Original Title: “Between Risk and Hope: ETH Cali and the Colombian Ethereum Community”
Original Source: ShanhaiWoo
Cali, the salsa capital of Colombia, is also the birthplace and home of ETH Cali. Here lies Zonamerica, a comprehensive offshore industrial and service park, whose innovative ecosystem, vibrant entrepreneurial community, and tax incentives for resident companies attracted ETH Cali to establish itself. Beyond office spaces, Universidad del Valle and Universidad ICESI, located within a five-kilometer radius around Zonamerica, have become key hubs for ETH Cali to host events and connect with student groups.
The Growth Trajectory of the Colombian Ethereum Community
William Martinez, who prefers to be called a core member rather than a founder, shared with us the current state of the Ethereum community in Colombia. The Ethereum Colombia community has adopted a geographically based and localized organizational structure, forming a network of local Ethereum communities including ETH Medellin, ETH Bogota, ETH Caribe, ETH Eje Cafetero, ETH Arauca, and ETH Cali.
Among these, both ETH Arauca and ETH Cali were established in October 2022, following Devcon VI in Bogotá. Sadly, Emerson David Silva, the community lead of ETH Arauca, was tragically killed last year while promoting Ethereum in a high-risk area. Today, the active Ethereum communities in Colombia mainly include ETH Bogotá, ETH Medellín, and ETH Cali.
ETH Arauca Community Lead Emerson David Silva
Like other Colombian Ethereum communities, ETH Cali aims to promote Ethereum adoption in the local community. William noted that Cali has strong technical talent, but they know little about Web3. Therefore, ETH Cali focuses on educational outreach, developer meetups, and integrating Web3 frameworks and tools into cutting-edge fields like artificial intelligence, attempting to open a window to new technological paradigms for local tech talent.
“Emerson and the story of ETH Arauca are heartbreaking,” William said, “but it has only strengthened our resolve to continue building the developer community.”
ETH Cali Wallet: An Open-Source Wallet for Practical Scenarios
Technology-driven development has always been the main theme throughout ETH Cali’s community growth, evident not only in numerous tech-focused events but also in the team members who co-build. Currently, the community’s 9 core members and 6 contributors almost all have strong developer backgrounds.
At the ETH Latam Hub during Devconnect, we met core community developer Cristobal Valencia. He is building a new ReFi project: ReFiUP. According to Cristobal, ReFiUP aims to create an on-chain protocol called ReFi Universe Protocol to coordinate global efforts for cleaning the planet. Users earn tokens and verifiable certificates by collecting various types of trash, while companies purchase these certificates to offset their carbon emissions. The process uses AI agents to verify user work and zero-knowledge proof technology to protect user privacy data.
The inspiration for ReFiUP came from an offline event supported by ETH Cali. In June this year, ETH Cali partnered with local environmental organization Lapapaya to provide technical and logistical support for a small marathon event in Cali. During the race, participants could earn tokens and NFT certificates as rewards based on the amount of trash collected. The event gathered over 150 kilograms of recyclable waste, with more than 60 participants successfully claiming on-chain rewards via ETH Cali Wallet.
“Our goal is to engage community members and new users, and through this open-source wallet designed for practical application scenarios, let them explore the possibilities of cryptocurrency.” According to William, ETH Cali Wallet is built on Privy for account management, supports email registration, incorporates zkPassport.id as an anti-Sybil mechanism, and enables gas-sponsored transactions via account abstraction. ETH Cali has open-sourced the wallet’s codebase, allowing other developers to focus on building application logic without reinventing user login or anti-Sybil mechanisms.
From Events to Impact: ETH Cali’s 2026 Plan
Looking back over the past three years, ETH Cali has hosted over 40 offline meetups, attracted more than 100 Web2 developers to join, and grown its Web3 membership from 5 to over 250. Meanwhile, the community has supported more than 10 local Web3 projects, established partnerships with 5 universities, and gradually engaged in dialogues with high-level leaders, government departments, and key institutions to help them understand the technology through practice.
“We focus on real builders, not hype.” Regarding the future, William outlined ETH Cali’s specific goals for 2026:
• Establish an ETH Cali hub or hacker house for the local tech community as a long-term space for developer exchange and collaboration.
• Collaborate with universities like ICESI, USB Cali, and Universidad Santiago de Cali to promote research focused on cryptography, blockchain, and artificial intelligence.
• Train over 100 Web2 developers to enter Web3 through structured programs like Speed Run Ethereum and Cyfrin Updraft.
• Partner with the Ethereum Foundation Secretariat to transform a university DeFi course into a free, open Web3 learning program for local developers and the community.
• Build and operate its own RPC infrastructure to provide stable and reliable technical support for the local ecosystem.
• Experiment with new technologies including robotics to create a more hands-on learning and experimentation environment.
• Strengthen collaboration with Ethereum communities in Cluj, Prague, Naples, Rome, India, and China, making Cali an active node in the global Ethereum network.
These goals are not merely about numbers or scale expansion but revolve around the question of “how to make technology truly work.” For ETH Cali, the endpoint of community building is not the events themselves, but whether technology can address broader real-world needs.
Ethereum’s Next Leap: Real Products and Services
In William’s view, Latin America faces structural challenges such as cross-border payments, global monetary access, currency devaluation risks, and limited participation in global tech communities, where Ethereum technology can deliver tangible value.
He believes the next phase of breakthrough will come from shifting focus from speculation to truly global-facing products and services. With improving internet access, maturing data infrastructure, and the proliferation of AI tools, Latin America is poised to accelerate its innovation pace and play a more significant role in open-source technology and global collaboration.
“Late 2026 or early 2027 might be a suitable time window,” William said, “We might host a pop-up city, bringing together local builders, institutions, government, entrepreneurs, developers, and researchers to collaboratively envision Cali’s next phase of development in an open, collaborative setting.”
Conclusion
Technological development is never a straight upward line but more like a spiral ascent. The same holds for the Colombian Ethereum community represented by ETH Cali: despite twists and turns, it continuously accumulates strength, passing on core Web3 values like collaboration, permissionless innovation, and open-source culture to more people.
