The Ethereum Foundation selected 100 individuals for its Devconnect ARG Scholars Program, giving first-time participants from underrepresented geographies full financial support to attend Devconnect Buenos Aires from November 17 to 22, 2025. The cohort was the largest in the program's six-year history, doubling the 50 scholars funded for Devcon Bogotá in 2022, more than quadrupling the 22 selected for Devconnect Istanbul in 2023, and building on a lineage that also includes a cohort for Devcon SEA in Bangkok in 2024. Applications closed June 30, 2025, with notifications sent in July.

The program provided support across a combination of categories including round-trip flights, accommodation, visa application fees, per diem, and event tickets, with each package calibrated to individual need. Not every scholar received every category of benefit; the support structure was designed to address each participant's specific circumstances. Scholars committed roughly three hours per week over three months of online programming before traveling to Argentina. Every participant was required to be a first-time attendee at either a Devcon or Devconnect event.

The foundation structured the cohort across five tracks: Ethereum Community Organizers, Legal and Public Sector Professionals, Journalists, Artists, and Developers and Other Builders. Each scholar was expected to produce a "Learning Artifact" after the event, a free-format reflection on their personal growth and knowledge gained.

The Buenos Aires venue was not incidental. Argentina functions as one of the world's most active real-world testing grounds for crypto adoption. Roughly 20 percent of the country's population owns cryptocurrency, not primarily for speculation but as a hedge against a currency that has lost approximately 95 percent of its value against the US dollar since 2018. Annual inflation reached 211 percent in 2024. Stablecoins account for the bulk of usage, with a 61.8 percent stablecoin adoption rate nationally and Tether (USDT) making up 80 percent of exchange transaction volume on local platforms such as Decrypto. About 5 million Argentines use crypto on a daily basis, and the country recorded $93.9 billion in transaction volume in 2024, placing it second in Latin America behind Brazil and consistently inside the global top 20 for adoption metrics.

The event itself exceeded expectations by most measurable indicators. More than 14,000 attendees from over 130 countries passed through La Rural, a convention venue in Palermo, making it the largest Ethereum Foundation event on record. The conference was organized around eight themed districts covering DeFi (decentralized finance), privacy tools, Layer 2 networks (blockchains built on top of Ethereum to improve speed and reduce fees), decentralized social platforms, hardware and wallets, artificial intelligence, gaming, and digital art. Over 80 teams demonstrated live Ethereum applications, and more than 3,000 local school students attended through a partnership with Argentina's Ministry of Education.

The program's geographic reach was visible in volunteer participation as well. Of the 200 volunteers from 40 countries who staffed the event, 30 percent came from African regions, a figure that reflects growing grassroots infrastructure across the continent. Nigeria alone counts approximately 300,000 blockchain developers, representing about 3 percent of the global total, and Ethereum remains the most widely used blockchain by developer share across Africa. The Ethereum Foundation funded at least four Africa-based projects through its grants program in Q2 2024 and hosted a two-week developer gathering in Accra, Ghana, in June 2024 with 99 residents from across the continent. Alphonce, a Kenyan software engineer who attended the Devconnect Istanbul edition, wrote on returning: "I want to contribute to the blockchain ecosystem in Africa by bringing back the collaborative spirit and knowledge exchange from Devconnect."

For South Asia, the Journalists and Legal and Public Sector tracks carry particular weight. India accounted for 17 percent of all new crypto developer entrants globally in 2024, ranking first worldwide, while regulatory frameworks in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh are all in active development. Participants returning from a program like this bring substantive technical and policy context to those ongoing regulatory conversations. A previous scholar, Ovia, a blockchain researcher from India who attended the Istanbul edition, produced technical research on ZKVMs and ZK-SNARKs (cryptographic proof systems that allow one party to prove knowledge of something without revealing the underlying information) as part of her broader work. In her reflection on the experience, Ovia wrote: "Left with ideas and potential collaborations that can contribute to her ongoing work, besides having some 'fan-girl' moments meeting some of her tech-heroes in real life."

The Scholars Program sits within the Ethereum Foundation's Next Billion Fellowship, a broader initiative supporting leaders from places including Kenya, South Africa, Venezuela, Taiwan, and Iran on long-term Ethereum-aligned projects spanning community currencies, digital identity, emergency response, and climate work. Devconnect ARG concluded more than three months before this article's publication, and early Learning Artifacts and follow-on project updates from the 2025 cohort of 100 may already be available through Ethereum Foundation channels. Readers interested in future program cycles or general Next Billion Fellowship inquiries can reach the foundation at devcon-scholars@ethereum.org.