Designing DeFi 2026

Description

Designing DeFi: Protocols & Incentives is a two-day research conference focused on advancing technical understanding of decentralized finance (DeFi) systems. It brings together scholars, engineers, and industry experts to explore how DeFi protocols are designed, how they perform under strategic and adversarial conditions, and how incentive structures shape economic outcomes at scale. The conference emphasizes rigorous study of market design, mechanisms like automated liquidity provision and prediction markets, protocol incentives, robustness, and risk management in decentralized trading and lending systems.

The event fosters deep academic and practical discussion on foundational questions in DeFi, inviting submissions that offer clear technical or economic insights into protocol design and evaluation. Participants engage with research on economic mechanisms, innovative blockchain systems, and the behavior of decentralized markets to illuminate how cutting-edge DeFi systems can be understood and improved.

Important Dates:
Paper submission deadline: February 14, 2026
Review period: February 22 – March 13, 2026
Notification of acceptance: Late March 2026
Conference dates: May 20–21, 2026