Blockchain Industry Matures, Emphasizes Real-World Adoption, Compliance

On April 25, 2025, the Cornell Blockchain Conference at Cornell Tech’s Verizon Center in New York City highlighted the growing convergence between academic rigor, institutional credibility, and a maturing blockchain industry. Emin Gün Sirer, founder and CEO of Ava Labs, shared a vision centered on building for real-world adoption. Sirer, a former Cornell computer science professor, emphasized the evolution of blockchain from Bitcoin’s original design and the two foundational pillars that guided Ava Labs in building its platform. The first pillar was developing the world’s fastest consensus protocol, ensuring that a group of nodes could act together at the speed of light. The second pillar was the concept of a network of networks, an architectural approach that Ava Labs was the first to demonstrate.

Sirer argued that every use case deserves its own chain, with unique demands requiring a chain that operates according to its own rule set, technical specifications, and roadmap. He also highlighted the role of blockchain in gaming through the launch of “Off The Grid,” a next-generation battle royale game where players can collect in-game assets as NFTs. This game demonstrates how blockchain can be seamlessly embedded in user experiences, merging ownership and gameplay without disrupting user immersion.

John Wu, President of Ava Labs, framed Ava’s strategy as bridging traditional finance and decentralized systems. With experience in hedge funds and venture investing, Wu connected the capital markets’ language with blockchain’s potential as financial infrastructure. Wu emphasized a conservative approach to compliance and regulation while being risk-takers with technology. He predicted significant movement on stablecoin and market structure legislation before year’s end, indicating that blockchain is not just evolving but institutionalizing.

Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos, General Counsel at StarkWare, discussed the importance of a crypto general counsel as a strategic business partner given the near-constant material shifts in the regulatory environment. She highlighted that the best crypto companies know that legal and regulatory strategy is key, and lawyers in crypto add value by working alongside product teams and developing a proactive strategy for compliance and regulation.

Ari Juels, Chief Scientist at Chainlink Labs and a professor at Cornell Tech, kicked off a student-led pitch competition at the end of the day. The Initiative for Cryptocurrencies and Contracts (IC3), which Juels co-founded and co-directs, served as a launchpad for student-led ventures. One innovative project idea was Prinx, a blockchain-based “Robinhood for IPOs” that democratizes access to late-stage private equity. Another innovation idea came from BitGPT, a fiat-crypto native payment system using the once-abandoned HTTP 402 gateway, enabling micropayments between machine agents.

What distinguished this year’s Cornell Blockchain Conference was the convergence of narratives from speakers like Sirer, Wu, Bos, and Juels. Whether discussing throughput, legal compliance, financial market integration, or student-led experimentation, one theme was constant: The blockchain industry is stepping into maturity. From the halls of Congress to university classrooms, builders are aligning with standards, not avoiding them. This alignment may be the real signal that Web3 is here to stay.