Here I sit in 11H about to descent to Amsterdam on a not-so-decentralized flight with the @thebeedevs and the wizard and his wife, all aboard the night train. Being somewhat exhausted and feeling the wonders of the (Thai? Vietnamese? Malay?) lady’s massage from this afternoon slowly fade away as I try to become comfortable with the seating of the magic bus.

The magic aluminium bus teleported me to Kuala Lumpur — a wonderful other culture. A new world for me. Change. Almost two weeks ago when I touched down and walked around, I felt so intensely happy to be there. The heat, the completely different view of things, yet also the same things but different. Sama sama bro.

@Gandalf asked me how I would rate this version of HiveFest. And I answered that giving it a 10 would be a bit too much — there is always room for improvement — but for my personal experience in organising it, it really was a 9.

We saw unique venues for the conference days, even unbeknown to many of the local Malay attendees of ChainCulture Day! I was also very happy with the choice of the KL The Journal Hotel (please rate them 5 stars). The people were very friendly. The somewhat outdated rooftop pool ledging over a magnificent view of Chiang Kiat’s hustle and bustle worked out wonders — a little surfers’ paradise in downtown KL.

The Wins

• (Mal)Asia!
• Getting a great group together
• Diverse programme and epic venues
• Impromptu roundtable workshop for progress for Hive
• The foods, the foods
• The number one witness in a pengu suit.
• Happy ending

ChainCulture — IMHO a Success

The story behind the origins of ChainCulture is multifold.

To me, HiveFest is the gathering for the Hive ecosystem — the internal PR event — enabling one-on-one contact with fellow Hivers, learning what dApps are updating, upgrading or introducing, and meeting known Hivers. Direct feedback on what you’re making, getting rid of potential frustrations, and moving the chain forward through these multi-day conversations.

There are many people who have been to over five HiveFests. That is a strong bond. It becomes part of your identity, and that bond becomes stronger with every IRL connection so much faster.

But beyond HiveFest, there has always been a call for broader outreach beyond Hive, with an event like HiveFest. It was always challenging and felt not fitting to bring a literally “Hive”-named event and get more chains or projects from other chains to join in. But this year the idea was to cater to that need — not in the last place because the venue booked for day 2, “Glasshouse at Seputeh”, was aiming at a 200 pax attendee level, and that amount of HiveFest attendees was not to be reached as my early ticket sales foresaw.

With this inaugural edition of ChainCulture, we altogether brought that Hive(fest) social magic to a whole new group of 280 people. And the feedback I received was overwhelmingly positive. ChainCulture showcased the diversity of chain-related initiatives and projects, communities, and art performances — just like HiveFest also has this variety of presentations from dApps, bloggers, and builders.

In ChainCulture, I tried to bring that by having the mix of @Poezio with poetry, memeing penguins and hamsters, boutique expo and great food, a variety of panels, and to top it off a little original Detroit techno with a visual performance by llinllin and @olofski.

ChainCulture drew 500+ registered RSVPs, of which ultimately a number between 270–300 people attended throughout the day — in my humble opinion, a very nice mix of people and projects that totally created FOMO in the Malay Web3 community.

To be succeeded next year, in my opinion — and who knows, maybe multiple satellite editions?
Maybe we could form it to become an integrated part of HiveFest, where HiveFest is the umbrella event, ChainCulture the main daytime event, followed by a day of Hive-focused presentations thereafter (or a Hive-dedicated track during ChainCulture?), and the more social part of HiveFest intertwined throughout the program.

Ultimately it’s about setting the date, the place — and then it’s up to you to decide to come again. HiveFive!

TERIMA KASIH — THANK YOU

I want to thank you, fellow attendee of HiveFest 10, for coming and making it the success it was. It would not have been the same (fact!) if you weren’t there. I sincerely hope you enjoyed every bit of it — including random midnight power bikes pulling up at the cross-roads, dancing penguins, and a late-night game of billiards in a fricking freezer

Thank Yous

• @joannewong — for helping make ChainCulture Day the success it became, setting up numerous connections, community partnerships, and preventing me from becoming lost in translation. I’ve learned a lot from you these past months! Here is to the next one!
• @aaronleang — for your local input, opinions, drives around town helping out both conference days, and fashion advice in the malls.
• @poezio — for all the help during setup days, technical hosting of the event during production days, and a listening ear during my life.
• @Pho.mo — for being so supportive to @Poezio and all guests arriving at the event, a wonderful host!
• @mynewlife — for pumping out the daily recaps and setting up the digital “Young Art Fair” curation and showcase itself. Looking forward to the rest of the vids.
• @crimsonclad — for MC’ing during the day, setting up connections and pool liquidity.
• @detlev — for MC’ing, helping out throughout the event, and BeerSaturday!
• @olofski (fresh on-chain!) — for curating the art program’s VJ shows, welcoming me in KL, and DJ’ing at the end of both conference days!
• @Gandalf — for being an early sparring partner and wizard of magic.
• @kevinwong, @solarwarrior, @rmach, and @rivalzzz — for being conference helping hands and making it happen during check-in / checkout.
• @louis88 — for being event photographer, enhancing the experience with the Leica printer, your custom frames, and earlier for the HiveFest image themer!
• @arcange — specifically for showing up at the last minute; otherwise, we wouldn’t have had anyone in the penguin suit.
• @starkerz — for kickstarting the Sunday meeting; it wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t taken a 37-hour flight to KL.
• @thebeedevs — for hosting the workshops during ChainCulture Day in the suite and for bringing the mobile chainnode @itsola!
• Shoutout: Very unfortunately, active members @apshamilton and @brianoflondon could not make it due to visa restrictions.

Next to all this personal help, we’ve seen individual partners along the way making HiveFest 2025 possible by obtaining upgraded tickets enabling minnows to come too.

And the sponsors of HiveFest 2025 beyond the ValuePlan: @hiveio — @valueplan, @vsc.network, @worldmappin, @splinterlands, @actifit, @blocktrades, @creativeworkhour, and @ecency.

But of course, most of all the thank-yous go out to you. You are the reason why this happened. If you weren’t bold enough to tap into one man’s idea — to join a group of weirdos from all over the planet to huddle up in tropical KL — it wouldn’t have been the same.

Especially this edition, you showed our “social magic” during ChainCulture Day to all the other non-Hive attendees flowing in and out of the Glasshouse. You came, you helped, saw old friends, made new ones, and added experiences to your list of memories.

Can’t wait to read and see all you did and experienced — and looking forward to the next time we meet. Terima Kasih!

@roelandp - ps. im a witness too feel free to cast a vote!