photos like this:
Dickson Wu Meets Qui-Gon Jinn
What is the PadawanDAO?
I cannot wait for Ewan McGregor’s return
The term Padawan comes from the Star Wars Universe. If you are not a fan, here is the summary:
Youngling, Padawan, Knight, Master. A Jedi continually grows and studies to unlock their full connection to the Force. Since we first heard the mysterious word uttered by Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars:The Phantom Menace, Padawan has come to mean young student, apprentice, or learner. But what does “Padawan” actually mean to the Jedi?
A Padawan’s duties varied. Meditation and lightsaber training were universal instruction studied in groups in the temple. Additional instruction and assignments for Padawans were specific to each master.
I have always lovingly referred to young founders I mentor as my Padawan. I am incredibly tough on people that are older than me and very kind to people who are young than me. This is The Way.
The term DAO comes from the Ethereum community. Technically it refers to a Decentralised Autonomous Organisation but it has become a catch-all term for groups of people or pieces of code managing something on Ethereum together.
After Lisbon, some of the kids formed the PadawanDAO so they could send more kids to more conferences. It was so amazing.
They took the burden off me and used the technology to coordinate.
We want to send 1,000+ kids to Ethereum Conferences in 2022—will you help us by donating some ETH?
If you have made some money from Ethereum or its related technologies, it would be amazing if you helped us teach the Padawan about it. You can donate to this address:
0x6032DEd1D330d0672253BDfC9a56C971DeE0683F
If you do make a donation, please reply to this email with your ETH address or ENS name. I will be taking note and adding you to a special Discord channel which is only available to Jedi Masters who support the Padawan.
We all know who is generous with their gains & who is not
PadawanDao has given me hope that I might have a chance to go to ethAmsterdam . Thank you for starting all this.