Cardano Day at the Wyoming Blockchain Stampede

On September 16-21, 2024, the seventh annual Blockchain Stampede gathered blockchain enthusiasts, developers, and leaders for a week of knowledge sharing and innovation. It remains one of the most engaging crypto conferences worldwide.

Wyoming has become a global leader in blockchain regulation, having discussed and passed over 2,000 laws related to cryptocurrencies, digital assets, and smart contracts. This leadership was evident at the Stampede, with key figures like Senator Chris Rothfuss, Secretary of State Chuck Gray, and Governor Mark Gordon sharing their insights.

The Cardano Day event

The Input | Output (IO) education team, including education specialists Jesse Smith and Antonio Ibarra, project manager Alejandro Garcia, and education director Lars Brünjes (attending virtually), held the Cardano Day event on the sixth day of the Stampede, featuring a series of presentations.

First, Jesse Smith gave an insightful overview of Cardano, including its history and key features, a presentation on decentralization, Hydra, and an analysis of the Edinburgh Decentralization Index, complete with detailed graphs.

In his ‘There is no Magic’ talk, Alejandro Garcia guided the audience through the journey from binary code to blockchains, with a focus on hashing functions. Using a whiteboard, he broke down the complex mathematics behind digital signatures and blockchains in a simple and accessible way.

Lars Brünjes presented the third topic of the event – his research on Cardano's incentive mechanisms for stake pool operators. Using game theory, he demonstrated how incentives can foster a global and decentralized community.

Antonio Ibarra followed with a presentation on the extended unspent transaction output (EUTXO) model and demonstrated smart contracts using Aiken, showcasing its potential for real-world applications.

The event's highlight was the first-ever public presentation of the stake pool lab – a powerful testnet in a box. Running on 22 Raspberry Pis (each running a node connected to the preview testnet), it operates at just 150 watts, showcasing Cardano’s superior energy efficiency over traditional proof-of-work blockchains.

Blockchain lab video

Steven Lupien, non-executive director of Intersect MBO and director of the Center for Blockchain and Digital Innovation at the University of Wyoming, closed the event by sharing his vision for Intersect’s role in supporting the global Cardano community. He explained how individuals can actively contribute to its regional efforts.

Wyoming students and future collaborations

The IO education team would like to give a special shout-out to the blockchain student club at the University of Wyoming. The students shared some of the exciting projects they are working on, including setting up miners, studying smart contract programming, and helping with organizing the conference.

The Cardano Day event at the Blockchain Stampede was a very enjoyable experience, and participants and lecturers left with fresh ideas and exciting projects for the future.

If you would like to host a Cardano Day at your university, IO’s education team would be happy to attend. For this, email Alejandro Garcia or Niamh Ahern to discuss potential collaboration and event details.

Photos of the event

You can find photos from the event here.

Jesse Smith and Antonio Ibarra contributed to this blog post.