The Cardano Summit 2023 took place from November 2 to 4, with the main stage being in the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates while the broader community organized satellite events in 25 different cities around the world.
November 2nd – Networking Soirée and Battle of the Builders
The Cardano Summit 2023 began with a networking soirée in Dubai, featuring the “Battle of the Builders” event sponsored by the Cardano Foundation and partners like CV Labs, Genius X, EMURGO, STORM Partners, and FacultyGroup. During this opening night, attendees explored the Cardano Market, which showcased Summit exhibitors, the NFT Gallery, and the Pitch Arena.
Frederik Gregaard, CEO of the Cardano Foundation, emphasized how the Battle of the Builders supports innovation and entrepreneurship within the Cardano ecosystem. He highlighted the vitality of the ecosystem’s projects and encouraged them to advocate for themselves when addressing potential investors’ questions.
The top 10 contestants of the Battle of the Builders presented their projects to a jury and Summit attendees. These projects included NMKR (NFT creation and secondary marketplace), NEWM (music streaming governed by musicians), Xerberus (digital asset portfolio risk management), FiDa (insurance contract tokenization), Mehen USDM (bridge between traditional finance and blockchain), Iagon (AI-driven shared storage platform), Maestro (Web3 stack for DApps and smart contracts), zkFold (scaling solution for Cardano), Finest (platform for trading tokenized real-world assets), and TVVIN (improving accessibility to traditional assets).
First place for the Battle of the Builders went to Maestro, which lets users build Web3 applications like DeFi protocols, NFT marketplaces, blockchain analytics platforms, and wallets.
Second place went to Newm, a music streaming marketplace governed by musicians and their fans.
Third place went to ZK Fold, a zero-knowledge rollups scaling solution for the Cardano blockchain.
November 3rd – Summit Day 1
The first day of the Cardano Summit 2023 featured a series of events and sessions, both in-person and virtual, with over 55 speakers discussing operational resilience and education. Dr. Marwan Al Zarouni welcomed participants to Dubai, emphasizing the UAE’s commitment to leveraging blockchain technology. Frederik Gregaard, CEO of the Cardano Foundation, delivered a keynote discussing the importance of consent and operational resilience in the digital age, highlighting Cardano’s role in enhancing social systems.
A panel on “Essential Governance: Building Strong Blockchain Foundations” explored key elements for building robust blockchain foundations, including governance models and processes. The Pitch Arena discussed transparency in the age of Voltaire, emphasizing the need for accessible solutions to engage the Cardano community.
Charles Hoskinson, CEO and Founder of IOG, and Eran Barak, CEO of Midnight, discussed the importance of Cardano’s builder and creator community and its impact on the protocol’s future.
Interoperability was a key topic, with panelists exploring world applications, classification, obstacles, and security aspects. The importance of education in diversifying access to blockchain was also discussed, with the need for multi-pronged solutions from governments, organizations, and the private sector.
Legal experts examined global blockchain regulation, highlighting the challenges related to jurisdictional differences and the cost of blockchain adoption. Teodor Petricevic, Accelerator Lead at United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), announced a partnership with Tadamon to address development challenges in civil society organizations across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia through blockchain technology.
The day concluded with a desert dining experience, and the summit continued with masterclasses and panel discussions on adoption and impact. The Gala Awards Dinner would announce the winners of the Hackathon and Summit Awards in a live-streamed ceremony on the Summit app.
November 4th – Summit Day 2
The second day of the Cardano Summit 2023 featured a wide range of workshops, panel discussions, and masterclasses on adoption and impact, with more than 70 speakers. Charles Hoskinson praised the event’s growth and the impressive results it has achieved over the years.
Key topics included addressing the needs of emerging markets with blockchain solutions, highlighting the potential of emerging technologies, and the importance of traceability in various sectors, including agriculture and law enforcement.
The discussions also covered the advantages of decentralized social media and its potential benefits for users and creators. The panel “Dubai’s Web3 Evolution” explored how Dubai has established itself as a global center for Web3 through forward-thinking regulations and infrastructure.
The importance of open source and the role of the community in open source projects were emphasized, with an emphasis on community care and the need for the right incentives and governance models for mainstream adoption.
A panel titled “The Power of Blockchain for Good” discussed the transformative potential of blockchain for positive impact, particularly in delivering aid to forcibly displaced people and reducing costs in humanitarian efforts.
The day concluded with the Gala Awards Dinner, where the winners of the Cardano Summit Awards and the first-ever Summit Hackathon were announced. Team Maestro won the Hackathon prize, and Summit Awards were presented in various categories.
All sessions from the summit are now available on demand, and the Cardano Foundation expressed their hope that participants left the event motivated to continue building, participating, and collaborating in the future.
Community Awards
Blockchain for Good Winner – World Mobile Team
Voted by the Cardano community for their exceptional environmental or humanitarian work.
NTF Project Winner – Hosky Token
Voted by the Cardano community for their most impactful art, music, metaverse, gaming, or collectible NFT project in the Cardano community.
Developer or Developer Tools Winners – Strica and TxPipe
Voted by the Cardano community for providing technical solutions to the Cardano ecosystem.
CIPs Winner – Adam Dean
Voted by the Cardano community for their Cardano Improvement Proposal (CIP) that seeks to significantly enhance the Cardano protocol.
DeFi / DEX Winner – Minswap DEX
Voted by the Cardano community for their decentralized finance (DeFi) or decentralized exchange (DEX) platform offering superlative solutions.
Marketplace Winner – JPG.Store
Voted by the Cardano community for their Marketplace with proven maturity and excellence.
Ambassador Winner – Guillermo Moratorio
Voted by the Cardano community for their special commitment and work of a Cardano Ambassador.
Educational Influencer Winner – Farid
Voted by the Cardano community for their contribution to blockchain education.
Self Sovereign Identity (SSI) Winner – IAMX
Voted by the Cardano community for their phenomenal management and governance of credentials, identity, tokens, or others.
Most Impactful SSPO Winner – Smaug Pool
Voted by the Cardano community for their remarkable single stake pool operator (SSPO).
Community Led Events
The Cardano community organized events in 25 different cities around the world. This is a small selection of the events that took place.
Taipei, Taiwan
Seoul, South Korea
Kumasi, Ghana
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
If you would like your community event to be displayed here please send an email to info@latinstakepools with four photos of the event.
