Latest Developments in Open Silicon

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Speaker: Mark Davis

Type: Talk

Expertise: No prior knowledge

Event: Devcon

Date: Nov 2026

Often “trustless” is misused to simply mean shoving trust assumptions down a layer or two, out of sight. But ultimately, “self-custody” built on the world’s most closed-source, oligarch-controlled devices and chips isn’t really self-custody. The HW and semiconductor problem cannot be ignored. Addressing this is difficult. Following practices similar to those of Open Source SW -- even when possible at all -- does not necessarily produce similar effects. A growing number of initiatives around the world are breaking down the problem, proposing steps, and making real devices and designs that move the ball forward in one way or another. Some of these come from outside the blockchain world. Our company is a leading innovator in this topic, but we are also in close contact with many other community members. The economics are such that active cooperation makes sense, and so we are in a position to summarize progress from various projects, not just our own.