Tezos

April 2026 Community Spotlight of Art on Tezos

Last month, I went off script, letting the spotlight follow personal discovery rather than waiting on nominations. However, I am happy to say that some nominations came onto my feed shortly after publishing the ‘ART’icle of March. This month, three artists rose to the surface through community nominations on X. I’ve added a fourth and think everyone will understand why.

What follows is a spotlight of art curated from those nominations. I will focus on the art itself while making sure each artist is properly credited. None of these artworks is listed by me for secondary sale, and nothing here should be interpreted as financial advice.

https://objkt.com/tokens/KT1NFqvjCyJDoXM1M1TvRK7NhzUgAjEfrEVk/10 The Raven and The Fossilized Giant by @AriniNathalie

This acrylic painting on paper by Nathalie Arini is abstract and monotype yet feels defined and vibrant once sitting with it. Through varying textures, compositional suggestions and applied imagination, the viewer can discover many different meanings on their own. The brush strokes speak for the artist first, but then for those who wish to dive deeper into the artist’s mind, they can find a more defined interpretation in the metadata: “A raven guards the fossilized head of a blind giant, the giant’s soul still lives on through the immortal raven’s eye…”

Although there are hundreds of abstract gems to discover by @AriniNathalie on Tezos, this specific artwork stood out to me and continues to pull me in for its balance of abstraction and intention. At some point in the workflow the plan became clear and the improv was replaced by intent. Discover more incredible abstract art by Nathalie Arini, here.

https://objkt.com/tokens/KT1Vu5W4R7NzTGRKssL21RhdoDNyRRQZ9Xyc/0 Lost In Vestiges #1 by paldipaldi

First of all, I would like to confess a major bias in my admiration towards the next spotlighted artist, I was not the one who nominated @paldipaldi this time. I enjoy a physical painting by Paldipaldi every day. I can see it in the corner of my eye even as I type.

Recently releasing “Lost in Vestiges”, it’s a great pleasure to share my thoughts on this new direction. Traditionally, Paldipaldi’s art is character-centric, with recurring subjects dominating the composition. In this new series the adventure becomes more about the surroundings and exploring the architecture within a shattered reality.

Described as, “A visual inventory of a world that refused to stay whole”, we are first introduced to the series with a house layout that is more structured than not. However, as you explore the details you find bizarre portals, doorways, and hints towards the fact that this world is not by any means normal. You can see Ghostie in the empty back-rooms-like pool. Reaper has climbed a ladder through the ceiling of the main home. The more you look, the more you can write your own story.

Once you have fully taken in the first edition of this series, be sure to enjoy the rest of them. There are four releases so far as of this writing, and with each iteration the world seems to grow more shattered and unpredictable. Only anchored to what’s known by recurring subjects Ghostie and Reaper, with placement seemingly inspired by “Where’s Waldo.”

Find all that @paldipaldi has to offer by visiting his linktree here.

https://objkt.com/tokens/KT1KzPoo3ckkAAzRfipE7r1q5DcogdpbDobk/27 MM Neon Dreams #020 by MeterMan @TobyInTheMiddle

This next spotlighted artwork is by a photographer and gas meter enthusiast who uses mixed media with AI in post editing to make gas meters fun for everyone else. In this original photograph, @TobyInTheMiddle illuminated elements with Grok AI. This entire series is highly enjoyable to me, as it doesn’t take itself too seriously, while also elevating multiple things at once.

The scene, which could be literally any building around the world, is now a rave. I can imagine just off screen a group of young partygoers getting a breath of fresh air before heading back into the disco. The gas meter, transposed into what almost looks like an outdoor tap with beer flowing from the bar inside. Although silly, I must admit I also imagined the guard posts as little barstools that would be very uncomfortable.

Jokes aside, the point is that I appreciate how MeterMan has taken an ordinary object to most, and used art to represent it in the light of how an enthusiast sees it instead. Essentially, it represents how artists see the world, and how we feel called to create that beauty for others to experience. Experience all of MeterMan’s photography here.

Special Mention: Stroke Driven & @tezosartnetwork

This month’s featured artists were nominated by a fellow artist and celebrated community builder of the Tezos Artist Network. With recent announcements from X/Twitter that communities as a feature will be discontinued, I couldn’t think of a better reason to add a spotlight on Stroke Driven and her art, with a reminder to follow @tezosartnetwork so you can be part of what comes next for the community.

Link to response to changes happening with X Communities here.

https://objkt.com/tokens/KT1TveAQDnsE99vni2kmxXWPJXmH5NajpGRj/43

“BoopTz Outta Pocket” by StrokeDriven

No mouths, no words to clutter the air.

Colors do the talking, Spatters hold the silence.

The BoopTz don’t explain themselves,

WTF for?! They don’t need to.

What’s felt is already here,

and it’s waiting for YOU to carry it. — Stroke Driven

In this vibrant work, “BoopTz Outta Pocket” by StrokeDriven, I was greeted instantly with a dose of Nickelodeon nostalgia, yet this slime has evolved into a digital brush stroke that stands on its own within the unique composition. Which I will no longer try to explain per order of the BoopTz. Discover more here.

This month’s ‘ART’icle was actually made possible in this form thanks to @strokedriven. A big thanks for nominating such wonderful artists and I look forward to seeing what comes from Tezos Artist Network in its soon to be evolved form.

Until Next Month’s ‘ART’icle

Nominations for the next #tezARTicle are open. A single comment or tag on X is enough to put an artist in front of the community. Keep exploring, keep nominating, and stay tuned. Who knows, if an artist were to be the only one who nominates others again, I might even add their art to the spotlight as a thank you. Thanks for reading and see you next month!

The ‘ART’icle Of The Month was originally published in Tezos Commons on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This week in The Baking Sheet the focus returns to the core of how Tezos runs day to day.

A new protocol proposal is now on the table with Ushuaia, continuing the push toward higher throughput, faster confirmation, and more flexible infrastructure across layers. At the same time, changes already in motion are starting to show up in how bakers operate, especially as the network moves deeper into BLS-based consensus with a growing set of signing tools.

If you love to see how Tezos operates at the protocol and technical level, then you’re going to love this week’s update.

Let’s get into it.

Ushuaia: The Next Tezos Protocol Upgrade

This week brings us back to the protocol layer, where the next upgrade proposal has officially been introduced.

Following the activation of Tallinn, Nomadic Labs, Trilitech, and Functori have put forward the 21st Tezos upgrade: Ushuaia.

This proposal continues the direction we’ve been seeing over the past few cycles, building toward higher throughput, more flexible staking, and long-term security, while giving the ecosystem time to adapt along the way.

At a high level, Ushuaia focuses on three main areas:

• Scaling the network’s data layer • Improving how quickly data is confirmed • Giving rollup infrastructure more room to evolve independently

The most immediate change is the upgrade to the Data Availability Layer. Bandwidth increases from roughly 0.66 MB/s to 10 MB/s, a 15× jump that allows significantly more data to be published onchain. That opens the door for applications that rely on higher throughput, including games, high-frequency DeFi systems, and more data-heavy use cases.

Alongside that, Ushuaia introduces dynamic DAL attestation. Instead of waiting through a fixed delay, data is confirmed as soon as enough of the network has observed it. In practice, this reduces confirmation time from around a minute to closer to 12 to 18 seconds under normal conditions.

There is also an important shift in how rollup infrastructure evolves. Ushuaia allows certain PVM features to be activated through rollup governance, rather than waiting on full Layer 1 upgrade cycles. That gives builders working on Etherlink and future Tezos X environments more flexibility to iterate as features become ready.

Beyond those core changes, Ushuaia introduces a few features behind testnet flags, giving the community space to explore what may come next:

• A protocol-native approach to liquid staking through sTEZ • Early support for quantum-resistant tz5 accounts • Groundwork for faster rollup storage and future RISC-V integration

Each of these is being introduced gradually, with a focus on testing, feedback, and iteration before any wider activation.

Taken together, Ushuaia builds directly on the momentum of recent upgrades. It pushes scalability forward, improves responsiveness across layers, and lays down early pieces for what comes next, all while keeping the network stable and familiar for users and operators.

The proposal period is now underway, with voting open through early May and a potential activation window later this summer. We encourage developers, bakers, and ecosystem teams to test their applications and tools on the dedicated test network, Ushuaianet, which will be announced soon. A release candidate for Octez v25.0, which contains the Ushuaia protocol as well as general improvements, will also be published shortly.

Bakers, it’s your time to shine in the Tezos ecosystem and start voting! As always, you can follow the governance process in real-time at Tezos Agora.

This Week in the Tezos Ecosystem

Stronger Infrastructure: BLS Signers Multiply Across Tezos

From protocol upgrades to day-to-day operations, this week also highlights something happening a bit closer to the ground.

As Tezos moves further into its BLS-powered consensus era, bakers are starting to see more choice in how they run their infrastructure, especially when it comes to signing.

With tz4 consensus keys and aggregated attestations now part of the flow, signing plays a bigger role in performance and reliability. Faster and more efficient attestations reduce network traffic, lower node load, and contribute to quicker finality and more predictable rewards.

What stands out is how the ecosystem is responding, instead of a single standard approach, multiple signer solutions are now available, each designed with different operational setups in mind:

• Tezos RPI BLS Signer by Nomadic Labs • TezSign by Tez Capital • Russignol by Rich Ayotte • Signatory by ECAD Labs

These range from lightweight setups like Raspberry Pi devices to more advanced configurations using trusted execution environments in the cloud. Different bakers operate at different scales, with different requirements around cost, security, and performance. Having multiple options allows each operator to choose what fits best, rather than adapting to a single model.

It also strengthens the network as a whole with a broader set of tools reduces the risk of infrastructure becoming too uniform, which helps maintain decentralization and resilience over time.

As more bakers adopt these setups, this becomes another layer of progress that doesn’t always get headline attention, though it plays a key role in how the network performs day to day.

Tezos Spring Events

Tezos Breakfast Club: Miami

As the ecosystem heads into another busy stretch of events, there’s a chance to connect in a more relaxed setting during Consensus week.

If you’re in Miami, the Tezos Breakfast Club is hosting a morning meetup on May 7, bringing the community together over coffee, breakfast, and conversation.

There’s no formal agenda here. It’s a simple setup that works well. People gathering, catching up, and exchanging ideas before the day gets underway.

Here’s what to expect:

• Coffee, breakfast, and a casual atmosphere • Conversations with builders, operators, and community members • A chance to connect before the main conference schedule begins

Register here.

🔴 Now Streaming: The Story Behind Tezzardz and Everything Around It

This week on TezTalks Radio, we sit down with George Goodwin, better known as OMGiDRAWEDit, one of the most recognizable artists in the Tezos ecosystem.

If you’ve spent time in Tezos art, you’ve likely seen his work with bold colors, strange characters, and chaotic scenes that somehow hold together the longer you look.

It starts before Tezzardz, before Tezos, back when George was still trying to figure out what kind of artist he wanted to be, and what was missing from his work.

Now streaming on YouTube.

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A New Age Art Ecosystem on Tezos

An identity crisis is happening around NFTs, and a lot of people are trying to build the next big thing, but where are the pioneers building the next SPECIAL thing? How can we transition from crisis back to creativity?

From what I am seeing, there is something special happening at mederu.art. The name is strange, the marketing is raw, and none of it seems designed to make an American like me feel immediately at home. A foreign yet somehow familiar energy comes over me when I am scrolling the mederu art feed. This is not the polished AAA game of art marketplaces. It is more like an indie game baked with love and passion.

The name comes from Japanese and means to look at something beautiful and genuinely feel something from the heart. Mederu is to be cherished and admired with deep affection. The kind of attention we give to nature, to people we love, and to our passion projects. Mederu is like a sprout emerging from the ground, symbolizing new beginnings.

That meaning vibrates outwards from the platform’s DNA. Mederu offers a fresh look into the Tezos art ecosystem, with some intriguing functionality worth exploring together here and now.

Familiar Roots

Spending several days navigating the mederu rabbit hole, I kept returning to a feeling I had not experienced since the early days of the Tezos art scene. Not nostalgia necessarily, but definitely some recognizable moments of joy. From the terminal-green monospace interface, and the BBS social hub, to the GACHA system rooted in a distinctly non-Western collecting tradition. None of it is designed to hype or create FOMO, and that is part of what makes it stand out in today’s NFT climate. Instead of pressure, it was curiosity.

The platform is shaped by the culture it comes from, and the community forming around it seems curious, globally minded, and invested in art as a practice rather than a speculation. Those are values the Tezos ecosystem has always carried.

Everything Is There

The feed is one of mederu’s most immediately useful features. It aggregates the entire Tezos NFT ecosystem into a single view, and it does so without requiring that anything be minted natively to appear there. You can discover and collect works listed elsewhere without ever leaving.

The feed is organized into tabs that shape the experience meaningfully. Art minted on mederu, a dedicated GACHA section, and dedicated event tabs for community moments like #objkt4objkt 2026. Navigating the art feed feels easy, with customization tools we are familiar with but also some new touches like grid size, enabling refined viewing options.

For the first time in years, mederu changed how I participated in a Tezos art event. Having a curated context for a community event built directly into the interface, I found myself returning to that tab throughout the event as my preferred way to collect, which I did not anticipate.

Create and Mint

For artists, the Atelier is where mederu makes its clearest statement, with a modular creative studio built directly into the platform. Draw mode, collage tools, a generative art engine, pixel art with GIF support, glitch effects, an audio visualizer, video upload and minting are all accessible from the same interface where you publish your work. You do not even have to leave to make the art, and might even discover new and useful workflows with the tools available.

Artists can upload and manage their own presets as personal Atelier signatures, with a royalty structure that enables you to earn from other artists who utilize your uploads. It is a small creative economy looping within the larger one, rewarding contribution in a way that goes beyond primary sales. Access to the full studio suite comes through the mederu Artist Pass. I have not yet experienced any pressure or paywalls prompting me to upgrade.

Communication

The BBS deserves its own moment of appreciation. A bulletin board system embedded directly into the platform. I see a lot of Tezos friends already chatting there. Artists and collectors checking in, sharing links, reacting to each other’s work in real time. The social layer lives inside the creative space, but the project is not branding itself as an alternative social media. It is simply one of many thoughtful tools built in for the art lovers to discover.

GACHA

There is also a GACHA studio. Blind minting has deep cultural roots in Japan, where capsule toy machines have been a part of everyday life for decades. The randomness is not a gimmick, it is the mechanic. You are not selecting. You are receiving. There is a different relationship to the object, and mederu’s integration goes deep. Gacha.mederu.art functions almost as its own sub-platform, including the mechanics artists need to properly release blind drops.

What makes the discovery of it so fitting is that I find it the way most find a gacha item. I encountered the art first, noticed a small clickable note about where it came from, and only then arrived at the site that produced it. The navigation mirrors the experience. It is not due to clumsy UI or missing documentation. It is an easter egg in the most honest sense, from a design choice that trusts the curious to follow the thread. For collectors willing to surrender a little control, GACHA offers a genuine moment of discovery.

A Useful Token

Every meaningful action on mederu earns $MDRU tokens. Minting earns them. Collecting earns them. The token is described explicitly as a measure of creative participation rather than a financial instrument, and so far the platform is honoring that framing in practice.

The most compelling example is the re:media section, which I discovered a few days into my mederu journey. It is a full toolkit for file conversion, compression, image resizing, and AI upscaling, embedded directly into the site. The AI upscaling is powered by Google Gemini and costs 10 $MDRU to use. I earned from collecting just a few artworks on the platform. The design gives the token it’s first real reason to exist, prices it sensibly, and lets the community earn it through the actions the platform already encourages.

Vibe-Coded

Much of mederu was vibe-coded into existence. The platform was built close to instinct, iterated in public, shaped by feel rather than blueprint. That mode of building is a relatively new possibility.

The current generation of AI tooling has changed what a solo developers like guruguruhyena can accomplish, and it is starting to show in the kinds of projects reaching the surface. When the developer can spend less time wrestling with the code base and more time thinking about how something should feel, the work often comes out more artsy, and mederu reads as artsy. The interface has aesthetic intention. The features fit together in a way that suggests someone was designing for fun. Mederu is a passion project.

The platform currently consists of three interconnected sites: mederu.art, gacha.mederu.art, and ai.mederu.art, which is still in development. The developer describes the AI work in progress that “goes haywire regularly”. An autonomous system that generates its own artworks and posts its thoughts directly to the feed is the goal for that particular experiment.

The roadmap extends further, with 3D gallery spaces, on-chain pixel minting, Farcaster integration, a physical marketplace, and a music NFT player all in the queue. What is live right now feels cohesive in a way that is genuinely rare at this stage, and the method behind it is part of why it’s possible. I plan to vibe with the mederu community as everything evolves, and the music NFT player has me personally invested more than usual.

A Global POV

Mederu was built for people who love art and to give people a place to cherish the art they care about, together. When spending real time using the platform, I can feel the vibe. I think it has the potential to empower the people within this art movement, and therefore further enrich the Tezos ecosystem.

The point of view is global, culturally specific without being exclusionary, and built for people who want to make and appreciate art. These are the values that drew many of us to Tezos in the first place, and mederu adds its own texture to that culture. I am looking forward to watching this passion project expand as more artists discover it. When you make your way there, come say hi in the BBS. It’s a great vibe.

Vibing At Mederu.art was originally published in Tezos Commons on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Announcing the CRP Winners for March 2026!

Greetings Tezos Community,

We are pleased to announce the winners of the “Community Rewards Program” CRP for the month of March 2026!

For more details about the various categories, please refer to the rewards page on the Tezos Commons website.

The Community Rewards Program is a Tezos Commons Foundation initiative aimed at fostering adoption and supporting the Tezos ecosystem. Every month, tez rewards are distributed to individuals and teams who stand out in merit and act in the interest of the Tezos ecosystem as a whole. For this round, a total of 9,500 tez has been awarded.

In an endeavor to make it easier for community members to nominate their favorite contributors to the ecosystem, the nomination form has been drastically streamlined. Now containing only three questions, it takes less than 30 seconds to submit a nomination.

Don’t have 30 seconds? You can tag any Discord message, Reddit post or tweet with #TezosCRP and we will collect them as well!

This is the fifth iteration of the program, and we will continue to make changes based on community feedback. Just like the Tezos blockchain, we will be continually evolving this program.

Numerous factors are used when evaluating submissions, such as quality of submissions, quality of activity, number of submissions, and verifiable proof of activity done by the nominee (no single factor is determinative of a winner, as all factors were weighed to select winners). The judges would like to note that for each category, they are looking for the respective monthly related activity, meaning submissions should reflect activities done for that current month, i.e.; month of January activities.

Without further delay, here are the results of the winners, below.

Drill Sergeant Award

@skllzarmy

Helping Hand Award

@AuRo404

@ZerorezeroA

@malsheep56

@spike_0124

@idjasaund

Influencer Award

@August35750182

@UnitedSaints

@numadessas

@_TransparentArt

@absurdeity

@NftyTrap

@WX8BK

Tez Dev Award

@JestemZero

@guruguruhyena

@webidente

@JackTezos

@AndrewKishino

@_joesimon

Assimilation Award

@ZeroUnboundArt

@HashSosaHash

@SkullDegenClub_

@StrokeDriven

@dexp0nential

@sansfomo

@WildMissingNos

Patissier Award

@fafo_lab

@riseuptez

@Zir0h

@blockbakery

Tezos Tutor Award

@TheTezos

@cletusEllijah

@TozartWeb3

@ate8a_nft

Formal Verification Award

@BakingBenjamins

@ryangtanaka

TEO Award

@paraxenod

@TheGOATofTezos (ex @marco_port)

Nominations Are Open For April

With April underway, we have begun accepting nominations for this month. If you know someone who deserves a reward for their contributions to the community or have ideas about other categories that should be recognized, then please fill out a nomination form located here, or you can tag a post (or discord message) with #TezosCRP.

As mentioned previously, we are still working on long-term improvements to this program. We know this program is far from perfect, so please bear with us while we strive to improve this program based on community feedback. Stay tuned, stay creative, and keep nominating!

As a reminder to the reward winners, the awards are all distributed through Kukai and DirectAuth. If you have issues claiming your awards, please message us here.

Tezos Community Rewards — March 2026 was originally published in Tezos Commons on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Welcome back, Tezos community. This week builds directly on what came out of Cannes, and the focus is starting to narrow in on one theme: Metals.

At Tez/Dev, metals.io stood out as one of the clearest examples of real-world assets moving into a system people can actually use. That conversation has carried forward, with deeper breakdowns and a closer look at how access to these markets is starting to change.

We also spent some time this week focusing on the foundation of Tezos, good infrastructure. Arthur’s keynote on Tezos X brought the roadmap into sharper view, showing how the infrastructure now supports more complex applications across environments, new tools that are making it easier to build, experiment, and push ideas forward without friction.

Come and get it all on this week’s edition of The Baking Sheet.

metals.io: Opening the Door to Markets That Were Never Built for You

This week, we’re spending some time with one of the most interesting launches to come out of Tez/Dev.

A lot of markets have evolved quickly over the past decade, however, rare metals have moved at a very different pace. These are assets tied to energy, infrastructure, and manufacturing, yet access still runs through systems that feel outdated and difficult to navigate unless you already operate inside them.

That is where metals.io comes in.

In a strong piece this week, Cryptonio walks through the bigger idea behind the platform and why it matters. What started with uranium.io has now expanded into a broader system, bringing gold, uranium, and a growing set of strategic metals into a single onchain environment.

The experience itself is straightforward, though there is a lot happening underneath. Access is continuous, ownership is fractional, and settlement happens on-chain instead of over long clearing cycles. Behind that, the system handles custody, compliance, pricing, and verification of physical backing.

A few details help make the shift clearer:

• Access to gold, uranium, and a range of strategic metals within one system • Continuous markets with fractional ownership instead of large entry barriers • Onchain settlement that replaces slow, multi-day processes • Direct exposure to physically backed assets rather than indirect proxies

The newer additions are where things become especially interesting. Metals like hafnium, rhenium, indium, neodymium, and praseodymium rarely come up unless you are deep inside specific industries. At the same time, they play a role in semiconductors, EVs, advanced manufacturing, and defense systems. Demand exists, but access has always been limited.

That is the epiphany that metals.io is introducing. The metals themselves remain the same but the way people access them is changing.

Pricing these assets also becomes easier to see, participation to owning these metals becomes more direct, and settlement happens immediately thanks to Tezos. In markets that have historically been opaque and restricted, those changes begin to compound and benefit the casual user.

With additional metals already on the way, including silver, palladium, nickel, and cobalt, this starts to look less like a single product and more like a growing layer for accessing metals markets more broadly.

If you want a deeper look at the thinking behind it, Cryptonio’s full article is well worth the read.

That same direction carried into a dedicated livestream this week, where the team and partners walked through what metals.io represents in practice.

The session brought together Ben Elvidge from metals.io, Crispin Clarke from Curzon Uranium, Dimitrios from Noemon Tech, Alexander from VNX, and host ActionCEO from Genzio. The discussion focused on why these metals matter right now and how access to these markets has evolved.

The livestream also included a live walkthrough of the platform, which helped connect the concept to something tangible. Seeing how access, pricing, and settlement come together makes the model easier to understand.

Taken together, the article and the livestream point in the same direction. metals.io is building a more direct path into some of the world’s most important commodities, supported by infrastructure that makes access faster, clearer, and easier to navigate.

This Week in the Tezos Ecosystem

Tezos X: Building Across EVM and Michelson, Together

From metals and real-world markets opening up, the conversation this week also loops back to the foundation that makes all of this possible, good infrastructure.

At Tez/Dev, Arthur Breitman’s keynote gave one of the clearest looks yet at where Tezos is heading next, and more importantly, how the pieces already in place start to connect.

Framed around “Tezos in 2026: Good infrastructure is just the beginning,” the focus moved beyond upgrades and into what those upgrades enable.

A few ideas stood out and carried through the rest of the week:

• A unified execution layer through Tezos X • A shift toward products, revenue, and real usage • Native interaction between EVM and Michelson environments

What this points to is a system where developers are no longer choosing between environments. Instead, they can build across them, access different user bases, and move assets natively without introducing additional layers or friction.

Developers will be able to deploy using Solidity or Michelson, work with their existing stacks, and extend applications across both environments without rewriting core logic. Assets and calls can move natively between EVM and Michelson, which changes how applications are designed and how liquidity flows.

There is also a strong focus on performance with ultra-low latency, combined with Tezos L1 security, there is no duo that can match this offering.

Beyond the features, there is now a roadmap that gives a clearer sense of how this rolls out over the rest of the year.

April 2026: Tezos X testnet goes live, allowing developers to deploy and experiment across both environments

June 2026: Mainnet activation as an upgrade to Etherlink, with full composability between EVM and Michelson

Later in 2026: Expansion into broader programming environments through a transition toward RISC-V

That last step opens the door to more familiar languages and faster iteration, making it easier for developers to build without being limited to a single stack.

Taken together, this builds on what we were presented with at Tez/Dev. Infrastructure is reaching a point where it supports more complex systems. The focus is shifting toward what gets built on top of it, how users interact with it, and how applications scale across environments.

If you want to watch the full keynote, you can find it here.

Build on Etherlink With Just a Prompt

As the week moves from infrastructure and real-world assets into how people actually build, there’s another shift worth paying attention to.

A new tool created by 0xYpsono is making it possible to build directly on Etherlink using nothing more than a prompt.

Instead of writing code line by line, you describe what you want in plain English, and the system handles the rest. Using a dedicated Claude Skills setup, it can generate, structure, and deploy dApps and smart contracts in one flow.

The experience is simple on the surface, though it changes how people approach building:

• Describe your idea in plain language • Generate contracts and app logic automatically • Deploy directly onto Etherlink

What stands out here is how quickly the barrier to entry shifts. You move from needing a full development setup to being able to test an idea almost immediately.

It also ties back to everything else happening across the ecosystem. Faster execution, unified environments, and now tools that reduce the gap between idea and execution.

If you want to try it yourself, you can jump in here.

🔴 Now Streaming: Community Spotlight | How LMDesigns8 Is Blending Art, Wellness, and Tezos

This week on TezTalks Live, host Stu is joined by Leah Michelle, also known as LMDesigns8, a multidisciplinary artist creating immersive XR experiences, AR play spaces, and meditative virtual worlds.

In this conversation, Leah shares how her personal journey, including health challenges, has shaped her creative direction and how that perspective has led her to build work focused on healing, presence, and connection.

Now streaming on YouTube.

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Tezos Community Returns to Seattle To Celebrate The Arts

It’s time to plan your journey to TezCon. What started as a simple idea born from the bonds formed through TezTones is evolving into a broader Tezos community tradition. Seattle is already celebrated as a perfect place for artists, innovators, and curious minds to come together and celebrate art. Three years of this Seattle influence, TezCon has developed its own rhythm and character, enabled by the people who continue to connect through Tezos but also want to bring that friendship and collaboration into the physical world.

TezCon 2026 returns to Seattle on Saturday, July 11th, 2026, this time at the Artspace Hiawatha Lofts Common Space in the Hillman City neighborhood. There will also be a Tezos Music Showcase on Sunday, July 12th. The event organizers have been planning since the moment TezCon 2025 ended, and it’s shaping up to be the best event yet, so let’s take a look at the details available so far.

New Venue

So far, TezCon has moved locations each year, and each venue has enabled uniquely wonderful meetups to occur. The inaugural gathering took place at the Seattle NFT Museum, a fitting home that unfortunately closed its doors not long after.

Last year’s event moved into Kenyon Hall, providing a more suitable venue for the music performances and a better location. For 2026, the shift to Artspace Hiawatha Lofts also comes with new benefits. The building is not a rented event space at all, it is an active artist loft community. A place where creative work is the daily practice of the people who live and work there. The common space will host the main event, giving TezCon an intimate, grounded atmosphere where the art and company can be fully appreciated.

The venue sits at 843 Hiawatha Place South in Hillman City, near Capitol Hill. It comes equipped with a grand piano and an upright piano, details that matter given how central live music has become to TezCon’s identity. Programming is set to kick off at 4:04 PM.

The Panel

The main event on Saturday will include a 60(ish)-minute panel discussion, available both in person and virtually, built around a question that has been gaining traction across creative and tech communities: when the platforms and systems we use most no longer serve us, how do we change that?

That question inspired the theme of the event, “Beyond Enshittification,” which is based on a term coined by author Cory Doctorow, used to describe the process by which platforms degrade the user experience over time in pursuit of extracting the most value. With the organizers planning to reach out to Doctorow directly, along with architect Rem Koolhaas, whose essay “Junkspace” explores related ideas, there is potential for some very insightful special guests to attend.

The confirmed panelists will bring diverse perspectives to the discussion. Erika (NormalityIsToxic) will speak from their work on Voices of Iran, a collaborative mutual aid zine raising funds and awareness for struggles in Iran. Flexasaurus, a consistent contributor to the Tezos community and the arts as a whole, will also be on stage. Plus, Ryan Tanaka, one of TezCon’s core organizers and a developer at Teia.art and teia.cafe.

The panel will explore what people are choosing to build in response to the web’s ongoing decay, and how technology like Tezos can provide solutions. Community governance, artist-first platforms like TEIA, and events like TezCon itself are all expressions of the passion for art, tech, and community that’s needed to make impactful change.

The Music

Music has been part of TezCon since the beginning. I had the pleasure of performing a set of my original songs at TezCon 2024, and it’s a highlight of my Tezos journey that I’ll never forget. This year, the Saturday lineup is being curated with support from Sustainable Music Northwest, a nonprofit co-founded by Marc Fendel with a mission to bring music into public spaces while offering sustainable wages for the artists. Musicians performing at TezCon will be compensated through the nonprofit.

The organizers are in conversation with talent from Seattle’s music scene, and a Sunday Tezos Music Showcase is also being planned with additional details still taking shape.

The venue’s pianos will see use as well. Ryan Tanaka has offered classical and ambient performances at past TezCon events, providing a musical experience that tends to reset and ground the room between higher energy performances.

The Art

In 2024 TezCon filled an entire NFT gallery with art by Tezos artists. In 2025 giant projectors surrounded Kenyon Hall displaying Tezos art curations. There’s no question that art will be prominently on display again this year.

There will be an open call for art at TezCon 2026, continuing the tradition of community-curated digital art being prominently featured. TEIA will serve as a sponsor and supporter this year, connected through a grant from the Tezos Foundation that aligns with TezCon’s programming. Details on the open call are still being finalized.

Erika (NormalityIsToxic), is creating the art for event marketing. The visual identity of an event like this carries real information about who is welcome and what kind of experience to expect. Marc Fendel is working to bridge Seattle’s local creative network with the global Tezos community, drawing in new faces alongside the returning regulars.

The Organizers

TezCon has always been organized by community members. This year’s core team includes Ryan Tanaka, Marc Fendel, Kevin Nortness, and Erika. Supporters contributing to the event include TEIA, DopeAIMama, Blangs, and Flexasaurus. These are people who create, collect, and build within the Tezos ecosystem on a regular basis, and many of them built those relationships entirely online before ever meeting in person. TezCon is where bonds strengthen, and where the doors open wider to bring new people into a community that has spent years proving what a different approach to art and technology can look like.

Voices of Iran

One of many meaningful projects connected to TezCon 2026 is Voices of Iran, also led by Erika. The project is a collaborative mutual aid zine designed to raise funds and bring sustained attention to the struggles faced by people in Iran. Thoughtful curations are being planned to support this initiative made possible thanks to the permissionless peer to peer nature of Tezos.

Recap of The Plans

Saturday, July 11th is the main event at Artspace Hiawatha Lofts Common Space, 843 Hiawatha Place South, Seattle, WA 98144. Programming begins at 4:04 PM and includes the panel discussion, art displays, live music, food, and drinks. Ryan is handling snacks, including Yellow Cake. Fendel is covering beverages.

Sunday, July 12th extends the weekend with the Tezos Music Showcase. Additional programming details are still being confirmed.

The organizers are exploring livestreaming options and virtual participation for those who cannot make the trip. Arrangements are being made to handle both the in-room experience and any internet-connected audio environments, including potential Twitter Spaces.

For updates on the open call for art, the full music lineup, and virtual participation options, follow the TezCon organizers mentioned above and Tezos Commons, as announcements continue to come out.

TezCon 2026: Beyond Enshittification was originally published in Tezos Commons on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Issue #302 arrives in a week where the focus shifts from brainstorming to execution mode for Tezos.

Tez/Dev gave a clear read on where things stand. Developers are working with live infrastructure, products are being designed around faster execution, and new systems are starting to connect across layers. That momentum carries forward, and this week starts to show how it gets applied.

This week, Tezos Intents points toward a different way of moving across chains, where users define what they want and let the system handle execution. Metals continues to progress, by stepping into conversations that reach outside the ecosystem and into real-world industries.

We’ll talk about it all and more in this week’s edition of The Baking Sheet.

Tezos Intents: A Different Way to Move Across Chains

Coming out of the past few weeks, where a lot of focus has been on infrastructure and what it enables, this is one of the first examples of how that thinking is turning into a product experience.

Tezos Intents is set to launch sometime this year, and it introduces a new way to move assets across chains from a single account, without handing over custody or dealing with the usual friction that comes with bridging.

At its core, the idea is simple. You describe what you want to happen, and the system handles how it gets done.

From an Etherlink account, users will be able to initiate cross-chain swaps, set their conditions, and let solvers compete to fulfill that request. The entire process happens with full on-chain visibility, while funds remain in the user’s control throughout.

What stands out here is how the flow changes compared to traditional bridges.

• One account manages assets across multiple chains • No gas required to declare an intent • Solvers execute trades through an RFQ-based system • Funds stay in a smart account, secured until conditions are met

Instead of moving assets into bridge contracts or juggling wallets across networks, everything is coordinated from a single point of control.

Under the hood, an MPC network verifies that the solver has delivered the expected result before any settlement is finalized. That removes the need for manual trust while keeping the process transparent and enforceable onchain.

There is also a shift in how accounts are structured. Rather than generating simple addresses on each chain, Tezos Intents deploys smart accounts that can enforce rules, approvals, and constraints across environments. That opens up more control over how assets move and how transactions are authorized.

Taken together, this represents a broader direction that has been building across the Tezos ecosystem. Cross-chain interaction is becoming a core part of how applications are designed, and the focus is moving toward making that experience feel consistent and controlled from the user’s side.

If you’re looking to get early access or participate as a solver, you can sign up here.

Metals.io Heads to The Economist Nuclear Summit

At Tez/Dev, Metals.io was introduced as an expansion to real-world assets becoming accessible on Tezos.

This week, that direction is already extending beyond the Tezos ecosystem itself.

The team behind Metals.io will be exhibiting at The Economist Nuclear Summit on April 15 in London, bringing the conversation into a room focused on the future of energy and global supply.

The summit brings together industry leaders and policymakers to explore the role of nuclear energy as demand continues to rise, and Metals will be part of that discussion through the lens of tokenization.

On stage, Arthur Breitman and Ben Elvidge will speak about how tokenized uranium and other strategic resources can benefit from blockchain-based infrastructure. The focus is practical. How access changes, how markets operate, and what becomes possible when these assets move onto more transparent and programmable rails.

If you are following along, you can learn more about the event here.

Tezos Ecosystem Expands Global Presence with New Regional Entities

Alongside everything happening on the product and protocol side, there’s also a structural shift taking place in how the ecosystem grows globally.

This week, new entities were introduced to expand Tezos’ presence in two key regions. Tezos Middle East, based in Dubai International Financial Centre, and Tezos Southeast Asia, based in Singapore, are being established to support builders, incubate projects, and deepen ecosystem engagement on the ground.

These regions have become important centers for areas Tezos continues to focus on, including gaming, capital markets, DeFi, and art. The approach here is practical. Build locally, move quickly, and develop expertise within each region rather than managing everything from a single hub.

To help coordinate this structure, the Tezos Patronage Association (TPA) has also been introduced. Based in Switzerland, it brings together organizations across the ecosystem to maintain alignment while allowing each entity to operate independently.

What stands out is how this reflects the broader nature of Tezos.

The ecosystem has always been distributed, with different groups contributing across regions and domains. This update builds on that by creating a more defined structure for regional growth, while still keeping the flexibility that allows teams to respond to opportunities as they come up.

Arthur Breitman described it in simple terms: “Tezos is a global ecosystem, and its institutional structure should reflect that reality. A more distributed model gives different organizations the autonomy to move quickly, develop domain expertise, and respond to opportunities as they arise. That kind of subsidiarity makes the broader Tezos effort more dynamic, more adaptable, and better positioned for long-term ecosystem growth and broader adoption.”

For teams in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, this means something concrete. Local support, direct engagement, and a clearer path to building within the ecosystem.

And for Tezos as a whole, it marks another step toward a more globally coordinated network, with multiple hubs contributing to the same long-term direction.

This Week in the Tezos Ecosystem

TezDev 2026: A Personal Recap

We know a lot of the community is still buzzing over the past week from Tez/Dev and once the event wraps and everyone heads home, the reflections start to come in. This week we want to share a personal recap, a kind that captures what it actually felt like to be there.

One of the strongest write-ups this week came from Cryptonio on Tezos Spotlight, and it lines up closely with what many people experienced on the ground.

He describes a shift from ideas being discussed to systems being actively worked on. Conversations around composability, intents, and instant confirmations were grounded in real progress, with teams building on top of infrastructure that is already in place.

There’s also a clear observation about direction. The focus is moving toward products people actually use, with revenue and real engagement starting to act as signals for what is gaining traction. That shift showed up in multiple sessions, and it reflects where the ecosystem is heading next.

His perspective on Metals adds another layer to that. What started with uranium has now expanded into a broader set of assets, opening access to markets that were previously out of reach for most participants.

And beyond the talks, he highlights something that is easy to overlook. The feel of the event itself. A space that stayed active throughout the day, with people moving between booths, testing applications, and engaging directly with what teams were building.

If you want a more personal look at the week, it’s well worth reading the full recap here.

Spring Events

Tezos Soirée: Paris Blockchain Week

As the focus shifts from Cannes to Paris, the next gathering for the community is already around the corner.

The Tezos Soirée is set to take place on April 14, just ahead of Paris Blockchain Week, offering a more intimate setting to connect before the larger conference begins.

Hosted at the Nomadic Labs office in Bastille, the evening is designed around conversation rather than programming. No panels, no presentations, just time to meet the people building, operating, and contributing across the ecosystem.

Here’s what to expect:

• An evening of networking with builders, founders, and ecosystem contributors • Drinks and food in a relaxed setting • Space for real conversations and idea exchange

Spots are limited so it’s worth securing a place early if you’re planning to be in Paris.

🔴 Now Streaming: Michael from Bitnomial

This week on TezTalks Live, host Stu takes a closer look at a major milestone for Tezos: the launch of the first-ever U.S.-regulated XTZ futures on Bitnomial.

For the first time, both institutional and retail traders can access Tezos through a CFTC-regulated futures market, opening the door to structured price discovery, hedging, and broader participation from traditional financial players.

Now streaming on YouTube.

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Every Thing Needs Balance

“Everything in moderation. Too much of anything is a bad thing.”

It is a mantra my Mom repeated often while I was growing up, one that continues to reveal its depth over time. Its meaning extends far beyond the obvious references like sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll. Its relevance is embedded in daily life, how we manage our time, navigate relationships, and contribute to a community while still taking care of ourselves.

Moderation has taken on a more literal role for me. I actively moderate several Tezos-based Telegram channels and communities focused on art. The same spaces where I once spent years promoting my own work as a mixed media artist and musician. That shift has given me a unique position. I have experienced both sides of the interactions.

I exist somewhere in between on a metaphorical bridge. A curator who understands what it feels like to want your work curated. An interviewer who knows the vulnerability of being on the other side of the questions. That dual perspective, both participating and moderating, has made the principle of moderation feel less like advice and more like a daily responsibility.

Everything in my life seems to circle back to it. That alone makes the phrase worth examining further. I believe the mantra could help a lot of my friends in the Tezos community, as much as it helps me. If nothing else, it might also make my Mom proud. So here we go on a deeper dive into the mantra.

Nothing Is Exempt

The first instinct when given a rule is to look for exceptions. Surely some things are meant to exist without limits. That is where this idea becomes uncomfortable.

Love, grief, creativity, and belief all carry a weight that can make balance feel like restriction. However, in practice, the absence of moderation does not preserve those things. It distorts them.

Unmoderated love can drift into attachment that controls rather than supports. Grief, left unchecked, can harden into something that no longer honors what was lost. Even passion, the driving force behind creativity, can burn through everything around it if it is never given boundaries.

Moderation is not about reducing depth. It isn’t about censorship. It is about maintaining awareness of the intent. Defining the difference between depth and excess. Depth is intentional and grounded. Excess replaces awareness.

Nothing is exempt from needing moderation. Everything needs balance.

Self-Governed Community

Online communities fight to maintain balance every day. Most of us are navigating multiple platforms at once. In those environments, it becomes easy to lose track of where intention ends and reaction begins.

The line between thoughtful promotion and noise blurs. Constructive criticism can quickly slip into toxic negativity. Caught up in the noise it’s easier to forget there is a real person on the other side of the screen that we would likely treat much differently if they were standing right in front of us.

Moderating our own speech is not censorship. It is discipline. We already apply care when creating and sharing our work, taking time to present it in a way that reflects our intent. The same care can be applied to how we communicate. Well-composed words tend to travel further than reactionary responses that rarely produce meaningful outcomes.

For artists, the pressure adds another layer. The expectation to remain visible is constant. It becomes easy to open an app intending to share something meaningful, only to reshape it into engagement bait. Over time, the focus shifts away from the work and toward maintaining relevance, where even surrounding drama begins to function as a form of visibility that the algorithm rewards.

Collectors and community members experience a similar imbalance from a different angle. One moment it is the fear of missing out on a new artist or drop. The next is uncertainty as platforms evolve and communities migrate. These cycles pull from the same pool of attention and energy, which I have previously described as Social Escrow. Over time, that drain can diminish the curiosity and enthusiasm that brought many of us to Tezos in the first place.

Maintaining balance in online communities requires, yet again, intention. It means knowing when to step back, when to listen, and when a conversation is no longer productive. In a smaller ecosystem, everything carries more weight. Presence and absense are noticed. Words travel further than expected. That is not a reason to disengage. It is a reason to engage with care.

We have to choose our battles, and just as importantly, moderate how we fight them.

Practicing Grace

Grace is where moderation becomes visible. It’s an influential and positive trait that others recognize and trust over time.

Within the Tezos ecosystem, where many of us have been building, collecting, and participating alongside each other for years, consistency carries weight. There is a clear difference between those who appear only when something is wrong and those who have established a pattern of presence, support, and meaningful contribution.

Credibility here accumulates with time, and grace. It comes from showing up, engaging in good faith, and demonstrating that your investment in the space extends beyond moments of frustration. When participation leans too heavily toward criticism, even valid points can lose their impact. What could have been useful discourse becomes indistinguishable from noise.

Diplomacy is also often misunderstood in this context. It is not about avoiding difficult conversations or softening the truth. It is about awareness and timing. With grace, words get composed and delivered more effectively. Critical observations are more likely to be received as constructive rather than reactive. Diplomacy is what happens when grace is practiced.

At the center of this practice is a simple but defining moment, the pause before we react. The decision to reach out privately to the person before public accusations. The moment when you check whether your response is grounded or reactive.

That is where moderation becomes real. That is where it shapes the tone of the entire community.

Balance Fluctuates

Balance requires ongoing attention and adjustment. For that reason, it is considered a practice rather than a rule. Rules are easy to adopt and just as easy to abandon. Practice requires consistency, especially when it becomes inconvenient.

In daily life, this can take many forms. Stepping away when energy is low. Drinking your morning coffee before checking DM’s. Taking the time to process news before reacting to it. Showing up excited to cooperate, rooted in genuine interest and support.

The principle is simple. The application is not. The real work lies in returning to balance after it has been disrupted.

What Does Moderation Mean To You?

This reflection begins with a simple phrase, “Everything in Moderation”, but its application is deeply personal. Balance will look different depending on your role, your habits, and your environment.

How do you remain engaged without becoming depleted? How do you care deeply while still maintaining the boundaries that make that care sustainable?

There is no perfect answer, but awareness is a starting point. Recognizing when something begins to take more than it gives, then making small, intentional corrections, is often the best practice.

In a self-governed ecosystem like Tezos, moderation is not enforced from the top down. It is practiced by the people who show up every day. The network can only be as healthy as the people who use it.

So the question remains open. What does moderation mean to you?

Everything In Moderation was originally published in Tezos Commons on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Welcome back, we pick up right after a packed week in Cannes, and there’s a lot to go over.

Tez/Dev brought the ecosystem into one room and made a few things clear. Teams are building on top of live infrastructure. Etherlink is already influencing how products are designed. We had a huge announcement regarding real-world assets, with the launch of ‘metals’ that you can access today.

That momentum carried straight into the rest of the week. Arthur’s conversations at EthCC pushed the focus toward long-term readiness, Bitstamp opened another door for access through Robinhood, and new projects on Etherlink continued to show how experimentation and creativity are evolving on-chain.

There’s a strong sense of continuity across all of it. Builders are shipping, infrastructure is being used, and new ideas are turning into real systems.

Let’s talk about it all in this week’s edition of The Baking Sheet.

Tez/Dev 2026: The Community Comes Together

Picking up after an incredible week at Tez/Dev, this year’s gathering in Cannes offered a clear look at where the ecosystem stands today and where it’s heading into the future with some amazing moments that still have people buzzing.

Across the sessions, demos, and conversations on the floor, there was a consistent pattern. Teams are building directly on top of the infrastructure that has been rolling out over the past year. The discussions around atomic composability, staking architecture, and intent-based design reflected systems that are already in use, not ideas waiting to be implemented. Etherlink’s instant confirmations came up repeatedly in that context, showing how developers are actively designing products around faster execution. Instant confirmations are going to be a major hit that will build new product experiences that we haven’t seen yet in this space.

Another shift was visible in how different parts of the stack are being designed. Staking, bridging, and liquidity are being approached as connected systems, with the expectation that users move across them as part of a single experience. That thinking showed up across multiple sessions and carried through the day.

Midway through the program, Arthur Breitman’s keynote brought those layers together by focusing on what comes next. The path toward Tezos X is becoming more concrete, with near-term milestones like testnet progress and longer-term changes such as the move toward a RISC-V-based rollup engine. The direction centers on enabling multiple runtimes to operate within the same ecosystem without creating fragmentation.

Several themes continued to come up across sessions and conversations:

• Applications are being built directly on top of the recently introduced infrastructure • Etherlink’s speed is shaping how products are designed and experienced • Cross-layer interaction is being treated as a standard part of the user flow • Real-world assets are moving into systems that people can access and use

That last point came into focus with one of the most discussed launches of the day.

Metals Enter the Picture

Metals, built by the team behind Uranium.io, introduced access to assets that have historically been limited to institutional markets. Gold, uranium, and a group of strategic metals are now available with continuous market access and physical backing.

The structure behind it reflects a broader direction that has been developing on Tezos:

• Access to gold, uranium, and key industrial metals • 24/7 markets with fractional ownership • Exposure to assets defined by constrained supply and long-term demand

This sits within a larger movement where real-world assets are becoming part of the infrastructure rather than standalone experiments.

From Tez/Dev to EthCC

The momentum also carried into EthCC, where Arthur’s talk on post-quantum readiness focused on preparation timelines. Migrating cryptographic systems requires coordination across wallets, custodians, and infrastructure providers, which makes early integration an important part of the process.

That connects to the ongoing work within the protocol, where post-quantum keys are being introduced in a way that allows the ecosystem to adapt gradually.

At the Etherlink booth, that same energy carried into hands-on interaction. Visitors jumped into the Proof of Speed challenge, competing for leaderboard spots, and signed up through Metals for access to onchain gold and uranium. The experience connected directly with what had been discussed earlier in the week, giving people a way to engage with it in real time.

Arthur also joined Hack Seasons for a panel exploring how money, credit, and real-world assets are moving onchain, extending the conversation beyond Tezos and into the broader direction of the space.

Looking across the full week, the progress showed up in specific ways. Teams presented working products instead of early concepts, infrastructure components were demonstrated together rather than in isolation, and real-world asset platforms launched with live access and clear use cases.

To everyone who showed up, shared their work, contributed to the conversations, and supported the ecosystem throughout the week, thank you. The energy and participation from the community made this one of the strongest Tez/Dev events to date, and it set a clear tone for the rest of the year. We look forward to meeting you all again in 2027.

This Week in the Tezos Ecosystem

Tezos x Bitstamp

Coming out of a week centered on real-world applications and infrastructure, there’s also another signal showing up on the US market side.

Bitstamp, now part of Robinhood, has added Tezos (XTZ) to its list of tradable assets.

Throw of Dice: A Live On-chain Experiment by Figure31

Lastly, as the week winds down, there’s one more release that brings things back to experimentation and creativity.

A new project from Figure31 is going live on Etherlink, and it leans into something a bit more playful, while still being fully onchain.

Curated by Grida, throwOfDice is a live animated series where each NFT represents a unique dice throw, generated in real time.

The mechanics are simple on the surface, though there is more happening underneath:

• Each piece features between 1 and 9 dice, with values from 1 to 9 • The outcome evolves continuously based on the previous minter’s wallet address • Every mint influences what comes next

It turns chance into a shared system, where each participant leaves a mark on the sequence.

Projects like this reflect another side of the ecosystem. Alongside infrastructure, markets, and real-world assets, there is still room for experimentation, play, and creative systems that only make sense in an onchain environment.

If you want to explore it live, you can follow it here.

And that’s a wrap for this week as we’ll close out Issue #301. From Tez/Dev in Cannes to new real-world assets launching, expanding access to XTZ, and experiments playing out live on Etherlink, this week covered a lot of ground. As always, Tezos continues to move across multiple layers at once, with each part adding to the macro vision.

Thanks for being here, following along, and subscribing to The Baking Sheet. Cheers!

🔴 Now Streaming: Michael from Bitnomial

This week on TezTalks Live, host Stu takes a closer look at a major milestone for Tezos: the launch of the first-ever U.S.-regulated XTZ futures on Bitnomial.

For the first time, both institutional and retail traders can access Tezos through a CFTC-regulated futures market, opening the door to structured price discovery, hedging, and broader participation from traditional financial players.

Now streaming on YouTube.

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A quick rundown of the latest happenings and significant milestones within the Tezos ecosystem for March 2026.

Welcome to our latest issue, Month At A Glance (February 2026), where we give a quick rundown of the latest happenings and significant milestones in the Tezos ecosystem on a monthly cadence.

March brought a strong mix of progress across the ecosystem. From early previews of the upcoming Ushuaia protocol upgrade to continued iteration on Etherlink, new infrastructure additions, and growing signals from outside the ecosystem, things moved forward on multiple fronts at once. It’s the kind of month where both the foundations and the surface-level activity are evolving in parallel.

Let’s break it all down.

Ecosystem Insights

Ushuaia: Next Tezos Protocol Proposal in Progress

The next Tezos protocol upgrade is starting to take shape, with Nomadic Labs, Trilitech, and Functori confirming that the upcoming proposal will be named Ushuaia.

While still being finalized, an early preview outlines a number of notable upgrades. These include a significant increase in DAL bandwidth, dynamic DAL attestation timing to improve data confirmation speeds, and groundwork for Etherlink through WASM PVM improvements. The proposal also introduces enshrined liquid staking (sTEZ) behind a feature flag, along with early support for quantum-resistant accounts.

It’s still early in the process, but this gives a clearer picture of where things are heading. As Ushuaia moves toward formal submission and voting, it continues the pattern of steady, iterative upgrades that gradually push the protocol forward.

Messari Releases State of Tezos Q4 2025 Report

Image source

A more data-driven update came in this month with the latest State of Tezos Q4 2025 report by Messari, giving a clear look at how the ecosystem wrapped up the year.

And honestly, it tells a story we’ve seen before. The market hasn’t exactly been kind, but that hasn’t stopped things from moving forward. Q4 was packed with ongoing development, protocol progress, and teams continuing to ship across different parts of the ecosystem.

If anything, what stands out here is consistency. While sentiment comes and goes, the building doesn’t really stop — and that’s something Tezos has been quietly doing right for a long time now.

Square Enix Becomes a Tezos Baker (Validator)

A well-known name from the gaming world stepped a bit deeper into the ecosystem this month, with Square Enix (best known for titles like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Tomb Raider), now running a baker on Tezos.

What this means in practice is simple, they’re now part of the network itself. By operating a baker, Square Enix is helping validate transactions and support the chain’s security, taking on an active role rather than just building on top or experimenting from the outside.

This also builds on their previous involvement in blockchain, where they’ve already explored and supported different initiatives. Running a baker seems to be the next step in that direction, giving them a more hands-on role and a closer look at how the technology works in practice.

That’s pretty much what’s been officially confirmed so far. But taking a step back, it does feel like a positive signal. Seeing a company like Square Enix move into the infrastructure side of things could point toward deeper involvement over time, but for now, that part remains more of a personal take.

Etherlink 6.2 Upgrade Clears Governance Vote

Etherlink moved forward with another upgrade this month, with version 6.2 successfully passing through governance.

The update addresses specific security and liveness issues identified in the previous Farfadet release, helping ensure the network continues to operate smoothly as activity builds. Notably, the proposal went through the fast-track governance process, allowing it to be deployed quickly, something that makes sense given the nature of the fixes.

It’s a good example of how the system is meant to work in practice. When needed, upgrades can move fast, without unnecessary delays, while still going through the proper process.

News From The Tezos Ecosystem: Quick Bits

Beyond those insights, the ecosystem saw plenty of other noteworthy developments worth a quick look:

Tezos Hub Goes Live on Blockster Tezos now has a dedicated hub on Blockster, bringing together ecosystem updates, projects, and community content in one place. It’s a simple way to improve discoverability and give people a more structured entry point into what’s happening across the ecosystem.

Tezos Referenced in SEC Digital Commodities Framework Tezos was included in a recent framework by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as an example of a “digital commodity,” alongside other crypto assets. While it’s not a formal classification, being referenced at this level adds weight to how Tezos is being viewed in an evolving regulatory landscape.

TZ APAC Brings x402 Payments to Etherlink TZ APAC introduced support for Coinbase’s x402 protocol on Etherlink, enabling pay-per-request APIs using crypto. It opens the door for developers to monetize services without subscriptions, while users can pay only for what they use with non-custodial, on-chain payments.

Tezos EVM (Etherlink) AI Hackathon Announced by Now Media Now Media has launched a new AI-focused hackathon on Tezos EVM (Etherlink), inviting builders to explore the intersection of AI and blockchain, with submissions open from March 27 to April 9 and winners announced on April 15. The initiative aims to bring fresh ideas into the ecosystem, with a focus on practical use cases and developer experimentation.

Uranium.io Shortlisted for Industry Award Uranium.io has been shortlisted for “Solution Provider of the Year (Innovation)” by Hedgeweek, recognizing its work in bringing uranium exposure on-chain. It’s another sign that real-world asset tokenization on Tezos is starting to gain attention beyond the immediate crypto space.

Private Payments Introduced on Etherlink via Merkl Etherlink now supports private token transfers through Merkl Pay, allowing users to send assets without directly linking sender and receiver wallets on-chain. The feature builds on Merkl’s existing distribution infrastructure, offering a simple way to add a layer of privacy to transactions.

Teia.art Receives Grant from Tezos Foundation Teia has secured funding from the Tezos Foundation to support community-led initiatives, including virtual and in-person events focused on the Tezos art ecosystem. The grant will be distributed in stages, with plans to open funding opportunities for artists and organizers in the near future.

Events

Tuesday🎙Tezday Community Call — March 3rd

Artz Fridays w CATS WILL EAT YOU — March 6th

Tuesday🎙Tezday w Mat Cybula (TenX)— March 10th

Artz Fridays w Rocio Mio (Bosque Gracias) — March 13th

Tuesday🎙Tezday Community Call — March 17th

Tuesday🎙Tezday w Teia.art — March 24th

Artz Fridays March’s Community Call — March 27th

Tuesday🎙Tezday TezDev Special — March 31st

Stay in the Conversation, Stay in the Know

Tezos Commons hosts a variety of community-oriented events and content. From podcasts, X-spaces, and long-form content, there’s something for everyone.

TezTalks Live

TezTalks Radio

X Spaces

X Shorts

Baking Sheet Newsletter

In-Depth Articles

You can also contact us on X or via email at social@tezoscommons.org.

Month At A Glance — March 2026 was originally published in Tezos Commons on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

March 2026 Spotlight Of Art Found On Tezos

There was a moment where I caught myself unintentionally gatekeeping the very thing I created to expand the spotlight on Tezos art.

In trying to keep the ‘ART’icle of the Month series aligned with community engagement, I allowed a simple lack of nominations to quietly stall out. The intention was fairness. The result was absence.

That realization reframed the entire premise. People are busy. They are building, creating, navigating life, and in many cases simply trying to stay afloat. Expecting consistent nominations as a prerequisite for highlighting meaningful work introduced friction where there should have been flexibility. The absence of nominations was never a reflection of the absence of great art on Tezos.

This month, I am shifting the approach. The spotlight no longer waits. When necessary it will simply follow my personal art discovery. What follows is a collection of pieces I have come across while actively collecting on Tezos. Art that stood out for a different reason, whether through composition, concept, or the feeling it left behind after my first encounter. I’ll focus on the art itself, while making sure the artists are properly credited.

These are a few of the recent pieces I have collected in my personal pursuits to discover and support fellow artists on Tezos. I do not have any of these artworks listed on secondary and do not intend to sell them for profit. These spotlights should not be interpreted as financial advice.

“Tunisian Atmosphere” by CappeSandro “Tunisian Atmosphere” by CappeSandro

A cat resting on a guitar is already enough to catch my attention, and anyone who knows me will understand why. Still, what makes this photograph resonate with me goes far beyond the obvious. The composition carries a quiet weight to it, the kind that invites you to linger a little and imagine a lot.

Captured in Sidi Bou Said, the image opens a window into Tunisia. Before encountering this piece, I could not have pointed to it on a map. Now it feels unforgettable. There is a visual language here that echoes the coastal tones of Greece, yet it exists firmly within North Africa, carrying its own distinct identity and atmosphere.

The painted guitar introduces a subtle tension. It almost feels misplaced at first glance, as if it wandered into the scene from another story. Yet the cat, completely at ease, has claimed the instrument. Turning something unusual into something comfortable. In other words, the cat sits so it fits.

Then there is the open doorway in the background. It suggests a narrative just out of reach. You begin to ask questions without expecting answers. Is that where the cat disappears to when the street quiets down? Does the guitar belong to whoever’s within?

This photo makes me want to travel and experience this place firsthand. Something that comes naturally to the artist, a travelling photographer. Discover more from CappeSandro at his linktree, here.

“Tuesday Afternoon” by Wessel “Tuesday Afternoon” by Wessel

Part of The Relax Fish Project, “Tuesday Afternoon” immediately stood out, but then drew me further in through rhythm, repetition, and a kind of visual calm that reveals itself the longer you sit with it.

There is a clear nod to the power of three woven throughout the composition. Three flowers rooted in the ground. Three fish bowls are oddly in a field with three fish floating within them. Far from a natural habitat, yet feeling strangely at home.

Just beyond that symmetry, a fourth subject breaks the formation, a single fish rocketing upward into space. The composition has varying motion without chaos, the rocket fish like a thought that briefly escapes before settling back into a calm foreground composition.

Framed within what appears to be an old-school box TV, there is a tactile nostalgia added. Reminding me of those old displays that would hum faintly and crackle with static if you reached out to touch them.

The Relaxed Fish project has a standalone website to explore, here, and you can discover more collections and art by Wessel, here.

“Building With Picasso’s Earring” by Biglis “Building With Picasso’s Earring” by Biglis

This artwork brings together several styles I am naturally drawn to, landing somewhere between digital collage and living composition. It feels layered in a way that only digital workflows can fully support, where each element is placed with intention, with just enough motion to shift the entire piece from static to alive.

The familiar presence of Girl with a Pearl Earring is reimagined into something more surreal, taking on a Spider-Woman form. What was once a symbol of quiet stillness becomes active and current. The web is represented as a figure reshaped through a cubist lens, dangling like an ornament yet embedded into the architecture.

Below, the city is static with suggested motion, introducing impressionist influence to the mix. There is a clear contrast between the living, breathing urban space and the elevated surrealism above it.

I can feel the dialogue between classical, experimental, abstract, and contemporary here. No one element overpowers the others. Resulting in a fusion of art history and innovative risk that pays off. Intentional and unique, like many of the other artworks you can discover by Biglis, here.

Until Next Month’s ‘ART’icle

To close this month’s spotlight, I want to leave the focus on the art itself while gently reminding the community that nominations for the next #tezARTicle are still open. Every submission matters and can help highlight an artist who deserves to be seen, even a single comment can make a difference.

The pieces featured here show why I keep coming back to collect and explore on Tezos. Every artist is telling a story that sparks curiosity, and shows what is possible through creating and sharing digitally. Collected for the joy of discovery, art appreciation, and supporting fellow artists.

Thank you for reading. Keep exploring art on Tezos, keep nominating, and stay tuned for more spotlights soon.

The ‘Art’icle of The Month was originally published in Tezos Commons on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

TezDev week is starting to come into focus.

With the full agenda now out, you can begin to see how everything is lining up in Cannes. The conversations, the people, the ideas that have been building over the past few months are all about to come together in one place. At the same time, the broader landscape around Tezos is shifting in its own way, with new clarity beginning to emerge in how the network is being viewed and discussed at a regulatory level.

And alongside that, the policy layer is stepping further into the spotlight, with Tezos contributors helping shape conversations around how decentralized assets and staking fit into evolving frameworks like MiCA.

This week’s edition moves across those layers. From a moment that touches on one of the longest-running questions in the space, to the agenda that will shape TezDev itself, and the discussions happening just next door at EthCC.

Tezos Referenced in U.S. SEC Digital Commodities Framework

For years, one question has quietly followed Tezos and much of the broader crypto space: how exactly should these networks be classified?

That question has shaped conversations across regulators, builders, and institutions. It has influenced how products are designed, how participation is structured, and how entire ecosystems are understood from the outside looking in.

This week, there’s a meaningful signal in that ongoing discussion.

In a recent release from the U.S. SEC, Tezos (XTZ) was explicitly referenced among examples of what are being described as “digital commodities.” The definition leans heavily on functionality. Networks that are already operating, where value comes from usage, participation, and supply and demand within the system itself. Not from promises. Not from future earnings tied to a company. But from the system as it exists today.

Tezos appearing in that list places it clearly within that conversation.

It reflects a view of Tezos as a network that stands on its own mechanics. A chain where validation, governance, and evolution are driven by participants rather than centralized control. A system that has continued to upgrade itself, cycle after cycle, without relying on a single coordinating entity to push it forward.

For a long time, the line between what is considered a security and what is considered a commodity has been one of the biggest open questions in the space. This doesn’t close that conversation entirely, but it does show where thinking is starting to land, at least in part, and it’s happening alongside similar discussions elsewhere.

At EthCC in Cannes, that same question takes a different form through a policy roundtable focused on how liquid staking and decentralized assets should be classified under MiCA. Contributors from across the Tezos ecosystem are helping bring those conversations into the room, alongside policymakers and industry participants working through Europe’s evolving framework.

Two different regions. Two different regulatory approaches. But both are circling the same core idea.

How do you define networks that don’t behave like traditional financial instruments?

This week, Tezos finds itself directly inside that answer. With that being said, if you would like to attend the policy discussion at EthCC, register here.

This Week in the Tezos Ecosystem

TezDev 2026 Agenda Goes Live

After weeks of hints and early announcements, the full picture for TezDev 2026 is finally here.

The agenda is now live, and it gives a clear sense of how the day in Cannes will unfold. From the first session to the final panel, it’s turning out to be one of the most packed and wide-ranging TezDev programs to date.

The day opens with a quick welcome before moving straight into what’s being built right now. Early sessions focus on core infrastructure, from native atomic composability to staking design and how canonical LSTs are being approached within the ecosystem. These aren’t abstract ideas, they’re the building blocks that developers and teams are actively working with today.

From there, the conversation shifts into real-time performance. A fireside chat on Etherlink’s instant confirmations digs into what low-latency execution actually looks like in practice, and what it unlocks for DeFi and beyond.

Midway through the day, the focus broadens.

Panels on intents, RFQs, and bridging explore how liquidity and user experience are evolving, followed by a deeper look at agentic development and how applications may be designed moving forward. Then comes a moment many will be waiting for, Arthur Breitman’s keynote, stepping back to look at where Tezos is heading next and what the current wave of infrastructure enables from here.

The second half of the agenda leans into use cases.

Tokenized metals, commodities trading, and new financial primitives take center stage, connecting onchain systems with real-world markets. It’s a continuation of a theme that’s been building over time, bringing more tangible assets and activity into the ecosystem.

Later panels expand that lens even further. Discussions around yield, new earning models, and the next phase of crypto-native applications sit alongside a dedicated focus on art and digital creativity, a space where Tezos has continued to carve out its own identity.

And once the sessions wrap, the day doesn’t end there. Art After Dark closes things out with a 360° immersive experience, bringing together the creative side of the ecosystem in a different format.

​You'll also be able to participate in TezQuest, a series of challenges that will have you meet projects, experience apps, and more. Participants will compete for prizes from a pool worth up to $7,000!

Taken together, the agenda reads less like a list of talks and more like a snapshot of where things stand right now. Infrastructure, applications, markets, and culture all moving at once, each with its own track, but all part of the same story unfolding in Cannes.

Tezos Events

Tez/Dev 2026: Less than 2 Weeks Away!

Tez/Dev is officially back, and this is the kind of date worth circling early.

Monday, March 30, 2026, the Tezos ecosystem heads back to Cannes for the next edition of Tez/Dev, once again hosted at the Hôtel Martinez on the Croisette. Registration is live now, with the full agenda and experience details still to come.

This is one of those anchor moments in the year where everything feels more connected. You can follow updates online all month long, but Tez/Dev is where the conversations tend to tighten up. Builders get face time. Teams show what is actually working. People who have been moving in parallel finally end up in the same room. It is a day that usually leaves you with new context, new contacts, and a clearer sense of what is getting traction across the ecosystem.

What we know so far is the shape of the day, even if the schedule is still being built:

Dev updates and panel deep-dives

Hands-on time with apps and teams

A chance to compete for prizes

An immersive art party to close the night

A quick practical note for anyone planning ahead: registration on Luma is required for approval, and it says you will be asked to verify token ownership with your wallet as part of the process.

If you are already mapping out EthCC week in Cannes (March 30 to April 2), Tez/Dev sits right at the start of the week, which makes it a strong first touchpoint for meeting people and setting the tone for everything that follows.

Event basics

Date: Monday, March 30, 2026

Venue: Hôtel Martinez, 73 Bd de la Croisette, 06400 Cannes, France

Registration: https://luma.com/tezdev-2026

If you are planning to attend, getting your request in early is the move as the program reveal will drop soon.

🔴 Now Streaming: The 5.5 Million Tez Decision Explained

This week on TezTalks Radio, we’re joined by Mat Cybula, CEO of TenX Protocols, following the announcement of a strategic staking partnership with the Tezos Foundation.

In January, TenX acquired approximately 5.5 million tez. But beyond the headline, this conversation focuses on something more important: how that decision was made, and what it actually means in practice.

🔍 In this episode, we explore:

How the internal decision to acquire tez came together

The biggest concerns raised before committing capital

What made Tezos a “yes” for TenX

What a “strategic staking partnership” actually involves

What TenX is running today and how to verify it

What delegators should expect in terms of fees, payouts, and reporting

How validator performance and transparency will be communicated

What due diligence from the Tezos Foundation looks like behind the scenes

How TenX approaches security, key management, and failure scenarios

The balance between yield optimization and operational safety

How TenX thinks about decentralization and stake concentration

Why Tezos governance and upgrade reliability stood out

How TenX plans to approach on-chain voting

Whether TenX plans to contribute beyond validation

Throughout the conversation, Mat keeps coming back to a simple idea: running infrastructure is about responsibility, not just returns.

Now streaming on YouTube.

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Announcing the CRP Winners for February 2026!

Greetings Tezos Community,

We are pleased to announce the winners of the “Community Rewards Program” CRP for the month of February 2026!

For more details about the various categories, please refer to the rewards page on the Tezos Commons website.

The Community Rewards Program is a Tezos Commons Foundation initiative aimed at fostering adoption and supporting the Tezos ecosystem. Every month, tez rewards are distributed to individuals and teams who stand out in merit and act in the interest of the Tezos ecosystem as a whole. For this round, a total of 9,500 tez has been awarded.

In an endeavor to make it easier for community members to nominate their favorite contributors to the ecosystem, the nomination form has been drastically streamlined. Now containing only three questions, it takes less than 30 seconds to submit a nomination.

Don’t have 30 seconds? You can tag any Discord message, Reddit post or tweet with #TezosCRP and we will collect them as well!

This is the fifth iteration of the program, and we will continue to make changes based on community feedback. Just like the Tezos blockchain, we will be continually evolving this program.

Numerous factors are used when evaluating submissions, such as quality of submissions, quality of activity, number of submissions, and verifiable proof of activity done by the nominee (no single factor is determinative of a winner, as all factors were weighed to select winners). The judges would like to note that for each category, they are looking for the respective monthly related activity, meaning submissions should reflect activities done for that current month, i.e.; month of January activities.

Without further delay, here are the results of the winners, below.

Helping Hand Award

@HashSosaHash

@ZerorezeroA

@TheTezos

@AuRo404

@_DiVieM_

@NurArt_

@_Gellefin

Influencer Award

@NftyTrap

@ariasixthousand

@fabriziobrarez

@KOLLECTOR_OG

@sheasmith1

@ErnestCisneros1

Tez Dev Award

@FromFriends__

@_joesimon

@webidente

@JackTezos

@BakingBenjamins

Assimilation Award

@Tez2ndMarket

@xSAMGADx

@Chazwesley99

@ZeroUnboundArt

@SkullDegenClub_

@younghover1996

@LaChicaBabyBoo

Patissier Award

@Zir0h

@blockbakery

@fafo_lab

Tezos Tutor Award

@TozartWeb3

@cletusEllijah

@proto_designer

@malsheep56

Formal Verification Award

@skllzarmy

@ryangtanaka

TEO Award

@StrokeDriven

@uzzy_arts

@FendelMarc

@the1hashbrown

Nominations Are Open For March

With March underway, we have begun accepting nominations for this month. If you know someone who deserves a reward for their contributions to the community or have ideas about other categories that should be recognized, then please fill out a nomination form located here, or you can tag a post (or discord message) with #TezosCRP.

As mentioned previously, we are still working on long-term improvements to this program. We know this program is far from perfect, so please bear with us while we strive to improve this program based on community feedback. Stay tuned, stay creative, and keep nominating!

As a reminder to the reward winners, the awards are all distributed through Kukai and DirectAuth. If you have issues claiming your awards, please message us here.

Tezos Community Rewards — February 2026 was originally published in Tezos Commons on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The forum where Tezos upgrades are discussed, ideas are debated, and the community helps shape the network.

One thing the Tezos ecosystem definitely doesn’t lack is conversation.

Ideas, questions, updates, and debates appear daily across Telegram groups, Discord servers, X threads, and developer chats. It’s a sign of a living ecosystem with people actively thinking about the future of the network.

But when discussions are spread across so many places, something important can happen, good ideas and points get buried and remain unseen.

That’s exactly the problem Tezos Agora was built to solve.

What Tezos Agora Is (and Why It Exists)

Tezos Agora is the main forum for governance and ecosystem discussions around Tezos.

It’s where developers, bakers, researchers, and community members gather to talk about the protocol, upcoming upgrades, technical improvements, and sometimes even broader ideas about how the ecosystem should evolve.

And yes, before anyone says it, I also enjoy the fast-paced chats and meme-filled groups. I don’t live in the 2000s. But forums serve a different purpose.

Unlike the fun chat platforms, discussions on Agora are structured, searchable, and persistent. Ideas don’t disappear after ten minutes. A thoughtful post can spark a conversation that lasts for weeks, and anyone can jump in, read the arguments, and contribute their perspective.

In a growing ecosystem like Tezos, having a place where these conversations can live and evolve in a more organized way is incredibly valuable.

Where Tezos Developments and Ideas Meet

That’s also what makes Agora so interesting to browse. Spend a bit of time scrolling through the forum and you’ll quickly notice that many of the conversations about future Tezos improvements actually start there.

It’s often where important announcements appear first as well. New Octez releases, technical updates, or ecosystem developments like Octez Connect (which serves as the replacement for Beacon as the wallet connection layer used by many Tezos dApps ) are typically shared on the forum so developers and community members can see what’s happening and ask questions.

Beyond announcements, core developers also post previews of features that might eventually become part of future protocol upgrades. The goal is usually to present the feature early, explain how it is expected to work, and gather feedback from the community before it is finalized or included in a future upgrade proposal.

And it’s not just developers posting updates. Community members also raise their own ideas and concerns. Threads discussing topics like liquidity baking, network economics, governance improvements, or ecosystem participation regularly appear as people share their thoughts on how Tezos could evolve over time.

But the best way to understand what makes Agora interesting is simply to look at the kinds of discussions that are happening there right now.

Some Conversations Happening Right Now

For example, one of the topics currently being discussed is enshrined liquid staking on Tezos. The proposal introduces the idea of integrating liquid staking functionality directly at the protocol level, allowing users to stake their tez while receiving a liquid representation of their staked position that could potentially be used elsewhere in the ecosystem. As you read through the replies, you’ll see people examining the proposal from different angles. Some highlight the potential benefits for accessibility and capital efficiency, while others raise questions about how it could affect staking incentives or the broader dynamics of the network.

Another discussion focuses on simplifying parts of Tezos’ on-chain governance process. Today, protocol upgrades go through several voting phases designed to carefully evaluate proposals before they are adopted. The proposal looks at ways parts of that process could potentially be streamlined, making governance easier to follow and participate in while still preserving the safeguards that make Tezos upgrades reliable. Some commenters see this as a natural step toward making governance more approachable, while others are more cautious and want to ensure that any simplification doesn’t weaken the review process that has helped keep upgrades safe and predictable.

And it’s not only developers starting conversations. Community members regularly bring their own ideas to the table as well. One example is a thread calling on bakers to disable liquidity baking, a mechanism that was originally introduced to support liquidity in the Tezos ecosystem. Some participants believe the feature has already served its purpose and should now be turned off, while others argue that it still provides useful liquidity and should remain active.

These are exactly the kinds of discussions that make Agora interesting to follow. You’re not just seeing announcements, you’re seeing ideas, questions, disagreements, and perspectives from people across the diverse ecosystem that is Tezos.

And that’s really the point of the forum, not just to follow discussions, but to become part of them.

Why You Should Participate

Reading through discussions on Agora is already valuable on its own. It gives you a clearer sense of what’s happening in the ecosystem and what ideas are currently being explored.

But the forum isn’t just meant for observing conversations. It’s also a place where anyone in the community can raise ideas, ask questions, or start discussions about the future of Tezos.

And maybe it’s time we start bringing back a phrase that used to be pretty common in the ecosystem: “Post it on Agora.”

You can share a thought in a chat group with hundreds of people and feel like it’s being seen, but in reality, it can get buried within minutes and missed by most of the people who might actually have something useful to add.

On Agora, discussions stay visible, organized, and easy to find later. That gives ideas the time and space to be explored properly instead of disappearing in the scroll.

Sometimes all it takes to start a good discussion is one post.

Tezos was designed around open participation. Upgrades are proposed, discussed, and refined in the open, and the community plays a role in shaping the direction of the network.

Tezos Agora is one of the places where that process becomes visible.

If you haven’t visited it yet, take a few minutes to explore Tezos Agora and browse through the discussions currently happening there. Chances are you’ll find something interesting, a topic you hadn’t considered before, a discussion you might want to follow, or even something you have your own perspective to add to.

And if you have something worth discussing, you already know what to do.

Post it on Agora!

Inside Tezos Agora: Where Ideas, Upgrades, and Debates Meet was originally published in Tezos Commons on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This week’s edition of The Baking Sheet brings together three very different corners of the Tezos ecosystem.

A major name from the gaming world has joined the Tezos by running a validator node and securing the network. Across the community, preparations for TezDev are picking up momentum, with new interactive experiences planned for attendees on the event floor in Cannes.

The conference circuit will also host a deeper technical conversation. Arthur Breitman is set to speak at EthCC about a question that is slowly moving from theory to planning: how blockchains prepare for a future shaped by quantum computing.

Infrastructure, community gatherings, and long-term research all appear in this week’s edition, each offering a glimpse of how the Tezos ecosystem continues to evolve in different directions at once.

Let’s talk about it all in your weekly dose of Tezos news.

Square Enix Is Now Running a Tezos Validator

There are certain names in gaming that instantly stand out. This week, one of them joined the validator set on Tezos.

Japanese entertainment giant, Square Enix, is now operating a baker node on the Tezos network, helping validate transactions and support the protocol’s operation.

For a company whose catalog includes legendary global franchises like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Space Invaders, the move represents another step in its growing involvement with blockchain-related infrastructure and digital ownership.

Square Enix has already explored the space through investments in projects like Soccerverse, HyperPlay, and The Sandbox. Running a validator on Tezos adds a new dimension to that participation, placing the company directly inside the network’s infrastructure.

Hideaki Uehara, General Manager of Investment and Business Development at Square Enix Holdings, described the decision as part of a broader effort to better understand the underlying systems powering blockchain ecosystems while contributing to their operation.

For the Tezos gaming ecosystem, the timing is notable. Activity across games and gaming platforms built on Tezos reached roughly 440,000 unique users and over 31 million transactions in 2025, reflecting steady growth across both casual and larger-scale titles.

Efe Kucuk, Head of Gaming at Trilitech, highlighted the significance of the moment, noting that having a major publisher like Square Enix validating the network adds credibility while strengthening ties between the gaming industry and the infrastructure supporting it.

As the ecosystem continues expanding across Etherlink and the broader Tezos stack, participation from established game publishers signals something important: the relationship between gaming studios and blockchain networks is moving beyond experimentation and into real infrastructure.

Welcome to the Tezos community, Square Enix.

TezQuest Brings Challenges and Prizes to TezDev

While some of this week’s news highlights major gaming companies joining the network, the next story turns toward a gaming event at TezDev that enables the community to win some awesome prizes on the event floor.

If you’re planning to attend TezDev this March in Cannes, there’s a new way to explore the event floor.

Introducing TezQuest: a series of interactive challenges taking place inside the XP Zone, where attendees can meet projects, try apps, and compete across the ecosystem.

Participants will be able to move between booths and experiences across the floor, completing tasks and challenges along the way.

Up to $7,000 in prizes will be available, including:

• iPad Pro• DJI Osmo• Ledger hardware wallets

The XP Zone is designed to bring TezDev to life in a hands-on way, giving attendees the chance to interact directly with projects building across the ecosystem rather than just hearing about them on stage.

TezDev takes place on March 30 in Cannes, and if you want to take part in TezQuest, securing your ticket is the first step.

This Week in the Tezos Ecosystem

Arthur Breitman: Preparing Blockchains for the Post-Quantum Era

As this year’s conference season begins to take shape in Cannes, another major conversation is coming to the stage alongside the community gatherings and ecosystem events.At EthCC, Tezos co-founder Arthur Breitman will be speaking in the Core Protocol track with a talk titled “Preparing Blockchains for the Post-Quantum Era.”

The topic tackles a question that often gets pushed into the future: what happens to blockchains when quantum computers become powerful enough to break today’s cryptography?

Unlike many traditional systems, blockchains carry a unique challenge. Their data is public, permanent, and expected to remain valid for decades, which means the security decisions made today need to hold up far into the future. Waiting until quantum computers arrive would likely be too late.

Arthur’s talk will explore why post-quantum preparation needs to begin now, and what it means for protocols that aim to remain secure and usable over the long term.

If you’re planning to attend TezDev, it’s worth noting that EthCC[9] is happening the same week in Cannes, making it an ideal opportunity to catch both events.

Between ecosystem meetups, developer talks, and protocol discussions, it’s shaping up to be a busy week on the French Riviera, hope to catch you there!

Tezos Events

Tez/Dev 2026: Registration is Now Open!

Tez/Dev is officially back, and this is the kind of date worth circling early.

Monday, March 30, 2026, the Tezos ecosystem heads back to Cannes for the next edition of Tez/Dev, once again hosted at the Hôtel Martinez on the Croisette. Registration is live now, with the full agenda and experience details still to come.

This is one of those anchor moments in the year where everything feels more connected. You can follow updates online all month long, but Tez/Dev is where the conversations tend to tighten up. Builders get face time. Teams show what is actually working. People who have been moving in parallel finally end up in the same room. It is a day that usually leaves you with new context, new contacts, and a clearer sense of what is getting traction across the ecosystem.

What we know so far is the shape of the day, even if the schedule is still being built:

Dev updates and panel deep-dives

Hands-on time with apps and teams

A chance to compete for prizes

An immersive art party to close the night

A quick practical note for anyone planning ahead: registration on Luma is required for approval, and it says you will be asked to verify token ownership with your wallet as part of the process.

If you are already mapping out EthCC week in Cannes (March 30 to April 2), Tez/Dev sits right at the start of the week, which makes it a strong first touchpoint for meeting people and setting the tone for everything that follows.

Event basics

Date: Monday, March 30, 2026

Venue: Hôtel Martinez, 73 Bd de la Croisette, 06400 Cannes, France

Registration: https://luma.com/tezdev-2026

If you are planning to attend, getting your request in early is the move as the program reveal will drop soon.

🔴 Now Streaming: Why Major Art Institutions Are Choosing Tezos

This week on TezTalks Live, host Stu is joined by Vinciane Jones, Art Vertical Partnership Manager at Trilitech, and Aleksandra Art, Head of Arts at Trilitech, to explore how Tezos art is stepping further into the institutional world.

With newly announced partnerships involving HEK Basel and the renewed collaboration with the Museum of the Moving Image, the conversation centers on what it means for blockchain-based art to be exhibited, studied, and supported by established cultural institutions.

Watch the full episode on YouTube.

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The Expansion of The World Wide Web

I still remember the AOL floppy disk arriving in the mail. I remember hearing my first “You’ve got mail” notification. It felt like receiving a letter, except now that feeling could happen anytime, right there on a screen. Everything was new, and because of that novelty, everything seemed to matter.

It’s easy to forget what we actually got online to do in those early days. It wasn’t about building a following, streaming endless media, or filling shopping carts. In the beginning, the internet existed primarily to spread knowledge and connect people. Much of the work behind the scenes came from small groups of enthusiasts experimenting in garages and home offices, quietly building the foundations of what the web would become.

For the average user, logging on felt meaningful. Interaction had not yet been reduced to likes, reposts, and engagement metrics. We signed on, hoping to discover something unexpected. Discovery was the point, and connection was the reward.

As the web expanded, music downloads, early social media platforms, and video streaming opened new ways to share culture online. Much of this happened before large-scale monetization arrived, and for many people, it felt like a renaissance for art, stories, and creativity. No algorithms were deciding what you should see, and no platforms were studying your behavior to maximize engagement. People simply found each other through curiosity and shared interests.

Few people at the time could clearly see where all of this would eventually lead.

The Timeline So Far

Once commerce entered the picture, the internet’s evolution accelerated rapidly. Businesses realized that the web could facilitate buying and selling on a global scale, and digital payments soon followed as supporting infrastructure.

Platforms such as eBay, Amazon, and PayPal proved that entire markets could exist online. Soon, every company needed a website, and internet traffic exploded alongside the demand for domain space and hosting.

Financial institutions quickly recognized the opportunity. Credit card companies promoted online spending, making it possible to borrow money and purchase almost anything within seconds. Convenience increased dramatically, but so did consumer debt and the commercial influence woven throughout online platforms.

Attention gradually became a measurable asset. Platforms learned to track engagement, optimize feeds, and monetize user behavior. What once felt like an open cultural exchange slowly evolved into a system designed to extract economic value from human interaction.

Despite all the technological progress on the surface, the financial architecture underneath the web barely changed. Banks still sat at the center of the system. Governments still controlled currency. Payment processors continued acting as intermediaries between individuals and their money.

In many ways, we digitized the interface of finance without redesigning the system itself.

Convenience gradually concentrated power. Data became centralized within large platforms, and a relatively small number of corporations began deciding who gets seen, who gets paid, and who gets access. People built audiences on infrastructure they didn’t actually own, while privacy slowly eroded through long chains of user agreements.

For a while, this arrangement appeared to work well enough. Markets expanded, businesses grew, and transactions cleared reliably. When systems appear to trend upward, few people stop to question their underlying structure.

Eventually, the weaknesses begin to show.

Financial crises expose fragile foundations. Inflation quietly erodes savings. Accounts can freeze without warning, and access to financial networks often depends on institutions whose incentives do not always align with those of their users.

None of this emerged from a single decision. The system simply scaled faster than our ability to question it.

Over time, the feeling many of us associated with the early internet began to fade. We had built a borderless communication network while leaving its economic core tied to systems designed to centralize control.

What Was Missing

One question sits at the center of the next phase of the internet.

If information can move freely across a global network without permission, why can’t value?

The web created a universal communication system, but never developed a native way to own or transfer value within it. Financial activity still relied on intermediaries, balances still depended on institutional trust, and agreements still required external enforcement.

Blockchain technology emerged in response to that gap.

At the heart of the idea is a decentralized ledger, a shared record that no single entity controls, but anyone can verify. Instead of trusting institutions operating behind closed doors, the rules governing the system exist in transparent code validated across a distributed network.

This structure introduces something fundamentally new to the digital environment. Value can move peer-to-peer across the internet without requiring approval from centralized thirdparties. Ownership can exist natively online, and agreements can be executed automatically through programmable smart contracts.

Some people call this Web3. Others debate whether the term is useful at all. The label matters less than the transition taking place.

The internet is gradually shifting from systems controlled by platforms toward systems coordinated by participants. Instead of environments where a handful of companies capture most of the value, new networks allow users themselves to hold a stake.

The shift is subtle but significant. It moves the internet from rented ground toward shared digital infrastructure.

Interoperability

The future internet will not belong to a single group, platform, or blockchain.

Different networks are being built with different priorities. Some emphasize security, others speed, privacy, or programmability. Each contributes something distinct to the emerging architecture.

The real challenge is not deciding which blockchain wins. It is building infrastructure that allows these systems to communicate and cooperate.

Interoperability is essential because no single design can solve every problem. A network with a fixed monetary supply might function as a powerful store of value but could also concentrate wealth over time. Complementary systems with adaptable governance allow protocols to evolve without fragmenting into competing versions.

Smart contracts must be secure and verifiable because financial infrastructure cannot rely on guesswork. Bridges between ecosystems, shared standards, and interoperable execution environments are all part of the connective tissue required for a decentralized internet.

These ideas are already taking shape in networks like Tezos. Designed with self-amending governance, the protocol can evolve through on-chain upgrades without disruptive splits. It also adopted Proof of Stake early, prioritizing sustainability and long-term participation.

Smart contracts on Tezos are designed with formal verification in mind, reflecting the understanding that financial infrastructure demands a higher standard of reliability. The network’s evolving roadmap focuses heavily on interoperability and expanding connections between blockchain ecosystems.

The goal is not isolation between networks. The goal is cooperation.

Building With Perspective

The early web carried a sense of possibility that is difficult to recreate today. Messages arrived unexpectedly. Communities formed organically. Connecting with people across the world still felt extraordinary.

Over time, we learned what happens when open systems drift toward centralization. Convenience can slowly erode autonomy, and digitizing money without redesigning it often reproduces the same limitations.

Many communities building decentralized networks today are trying to move forward with those lessons in mind. The focus is less on hype and more on infrastructure that can endure. Systems that support persistent ownership, adaptive governance, and collaboration between networks rather than competition for dominance.

Whether the term Web3 survives its current debates may not matter much. What matters is that the transition is already underway.

A growing number of builders are logging on again with a new set of tools. Efforts are in full force with AI now accelerating development potential. Decentralized protocols and open infrastructure are forming the next layer of the internet.

What we build during this period may determine whether the next century online can rediscover a bit of the spirit that defined the early World Wide Web.

So, build for the future of the internet and everything we now know that entails. Blockchains are not stocks. They are not companies. They are networks of people attempting to rebuild the third evolution of the internet.

The Internet Is Evolving was originally published in Tezos Commons on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A quick rundown of the latest happenings and significant milestones within the Tezos ecosystem for February 2026.

Welcome to our latest issue, Month At A Glance (February 2026), where we give a quick rundown of the latest happenings and significant milestones in the Tezos ecosystem on a monthly cadence.

February was a forward-looking month for the ecosystem. Early previews for the upcoming U upgrade opened the door for community feedback, while new financial products, infrastructure tooling, and cultural initiatives showed steady expansion beyond the core protocol. It was a mix of preparation for what’s next and tangible progress happening in parallel.

Let’s break it all down.

Ecosystem Insights

Early Previews for the “U” Upgrade Go Public

February gave us an early look at what’s being planned for the upcoming U protocol upgrade, and instead of dropping everything at once, core developers started sharing individual feature previews on Tezos Agora to gather feedback ahead of time. This is the kind of process that often goes unnoticed, but it’s where a lot of the important shaping happens. Before anything hits the on-chain proposal stage, ideas are opened up to scrutiny, discussion, and refinement.

The first feature preview introduces support for post-quantum user keys. In simple terms, this is about future-proofing Tezos cryptography against the long-term threat of quantum computing. It doesn’t replace existing signature schemes overnight and it doesn’t require users to take action today. Instead, it adds support for a NIST (U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology)-standardized quantum-resistant scheme so wallets, custodians, and tooling providers can begin integrating and testing early. It’s a proactive move, not reacting to a crisis, but preparing for one that may eventually come.

The second feature preview focuses on a major increase to the Data-Availability Layer (DAL) bandwidth, raising it from roughly 0.66 MB/s to 10 MB/s. That’s a significant jump and directly impacts scalability for rollups and high-throughput applications.

These are just the first two features shared publicly, with more expected to follow. If you care about where the protocol is heading, now is the time to keep an eye on Tezos Agora and contribute to the discussion while these ideas are still taking shape.

TezDev 2026 Tickets Go Live

February also brought some forward-looking energy to the calendar: TezDev 2026 was officially announced, and ticket registration is now open. If you’re planning to attend, now’s the time to secure your spot (link to registration page).

TezDev has been the main annual gathering point for the Tezos ecosystem. It’s where protocol engineers, tooling teams, DeFi projects, artists, bakers, and curious newcomers and enthusiasts all end up in the same rooms, not just listening to talks, but actually exchanging ideas and building relationships. Some of the most interesting collaborations in this ecosystem have started from conversations at previous editions.

With just about a month to go, this is the moment to reserve your spot. TezDev has genuinely leveled up year after year, with stronger speaker lineups, deeper technical sessions, more side events, and better hallway conversations. If that trend continues (and it usually does), this edition could easily be the best one yet.

If you’re building on Tezos, or even seriously exploring it, don’t leave it to the last minute. Grab your ticket, lock in your travel plans, and make sure you’re in the room when the ecosystem gathers to compare notes and shape what comes next.

News From The Tezos Ecosystem: Quick Bits

Beyond those insights, the ecosystem saw plenty of other noteworthy developments worth a quick look:

Critical Mass Podcast LaunchUranium.io launched its new podcast, Critical Mass, in February, with two episodes already live. The show explores uranium, energy markets, and the broader nuclear narrative, and is available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.

Bitnomial Lists First U.S.-Regulated Tezos FuturesBitnomial launched the first-ever U.S.-regulated futures contract for Tezos (XTZ), marking a notable step for institutional access. The move introduces regulated derivatives exposure to Tezos in the U.S. market, expanding the range of financial products available around the asset and signaling continued maturation of its trading infrastructure.

Revoke Adds Support for EtherlinkRevoke has added support for Etherlink, giving users an easy way to review and revoke token approvals on the network. It’s a small but important infrastructure addition that improves security hygiene, especially as activity across Etherlink continues to grow.

Chief Baker’s Installation Night OffChief Baker, aka Chris Pinnock, together with co-host Germán Delbianco, ran an Installation Night session walking through how to set up a Tezos node and baker using Octez. If you’ve ever wanted to see the process step by step, or are considering running infrastructure yourself, it’s a solid recording to learn from.

MoMI × Tezos Foundation Programming Opens in NYCNew programming from Tezos Foundation in collaboration with the Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI) is now open in New York City. The series continues bringing blockchain-powered digital art and cultural conversations into an established institutional setting, reinforcing Tezos’ growing footprint in the creative world and offering the public direct access to artist-led talks, screenings, and exhibitions.

Events

Tuesday🎙Tezday w Kevin Mehrabi — February 3rd

Artz Fridays w Jeni (OneLoveArtDao)— February 6th

Tuesday🎙Tezday Community Call — February 10th

Artz Fridays w Jose Antonio Ojeda — February 13th

Tuesday🎙Tezday Community Call — February 17th

Artz Fridays w Mi Retratito — February 20th

Tuesday🎙Tezday w Ryan Tanaka — February 24th

Artz Fridays February’s Community Call— February 27th

Stay in the Conversation, Stay in the Know

Tezos Commons hosts a variety of community-oriented events and content. From podcasts, X-spaces, and long-form content, there’s something for everyone.

TezTalks Live

TezTalks Radio

X Spaces

X Shorts

Baking Sheet Newsletter

In-Depth Articles

You can also contact us on X or via email at social@tezoscommons.org.

Month At A Glance — February 2026 was originally published in Tezos Commons on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Welcome Tezos Community, another week, and another issue of the Baking Sheet delivered straight to you.

First, there’s a clearer look at where the ecosystem stands today. The State of Tezos report for Q4 2025 has landed, offering a snapshot of the network as it moves into a new year. It highlights the continued growth of Etherlink activity along with broader patterns shaping how Tezos is being used.

At the same time, new places to follow the ecosystem are starting to take shape. A fresh Tezos hub on Blockster has launched, giving the community another window into the projects, conversations, and stories forming around the protocol.

And while those updates come into view, core development continues to move forward. This week, Nomadic Labs shared an early proposal to simplify Tezos’ on-chain governance, inviting bakers and the wider community to weigh in before the next phase of upgrades begins to take form.

This week’s edition moves across those threads. A look at the latest data, new spaces where the ecosystem is showing up, and the conversations for what comes next.

Let’s talk about it all below.

State of Tezos Q4 2025

First up this week, a new quarterly report from Messari was released offering a snapshot of where the Tezos ecosystem stood at the end of 2025, and one theme stands out clearly: activity continues to shift toward Etherlink.

During Q4, Etherlink processed 18.6 million transactions, a 50% increase quarter over quarter, while daily active addresses on the network nearly doubled to around 9,860. The growth reflects a broader trend across the ecosystem as developers and users increasingly move execution-heavy activity to the L2.

Several infrastructure milestones helped drive that momentum. Two kernel upgrades, Ebisu in October and Farfadet in December, significantly expanded Etherlink’s capacity. Together, they pushed throughput from 8 million gas per second to 27 million, while also introducing instant transaction confirmations, allowing users and applications to receive transaction receipts before block production.

Q4 by the Numbers

Several indicators highlighted growing activity across the ecosystem during the quarter:

• Etherlink transactions: ↑ 50% QoQ → 18.6M• Etherlink daily active addresses: ↑ 96.6% QoQ → ~9.9K• Active validators: ↑ 3% QoQ → 264• Monthly active developers: ↑ 16.2% QoQ → 229 contributors across 4,300+ repositories

These numbers reinforce a broader trend the report points to: as Etherlink’s infrastructure expands, more execution and user activity are naturally gravitating toward the L2.

Infrastructure Leads the Story

While market conditions were softer during the quarter, infrastructure progress stood out.

Etherlink’s upgrades dramatically expanded throughput while keeping fees low, allowing the network to absorb rising transaction demand without congestion. On the Layer 1 side, the Tallinn protocol upgrade moved through governance and was later activated in January 2026, reducing block times from eight seconds to six and introducing improvements like the Address Indexing Registry.

Developer activity also continued to grow, with 229 monthly active contributors working across more than 4,300 repositories, a 16% increase QoQ.

Culture and Community

Outside of infrastructure, the Tezos art ecosystem had one of its strongest quarters of the year.

The Art on Tezos: Berlin festival brought together more than 700 visitors and 200 artists, while the Francisco Carolinum museum acquired multiple TeleNFT works exhibited at the event. Meanwhile, the partnership between the Museum of the Moving Image and the Tezos Foundation continued to expand its programming around blockchain as a creative medium.

Heading into 2026, the key question is whether the ecosystem’s growing infrastructure can translate into sustained activity beyond incentive programs.

With Etherlink’s throughput expanded, Tallinn improving Layer-1 efficiency, and new applications continuing to launch, the foundation for the next phase of growth is clearly being put in place.

If the past quarter showed anything, it’s that Tezos’ center of gravity is evolving and Etherlink is increasingly where much of the action is happening.

Read the full report.

Tezos Hub Goes Live on Blockster

Alongside the latest research and ecosystem reports, a new channel has opened for people who want to follow Tezos developments in one place.

A dedicated Tezos hub is now live on Blockster, bringing together stories, updates, and ecosystem highlights around the self-upgrading protocol.

The hub acts as a central feed for Tezos-related coverage on Blockster, giving readers an easy way to keep track of what’s happening across the network. Expect everything from ecosystem news and product launches to deeper looks at the teams building on Tezos.

Readers can also subscribe to receive the latest posts as they’re published, along with occasional behind-the-scenes insights and previews of upcoming stories.

For anyone looking to stay plugged into the pace of development across Tezos, it’s a simple new place to keep an eye on the conversation.

This Week in the Tezos Ecosystem

Simplifying On-Chain Governance on Tezos

Beyond reports and new hubs, there’s also an important conversation unfolding around how the protocol itself evolves. This week, developers from Nomadic Labs are cooking and shared an early proposal outlining ways to simplify Tezos’ governance process as part of the upcoming Protocol “U” upgrade.

The goal is straightforward: make governance faster, easier for bakers to manage, and less operationally heavy, while preserving the decentralization and legitimacy that have defined Tezos upgrades from the beginning.

Governance is such a foundational part of the protocol, the proposal is being shared early so the community can review it and offer input before anything moves forward.

What the Proposal Aims to Fix

Over time, a few recurring challenges have surfaced:

• Bakers currently vote up to three times per governance cycle, which can create voting fatigue• The current cycle lasts about 70 days, slowing iteration on upgrades• Communication and coordination around votes can become heavy for both bakers and developers

The proposed adjustments aim to streamline that process without weakening safeguards.

What Could Change

If implemented in Protocol U, the governance cycle could shift to a simpler structure:

• Total cycle duration: reduced from 70 days → 28 days• Voting periods: reduced from 14 days → 7 days• Voting rounds: reduced from three votes → two votes• Persistent votes: votes cast in the first round automatically carry into the second unless changed• Quorum opt-out: bakers can opt out of quorum participation if they prefer not to vote

The simplified structure would look like this:

Selection (7 days)Bakers upvote proposals. A candidate moves forward if it reaches 20% support.

Promotion (7 days)A final ratification vote requiring 80% supermajority with a quorum.

Adoption (14 days)A preparation window before the protocol activates automatically.

Faster Iteration, Same Safeguards

The changes aim to reduce friction while maintaining legitimacy.

Shorter voting windows concentrate attention around governance discussions, while persistent votes reduce operational overhead for bakers who already support a proposal.

Meanwhile, the 80% supermajority requirement and quorum rules remain unchanged, ensuring that protocol upgrades still require broad consensus.

Feedback Requested

Nomadic Labs shared the proposal early specifically to gather input from the community, especially bakers, who are the core participants in the governance process.

Key areas where feedback is requested include:

• The proposed 7-day voting periods• The 20% threshold during the Selection stage• How quorum should be recalibrated after introducing the new system• Operational impacts on baker workflows

If you are a baker or closely involved in governance, this is a good moment to review the proposal and share your thoughts.

Feedback is encouraged directly on Tezos Agora, where the discussion is already underway.

Tezos Events

Tez/Dev 2026: Registration is Now Open!

Tez/Dev is officially back, and this is the kind of date worth circling early.

Monday, March 30, 2026, the Tezos ecosystem heads back to Cannes for the next edition of Tez/Dev, once again hosted at the Hôtel Martinez on the Croisette. Registration is live now, with the full agenda and experience details still to come.

This is one of those anchor moments in the year where everything feels more connected. You can follow updates online all month long, but Tez/Dev is where the conversations tend to tighten up. Builders get face time. Teams show what is actually working. People who have been moving in parallel finally end up in the same room. It is a day that usually leaves you with new context, new contacts, and a clearer sense of what is getting traction across the ecosystem.

What we know so far is the shape of the day, even if the schedule is still being built:

Dev updates and panel deep-dives

Hands-on time with apps and teams

A chance to compete for prizes

An immersive art party to close the night

A quick practical note for anyone planning ahead: registration on Luma is required for approval, and it says you will be asked to verify token ownership with your wallet as part of the process.

If you are already mapping out EthCC week in Cannes (March 30 to April 2), Tez/Dev sits right at the start of the week, which makes it a strong first touchpoint for meeting people and setting the tone for everything that follows.

Event basics

Date: Monday, March 30, 2026

Venue: Hôtel Martinez, 73 Bd de la Croisette, 06400 Cannes, France

Registration: https://luma.com/tezdev-2026

If you are planning to attend, getting your request in early is the move as the program reveal will drop soon.

🔴 Now Streaming: Why Major Art Institutions Are Choosing Tezos

This week on TezTalks Live, host Stu is joined by Vinciane Jones, Art Vertical Partnership Manager at Trilitech, and Aleksandra Art, Head of Arts at Trilitech, to explore how Tezos art is stepping further into the institutional world.

With newly announced partnerships involving HEK Basel and the renewed collaboration with the Museum of the Moving Image, the conversation centers on what it means for blockchain-based art to be exhibited, studied, and supported by established cultural institutions.

Watch the full episode on YouTube.

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The Real Wealth of Any Network Is The People

The most valuable asset within any network doesn’t appear on a chart. It cannot be tracked or reduced to engagement metrics. No one manufactures it through marketing campaigns or unlocks it through incentive structures. It accumulates quietly in the spaces between transactions. It’s the goodwill showcased by the humans that use the network.

Some might call this karma. That word carries real cultural weight, and it has been stretched well beyond its origins, but the underlying principle is sound. What you put into a system consistently, without a guarantee of return, shapes the reality you eventually live within. For this article, I have coined a new term that captures both the mechanism and the stakes within blockchain networks.

I call it social escrow.

What Is Social Escrow

Social escrow functions like a collective savings account for integrity. It accumulates when participants choose open collaboration over isolation, inclusion over gatekeeping, and pioneering over profiteering. Unlike financial capital, it does not appear on a balance sheet. It compounds in the background, becoming the invisible infrastructure that supports coordination, resilience, and long-term belief.

The important distinction, and the reason karma is actually a useful comparison here, is that social escrow cannot be spent in any traditional sense. You do not withdraw it and exchange it for something else. What it does is create a cushion. A community with deep reserves of social escrow can absorb pressure that would otherwise fracture it. It does not eliminate difficulty. It determines whether the community remains coherent on the other side of each hurdle.

That is a different kind of wealth. It is the kind most ecosystems fail to measure until it is already gone.

Hic et Nunc Was the First Deposit

To understand where Tezos stands today, it helps to look at the origins of its community's social escrow reserve.

Most of it came from Hic et Nunc, which was not a polished product. It was a rough, fast, genuinely open platform that attracted artists who were tired of being priced out of participation elsewhere. The energy that formed around it was not manufactured. It emerged from people who showed up before there was any certainty of return, who minted work on a wonky user interface, swapped each other's art, built tools, wrote documentation, and formed relationships that had nothing to do with evaluations.

When HEN went dark, something remarkable happened. The community did not dissolve. It didn’t “fork” in the traditional sense. It became TEIA.art emerging from the ashes, not because of superior infrastructure or better funding, but because the people involved had already accumulated enough social escrow to trust each other through uncertainty. The platform was almost secondary to keeping the movement itself alive.

Thousands of artists and builders across a period of genuine creative momentum did not disappear when the market contracted. They deposited social escrow into the reserve, and it’s been cushioning the community ever since.

A Strong Foundation

Most blockchains are vulnerable to fragmentation: the hard fork. When a community fractures over a governance dispute and splits into competing chains, trust divides with it. Social escrow does not transfer cleanly. It erodes in the conflict.

Tezos was designed to prevent exactly that.

The self-amending ledger and on-chain governance are not just technical features. They are a social infrastructure. By allowing the protocol to upgrade itself through formal governance, Tezos preserves its community.

Disagreements become proposals. Proposals become votes. The community moves forward as a whole.

This architectural decision compounds over time in ways that are easy to underestimate. Every upgrade cycle that resolves without a fork is another deposit into the social escrow. We’ve had twenty successful protocol upgrades. Every governance vote that proceeds transparently, even when contested, reinforces the belief that the system is worth participating in. The technical and the cultural are not separate layers; they reinforce each other.

What Depletes the Reserve

Social escrow depletes through fragmentation, through disillusionment, and through the quiet (and loud) departures of influential builders. These withdrawals do not always announce themselves. Sometimes a community only notices the drain in retrospect, when the energy required to coordinate something that once felt easy suddenly feels heavier than it should.

The Tezos ecosystem has not been immune to this. Cycles of enthusiasm and contraction have come and gone. Prominent contributors have moved on. Attention has scattered. Frequent volatility drains morale.

Yet the forums have not gone silent. Artists are still minting. Writers are still documenting. Governance debates are still happening. Deepened through years of grassroots organizing and tested by conditions that cleared out less committed ecosystems, serious talent keeps building on Tezos.

That persistence is not accidental. It is evidence that the reserve is real and currently being drawn upon.

Sustaining the Reserves

The current moment in Tezos asks something specific of its participants. Not blind optimism. Not performative loyalty. Something closer to the original disposition that created the reserve in the first place.

Builders who continue developing without guaranteed audiences are making deposits. Artists who show up for each other’s work during slow markets are making deposits. Public voices continuing to host spaces even when no one is paying close attention are making deposits. Each of these acts, repeated over time without expectation of immediate return, deepens the reserve that allows the ecosystem to absorb the next wave of pressure.

Keep showing up. Keep contributing in ways that serve the collective rather than just the individual. Keep treating the network as something worth protecting, not just something worth extracting from when conditions are favorable. If we collectively showcase our potential, we can grow our social escrow reserve tenfold.

Beyond the Balance Sheet

Conversations about sustainability tend to center on treasury allocations, revenue models, and measurable growth. These are legitimate concerns. Infrastructure requires funding, grants keep being approved, and long-term viability demands responsible stewardship of capital.

Financial capital funds infrastructure. Social escrow sustains belief. Without belief, infrastructure becomes transactional and brittle. With belief, experimentation remains viable even when outcomes are uncertain.

Tezos was designed with generational thinking in mind. Formal verification, on-chain governance, seamless upgradeability. These decisions were not optimized for rapid monetization. They reflect a commitment to durability over speed. This is how participants should treat each other, and why they support work that does not immediately produce revenue. More aware of the time horizon they are building toward.

Social escrow cannot be rushed or manufactured. It accumulates through repeated acts of integrity in the quiet expanse of time. It is already present in this ecosystem in meaningful depth.

The reserve is holding. The question now is whether enough people understand what they are sitting on. As a commonwealth, we need to choose to keep adding to it. The true war chest of Tezos is the Tezos Community.

We‘ve already built generational wealth together, at least in social escrow.

The Value of Social Escrow was originally published in Tezos Commons on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We’re hitting one of those weeks where Tezos feels present in two very different ways at once.

On one side, there’s a clear point on the calendar to rally around. Tez/Dev is officially set for March 30 in Cannes, and you can already feel people shifting into planning mode, thinking about what they want to ship, who they want to meet, and what conversations they want to be part of when the ecosystem gathers in person.

And on the other side, Tezos is showing up exactly where it’s always had its own kind of strength: in culture. MoMI’s new MoMI × Tezos Foundation 2025–2026 programming is now live in New York, opening with a commission you can see in a real museum space, plus a free process mint that brings the work back into the hands of the community.

So this issue is a simple one, in the best way. One update to help you plan what’s ahead, and one update to remind you what’s already happening on the ground.

Let’s get into it.

Tez/Dev 2026: Cannes is on the calendar

Tez/Dev is officially back, and this is the kind of date worth circling early.

Monday, March 30, 2026, the Tezos ecosystem heads back to Cannes for the next edition of Tez/Dev, once again hosted at the Hôtel Martinez on the Croisette. Registration is live now, with the full agenda and experience details still to come.

This is one of those anchor moments in the year where everything feels more connected. You can follow updates online all month long, but Tez/Dev is where the conversations tend to tighten up. Builders get face time. Teams show what is actually working. People who have been moving in parallel finally end up in the same room. It is a day that usually leaves you with new context, new contacts, and a clearer sense of what is getting traction across the ecosystem.

What we know so far is the shape of the day, even if the schedule is still being built:

Dev updates and panel deep-dives

Hands-on time with apps and teams

A chance to compete for prizes

An immersive art party to close the night

A quick practical note for anyone planning ahead: registration on Luma is required for approval, and it says you will be asked to verify token ownership with your wallet as part of the process.

If you are already mapping out EthCC week in Cannes (March 30 to April 2), Tez/Dev sits right at the start of the week, which makes it a strong first touchpoint for meeting people and setting the tone for everything that follows.

Event basics

Date: Monday, March 30, 2026

Venue: Hôtel Martinez, 73 Bd de la Croisette, 06400 Cannes, France

Registration: https://luma.com/tezdev-2026

If you are planning to attend, getting your request in early is the move as the program reveal will drop soon.

This Week in the Tezos Ecosystem

MoMI × Tezos Foundation programming is now open in NYC

If Tez/Dev is the moment the ecosystem gathers in one place and compares notes face to face, this next update is the reminder that the cultural side of Tezos keeps moving too, in public, in a real museum, with work you can actually go see.

The Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI) and the Tezos Foundation have officially opened their 2025–2026 programming in New York, continuing a partnership that treats Tezos as a creative material rather than a backdrop.

The shape of the program this year is broader than a single exhibition cycle. It includes:

Five artist-pair commissions that will appear on MoMI’s Schlosser Media Wall

A new FA2 Fellowship is designed to bring artists and developers into the same room

Microgrants supporting artists working with Tezos as a medium

Live performances and time-based works

The first round of artist pairings sets the tone right away, with names that span internet-native practice, institutional critique, and time-based work: James Bloom × Gottfried Jäger, Sarah Friend × Yehwan Song, Linda Dounia × Rhea Myers, and Jonas Lund × Yoshi Sodeoka.

Now on view: “Lick Pic” (Sarah Friend × Yehwan Song)

The first commission to go live is “Lick Pic”, a collaborative work by Sarah Friend and Yehwan Song, on view at MoMI from February 19 to May 10, 2026.

At a glance, it’s immediately memorable: four mechanical tongue sculptures “lick” mounted phones and tablets, and the screens cycle through images from MoMI’s collection.

But the part that makes it feel especially “Tezos” is how it stays connected to a living context. The installation is tethered to activity on objkt, linking what’s happening in the market in real time with what’s happening on the wall in the museum. It turns scrolling and collecting into part of the artwork’s pacing, which is exactly the kind of feedback loop this partnership tends to explore.

And there’s a collector-friendly layer baked in, too. Each MoMI × Tezos commission is accompanied by a process image that anyone can collect at no cost, so visitors and community members can take a fragment of the work home in a way that feels accessible, not gated.

Free collect link (process image).

If you’re in NYC over the next couple of months, this is a great excuse to make the trip to Astoria and see what Tezos looks like when it’s framed as museum-scale moving image work instead of a timeline update.

🔴 Now Streaming: Why Major Art Institutions Are Choosing Tezos

This week on TezTalks Live, host Stu is joined by Vinciane Jones, Art Vertical Partnership Manager at Trilitech, and Aleksandra Art, Head of Arts at Trilitech, to explore how Tezos art is stepping further into the institutional world.

With newly announced partnerships involving HEK Basel and the renewed collaboration with the Museum of the Moving Image, the conversation centers on what it means for blockchain-based art to be exhibited, studied, and supported by established cultural institutions.

Watch the full episode on YouTube.

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