Groundwork

What happens when you put students, professors, industry leaders & policymakers in the same room to talk about the future of decentralized finance?

That's Groundwork.

Rather than another industry conference, Groundwork is designed as a place for open dialogue. With panels, roundtables and networking, this one-day forum in partnership with Blockchain Association explores how industry and academia should build better bridges for teaching and responsibly integrating DeFi into the future of finance.

Learn the system you're about to inherit.

Agenda highlights:

DeFi Then, Now and Moving Forward

Policy 101: Who Sets the Rules for DeFi?

Curriculum 2.0: What Should Universities Teach About the Future of Finance?

Everything, Tokenized: What Happens When Assets Move Onchain?

Breaking Things on Purpose: How Do We Build Financial Systems We Can Trust?

From Campus to Company: Building Before You Have It All Figured Out

AI Agents and Autonomous Finance

Web3 career pathways

Beyond Betting: The Case for Prediction Markets

Confirmed speakers:

Orest Gavryliak - Chief Legal Officer, 1inch

Brian Nistler - Head of Policy/AGC, Protocol Growth, Uniswap

Marius Smith - Co-founder, Ethereum Institutional

Coy Garrison, Senior Director and Deputy General Counsel for Crypto, Robinhood

Lindsay Fraser - Chief Policy Officer, The Blockchain Association

Jessica Martinez - US Policy Director, Fireblocks

Michael Mosier - Co-founder, Arktouros

Jason Gottlieb - Partner & Chair, Digital Assets, Morrison Cohen

Julie Lascar - Director, Policy and Government Affairs, Digital Asset

Erik Retting, Global Head of Policy & Government Affairs, Rain

Kartik Talwar - Co-founder, ETHGlobal

Karim Hassan, Enterprise Solutions Specialist, Dune

Sid Shah - Director, Areta

Gregory Johnson - Adjunct Professor, NYU

Ronghui Gu - CS Associate Professor Columbia University, Co-founder of CertiK

Gilberto Nazario - Founder of Web3DC, Stand With Crypto - Marlyand Chapter President

Jenn Senhaji, Head of BD, Chronicle Labs

Liam Glennon, Head of North America Financial Institutions, TRM

Patrick Drummond, Manager at Forensic Risk Alliance

Hugo Stack, Co-Founder of Mecone

Alexei Falin, Founder of Rarible

Derek Horstmeyer, Professor of Finance at George Mason University's Costello College of Business

Blake Duncan, the Lead Agent Experience Engineer, Alchemy

Robin D Hanson, Assoc. Professor, Economics, George Mason University

Harry Crane, Professor, Rutgers University

Robert Chen, Ottersec, CEO

Join students from: University of Pennsylvania, NYU, Berkley, University of Maryland, George Mason University, Indiana University, Yale University, Harvard and more

Expect thoughtful conversations, practical insights, and meaningful connections with the people shaping the future of finance.

The event builds on the university initiative the 1inch team has been leading across the United States this year, including an open letter to universities co-signed by 20 leading crypto companies and ReDefine Money - the first book to tell the story of DeFi through the voices of its founders.