TUM Blockchain Conference: Information and speakers

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.

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.

What does the TUM Blockchain Conference 2026 offer?

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 (official website). Moreover, the lineup mixes the same kinds of players as in our comparison of AI cryptos: cryptography researchers, protocol teams, and traditional finance.

The 2026 program breaks down into three distinct days.

Day	Format	What is found there
Thursday, October 29	TUM Blockchain Conference Day	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.
Friday, October 30	Digital Assets Day, with Bundesblock	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 & Competitiveness: MiCA 2.0, DAC8, DORA” (4:35 PM).
Friday, October 30 to Saturday, October 31	Blockchain and AI Hackathon	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.

Who Is Speaking in Munich?

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.

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.

Who is Roman Thommen, the Qubic CTO Speaking at the TUM Blockchain Conference?

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 J0ET0M.

A Career as a Computer Scientist and Teacher

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 (Roman Thommen’s website).

The Qubic Milestones Behind the Keynote

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 Qubic: Turning Every CPU Cycle Into Real-World Value. Since then, the project has moved from promises to deployments.

Thus, three milestones provide the material for the keynote. First, on July 29, Outsourced Computing went live on the mainnet. As a result, third parties can now buy the computing power of miners.

Next, in epoch 228, at the end of August, Ant Colony 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 (Qubic post of September 4).

Finally, on September 22, Qubic published a score of 0.38 for its Neuraxon 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 (Qubic recap of September 22).

“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.

A Time Slot Against ZK Cryptography

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.

How to attend the TUM Blockchain Conference?

Ticketing is hosted on Luma (luma.com/tbc26). Four categories are open:

• General Admission: the organizer specifies that it subsidizes student tickets.
• VIP: access to the speakers’ lounge, catering, and reserved parallel events.
• Self-funded: for professionals who pay out of pocket, upon approval.
• Student: upon presentation of a student card.

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.

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.

For Qubic, Munich is a stop in a European run that began in Paris this spring. 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.

What time does the CTO of Qubic speak?

Thursday, October 29, 2026 at 1:35 PM, Hopper stage, House of Communication Munich, in keynote. The schedule is that of the agenda as of October 21. The organizer may adjust it.

Do I need to be a student to attend?

No. The conference is open to all, with no technical prerequisites according to the Technical University of Munich. The student rate is simply reserved for holders of a student card.

Is the hackathon included in the ticket?

The ticket covers the three days, but the hackathon has its own registration on hackathon.tum-blockchain.com. It lasts about thirty hours, from October 30 to 31, with a prize pool announced at over 4,000 euros.

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