# Interview│Eléonore Blanc - CryptoCanal & ETHDam│ETHDam III - 2025 - Channel: [CryptoCanal](https://streameth.org/cryptocanal) - Date: 2025-10-07 - Duration: 09:26 - Watch: https://streameth.org/watch/yt-Yo4mxthfXY0 - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo4mxthfXY0 ## Description Interview with Eléonore Blanc from CryptoCanal & ETHDam at ETHDam III - 2025. https://x.com/blockblanc https://www.cryptocanal.org/ https://www.ethdam.com/ Welcome to the 3rd Edition of ETHDam, hosted May 9–11, 2025 in Amsterdam. This year, we brought together the brightest minds in privacy, security, and AI for a unique 48-hour hackathon + conference combo. 🌷 https://www.ethdam.com// 🌷 ------------------ About ETHDam & CryptoCanal ETHDam is powered by CryptoCanal, an education and events platform rooted in Amsterdam, expanding into Rotterdam and Zürich. Keep up with us to see updates on future events: https://www.cryptocanal.org/ Follow CryptoCanal on X: / cryptocanal Join CryptoCanal TG Community: https://t.me/CryptoCanalCommunity Join CryptoCanal Discord: / discord CryptoCanal unites crypto enthusiasts committed to making a positive impact. Unapologetically political, we prioritize education, events, and services while championing cypherpunk values like privacy, sovereignty, and censorship resistance. ------------------ 🎥 Credits: babyPRO - https://babypro.art/ ------------------ Special thanks to our partners who made ETHDam possible: 🌹 Hackathon – Bouquet: Oasis Network https://oasisprotocol.org/ 🌷 Hackathon – Petal: Circles https://aboutcircles.com 💛 Conference – Gold: Zano https://zano.org/ Dash https://www.dash.org/ Bitvavo https://bitvavo.com/en 🩶 Conference – Silver: Igra Labs https://igralabs.com/hero 💛 Conference – Copper: Lido https://lido.fi/ DeTrip https://detrip.travel/ Cake Wallet https://cakewallet.com/ The Grid https://thegrid.id/ Calimero Network https://calimero.network/ 0xbow https://0xbow.io/ Mina https://minaprotocol.com/ JobStash https://jobstash.xyz/ Cyber Capital https://www.cyber.capital/ POAP https://poap.xyz/ Acronym Foundation (Supported our Top 10 Hackers) https://acronymfoundation.org/ 🌱 Sponsor: EF Ecosystem Support Program https://esp.ethereum.foundation ## Transcript [Music] Hi, I'm Elanor Blank. I'm the founder of Crypto Canal and main organizer of ECAM. And it's my pleasure to sit down and answer a few questions. So, would you start out by outlining how this all started and bring us to where we are or where we were three days ago on Friday? Sure. Um all of this uh started I guess in 2022 when I organized ETH day and DeFi day during dev connect uh in Amsterdam and that was the first big conference that I ever organized. I just thought it was like a glorified big meetup which it was. It just requires much much much more work. Um and then in 2023 I organized the first ETHAM. So it was the first conference and hackathon that I ever organized and that one was dedicated to privacy and defi. The second ETH dam took place last year. Um, and that was that one was dedicated to privacy and security and we just we just wrapped ETHAM 3 which was dedicated to privacy security and AI. Yeah, that just happened. Very good. Now, am I correct? The community started a bit earlier than 2022. There was the Crypto Canal. Is that correct? Yeah. So, Crypto canal is a is something I founded in 2019. Uh, I had been fired from my first crypto job where I had dedicated my life to in 2018. I used to work for BTC.com and I was an amazing crazy startup in crypto and I was so happy to be part of it. But when I got ruck pulled and they dissolved the whole entity here in the Netherlands, I thought that I would never work again for someone else basically. And then I created Crypto Canal and then from then on other things, other projects came along. Yeah, that's very nice. So, as of recording, today is Sunday, the last day of ETHDM 2024. Could you cover the presents these past three days, the big wins that you have seen here? Too many. Too many. First of all, uh I'll I'll start with my favorite one. Maybe I'll start with my my biggest win is to finally be able to welcome Alexi Bertzv to the stage. That was a big one. That was today. kind of to pinch myself that that happened. It's been it's been three years of me advocating for him, for his for his story to be heard, for his funding campaign to go through, for his story to be understood not only by crypto people uh but also by larger institutions and by I hope as well by well the Dutch prosecutions. And today he took the stage and today he took the stage and he was able to share his story and uh Yeah, that was huge. And I'm just so happy in a way that it will never be heard by anyone else than the people that were in that room. The room was packed to the brim and it it was really moving to see everybody just be there for him to listen to his story. It's a moment of history that's unrecorded and that will stay unrecorded and um yeah, that that was a big highlight. Congratulations on being on bringing Alexi to the stage to the conference and all the other wonderful speakers we've had. Where do you see this going in the future? I'm doubling down. Uh in a sense um [Music] I I meant every word at the end of my speech right there when I was closing the stage. Uh right now, Etham, Crypto Canal, we're we're this amazing community, this local community of people who care about crypto, who who are building things here from Amsterdam. Um, but I want all of this to have an impact as well outside of our community. I want to have an impact on on people that are are not here, that are not in this venue right now. Um, and I I want to make sure that Crypto Canal becomes a place where people can discuss um these these bigger topics and really can see what crypto can become in the future. I don't want us to be this fringe look down upon sort of, you know, we're just we're just devs in a corner and we're not being taken seriously. We need to go out there. So, I'm going to be doubling down and making sure that Crypto Canal and the the messages that we carry that they are being seen and heard uh to a larger audience. And now, one last question to keep this nice, sweet, and short before we go to our very exciting laser tag game. You mentioned a couple times of this community becoming political and of your change into that. Can you give us the background, the change, and what it's like today? Yeah, for sure. I mean, my background is in political science. I guess personally, I've always been into crypto for the cipher punk ideals that is political at its core. Crypto is political because it's trying to disrupt the current system and therefore the values, the ideas are political in them in itself. That's what I believe. I believe that using cryptocurrency is a political statement. If today you try to step out of the norm, if today you're trying to use something else than fiat, if today you're trying to have something that's censorship resistant and permissionless and private and yeah, there is political that is in in an act in itself that is a political statement. So that's the beginning. August 2022, Alexi Perez was arrested here in the Netherlands. And it made me so angry that that a developer would be arrested here on this turf that I have cultivated where I've built a community of people to, you know, eat, breathe, live crypto, or at least hash it out every month. To have someone of that caliber who is peacefully living his life, having his life shattered to pieces and become a martyr that no one wants to become a martyr of anything. um but an unwanted martyr of of crypto here in the Netherlands um made me double down into the politics and that's why the last three ETH dams have been dedicated to privacy and to him um because I I I consider his case a travesty of the western world uh that wants to foster innovation and wants to have technology and who wants to be a place where people can build and feel safe. I don't know what happened. And I don't know what went through their minds, through the fiat's minds, thinking that this person was responsible for the actions of others. That is not how the rule of law should work. This is not how things should happen. Alexi is an innocent man. Alex is a developer who wrote code, open-source code for the world. Not giving money laundering for the world, but giving privacy to every user in the world. The code still works today. People are still using tornado cashache today whether they like it or not. This is permissionless, immutable code that will outlive us. 7 billion worth of Ethereum has went through it because it's useful because people need it because this is a tool for all. And the fact that they dare to arrest him and and blame him and accuse him and convict him for laundering a 1 billion is a travesty. He did not do that. North Korea, the Lasserous group did that. And I think that is the biggest travesty that happened in the Netherlands. And I have the luxury of being a Shenhen person. I'm a Swiss citizen who's been living here in the Netherlands for the last nine years. But I've learned about crypto here. I've built a crypto business here. I've built a community here. And I will keep fighting for Alexi and making sure that this does not happen to others because when you listen to Judith Debur his his lawyer and you realize that the charges are so preposterous, you realize that it was not just Alexi there on trial, but it could have been any one of us. And that's the chilling effect that I'm countering every day with education and events and knowledge. So that's what I'm doing. Eleanor, thank you very much for joining us and we're looking forward to seeing you at ETHDAM 2026. Slight note, we're calling it Crypto Canal 5. I am dropping ETH Dam. I'm dropping the brand. I do not want to be a Maxi event. We were never We were never one to be fair, but I want to step out of the ETH city world. I want to drop uh the the three-letter acronym of a certain cryptocurrency because we stand for the values and we don't stand for a cryptocurrency anymore. Actually, we've never have, but I think it it served us well for the last uh four years, but I want to bring it back to the mothership uh to say, and Crypto canal is that mothership. And so, next year we will be hosting Crypto Canal 5 or CC5. And uh stay tuned. Thank you. Thank you. [Music]