DeFi conference
A DeFi conference deals with decentralized finance, where smart contracts on public blockchains run lending, trading and payments without a bank or broker in the middle. The talks explain how these protocols work, where they break and under which rules regulated firms may use them. Developers and security auditors sit in the same rooms as traders, asset managers and supervisors.
In Europe, DeFi seldom fills a conference of its own and usually runs as a track inside an Ethereum or crypto event. The Ethereum Community Conference (EthCC) in Cannes counts more than 8,000 attendees by the organizers' figures, and many DeFi protocol teams present there. DeFi research has its own academic meetings, one in Italy and one at Warwick Business School in London.
DeFi at the large European conferences
EthCC is organized by Ethereum France, a French nonprofit, at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes. Its program covers protocol development, application security and the decentralized services built on Ethereum, the network on which most DeFi protocols run. The European Blockchain Convention in Barcelona brings technology teams together with investors and financial institutions, so DeFi products are discussed there with the people who would have to approve them at a bank.
In Frankfurt, the Crypto Assets Conference puts DeFi on the same agenda as tokenization and market infrastructure. Frankfurt School of Finance & Management runs it on its campus, and Deutsche Börse Group has joined as co-host.
Security and research conferences on DeFi
The DeFi Security Summit is an annual event without marketing that teaches how to secure decentralized applications. It takes place in the week of Devcon or Devconnect, the conferences of the Ethereum Foundation, so its city changes from year to year. The Security Alliance (SEAL), a group of white hat hackers who help protocols during attacks, held its first event at the summit.
Two academic conferences put DeFi research in front of economists and central bankers. The Torino Decentralized Finance Conference (ToDeFi) comes from the University of Turin and Collegio Carlo Alberto, and one edition took place at the conference center of the Banca d'Italia in Rome. The Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology at Warwick Business School holds a yearly conference on DeFi and digital currencies at its London campus in The Shard, with papers on decentralized exchanges, DeFi lending and stablecoin policy.
What the programs cover
Security takes up much of the time on stage, because attacks on protocols cost DeFi users money every year. The joint report of the EBA and ESMA on crypto-asset developments names lending protocols as the most attacked type of DeFi protocol. Price oracles, bridges between blockchains and the admin keys of a protocol come up in most security sessions, and each of them belongs to the known DeFi risks.
For banks and asset managers the question is access. Institutional DeFi combines smart contracts with identity checks, so that only verified participants can trade or lend. Supervisors on stage discuss where regulation ends, since the MiCA regulation leaves out crypto-asset services that run in a fully decentralized way without any intermediary.
Networks and meetups between the conferences
Between the conference dates, professionals working on DeFi meet in networks and smaller formats.
- Finance Loop is a professional network for emerging technologies in finance. Its meetups in Frankfurt have included a Blockchain Oracles Deep-Dive on the data feeds that smart contracts depend on. Professionals can join through a membership and find the dates of upcoming Finance Loop events in the calendar.
- The DeFiAM Network in Switzerland connects wealth managers and institutional investors with blockchain specialists who build decentralized finance for institutions.
Upcoming blockchain and DeFi events
Is there a DeFi conference in Europe?
Yes, although most of them are tracks inside larger events: EthCC in Cannes, the European Blockchain Convention in Barcelona and the Crypto Assets Conference in Frankfurt all hold DeFi sessions. Conferences devoted only to DeFi in Europe are mostly academic, such as ToDeFi in Italy and the Warwick conference in London.
What is the DeFi Security Summit?
The DeFi Security Summit is a yearly conference on securing smart contracts and decentralized applications, held in the Devcon or Devconnect week of the Ethereum community. Auditors, protocol developers and white hat hackers present attacks and defenses there, and the organizers keep marketing out of the program.
Is there a DeFi conference in Frankfurt?
Frankfurt has no conference devoted only to DeFi, but the Crypto Assets Conference at Frankfurt School covers it next to tokenization. Research on DeFi in Frankfurt takes place at the Frankfurt School Centre for Digital Economics, which runs the conference.
Which academic DeFi conferences exist?
The conference of the Gillmore Centre at Warwick Business School and the Torino Decentralized Finance Conference are two European meetings built around DeFi research. The Warwick conference has covered decentralized exchanges, DeFi lending and stablecoin policy, and the Banca d'Italia hosted the Rome edition of ToDeFi.
Who goes to a DeFi conference?
Protocol developers, smart contract auditors and researchers make up much of the audience, joined by traders and market makers who provide liquidity. Banks, asset managers and supervisors come to understand liquidity pools, lending protocols and the risks of connecting regulated money to them.
DeFi conferences and Finance Loop
Finance Loop has partnered with the Crypto Assets Conference over several years, and DeFi belongs to its Investment & Digital Assets track. The risks of smart contracts and oracles belong to the Risk & Compliance track.
Finance Loop is a professional network and has the goal of driving the institutional use of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, digital payments, cloud and blockchain solutions. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty, and Risk & Compliance.