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Between Risk and Hope: ETH Cali and the Colombian Ethereum Community
Original Title: "Between Risk and Hope: ETH Cali and the Colombian Ethereum Community"
Original Source: ShanhaiWoo Mountain & Sea Pavilion
Cali City, the salsa dance capital of Colombia, is also the birthplace and hometown of ETH Cali. Here lies a comprehensive offshore industrial and service park called Zonamerica, where an innovative ecosystem, an active community of entrepreneurs, and tax benefits for resident companies have attracted ETH Cali to establish its presence. In addition to the office area, the Universidad del Valle (Valle University) and Universidad ICESI (ICESI University), located within five kilometers of Zonamerica, have also become important hubs for ETH Cali to hold events and connect with student communities.
Growth Trajectory of the Colombian Ethereum Community
William Martinez, who prefers to call himself a core member rather than a founder, tells us about the current development status of the Ethereum community in Colombia. The Ethereum Colombian community has adopted a geographically and locally based organizational structure, forming an Ethereum local community network consisting of multiple nodes such as ETH Medellin, ETH Bogota, ETH Caribe, ETH Eje Cafetero, ETH Arauca, and ETH Cali.
Among them, both ETH Arauca and ETH Cali were established after Devcon VI in Bogota in October 2022. Unfortunately, Emerson David Silva, the community leader of ETH Arauca, was tragically killed last year while promoting Ethereum in a high-risk area. Currently, the active Colombian Ethereum community mainly includes ETH Bogotá, ETH Medellín, and ETH Cali.
ETH Arauca Community Leader Emerson David Silva
Like other Ethereum communities in Colombia, ETH Cali aims to promote Ethereum adoption in the local community. William stated that Cali City has a strong pool of technical talent, but they know very little about Web3. Therefore, ETH Cali focuses on education, developer meetups, and practical activities such as integrating Web3 frameworks and tools into cutting-edge fields like artificial intelligence, attempting to open a window to a new technological paradigm for local tech talent.
"The story of Emerson and ETH Arauca is heartbreaking," William said, "but it has also strengthened our resolve to continue building the developer community."
ETH Cali Wallet: An Open-Source Wallet for Real-World Use Cases
A tech-driven approach has always been the hallmark of the ETH Cali community development, reflected not only in numerous tech-related activities but also in the team members who have collectively participated in building the community. Today, the community consists of 9 core members and 6 contributors, almost all of whom have a deep developer background.
At Devconnect's ETH Latam Hub, we met Cristobal Valencia, a core community developer. He is working on a new ReFi project: ReFiUP. According to Cristobal, ReFiUP aims to create an on-chain protocol, ReFi Universe Protocol, that coordinates global efforts to clean the Earth. Users can earn tokens and verifiable certificates by collecting various types of waste, while companies can reduce their carbon footprint by purchasing these certificates. The entire process involves AI agents to verify user work and uses zero-knowledge proof technology to protect user privacy data.
The inspiration for ReFiUP came from an offline event supported by ETH Cali. In June of this year, ETH Cali partnered with the local environmental organization Lapapaya to provide technical and logistical support for a small marathon event held in Cali. During the race, participants could earn tokens and NFT certificates as rewards based on the amount of garbage they collected. The event collected over 150 kilograms of recyclable waste, and more than 60 participants successfully claimed their on-chain rewards through the ETH Cali Wallet.
"Our goal is to engage community members and new users, allowing them to explore the possibilities of cryptocurrency through this open-source wallet designed for real-world use cases," William explained. The ETH Cali Wallet is built on the Privy account system, supports email registration, introduces zkPassport.id as an anti-whale mechanism, and implements gas sponsorship transactions through account abstraction. ETH Cali has open-sourced the codebase of this wallet, enabling other developers to focus on building application logic without having to redevelop user authentication or anti-whale mechanisms.
From Events to Impact: ETH Cali's 2026 Roadmap
Looking back at the past three years, ETH Cali has held over 40 offline meetups, attracting over 100 Web2 developers to join, and growing its Web3 membership from 5 people to over 250. At the same time, the community has supported over 10 local Web3 projects, established partnerships with 5 universities, and gradually engaged in dialogues with senior leadership, government agencies, and key institutions to help them understand this technology through practice.
"We focus on real builders, not hype." Looking to the future, William listed specific goals for ETH Cali by 2026:
• Establish an ETH Cali center or hacker space for the local tech community as a long-term space for developer interaction and collaboration.
• Partner with universities such as ICESI, USB Cali, Universidad Santiago de Cali to drive research focused on cryptography, blockchain, and artificial intelligence.
• Cultivate over 100 Web2 developers to transition to Web3 through structured projects like Speed Run Ethereum, Cyfrin Updraft.
• Collaborate with the Ethereum Foundation Secretariat to transform a university DeFi course into a free, open Web3 learning project for local developers and the community.
• Build and operate their own RPC infrastructure to provide stable and reliable technical support for the local ecosystem.
• Explore new technologies including robotics to create a more practical learning and experimental environment.
• Strengthen cooperation with Ethereum communities in Cluj, Prague, Naples, Rome, India, and China to make 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 effective." For ETH Cali, the culmination of community development is not the events themselves but whether the technology can address broader real-world needs.
The Next Inflection Point for Ethereum: Real Products and Services
In William's view, the Latin American region faces some structural challenges such as cross-border payments, global currency access, currency devaluation risks, and limited participation in the global tech community, where Ethereum technology can provide real value.
He believes that the next stage of breakthrough will come from shifting the focus from speculation to truly global products and services. With improving Internet access, mature data infrastructure, and widespread use of artificial intelligence tools, Latin America is poised to accelerate its pace of innovation and play a more important role in open-source technologies and global collaboration.
“The end of 2026 or the beginning of 2027 might be an appropriate time window,” William suggested. “We may hold a flash city event, bringing together local builders, institutions, governments, entrepreneurs, developers, and researchers to collectively envision the next phase of Cali's development through open collaboration.”
Conclusion
Technological advancement has never been a straight upward line but more like a spiral ascent. The Colombian Ethereum community, represented by ETH Cali, is no different: despite setbacks and ups and downs, it has continued to build strength, continuously spreading core Web3 values such as collaboration, permissionless innovation, and open-source culture to more people.
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The following illustration compares the security mechanisms of Signal, WhatsApp, Telegram, and X Chat along six dimensions. X Chat is the only one of the four where the platform holds the key and the only one without Forward Secrecy.
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From a September 2025 TechCrunch report to being live in April 2026, this architecture saw no changes.
In a February 9, 2026 tweet, Musk pledged to undergo rigorous security tests of X Chat before its launch on X Chat and to open source all the code.
As of the April 17 launch date, no independent third-party audit has been completed, there is no official code repository on GitHub, the App Store's privacy label reveals X Chat collects five or more categories of data including location, contact info, and search history, directly contradicting the marketing claim of "No Ads, No Trackers."
Not continuous monitoring, but a clear access point.
For every message on X Chat, users can long-press and select "Ask Grok." When this button is clicked, the message is delivered to Grok in plaintext, transitioning from encrypted to unencrypted at this stage.
This design is not a vulnerability but a feature. However, X Chat's privacy policy does not state whether this plaintext data will be used for Grok's model training or if Grok will store this conversation content. By actively clicking "Ask Grok," users are voluntarily removing the encryption protection of that message.
There is also a structural issue: How quickly will this button shift from an "optional feature" to a "default habit"? The higher the quality of Grok's replies, the more frequently users will rely on it, leading to an increase in the proportion of messages flowing out of encryption protection. The actual encryption strength of X Chat, in the long run, depends not only on the design of the Juicebox protocol but also on the frequency of user clicks on "Ask Grok."
X Chat's initial release only supports iOS, with the Android version simply stating "coming soon" without a timeline.
In the global smartphone market, Android holds about 73%, while iOS holds about 27% (IDC/Statista, 2025). Of WhatsApp's 3.14 billion monthly active users, 73% are on Android (according to Demand Sage). In India, WhatsApp covers 854 million users, with over 95% Android penetration. In Brazil, there are 148 million users, with 81% on Android, and in Indonesia, there are 112 million users, with 87% on Android.
WhatsApp's dominance in the global communication market is built on Android. Signal, with a monthly active user base of around 85 million, also relies mainly on privacy-conscious users in Android-dominant countries.
X Chat circumvented this battlefield, with two possible interpretations. One is technical debt; X Chat is built with Rust, and achieving cross-platform support is not easy, so prioritizing iOS may be an engineering constraint. The other is a strategic choice; with iOS holding a market share of nearly 55% in the U.S., X's core user base being in the U.S., prioritizing iOS means focusing on their core user base rather than engaging in direct competition with Android-dominated emerging markets and WhatsApp.
These two interpretations are not mutually exclusive, leading to the same result: X Chat's debut saw it willingly forfeit 73% of the global smartphone user base.
This matter has been described by some: X Chat, along with X Money and Grok, forms a trifecta creating a closed-loop data system parallel to the existing infrastructure, similar in concept to the WeChat ecosystem. This assessment is not new, but with X Chat's launch, it's worth revisiting the schematic.
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Every WeChat feature operates within China's regulatory framework. Musk's system operates within Western regulatory frameworks, but he also serves as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). This is not a WeChat replica; it is a reenactment of the same logic under different political conditions.
The difference is that WeChat has never explicitly claimed to be "end-to-end encrypted" on its main interface, whereas X Chat does. "End-to-end encryption" in user perception means that no one, not even the platform, can see your messages. X Chat's architectural design does not meet this user expectation, but it uses this term.
X Chat consolidates the three data lines of "who this person is, who they are talking to, and where their money comes from and goes to" in one company's hands.
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After the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, when will the war end?
Before using Musk's "Western WeChat" X Chat, you need to understand these three questions
The X Chat will be available for download on the App Store this Friday. The media has already covered the feature list, including self-destructing messages, screenshot prevention, 481-person group chats, Grok integration, and registration without a phone number, positioning it as the "Western WeChat." However, there are three questions that have hardly been addressed in any reports.
There is a sentence on X's official help page that is still hanging there: "If malicious insiders or X itself cause encrypted conversations to be exposed through legal processes, both the sender and receiver will be completely unaware."
No. The difference lies in where the keys are stored.
In Signal's end-to-end encryption, the keys never leave your device. X, the court, or any external party does not hold your keys. Signal's servers have nothing to decrypt your messages; even if they were subpoenaed, they could only provide registration timestamps and last connection times, as evidenced by past subpoena records.
X Chat uses the Juicebox protocol. This solution divides the key into three parts, each stored on three servers operated by X. When recovering the key with a PIN code, the system retrieves these three shards from X's servers and recombines them. No matter how complex the PIN code is, X is the actual custodian of the key, not the user.
This is the technical background of the "help page sentence": because the key is on X's servers, X has the ability to respond to legal processes without the user's knowledge. Signal does not have this capability, not because of policy, but because it simply does not have the key.
The following illustration compares the security mechanisms of Signal, WhatsApp, Telegram, and X Chat along six dimensions. X Chat is the only one of the four where the platform holds the key and the only one without Forward Secrecy.
The significance of Forward Secrecy is that even if a key is compromised at a certain point in time, historical messages cannot be decrypted because each message has a unique key. Signal's Double Ratchet protocol automatically updates the key after each message, a mechanism lacking in X Chat.
After analyzing the X Chat architecture in June 2025, Johns Hopkins University cryptology professor Matthew Green commented, "If we judge XChat as an end-to-end encryption scheme, this seems like a pretty game-over type of vulnerability." He later added, "I would not trust this any more than I trust current unencrypted DMs."
From a September 2025 TechCrunch report to being live in April 2026, this architecture saw no changes.
In a February 9, 2026 tweet, Musk pledged to undergo rigorous security tests of X Chat before its launch on X Chat and to open source all the code.
As of the April 17 launch date, no independent third-party audit has been completed, there is no official code repository on GitHub, the App Store's privacy label reveals X Chat collects five or more categories of data including location, contact info, and search history, directly contradicting the marketing claim of "No Ads, No Trackers."
Not continuous monitoring, but a clear access point.
For every message on X Chat, users can long-press and select "Ask Grok." When this button is clicked, the message is delivered to Grok in plaintext, transitioning from encrypted to unencrypted at this stage.
This design is not a vulnerability but a feature. However, X Chat's privacy policy does not state whether this plaintext data will be used for Grok's model training or if Grok will store this conversation content. By actively clicking "Ask Grok," users are voluntarily removing the encryption protection of that message.
There is also a structural issue: How quickly will this button shift from an "optional feature" to a "default habit"? The higher the quality of Grok's replies, the more frequently users will rely on it, leading to an increase in the proportion of messages flowing out of encryption protection. The actual encryption strength of X Chat, in the long run, depends not only on the design of the Juicebox protocol but also on the frequency of user clicks on "Ask Grok."
X Chat's initial release only supports iOS, with the Android version simply stating "coming soon" without a timeline.
In the global smartphone market, Android holds about 73%, while iOS holds about 27% (IDC/Statista, 2025). Of WhatsApp's 3.14 billion monthly active users, 73% are on Android (according to Demand Sage). In India, WhatsApp covers 854 million users, with over 95% Android penetration. In Brazil, there are 148 million users, with 81% on Android, and in Indonesia, there are 112 million users, with 87% on Android.
WhatsApp's dominance in the global communication market is built on Android. Signal, with a monthly active user base of around 85 million, also relies mainly on privacy-conscious users in Android-dominant countries.
X Chat circumvented this battlefield, with two possible interpretations. One is technical debt; X Chat is built with Rust, and achieving cross-platform support is not easy, so prioritizing iOS may be an engineering constraint. The other is a strategic choice; with iOS holding a market share of nearly 55% in the U.S., X's core user base being in the U.S., prioritizing iOS means focusing on their core user base rather than engaging in direct competition with Android-dominated emerging markets and WhatsApp.
These two interpretations are not mutually exclusive, leading to the same result: X Chat's debut saw it willingly forfeit 73% of the global smartphone user base.
This matter has been described by some: X Chat, along with X Money and Grok, forms a trifecta creating a closed-loop data system parallel to the existing infrastructure, similar in concept to the WeChat ecosystem. This assessment is not new, but with X Chat's launch, it's worth revisiting the schematic.
X Chat generates communication metadata, including information on who is talking to whom, for how long, and how frequently. This data flows into X's identity system. Part of the message content goes through the Ask Grok feature and enters Grok's processing chain. Financial transactions are handled by X Money: external public testing was completed in March, opening to the public in April, enabling fiat peer-to-peer transfers via Visa Direct. A senior Fireblocks executive confirmed plans for cryptocurrency payments to go live by the end of the year, holding money transmitter licenses in over 40 U.S. states currently.
Every WeChat feature operates within China's regulatory framework. Musk's system operates within Western regulatory frameworks, but he also serves as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). This is not a WeChat replica; it is a reenactment of the same logic under different political conditions.
The difference is that WeChat has never explicitly claimed to be "end-to-end encrypted" on its main interface, whereas X Chat does. "End-to-end encryption" in user perception means that no one, not even the platform, can see your messages. X Chat's architectural design does not meet this user expectation, but it uses this term.
X Chat consolidates the three data lines of "who this person is, who they are talking to, and where their money comes from and goes to" in one company's hands.
The help page sentence has never been just technical instructions.
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