China. The great powerhouse where trains run at nearly 1,000 km per hour, where the skyscrapers are flashy and new, like America’s once were, and where their citizens are more interested in coding Solidity than in trading eth.
The communist, authoritative, totalitarian Chinese government has effectively prevented the latter, so that might be one reason for the Chinese counter-trend because everywhere else google searches for ethereum are far higher than for its coding language, solidity.
Yet, across the globe interest in Solidity coding is at or near all-time high, maintaining a somewhat stable level now for months.

China overwhelmingly dominates. Then, Slovenia shows most interest. Italy’s neighbor, they’re often overlooked, but they’ve erected an entire statue to the blockchain and even have a bitcoin city of sorts.
South Korea is of course there, the land we mainly know of as that place where tiny robots dance because they’re just that advanced in tech.
While Bulgaria’s addition is interesting. The Balkan region might be Europe’s China. After centuries of war, they dream there of higher and better, with Romania and Bulgaria forming coding clusters.
Singapore deserves a mention too. They are tokenizing their fiat through an ethereum based private blockchain. In fierce competition with Hong Kong, as well as Dubai and all the rest, the island nation never stops in running faster and jumping higher.
Yet it is China which most fascinates, for had their government been slightly more inclined towards freedom, papers would have been covered with the new America.
An ever richer people dream of ever better. The makers movement has their mecca in Shenzhen, where open markets sell all sorts of intimate tech parts and equipments.
A generation there is rising that actually knows how iphones are made, how chips are manufactured, and now are learning how solidity functions.

Expertise in eth coding, combined with expertise in tech hardware, can be a potent combination, for linking the two in effect gives machines a basic level of intelligence.
Not lateral thinking, of course, but memory through ram, “comprehension” of sorts through code, “awareness,” as in vision or “feelings” through sensors, and the ability to act through smart contracts in effect completes an autonomous machine.
But this tech revolution is very much led by the west, where most of the talent is found, most of the knowledge, and where all speak primarily in english.

Ethereum’s specialized devs subreddit grew by 1,000 subscribers since last month. Still tiny by comparison to the main ones, standing at only around 10% or 5%, it nonetheless shows significant growth.
That’s because a second stage is seemingly being reached. After the ICO frenzy which begun in 2016, some projects are now showing progress.
BAT might be chief among them. A real working thing. Its significance can not be discounted for it shows this all is no longer a proof-of-concept. It actually works, and it can actually do things, and it might even do them better.
A “real” rush therefore might soon be upon us to open the roaring 20s. Until then, we can enjoy this unique time in history, for there’s a place on earth where meritocracy alone rules. Where no one cares whether you are rich or poor, of what nation or of no nation, of what gender or indeed of no gender.
For in this leveled land of no hierarchy, meritocracy is king. It won’t last, but hopefully we can enjoy a decade of it.