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Cardano Summit 2023: Day 2 recap

07 November 2023 • Activities & Updates
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David Taylor
Chief Marketing Officer
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Dynamic discussions and workshops highlighting blockchain's role in addressing global challenges and fostering innovation

Following day 1’s sessions about operational resilience and education, the Cardano Summit 2023’s second conference day offered extensive workshops plus panel discussions on adoption and impact. More than 35 sessions with over 70 speakers leading up to the Gala Awards Dinner that closed the event.

Charles Hoskinson, CEO and Founder of IOG, praised the event during his closing remarks, noting the amazing results and how the Summit has grown from year to year. “Every year the Cardano Foundation does this, it gets better and better”, said Hoskinson.

Improving existing systems and circumstances

With several masterclasses already taking place, the Pitch Arena hosted a panel about current implementations of blockchain solutions to elevate on-chain utility and pioneer groundbreaking approaches, specifically those designed to address the needs of emerging markets. Micky Watkins, CEO of World Mobile, noted that 2.7 billion people worldwide remain financially disconnected, with another 3 billion underserved. Glen Jordan, CEO and Co-Founder of Empowa, pointed to the African continent as an example of blockchain’s potential. Indeed, the panel highlighted how emerging technologies seem particularly well-suited to address the continent’s needs.

Workshop with Orcfax at the Cardano Summit 2023

Over at the Main Stage, the topic of traceability saw a diverse panel of experts discuss data provenance in agriculture, law enforcement, forensics, and resource development. When discussions turned to protocol selection, Alexis Pappas, Chief Innovation Officer at GuildOne, shared that her company chose Cardano because of its reliability, academic rigor, and development process, all of which closely serve the needs of enterprises. Genevieve Leveille, CEO and Principal Founder of AgriLedger, highlighted that the objectives within the agriculture sector go beyond track and tracing of the goods, it also becomes necessary to track and trace “what happens to the goods, who does what, does it meet the requirements, and finally, the most important thing, is track and trace of the money back to everybody so everyone gets paid at the same time a fair amount”.

Sebastian Zilliacus, Managing Director of EMURGO Media, examined what people can anticipate from decentralized social media and how to maximize its benefits. Zilliacus emphasized that Web3 or decentralized social media systems not only allow user data to move between social media platforms, they also provide creators with full control of what they develop and share.

The panel “Dubai’s Web3 Evolution” examined how the city has solidified its position as a global center of Web3 through forward-thinking regulations and robust infrastructure. Speaking on the metropolis’ ambition, Oliver von Wolff, Founder and CEO of Helion Capital, reinforced that Dubai’s richness originates from the openness of its people to innovation. Dr. Marwan Al Zarouni of the Dubai Blockchain Center further reinforced the city’s entrepreneurial spirit and highlighted that Dubai’s geographic location makes it an ideal hub for collaboration with other nations.

Inspiring the future

While discussing the importance of open source, Christian Grobmeier, OSS Developer and Trainer at Grobmeier Solutions GmbH, pointed out that community has a paramount role within the realm of open source, and indeed must take precedence over code “because code you can debug, you can fix it, you can write it, you can even delete it”, but “community needs more care”. In fact, the existence of an outstanding community probably ensures having “great code and a project which is actually able to fix their bugs”. Fernando Luis Vázquez Cao, CEO of SBI Digital Asset Holdings and Board Member of the Cardano Foundation, also added that, in order to reach mainstream adoption, an open source community requires the right incentives and governance models, allowing developers to address issues specifically relevant to their needs.

Teodor Petricevic speaking a the Cardano Summit 2023

“The Power of Blockchain for Good” panel, on the other hand, explored the transformative potential of blockchain for positive impact. With the world witnessing an unprecedented number of forcibly displaced people—approximately 114 million—Carmen Hett, Corporate Treasurer at UNHCR, stressed the need for solutions that can deliver with speed, and pointed out that blockchain makes it “really seamless” to serve and deliver aid directly to those in need. It likewise lowers costs, meaning blockchain benefits humanitarian aid both on the disbursement and the fundraising sides.

After a full day of panels and workshops, the Gala Awards Dinner announced the winners of the Cardano Summit Awards plus the first-ever Summit Hackathon live from the Armani Pavilion in Dubai. Team Maestro, led by Marvin Bertin, won the Hackathon prize for their project “No-code Plugin for Governance Smart Contracts”, while the Summit Awards spanned 10 different categories:

Networking at the Cardano Summit 2023

Sessions have become available on demand. In the meantime, the Cardano Foundation hopes all speakers and attendees enjoyed their time at the Cardano Summit 2023, and left feeling not just welcomed but motivated to keep building, participating, and helping each other to go much further. We look forward to seeing everyone again soon.