We celebrate Blockchain Innovation at Cardano Summit 2022

Through 2022, blockchain innovation continued to break into the mainstream. We celebrate the work done on it over the past year, The Cardano Foundation hosted the Cardano Summit 2022. Some of the topics discussed included the future of blockchain, sustainability and much more.

Cryptocurrency and blockchain have had a turbulent year. After the all-time highs reached last November, the subsequent crypto bear market that took place, in addition to the various crashes and hacks of the past year, sent investor confidence on a rollercoaster of emotions.

Despite all this, the Cardano Foundation hosted its event in Lausanne, Switzerland from Saturday 19th to Monday 21st November. The event had over 100,000 attendees (including virtual), 80+ speakers, 50+ locations, 40+ sessions and 15+ workshops. When we talk about the success, Fintech Times sat down with Frederik Gregaard, CEO of the Cardano Foundation. He explained how the event served as an escape from the chaos experienced in Q4’22:

“With the value of cryptocurrencies dropping 80 percent, regulatory uncertainty and shooting rounds, there has been a lot of chaos in the world over the past year. In Q4’22 I walked into a room in Lausanne with 1,200 people from all over the world, who used their own money, their own time, to travel to expensive Switzerland, to a small town called Lausanne, and the only thing they wanted . to do was talk about how we build, grow and work together in hopes of changing the world? And to be honest it was just so amazing!

“Based on the media and Twitter and all those things, part of me thought that this might not live up to our expectations. In reality, there turned out to be so much hope from those in attendance. People offered resources and said “what can we do to help?” Everyone’s attitude screamed “let’s build!” ‘Let’s do this!’ It was absolutely incredible.”

Highlights from day 1

Day one saw presentations and updates from de Building Cardano, all culminating in an evening where guests enjoyed the first Cardano Summit Awards ceremony. Topics discussed included blockchain for good, and the future of the technology

A panel titled “Blockchain and banking: the future of financial services” looked at how technology can be integrated into banking and financial services.

Panelists included Jack Trzmielhead of business development at Coin confirmation; Godefroy Schragomanaging partner of FiveT Fintech; Laminate Brahimimanaging partner and co-founder of The bull SO; Christian Rausenior vice president of crypto and fintech enablement Europe at MasterCardand Dominic CastleyCMO and CEO at Sygnum Bank. It was moderated by Sandro Knöpfelhead of financial and regulated institutions at the Cardano Foundation.

The panel agreed that there was a need to build confidence in the sector, having lost it over the past year. Castley said: “I think there has been a setback in confidence in the industry. We need to be half-full contractors and build it back as quickly as we can.”

“Financial institutions need to understand how blockchain analytics and AML work. These organizations cannot ignore the fact that they have clients who want to digitize assets from crypto-relevant entities, and this is where companies like ours are needed,” Trzmiel concluded.

The day continued with other panels analyzing the impact blockchain can have on the environment with a panel entitled “Blockchain for good” and another later in the day: “Climate-focused value chains in the age of Web3”. Both discussed how web3 connected change makers around the world towards measurable impact to achieve sustainable development goals.

This was in addition to discovering how climate-focused accounting methods, fintech initiatives and digital solutions interact with blockchain technology to solve pressing challenges.

Day 2 highlights

Day two featured a showcase of community projects building on Cardano, with workshops, presentations, panels and more. Mid-day, amid the celebration of the ballot award winners, a panel titled “Building your brand on blockchain” explained how the panelists had created their product, taken it to market, and built their audience.

In an age where support is a must for a company’s success, the panelists, who included Bullish Dumpling—winner of the Cardano Summit Award for Educational Influencer—, Lenna and Issy (ClayNation), and Hosky— The winner of the award for the NFT project emphasized to the panelists how the Cardano community constantly offers support, encouragement, feedback and camaraderie.

“Hosky is a dog-led community and brand, ClayNation is woman-led, and Dumpling is food-led. Cardano is very diverse and everyone is welcome here!”

Looking towards the future

The Cardano Summit was a resounding success. One of the main reasons for this was the in-depth conversations that took place. Gregaard added his thoughts on the types of chats that take place at events like the summit:

– Discussions become very relevant and very deep. The regulatory understanding, the financial understanding, the technological understanding… is outstanding! Especially when you compare it to three/four years ago.

“The average person interacting with the Cardano blockchain asks me complex questions. This is great because they’re about public cryptography and how hashes work. They do this so they can go back to the companies they work for and explain blockchain’s use cases. As a as a result, they can suggest how it can be used in their own scenario. Considering the lack of blockchain education out there, I find that simply astounding.”