Web3 Summit 2026 returns to Funkhaus Berlin on 18 and 19 June. It bills itself as a festival for digital freedom, and it lands at a moment when privacy and platform power are back in the public debate across Europe. For founders building in decentralised tech, it’s a chance to hear from the people actually shaping where the open internet goes next.
TECHnicalBeep is partnering with Web3 Summit, and our community gets a discount. Use the code TECHBEEP at checkout for 20% off your ticket.
What the Event is:
The Summit is the Web3 Foundation’s flagship gathering, and it runs as part of Berlin Blockchain Week. This year drops the standard keynote format in favour of something closer to a festival. Days are filled with talks, workshops, unconference sessions and open collaboration spaces. Nights shift toward art, music, and community meetups. There’s also a strict no sponsorship policy, so the focus stays on ideas rather than booths.
Speakers:
The lineup leans into economics, infrastructure and platform critique. Economist and former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis headlines, bringing a sharp political read on who owns the systems we use every day. Gavin Wood, cofounder of Ethereum and creator of Polkadot and Kusama, speaks to the technical side of decentralisation. Other names include privacy campaigner Max Schrems, writer Joan Westenberg, Friederike Ernst, Amir Taaki and legal scholar Andrea Leiter, who looks at governance beyond borders.
Topics On Stage:
The programme sits on three ideas. Privacy as a basic condition of digital life, not an extra. Self-sovereignty, meaning real ownership of your identity, assets and data. And usability, closing the gap between decentralised ideals and everyday use. Expect plenty on surveillance, Europe’s chat control debate, and tools that already work rather than theory.
Build at Playground.dot:
For the developers in the room, there’s Playground.dot. It’s a live collaborative sandbox where you modify existing apps, remix other people’s ideas, and build on projects that evolve across the two days. With a guided quest, sample apps and AI-assisted tooling, you can deploy a decentralised app prototype to a temporary event network in about 30 minutes. There’s a prize pool of around 5,000 dollars, too, rewarding participation and creativity rather than polished pitches. The point is to learn by doing on real infrastructure.
Event Details:
📅 18 and 19 June 2026
📍 Funkhaus Berlin, a former GDR broadcast centre on the River Spree
🎟️ Tickets available here. Pay in crypto through a Polkadot ticketing app or in fiat.
