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<p>The TUM Blockchain Conference 26 takes place from October 29 to 31, 2026, at the House of Communication in Munich. It is organized by the TUM Blockchain Club, the student club of the Technical University of Munich. This fourth edition lasts three days. Thus, the program includes a conference day, a Digital Assets Day with the Bundesblock, and a Blockchain and AI hackathon.</p>
<p>Among the 113 speakers announced is Roman Thommen, co-founder and CTO of Qubic. He will give a keynote on October 29 at 1:35 p.m. on useful proof of work in production.</p>
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  <h2 class="in-brief--title" id="in-brief">In Brief</h2>
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   <li>Dates and venue: October 29 to 31, 2026, at the House of Communication, Friedenstraße 24, Munich. One ticket covers all three days.</li>
   <li>Previous edition: more than 1,200 attendees and 125 speakers, according to the organizer. In 2026, 113 speakers have been announced, and more are coming.</li>
   <li>Program: on October 29, a conference day on three stages (Nakamoto, Turing, Hopper). On October 30, the Digital Assets Day with the Bundesblock. On October 30 and 31, a Blockchain and AI hackathon with more than €4,000 in prizes.</li>
   <li>Qubic keynote: Roman Thommen, alias J0ET0M, co-founder and CTO, will speak on “Useful Proof of Work in Production: What Happens When Mining Has to Learn.” Join him on Thursday, October 29, at 1:35 p.m. on the Hopper stage.</li>
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<h2 id="what-does-the-tum-blockchain-conference-2026-offer">What does the TUM Blockchain Conference 2026 offer?</h2>
<p>This university conference has changed scale. Indeed, launched by TUM students, it presents itself as Germany’s largest student-run blockchain conference. It also drew more than 1,200 attendees in 2025 (<a href="https://conference26.tum-blockchain.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">official website</a>). Moreover, the lineup mixes the same kinds of players as in our <a href="https://www.cointribune.com/en/top-ai-crypto-in-2026-why-comparing-qubic-tao-render-fet-and-near-by-price-no-longer-makes-sense/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">comparison of AI cryptos</a>: cryptography researchers, protocol teams, and traditional finance.</p>
<p>The 2026 program breaks down into three distinct days.</p>
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    <td><strong>Day</strong></td>
    <td><strong>Format</strong></td>
    <td><strong>What is found there</strong></td>
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    <td>Thursday, October 29</td>
    <td>TUM Blockchain Conference Day</td>
    <td>Opening at 9 AM on Nakamoto stage. Three stages in parallel. Sessions on zero-knowledge proofs (“Plonk Without Random Oracles,” bug detection in ZK programs) and on AI agent economy. Qubic keynote at 1:35 PM on Hopper stage.</td>
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    <td>Friday, October 30</td>
    <td>Digital Assets Day, with Bundesblock</td>
    <td>Opening at 8:45 AM. Main Stage, Executive Forum, and Future Stage. “From Digital Euro to Stablecoin Rails” (9:45 AM), AI x blockchain panels, then “Regulation, Tax &amp; Competitiveness: MiCA 2.0, DAC8, DORA” (4:35 PM).</td>
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    <td>Friday, October 30 to Saturday, October 31</td>
    <td>Blockchain and AI Hackathon</td>
    <td>About 30 hours, open to all levels. Workshops and mentors on site. Prize over 4,000 euros announced. Separate registration on hackathon.tum-blockchain.com.</td>
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 <figcaption><em>Source: conference agenda and ticketing, consulted October 21, 2026. Times subject to change.</em>
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<h3 id="who-is-speaking-in-munich">Who Is Speaking in Munich?</h3>
<p>The speaker list shows who the event is for. On the institutional side, Lewin Boehnke (Crypto Finance, Deutsche Börse Group) and Christoph Hock (Union Investment) are announced. Meanwhile, Franziska Huber represents the Bundesbank and central bank digital currency. Alexander Höptner (AllUnity), Ramin Ghafari (Siemens), and Peter Busch (Bosch) are also on the list.</p>
<p>On the protocol and infrastructure side, Karim Jedda (Parity), Fabian Bormann (Cardano Foundation), and Paul Wong (Stellar Development Foundation) are on the program. Patricia Albrecht (Solana Germany) and Charles Moussy (Bybit) join them as well. Finally, on the research side, Vadim Lyubashevsky (IBM Research Europe) is announced. He is a leading figure in post-quantum cryptography. In addition, several PhD students from TU Wien, EPFL, and Cambridge are expected.</p>
<h2 id="h-who-is-roman-thommen-the-qubic-cto-speaking-at-the-tum-blockchain-conference">Who is Roman Thommen, the Qubic CTO Speaking at the TUM Blockchain Conference?</h2>
<p>The organizer presents Roman Thommen as co-founder and chief technology officer of Qubic. He is also known in the Qubic community under the pseudonym <strong>J0ET0M</strong>.</p>
<h3 id="strong-a-career-as-a-computer-scientist-and-teacher-strong"><strong>A Career as a Computer Scientist and Teacher</strong></h3>
<p>A computer scientist by training, Roman Thommen is based in Switzerland. He claims more than twenty years of experience in technology. A software architect and project manager, he has also founded several companies. In addition, he teaches at the vocational school and the higher vocational college in Zug. Moreover, he has led media technology projects for radio, television, and major sporting events. At Qubic, he works on the network’s technical architecture. He also speaks in English and German about decentralized AI and agent-driven transformation (<a href="https://thommenmedia.ch/en/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Roman Thommen’s website</a>).</p>
<h3 id="strong-the-qubic-milestones-behind-the-keynote-strong"><strong>The Qubic Milestones Behind the Keynote</strong></h3>
<p>His keynote is titled “Useful Proof of Work in Production: What Happens When Mining Has to Learn.” The topic is specific: Qubic puts its miners to work training neural networks instead of performing throwaway calculations. We also covered this principle in <a href="https://www.cointribune.com/en/qubic-turning-every-cpu-cycle-into-real-world-value/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Qubic: Turning Every CPU Cycle Into Real-World Value</a>. Since then, the project has moved from promises to deployments.</p>
<p>Thus, three milestones provide the material for the keynote. First, on July 29, <strong>Outsourced Computing</strong> went live on the mainnet. As a result, third parties can now buy the computing power of miners.</p>
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<p>Next, in epoch 228, at the end of August, <strong>Ant Colony</strong> mining was activated. Instead of each starting from scratch, miners extend the results published by others. Thus, the 676 best miners are rewarded every week (<a href="https://qubic.org/blog-detail/qubic-ant-colony-mining-live-epoch-228" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Qubic post of September 4</a>).</p>
<p>Finally, on September 22, Qubic published a score of 0.38 for its <strong>Neuraxon</strong> model on ARC-AGI-3. This reasoning test is designed for artificial intelligence. The model had started at 0.13. Above all, the score was obtained on standard processors (<a href="https://qubic.org/blog-detail/qubic-all-hands-recap-september-2026-neuraxon-arc-agi-3" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Qubic recap of September 22</a>).</p>
<p>“When mining has to learn” describes exactly this shift. Indeed, the network’s security rests on a computation that itself improves from one epoch to the next.</p>
<h3 id="strong-a-time-slot-against-zk-cryptography-strong"><strong>A Time Slot Against ZK Cryptography</strong></h3>
<p>The timing matters. At 1:35 p.m. the same day, the Turing stage hosts “Plonk Without Random Oracles,” a ZK cryptography session. Therefore, the Munich audience will have to choose between zero-knowledge proofs and useful proof of work. These are two different answers to the same question: verifiable computation.</p>
<h2 id="h-how-to-attend-the-tum-blockchain-conference">How to attend the TUM Blockchain Conference?</h2>
<p>Ticketing is hosted on Luma (<a href="https://luma.com/tbc26" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">luma.com/tbc26</a>). Four categories are open:</p>
<ul>
 <li><strong>General Admission</strong>: the organizer specifies that it subsidizes student tickets.</li>
 <li><strong>VIP</strong>: access to the speakers’ lounge, catering, and reserved parallel events.</li>
 <li><strong>Self-funded</strong>: for professionals who pay out of pocket, upon approval.</li>
 <li><strong>Student</strong>: upon presentation of a student card.</li>
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<p>Early bird sales are over. Meanwhile, prices appear in the ticket selector at checkout. We do not reproduce them here, because they change in stages.</p>
<p>One ticket gives access to all three days. However, the hackathon requires a separate registration. It is also explicitly open to beginners and experienced profiles alike.</p>
<p>For Qubic, Munich is a stop in a European run that began in <a href="https://www.cointribune.com/en/qubic-at-paris-blockchain-week-2026-decentralized-ai-dogecoin-mining-and-15-5-million-tps/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Paris this spring</a>. The project was already arriving there with its decentralized AI and its certified 15.5 million transactions per second. However, what the October 29 keynote adds will be judged by one yardstick: production figures, not a roadmap. Finally, we will publish a recap after the session.</p>

TUM Blockchain Conference: Information and speakers

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