Taiwan Ethereum Ecosystem Overview

This month, let's explore Taiwan's thriving Ethereum ecosystem.

March 20, 2025

Special thanks to Hsiao Wei, Changwu, Martinet, Anton, Astro and Sunsec for feedback and review.

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Tl;dr

  • Community ownership and volunteer spirit make Taiwan's Ethereum ecosystem unique, where people value digital democracy and open source.

  • Many local OGs in the Ethereum R&D space are still active in the ecosystem. They serve as stewards of its values, while also onboarding newcomers to the space.

Policy

  • Taiwan does not recognize cryptocurrencies as legal currency. The Central Bank and Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) consider cryptocurrencies to be speculative "virtual commodities" rather than currencies. Banks are prohibited from accepting Bitcoin or providing crypto-related services, and credit card companies cannot process crypto purchases.

  • The FSC established AML guidelines for VASPs in 2023, with regulations officially starting January 2025 and registration required by September 2025. A comprehensive cryptocurrency law enabling stablecoin issuance and new trading rules is scheduled for June 2025. The regulatory framework's feasibility study concluded in late 2024, with legislation now progressing through the system.

Values, Culture, and Digital Democracy

  • Taiwan's digital democracy, led by Minister Audrey Tang, uses technology to heal polarization and increase transparency, raising public trust from 9% to about 60%. Their approach features open-source tools, pro-social networks, and citizen deliberation processes that address challenges from AI deepfakes to cryptocurrency regulation, with Tang serving on the RadicalxChange Foundation board alongside Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin.

  • While the government treats cryptocurrencies as "virtual commodities" with comprehensive taxation, Taiwan's model represents a middle path between AI-powered authoritarianism and blockchain-fueled libertarianism, showing how technology and democracy can thrive together rather than in opposition.

  • "g0v" (gov-zero): A decentralized civic tech community with information transparency, open results and open cooperation as its core values. The community embraces innovative approaches to civic participation and decision-making, including experiments with mechanisms like Quadratic Funding and Quadratic Voting.

  • Open source culture: Taiwan has a vibrant and active open source ecosystem with organizations like Open Culture Foundation (OCF), COSCUP (Conference for Open Source Coders, Users & Promoters), g0v, MozTW, etc. Local Ethereum Communities like Taiwan Ethereum Meetup group actively support and sometimes organize Blockchain and Ethereum tracks at COSCUP.

Local Grassroots Communities

  • Taipei Ethereum Meetups: Born in April 2016, this group stands as one of Taiwan's earliest and most enduring Ethereum communities, evolving from basic discussions to exploring topics like scaling, zk proofs, DeFi, governance, and privacy. You can find more through their Meetup page and Luma page. Contributors includes Changwu, Chih-Cheng Liang, Hsiao-wei Huang, etc.

  • ETHTaipei: emerged as a grassroots conference and hackathon in 2023, distinguished by its entirely volunteer-driven organization. Core contributors includes Changwu, Martinet, Nic, Anton, Ryan, Nicole, Yenwen, Bing. They come from different companies and organizations like Perpetual Protocol, Ethereum Foundation, Quantstamp, Zircuit, imToken, etc., all participating as passionate individuals rather than corporate representatives to advance the Ethereum ecosystem.

  • DeFi TLDR: operates as a monthly meetup in Taipei focused on decentralized finance. Participants contribute news articles and interesting topics to a shared document before each gathering, then deliver brief 1-3 minute introductions during the meetup, followed by open discussion. This initiative is coordinated by Anton and Yenwen. Find more here through their Notion doc, Luma page via the ETHTaipei Luma.

  • zkTaipei: A grassroots community where builders and researchers discuss about zk and its applications. Core team includes Moven, Nicole, Paul, PinHao, Ryan, and Oskar (listed alphabetically).

  • DeFiHackLabs: Web3 security community that has grown to over 4,000 members, including 292 white hats from around the world. Previously they have organized the Ethereum & Web3 Security Bootcamp. The founder of DeFiHackLabs is SunSec, a respected hacker and CISO.

  • XueDAO: A community in Taiwan focused on student developers and led by students. The Contributor Team of XueDAO currently includes students from 12 universities globally. Changwu and Martinet from ETHTaipei are mentoring students and supporting them to attend global Ethereum hackathons.

  • DeFi:

  • Creator economy:

  • Wallet:

    • Most of Taiwanese use Metamask and Rabby, followed by imToken. Some of them use local hardware wallet like CoolWallet.

  • Venture capital and accelerator

    • Sudo Research: crypto trading house and venture capital firm founded in 2017.

    • AppWorks: offers startup support via Accelerator, Funds, and School programs.

  • Builders who do not work for Taiwanese companies are shining on the global stage, including companies like Ethereum Foundation, Quantstamp, imToken, various L2s...

Ethereum Users

  • As observed, most users prefer MetaMask and Rabby wallet over local wallet options.

  • For on-ramp and off-ramp services, the majority of users rely on MAX and BitoPro.

  • When it comes to centralized exchange trading, most users select Binance and OKX due to their wide variety of trading pairs.

Web2 and Web3 Developers

  1. Developers

Taiwan has more than 1.27 million developers, with many top talents gravitating toward semiconductor giants like TSMC, manufacturing leaders like Foxconn, and chip designers like MediaTek. These companies provide abundant job opportunities for graduates, while web3 positions remain comparatively limited on the island.

  1. Ethereum devs

  • Core devs & researchers: Taiwan has produced exceptional builders like Hsiao-Wei Wang from Taipei, who served as Consensus R&D team lead at Ethereum Foundation and now works as a managing director at the Ethereum Foundation.

  • DApp Ecosystem: There are a good amount of Ethereum startups in Taiwan, mainly working in the DeFi and asset management space.

University & Blockchain Clubs

  • Prof. Gong Chen, National Chengchi University, Department of Management Information systems

  • Prof. Yu-Chi Chen, National Taipei University of Technology, Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering

    • Course: Cryptography and Privacy

  • Prof. Lo-Yao Yeh, National Central University

    • Course: Cryptography and Its Applications

  • Martinet Lee, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Institute of Network Engineering

  • Blockchain Clubs: Almost all top universities in Taiwan have blockchain clubs, including National Chengchi University (NCCU), National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTUST), and National Taiwan University (NTU). These clubs are typically chain-agnostic and primarily focus on DeFi applications.

Media

Blockchain Ecosystem Mapping

Further Reading

Thanks for reading, and have a nice day! 🌸

Best regards,

Riely and the Geodework team.

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