Web3 Summit

This was Web3 Summit 2026 🫶

Some of the best conversations never happened on stage. They happened in the corridors. By the river. Over coffee. Between sessions. One of the things that makes Web3 Summit special is how accessible the speakers are. The people shaping tomorrow's ideas are also the ones stopping to answer questions, continuing debates, and sharing a laugh along the way.

The Chat Control debate isn't really about one piece of legislation; it's about a much bigger question: Who controls our private communications? Today, most messaging depends on companies operating central services. Tomorrow, it doesn't have to. Privacy can't just be promised. It has to be built into the architecture.

One of our fav talks, @KarimJDDA, didn't just deliver a presentation. He etched into history.

@TBSocialist It seems Elon didn't appreciate the title! The stats compared to other content kinda prove it.

What do you think about the @TBSocialist's Collective K-Hole theory?

Open source has never been just about code. It's about people helping people. Throughout Web3 Summit, Playground became a place where experienced builders sat alongside complete newcomers, ideas were shared freely, and every successful deployment was another reminder that collaboration is still our greatest tool.

Every time we click "Accept", we make a trade. Not with money, but with our data, our attention, and, increasingly, our autonomy. The internet's most successful business model isn't really free, and it's fair to say we all pay for it in ways that are difficult to see. This clip explores one of the ideas behind the Web3 Foundation whitepaper, The Hidden Price of Free, and why it's time to rethink what "free" really costs.

Some conversations do not end when an event is over. After joining us at Web3 Summit, @dasupervielle, Director of Strategic Communications at CERES, one of the most important think tanks in Uruguay, published a thoughtful reflection titled “I don’t want to be a stormtrooper.” A sharp piece on privacy, sovereignty, autonomy, and the question of whether we are shaping the future of the internet, or simply living inside systems designed by others. This is what we aim to do at PBA: build bridges so Web3 conversations can travel beyond the ecosystem. Read full article here👇 ceres.uy/index.php/cont…

@AcademyPolkadot @PaulineVorms @marinamarchesot @LuzMelyReyes 📽️ youtu.be/iFdTtQsZGcw

🎙️ We closed our @Web3summit program on the main stage with The Future of Truth on the Internet: Journalism, Community, and Web3. Moderated by @PaulineVorms and building on an initiative developed by @marinamarchesot, the panel brought together @LuzMelyReyes, co-founder of Efecto Cocuyo, @Caco_aguilo, convener of The Cocuyo Alliance Initiative, and José Luis Peñarredonda, journalist and editor at CLIP, to explore how decentralized technologies can support independent journalism, strengthen public trust, and build more resilient information ecosystems.

Before the first talk... Before the first conversation... Before the first line of code... There was Funkhaus. A place with its own history that, for two days, became home to thousands of new ideas.

190 people deployed their own decentralized apps at @Web3Summit 2026. Most had never touched @Polkadot before. • 272 .dot domains published • 22,820 XP earned • 469 stars given • 49 apps forked from each other's code. That happened at a conference where most people did not come to build. They simply started from working open-source code, modded it with AI assistance, and published to an open demo-net in under 30 minutes. The stack underneath - Bulletin, Statement Store, the Product SDK - quietly did its job under real-world pressure. This is what infrastructure looks like when it works. Lower the barrier enough and builders show up.

Privacy isn't just about keeping secrets. It's about preserving the freedom to communicate, organize, and think without every conversation being subject to mass surveillance. Yesterday, the EU reinstated the temporary "Chat Control" regulation, allowing providers to continue to voluntarily scan private communications until 2028. Meanwhile, negotiations continue on a permanent framework that still leaves fundamental questions around encrypted communications unresolved. Whatever your position on the legislation itself, one principle should remain clear: Private communication should be the default. Encryption protects journalists, activists, businesses, families, and ordinary citizens every day. Weakening it doesn't only affect criminals. It changes the security model for everyone. This is why open, decentralized infrastructure matters. Technology should give people agency over their own communications, not require them to trust that privacy will always be preserved by policy alone. Privacy is not an obstacle to a safer internet. It's one of the foundations of a free one.

At @Web3Summit this past month, I gave probably what was one of the strangest presentations I've ever given. Over the past year I've been mulling over some big concepts and trying to put them all together in one coherent narrative. What if all this talk about the K-shaped economy is actually just a visual representation of a collective k-hole? Yes, that kind of k-hole. youtube.com/watch?v=XujvC7…

@EskabobCrypto youtube.com/watch?v=f2vQe0…

The most memorable moments weren't always the loudest. Sometimes they were a single sentence that changed how you looked at a problem. Here are a few from Web3 Summit 2026.

The wait is over, and uploads are processed... Day One | Studio One talks are now available on YouTube. Talks from: @gavofyork @yanisvaroufakis @andrea_leiter @lunardragon420 @tw_tter @TBSocialist & More.

Here's an excellent overview of the technologies used to run the Web3 Summit 26. Most didn't know that the event ran on 100% decentralized services, and that was the point. From the conference app, maps, and agenda through to payments. forum.polkadot.network/t/polkadot-pro…

The talks matter. But so do the conversations in the corridors. The late-night debates. The spontaneous applause. The shared excitement when something clicks. Here's a small glimpse of the energy that filled Funkhaus over two unforgettable days.

Our @Web3summit 2026 recap video is here! 🎥 It brings together some of our favorite moments from Berlin: the sessions, the conversations, the people and the energy behind PBA’s presence at the Summit. From panels and workshops to recordings and behind-the-scenes moments, these two days were full of exchanges that we are very proud to have been part of. For those who could not join us, this is a look at some of the highlights.