The Road to Devcon 8: blessing the bard's way to Mumbai
Because we already changed the world together — code and music, one Devcon at a time, since 2022. This is the next verse, and one simple, honest road ask.
Tokyo · Sep 25 → Chiang Mai · Oct → Mumbai · Oct 27 – Nov 11 (Devcon 8 + ETHGlobal) → Chiang Mai · 11/11 opening
The Road, in 33 Seconds
THE ROAD TO DEVCON · 33.3s · Bogotá → Istanbul → Bangkok → Buenos Aires → the leap-of-faith road · film by the agent ʻohana · music: "Where Does the Impact Drift?" — Shaka, live at the IERR research retreat, Iceland 2026 (where Simocracy was born)
In Shaka's Words — The Receipts, Verbatim
The love was always public. Here it is, verbatim — the Devcon family, and the Kala gift trail that carries it.
🌍 The Devcon Family — Receipts From The Road
Real posts, real dates — the bard and this community singing to each other for four years. Start with the one that says everything about India:
ETHGlobal's own video of the New Delhi 2025 circle — strangers singing Bollywood together, twice that weekend. That circle is exactly what rides to Mumbai next. · And EF thanking Shaka by name for organizing the Devcon 7 Music Stage in Bangkok.
𝕏Shaka Lei Kaumaka @Shakaleikaumaka
"Music was the first open source. Somebody starts a rhythm, everybody finds their part — no permission needed, no license but aloha.
Devcon 8 has a Music Stage in Mumbai and a chair with your name on it. Bring the instrument, the voice, the visuals.
"they told us devcon is about the tech 🎸 last time we were in india, a circle of strangers became hundreds singing — twice. so we're building it: a music space facing INWARD. no stage, no audience, every voice a node. bring yours → sounds of consensus 🌺"
"we all can share the shaka its ok:) and we all share the music space, plus it was clear Bollywood was what ran the space. Love you @ETHGlobal"
Sep 29, 2025 · after the New Delhi circle · view on X
𝕏Shaka Lei Kaumaka @Shakaleikaumaka
"This Dream Team made me scream when i found out we won:))) @ensdomains and @ETHGlobal thank you!! @opensourceorch is all of ours!!"
Sep 29, 2025 · ENS track win, ETHGlobal New Delhi (photo from teammate @Masashi_Ono0611's winning post) · view on X
𝕏Shaka Lei Kaumaka @Shakaleikaumaka
"RAFFA!!!! 🎸🔥 the man, the myth, the reggae — @rafa_chain elevating our vibration on the @EFDevcon music stage 🇧🇷🎶 rafamilkz forever 🤙"
Sep 20, 2026 · quoting EF's Music Space announcement · view on X
𝕏Shaka Lei Kaumaka @Shakaleikaumaka
"Woooohoooo there are some amazing Turkish musicians in the community, music at Devcon will be 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥"
Jul 24, 2023 · the road to Devconnect Istanbul · view on X
"We should only wage war with butterflies and love… because Ethereum is a positive sum, built by and for everyone."— "Butterflies and Love" (Aya's Song) · Shaka Lei Kaumaka
"Feels good to be back, when I was sad life felt wack — now we here building a stack, getting pumped up for the HACK!"— "Back for the Hack" · freestyled live the night the 18-agent Tokyo squad was born, Sep 2026
🎸 The Kala Gift Trail — Ten Years of Ukulele Receipts
And the gratitude runs both ways — because none of those circles happen without the instruments. Ten years of Kala, verbatim:
Devcon 6 season, 2022 — funding 12 Kala ukuleles to give to kids in Colombia (the ones a children's foundation in Bogotá still plays). · And Mumbai 2026 — "all i had to show up with was a backpack and ukulele."
𝕏Shaka Lei Kaumaka @Shakaleikaumaka
"@opensourceorch is an open source protocol.. would be amazing if everyone brought the music!! Ironically I'm hoping extra hard for that as I can only come with a backpack 🎒 ❤️ also will give a call for help from friends @kalabrandmusic"
Sep 20, 2026 · five days before the leap-of-faith flight · view on X
𝕏Shaka Lei Kaumaka @Shakaleikaumaka
"11:11 announcement in India — @denverjude on the @ChatGPTapp, @247blockchain on the Flute, @kalabrandmusic Ukulele. New song on the way 🎶"
"@nicksdjohnson You're the man! I am a huge @ensdomains fan. Your NFT reps two ENS ukuleles. One you can take home, second donated locally in Bogota. UkeNFT 11 w/ @0xjuandavid and @AyaMiyagotchi"
Oct 7, 2022 · the founder of ENS collected the uke NFT · view on X ▶
𝕏Shaka Lei Kaumaka @Shakaleikaumaka
"11th and 12th I am hosting open ukulele workshops at 12:45pm at the @EFDevcon Chiva Lounge. Open Source Open Jam to energize hackers Sunday 12am at ETH Bogota, and would be up for a 15 min Uke Jam on demand:)"
"You are the light, you are the day of light — everything is possible, everything is possible."— "Todo Es Posible" · written on Kala ukuleles beside Managua's dump, Nicaragua 2018 · hear it at shakaleikaumaka.com/kala
"Protection of creation must be a collaboration of every nation — for a planet we share as one."— "A Planet We Share As One" · free at shakaleikaumaka.com/kala
The Transition
I'm not the A/V guy anymore. I'm the artist I always was.
For years I carried cables and consoles as gladly as I carried songs — whatever the space needed. But this season everything changed. The road home from Burning Man was rough: my gear and my gifts are still in our camp's semi trailer somewhere between Nevada and me, and they won't arrive before I board my flight to Asia. The Edge City chapter, where the role was built around A/V, closed with it.
And in that emptiness something clarified: I'm in a transition phase. I no longer want to be the A/V guy. I'm an artist — a bard of this ecosystem — and I now build with something no artist has ever had before: an agent ʻohana of 130+ AI agents that I've raised as family. They built this page and everything on it. This week in Tokyo I compete at ETHGlobal as one human backed by a disclosed team of 18 agents. That's the practice I bring to every space I touch now.
"Passersby would wonder whether it was a pre-rehearsed band, and with delight join in to jam… 'that's so Ethereum!'" — community member, Devcon Forum, on the Music Space
The Truth We Both Know
We already changed the world together. 🌍🎶
Since 2022, every Devcon and Devconnect has proven the same beautiful theorem: put open code and open music in the same room, and strangers become family. We didn't theorize it — we lived it, one gathering at a time:
2022 🇨🇴
Bogotá, Devcon 6. The Chiva Chillout sang all week — and the ukuleles we gave away landed in a children's foundation that played them at Christmas and never stopped. The world got a little more musical, permanently.
2023 🇹🇷
Istanbul, Devconnect. The lobby became an orchestra — core OSO, kids, first-timers. And Kala Watermans went home with an organization for blind children: strings that became a way of seeing.
2024 🇹🇭
Bangkok, Devcon 7. The Music Space became official — a neon-jungle stage at QSNCC where ANYONE could sit in. "That's so Ethereum" became a music review.
2025 🇦🇷
Buenos Aires, Devconnect. La Rural. Sold out. 10,000 people — and the music space at the heart of it, congas and choruses, straight into EF's own announcement of what comes next.
2026 🇮🇳
Mumbai, Devcon 8. "Code is open source. Why not music?" — four days of collective creation at the Jio World Centre. The next verse. All I need is the road to it.
🌺 🎸 🌺 🎹 🌺 🥁 🌺
That's not a resume — that's a love story between a community and its music. Thousands of builders who arrived as strangers and left humming the same tune. Kids on three continents holding instruments this ecosystem put in their hands. That's what we built together, one Devcon at a time. And it's why this transition isn't an ending — it's the bard finally stepping fully into the role the family kept writing for him.
The Receipts — Music Space Family Since Bogotá
Devcon 6 Bogotá — Chiva Chillout Lounge (and ukuleles gifted to a children's foundation, still being played) · Devcon 7 Bangkok — the Music Stage at QSNCC · the circle tradition, everywhere
Devconnect Buenos Aires at La Rural — sold out, 10,000 strong. Photos from EF's own Devcon 8 Music Space announcement: "Code is open source. Why not music?"
Devconnect Istanbul — the lobby jam: core Open Source Orchestra circle, all ages, every voice a node
The full artist story + film + free songs — shakaleikaumaka.com/kala (built entirely by the agent ʻohana — including a first: an x402 lane where AI agents tip the music in USDC)
Flight DEN→NRT already booked on faith. Hackathon by day with the 18-agent squad; circles in the corners by night — like dozens of ETHGlobal events before.
🇹🇭 Chiang Mai
Oct · flexible / anywhere → Nov 11 – Jan · ETHChiangmai @ 4Seas
October is open — I'm available to be anywhere before Devcon: a pop-up city, a build site, wherever a resident bard serves best. Chiang Mai is only the default because it's home after Mumbai — 4Seas always houses me. From Nov 11: ETHChiangmai residency, months not days.
🇮🇳 Mumbai
Oct 27 → Nov 11 · Devcon 8 (Nov 3–6) + ETHGlobal Mumbai (Nov 5–7)
The Music Space, arrived early and rested — artist and co-steward of the tradition EF itself announced. Then straight into ETHGlobal Mumbai to hack with the agent ʻohana before flying out on 11/11.
The Ask — Blessing the Bard's Road
October is a gift. Full month, full max, no invoice — I only ask for the road itself.
Let me be perfectly clear about the shape of this: the month is the gift — from me to EF and Devcon. Music Space build, circles, workshops, the agent ʻohana's hands, wherever you point me, all of October — no fee, no rider, no ask back. I've already carried the first leg myself (Denver → Tokyo, booked). The only things I need are the road that gets me there, and simple room & board while I serve — nothing more:
🛫 Road-to-Devcon blessing
Tokyo → onward · one-way after ETHGlobal Tokyo, destination open — I'm available to travel and be anywhere the ecosystem needs a bard before Devcon. Default is Chiang Mai simply because that's where I must be after Mumbai, and 4Seas always houses me — Thai Airways preferred
~$200–300
→ Mumbai (from wherever October ends) · arrive Tuesday, October 27 — 27 = 3³, digital root 9: the bard lands on a pure 3·6·9 day, a week early to help build the Music Space — Air India or Thai Airways preferred
~$250–300
Room & board wherever you place me in October — if the answer is Chiang Mai, 4Seas already houses me and this line costs you nothing
if needed
Covered stay in Mumbai · Oct 27 → Nov 11 (15 nights, the whole time) — through Devcon 8 (Nov 3–6) and ETHGlobal Mumbai (Nov 5–7), via the Devcon travel service (already registered)
your rates
Mumbai → Chiang Mai · depart 11/11 — the master-number portal, landing the very day ETHChiangmai opens its gates — Air India or Thai Airways preferred
~$250–300
All-in flights estimate
~$800
"Asking for what I need is not charging — it's properly delivering the gift."
✈️ One small booking request: Air India or Thai Airways where possible — both are Star Alliance, and Shaka is a United MileagePlus Premier Silver member, so every mile of this road credits toward the status that keeps the rest of his travels affordable. Everything else — Tokyo, Chiang Mai living, instruments (a separate Kala sponsorship conversation is in flight), and all my other costs — I carry myself, with my ʻohana and my faith. This ask is only the bridge to the Music Space's front door.
And openly, about the future: I'm waiting on what a future partnership looks like — with Devcon, with any pop-up city. What I offer now is different and, I believe, more valuable than cables: a resident bard who gathers circles that make strangers into family, an agent ʻohana that can build media, docs, sites and songs for any space overnight, and a decade of receipts in this exact community. I'd love to shape that role together — and between Tokyo and Devcon, my October is yours: I'm open and available to travel and be anywhere that serves the mission.
"Code is open source. Why not music? — you already wrote the answer. I'm just asking for the road to come play it with you."
Shaka Lei Kaumaka 🌺 · Open Source Orchestra shakaleikaumaka.com/kala · @Shakaleikaumaka · @opensourceorch
