Stanford Law School will host the 2026 Stanford Blockchain Governance Summit on May 2 and 3, bringing an academic and industry-focused blockchain event to Palo Alto as legal scholars, protocol developers, researchers, and crypto policy figures gather to discuss governance in the sector. The official event site describes it as a premier academic conference centered on blockchain governance.
The summit is scheduled for Crown Quadrangle at Stanford Law School and arrives with a speaker roster that spans venture capital, protocol foundations, university research, and policy institutions. Stanford’s official speaker page says the 2026 event will feature academics, protocol developers, and industry experts, with additional names still expected to be announced.
Among the confirmed speakers are Miles Jennings of a16z crypto, Theo Beutel of the Ethereum Foundation, Angela Kreitenweis of the NEAR Foundation, Eliza Oak of Base, Justine Lavande of Optimism Unlimited, Jeff Strnad of Stanford Law School, Florence G’Sell of the Stanford Cyber Policy Center, Jonathan Dotan of Starling Lab, Tony Douglas of the Decentralization Research Center, and Kydo of Eigen Labs. Together, those names give the summit a mix of crypto investment, protocol governance, legal scholarship, research, and ecosystem development.
The broader speaker list points to an event that is structured as more than a crypto industry meetup. Stanford’s page also names speakers from Stanford University, Metagov, the University of Colorado Boulder, Rutgers Law School, the University of Arkansas School of Law, the University of Waterloo, and George Mason University, alongside participants from organizations including the Institute of Free Technology, Foresight Institute, Infinity Inc., Cowrie, Butter, Anticapture, Mezzanine Labs, and QGOV.
Stanford representation is especially prominent. In addition to Strnad and G’Sell, the listed speakers include Yann Aouidef, Ashish Goel, Ruizhe Jia, and Yuxiang “Jim” Liu from Stanford, reflecting the university’s role in shaping the event’s academic profile. Dotan’s Starling Lab affiliation also ties the summit to a cross-institutional research effort linked to Stanford University and the University of Southern California.
The outside roster adds weight from both the blockchain ecosystem and legal academia. Theo Beutel brings Ethereum Foundation representation, while Angela Kreitenweis, Eliza Oak, and Justine Lavande connect the summit to NEAR, Base, and Optimism Unlimited. Miles Jennings gives the event a prominent venture and policy voice from a16z crypto, and Tony Douglas and Kydo add participation from the Decentralization Research Center and Eigen Labs. On the academic side, the official page lists Carol Goforth of the University of Arkansas School of Law, Yuliya Guseva of Rutgers Law School, Robin Hanson of George Mason University, Eric Alston of the University of Colorado Boulder, and Monica Tsang of the University of Waterloo.
That lineup suggests the summit will lean heavily into the governance questions surrounding blockchains rather than focusing narrowly on token markets or product launches. Even without a published 2026 agenda, the institutions represented on the speaker page indicate a program likely to touch law, policy, protocol design, coordination, and decentralized governance systems. Stanford’s agenda page says the detailed program will be made available later.
For the Bay Area, the event adds another blockchain and crypto-focused conference to a calendar already crowded with technology gatherings across AI, software, gaming, and infrastructure. But the Stanford summit appears to occupy a more academic and governance-centered niche, with its speaker list drawing from law schools, research centers, protocol foundations, and crypto organizations rather than leaning on a conventional product-conference model.
With confirmed speakers from a16z crypto, the Ethereum Foundation, the NEAR Foundation, Base, Optimism Unlimited, Eigen Labs, Stanford Law School, the Stanford Cyber Policy Center, Starling Lab, and a wide range of universities and research organizations, the 2026 Stanford Blockchain Governance Summit is shaping up as a notable Bay Area event for the legal, academic, and institutional side of blockchain. At Stanford Law School in May, it will bring together many of the people and institutions working on how these networks are governed, studied, and developed.
Read our coverage of Figma’s Config conference in San Francisco for another look at a major Bay Area event bringing together product, design, and technology leaders.
