The Premier Event for Blockchain Unification · March 2026

BLOCKCHAIN
DEBATE
CHAMPIONSHIP

64 blockchains. One representative each. Six rounds of structured debate to surface the industry's deepest agreements — and its sharpest divisions. Inspired by the UTXO Alliance's spirit of cross-chain collaboration.

64
Blockchains
63
Debates
6
Rounds
1
Champion
View All 64 Blockchains Read the Rules
Bitcoin Ethereum Cardano Quai Network Solana Ergo Nervos Polkadot Cosmos Avalanche Arbitrum Stacks Alephium Near Protocol Optimism Zcash Bitcoin Ethereum Cardano Quai Network Solana Ergo Nervos Polkadot Cosmos Avalanche Arbitrum Stacks Alephium Near Protocol Optimism Zcash

Collaboration
over combat

The blockchain industry spends enormous energy on tribalism — maximalists against altcoiners, UTXO against account-model, L1 against L2. This tournament flips the script.

The goal is not to crown a winner. It is to force the best technical minds in each ecosystem to articulate precisely what they believe — and to listen to what others believe — in a structured, public forum.

Inspired by the UTXO Alliance's mission of cross-chain collaboration, the Blockchain Debate Championship aims to produce a living document of industry consensus emerging from 63 structured debates across 6 rounds.

Every debate is recorded, scored, and published. The result is the most comprehensive map ever made of where blockchains agree, where they differ, and why.

One Rep Per Chain

Each blockchain sends a single official representative — a core developer, researcher, or protocol designer who can speak to technical fundamentals.

Structured Format

Each debate follows Oxford-style rules with timed opening, rebuttal, and closing statements. Topics are revealed 72 hours in advance.

Public Record

All debates are live-streamed and archived. Transcripts, scoring rubrics, and judge commentary are published within 24 hours of each match.

Seeding by Nakamoto Coefficient

Seeds 1–64 are assigned by a composite of decentralization score, ecosystem size, and age — not market cap. No pay-to-play.

How it Works

01
🎙
Debate Format
Oxford-style structured debate. Opening statement (5 min), opponent opening (5 min), cross-examination (6 min), rebuttal (3 min), audience Q&A (10 min), closing (2 min each). Total: ~45 minutes per match.
02
🏛
Representation Rules
Each chain nominates one official representative minimum 30 days before Round 1. The representative must be a core contributor (developer, researcher, or founding team member). No PR firms. No VC proxies.
03
📋
Topic Assignment
Round topics are drawn from a pre-published master topic list. Each debate gets a unique motion. Representatives receive the specific debate motion 72 hours in advance. No prep coaching from outside the project.
04
⚖️
Scoring System
A panel of 3 independent judges scores each debate across 5 criteria: Technical Accuracy (30%), Clarity of Argument (25%), Rebuttal Quality (20%), Evidence Quality (15%), and Decorum (10%). Scores are published publicly.
05
🌐
Chain Agnostic Judges
Judges are selected from academia, standards bodies, and neutral research organizations. No judge may hold > 0.5% of their portfolio in any chain they judge. Conflicts must be disclosed and recused. Wolfram Research serves as a neutral arbiter.
06
🏆
The Championship Prize
The winning chain's representative earns the right to draft the inaugural "Blockchain Consensus Manifesto" — a collaborative document co-authored with all 63 opponents, representing the industry's best shared understanding of decentralized systems.

March – June 2026

Six rounds over four months. Debates held in three formats: live video (Rounds 1–2), hybrid in-person/virtual (Rounds 3–4), and in-person finale (Rounds 5–6).

March 1 — March 15, 2026
Round of 64 — Opening Day
32 matches. Online format. Each debate livestreamed. Topics focus on consensus mechanism fundamentals.
32 Debates · Online
March 20 — April 4, 2026
Round of 32
16 matches. First cross-architectural debates — UTXO vs Account-Model matchups expected here.
16 Debates · Online
April 10 — April 20, 2026
Sweet Sixteen
8 matches. Topics shift to scalability trilemma, interoperability, and real-world adoption. Hybrid format begins.
8 Debates · Hybrid
May 1 — May 10, 2026
Elite Eight
4 matches. Topics: governance, decentralization metrics, energy and sustainability. In-person preferred.
4 Debates · In-Person
May 20 — May 25, 2026
Final Four
2 semi-final matches. Open to the public. Topic: "What does a mature blockchain ecosystem look like in 2030?"
2 Debates · In-Person
June 7, 2026
The Championship
Grand Final. Live audience. Full panel of judges. Topic drawn the morning of the event. The Consensus Manifesto drafting begins immediately after.
Championship · In-Person · Live Broadcast

KEY DATES

Nominations Open Feb 1, 2026
Nominations Close Feb 22, 2026
Seeding Published Feb 25, 2026
Bracket Released Feb 28, 2026
Round 1 Begins March 1, 2026
Grand Final June 7, 2026
Manifesto Published June 30, 2026

About the Seeding Methodology

Seeds are computed from a composite score: Nakamoto Coefficient (40%), active dev contributors (25%), years of mainnet operation (20%), and unique wallet addresses (15%). Market cap is explicitly excluded. This rewards decentralization over speculation.

The Competitors

64 blockchains across 4 regions. Click any chain to see its representative brief. Badges indicate model type: UTXO, EVM, L2, or Other.

⛏ Region 1 — Proof of Work & UTXO
16 chains
1
Bitcoin
BTC
UTXO
2
Quai Network
QUAI / QI
UTXO
3
Ergo
ERG
UTXO
4
Litecoin
LTC
UTXO
5
Nervos
CKB
UTXO
6
Alephium
ALPH
UTXO
7
Zcash
ZEC
UTXO
8
Bitcoin Cash
BCH
UTXO
9
Monero
XMR
UTXO
10
DigiByte
DGB
UTXO
11
Ravencoin
RVN
UTXO
12
Hathor
HTR
UTXO
13
Horizen
ZEN
UTXO
14
Dash
DASH
UTXO
15
Stacks
STX
UTXO
16
Komodo
KMD
UTXO
🌐 Region 2 — Proof of Stake Layer 1
16 chains
17
Ethereum
ETH
EVM
18
Cardano
ADA
UTXO
19
Solana
SOL
PoH
20
Polkadot
DOT
NPoS
21
Cosmos
ATOM
IBC
22
Avalanche
AVAX
EVM
23
Near Protocol
NEAR
WASM
24
Algorand
ALGO
PPoS
25
Aptos
APT
Move
26
Sui
SUI
Move
27
TON
TON
PoS
28
MultiversX
EGLD
EVM
29
Hedera
HBAR
DAG
30
Internet Computer
ICP
ICP
31
Stellar
XLM
SCP
32
XRP Ledger
XRP
RPCA
⚡ Region 3 — Ethereum L2 & Scaling
16 chains
33
Arbitrum One
ARB
L2
34
Optimism
OP
L2
35
Base
BASE
L2
36
Polygon zkEVM
MATIC/POL
L2
37
zkSync Era
ZK
L2
38
Starknet
STRK
L2
39
Linea
LineaETH
L2
40
Scroll
SCR
L2
41
Mantle
MNT
L2
42
Blast
BLAST
L2
43
Mode
MODE
L2
44
Rootstock
RBTC
L2
45
Lightning Network
BTC-LN
L2
46
Loopring
LRC
L2
47
ImmutableX
IMX
L2
48
BNB Chain
BNB
EVM
🔬 Region 4 — Emerging & Specialized
16 chains
49
Tezos
XTZ
LPoS
50
Filecoin
FIL
Storage
51
Arweave
AR
Storage
52
VeChain
VET
PoA
53
Flow
FLOW
BFT
54
Sei
SEI
EVM
55
Injective
INJ
EVM
56
Celo
CELO
EVM
57
Nano
XNO
DAG
58
Radix
XRD
Cerberus
59
Topl
TOPL
UTXO
60
Osmosis
OSMO
IBC
61
Beam
BEAM
UTXO
62
Casper
CSPR
EVM
63
IOTA
IOTA
DAG
64
Fantom
FTM/S
EVM

The Bracket

The 64-team single-elimination bracket is seeded by Nakamoto Coefficient composite score, not market cap. Regions are balanced across model types — UTXO, EVM, L2, and Other — ensuring cross-architectural debates as early as Round 2. The bracket is fixed at seeding; no reseeding occurs after each round. Full bracket PDF will be published February 28, 2026.

Get Notified
Round of 64 (32 Debates)
#1 Bitcoin
vs
#64 Fantom
#2 Quai Network
vs
#63 IOTA
#3 Ergo
vs
#62 Casper
#4 Litecoin
vs
#61 Beam
#5 Nervos
vs
#60 Osmosis
#6 Alephium
vs
#59 Topl
#7 Zcash
vs
#58 Radix
#8 Bit.Cash
vs
#57 Nano
+24 more →
Round of 32
TBD vs TBD
TBD vs TBD
TBD vs TBD
TBD vs TBD
TBD vs TBD
TBD vs TBD
TBD vs TBD
TBD vs TBD
Sweet 16
TBD vs TBD
TBD vs TBD
TBD vs TBD
TBD vs TBD
Elite 8
TBD vs TBD
TBD vs TBD
Final Four
TBD vs TBD
Championship
🏆 TBD

Debate Motions

Specific motion pairings are assigned to matches. All possible motions are published in advance. Representatives prep for any motion in their pool.

Round 1 Pool — Consensus Fundamentals
This house believes Proof of Work is the only credibly neutral consensus mechanism.
Debaters must address energy use, security budget, and the meaning of "neutral" in distributed systems.
Round 1 Pool — Architecture
The UTXO model is fundamentally superior to account-based models for value transfer.
Covering parallelism, privacy, state bloat, and smart contract composability tradeoffs.
Round 2 Pool — Scaling
Layer 2 rollups will never achieve the security guarantees of Layer 1 settlement.
Bridging risks, data availability, exit windows, and the trust assumptions of optimistic vs ZK.
Round 2 Pool — Economics
A fixed monetary policy is more important than programmability in a sound money system.
Comparing inflationary PoS issuance, Bitcoin's halvings, and energy-backed stable tokens.
Round 3 Pool — Interoperability
Cross-chain bridges are a temporary hack. The future is a single unified settlement layer.
IBC, atomic swaps, merged mining, and the architecture of multi-chain vs. one-chain futures.
Round 3 Pool — Governance
On-chain governance makes blockchains less secure over time.
Examining Tezos, Polkadot, Cosmos, vs. off-chain rough-consensus models (Bitcoin, Ethereum).
Round 4 Pool — Privacy
Public blockchains with transparent ledgers are incompatible with financial privacy.
ZK proofs, confidential transactions, Mimblewimble, ring signatures — where does transparency end?
Final Four — Thermodynamics & Energy
Money that cannot be created without physical energy expenditure is the only honest money.
The thermoeconomic case for Proof of Work as a monetary anchor. Entropy, information, and value.
Championship Motion — To Be Drawn Day-of
The blockchain industry will consolidate to 3–5 dominant networks within 10 years. Is this inevitable, and is it desirable?
The grand finale motion will be drawn from a sealed envelope on the morning of June 7, 2026. Both finalists have 72 hours from the semifinal win to prepare any motion in the Championship Pool. This creates the highest-stakes, most genuine debate possible — no canned answers.

How Debates Are Scored

Three independent judges score each criterion independently. Scores are published with full commentary. All judging rubrics and conflict-of-interest disclosures are available pre-debate.

30%
of total score
Technical Accuracy
25%
of total score
Clarity of Argument
20%
of total score
Rebuttal Quality
15%
of total score
Evidence & Citation Quality
10%
of total score
Decorum & Sportsmanship

Judge Independence Guarantee

Judges are drawn from academic blockchain research, cryptography, computer science, and monetary economics. Wolfram Research serves as the neutral arbiter of technical claims and publishes a post-debate technical fact-check within 48 hours of each match. No judge may hold positions in, receive grants from, or have employment relationships with any chain in their assigned bracket. All disclosures are public.

March 2026 · Applications Close February 22

Nominate Your
Representative

Each blockchain gets one nomination. Nominations are reviewed by the organizing committee for eligibility. No marketing reps. No ghost nominees.

// Nominations open · Deadline Feb 22, 2026 · All confirmations via email