From crypto rails to open infrastructure: Ethereum’s expanding role

Duration: NaN:NaN:NaN

Speaker: Sofia Sukhinina

Type: Panel

Expertise: No prior knowledge

Event: Devcon

Date: Nov 2026

Since the beginning of this year, I've been researching whether Ethereum, as a programmable, permissionless, publicly verifiable ledger, can serve industries beyond blockchain and crypto as a piece of critical infrastructure: as a payment layer (for open source funding), as a proof layer (for professionalised maintenance attestation), and as a coordination layer (for open-weight AI). I will share findings and problems I've identified along the way, and would like to invite the audience to join a discussion: - From a tooling perspective, what kinds of tools or layers can we use or create (if they have not been built yet) to help us successfully apply Ethereum in other industries? - Where else might this pattern apply? Hypothetically, what other industries could benefit from using Ethereum as an infrastructural layer?