Day One of the Cardano Summit 2025 has kicked off with a focus on enterprise adoption of blockchain. To mark the occasion, the Cardano Foundation today unveiled a landmark report it commissioned with the Blockchain Research Institute (BRI), called ‘Introducing Digital Trust Infrastructure: The Foundation for the New Digital Economy.’ 1,000+ attendees will get a first look at the report’s findings while also enjoying engaging panels and keynote sessions with senior global enterprise leaders in discussion with blockchain executives.
The report introduces a new comprehensive framework for Digital Trust Infrastructure (DTI), an architecture designed to power secure, interoperable, and privacy-preserving digital ecosystems. Just as roads, railways, and telecommunication networks enabled coordinated progress at scale, DTI provides a neutral, vendor-agnostic foundation for verifying identities, permissions, and data without unnecessary exposure of sensitive information. Drawing on lessons from existing digital public infrastructure initiatives, including India Stack, MOSIP, X-Road, and EUDI, the report illustrates how DTI can make trust a core feature of digital architecture.
The research highlights four transformative benefits of DTI – it shifts organizations from the traditional “collect and store” model toward a “request and verify” approach. It delivers identity through hybrid, verifiable credentials that preserve privacy and accountability, and it integrates embedded intelligence that operates solely on verified, trustworthy data to enable auditable, high-stakes applications. It can also establish governance, rules, and trust registries that turn technology into reliable, standards-based infrastructure across sectors and borders.
“We are excited to launch this timely report with the Blockchain Research Institute at the Cardano Summit, as we move one step closer to bringing DTI to every enterprise,” said Frederik Gregaard, CEO of the Cardano Foundation. “Whether it is reducing administrative processing times in government departments by 60% or slashing permit application approvals in Italy from 3 weeks to hours – this research reinforces our long-held belief that blockchain technology has the potential to tackle critical global challenges and drive meaningful change across various industries and borders.”
A primary focus of the Cardano Foundation is to advance Cardano as a public infrastructure across a wide range of industries. The report details how enterprises can harness DTI’s potential using practical examples. Its success depends on balancing institutional trust with individual privacy, something that is core to the Cardano Foundation’s mission.
“Embedding trust into the digital architecture is the next step in enabling a secure, efficient, and scalable digital economy,” said report author and BRI Chief Catalyst Douglas Heintzman. “Digital Trust Infrastructure moves organizations from fragile systems to resilient, privacy-preserving models where collaboration and compliance are built in from day one.”
The two day Summit which is taking place in Berlin will feature prominent blockchain, crypto and industry leaders and founders including Frederik Gregaard, CEO of The Cardano Foundation, Joachim Schwerin, Chief Economist at The European Commission, Don Tapscott, Executive Chairman and CEO of BRI, Patrick Tobler, CEO of Masumi, Tim Draper, Founder of Draper Associates, Christian Rau, Senior Vice President Blockchain & Digital Assets at Mastercard, Guillaume Brunet, Head of Innovation at Orange Business, and Blockchain Expert at the United Nations Pankhuri Bansal.
About the Cardano Foundation
The Cardano Foundation is an independent, Swiss-based, not-for-profit organization tasked with advancing Cardano as a public digital infrastructure across industries. The Foundation develops infrastructure tooling, strengthens operational resilience, and drives real-world use cases and sound governance. For more information, visit cardanofoundation.org