Announcing the Art on Tezos Photography Prize

To mark World Photography Day, the Tezos community is launching something special, the Art on Tezos Photography Prize, a new award celebrating both emerging and established photographers working across a range of genres and approaches.

Spanning five categories — Nature, Portraiture, Urban, Experimental, and Photorealistic AI. The prize highlights the depth and diversity of photographic work on Tezos. From moving image to surreal AI compositions, this is a space for artists pushing boundaries.

What’s on offer:

• A 10,000 tez prize pool

• 15 finalists: one winner and two runner-ups per category

• A one-day exhibition at ArtVerse Gallery in Paris during Paris Photo week

• A curated release on Objkt featuring all selected works

Each category winner will receive 1,000 tez, and runner-ups will receive 500 tez. All 15 finalists will be invited to present a new work as part of the Paris exhibition.

The judging will take place in two rounds. The first-round jury includes a wide range of Tezos-native curators and artists, while the second round will be led by internationally recognized figures such as Boris Eldagsen, Steven Sacks (bitforms), and Alex Estorick (Right Click Save).

This is a true celebration of photography in all its forms, from street scenes and portraits to AI-generated compositions and hybrid moving images. The prize is open to anyone with a clear vision and a camera, digital, analog, or algorithmic.

Applications are open now through September 12
→ Submit your work.

Introducing Shadownet: A New Perpetual Test Network for Tezos

While artists push the boundaries of visual storytelling on Tezos, developers are getting new tools of their own.

This week marks the launch of Shadownet, a perpetual test network built for application developers who need a clean, stable environment that closely mirrors mainnet behavior. Created in response to Ghostnet’s growing complexity and outdated artifacts, Shadownet offers a fresh foundation for testing and experimentation without the baggage.

Shadownet is tailored for dApp developers and users, not protocol engineers or bakers setting up infrastructure. For those use cases, Rionet, Seoulnet, and Weeklynet still serve their purpose. But if you're building on Tezos and want an environment that reflects production-level performance, this is where you want to be.

What makes Shadownet different:

• Launches with 19 bakers, modeled after the top 19 on mainnet

• Bakers are required to treat it like production (uptime, availability)

• DAL nodes are mandatory and tz4 keys will be adopted with Seoul

• Built to support Tezos X and beyond, including smart rollup testing

An Etherlink-compatible version of Shadownet is also set to go live this month, and faucet access will be made publicly available in September.

While Ghostnet isn’t disappearing just yet as it will be supported through the end of the year, developers are encouraged to start deploying on Shadownet moving forward.

Helpful links:

• Explore Shadownet on TzKT

• View on Explorus

This Week in the Tezos Ecosystem

Tezos Trailblazers: Belgrade Edition

Let’s shift focus on what’s happening around the ecosystem and, this week the Tezos community is continuing to grow not just in code, but in connection. Last week in Belgrade, a local Tezos Trailblazers meetup brought together artists, collectors, and ecosystem supporters for a relaxed gathering at the Danube Riverside Padel Court.

Organized by @Vitjsa and hosted alongside the CONN3CT event, the meetup created space for meaningful conversations, creative exchange, and future planning over drinks, good food, and a few friendly games of padel. Attendees were encouraged to share their experiences on X using the #tezosCRP hashtag and build public familiarity with the Community Rewards Program.

This gathering was part of the Tezos Trailblazers program, a new initiative that empowers community members to host small, meaningful local events. Trailblazers receive support to bring together like-minded people around Tezos — whether through art meetups, dev sessions, or casual social hangouts. The Belgrade meetup showed how impactful these grassroots moments can be, sparking collaboration and energy in a city with growing interest in Web3.

Apple Farm Episode 3: Fresh Rewards Just Dropped

After an inspiring Trailblazers meetup in Belgrade, it’s time to switch gears to something equally exciting on-chain, Apple Farm Episode 3 is live and packed with new ways to earn.

There are now 20 reward opportunities up for grabs, including:

• A new USDC Vault from Gearbox Protocol designed for capital-efficient yield

• A stXTZ/WXTZ pool from Curve Finance is adding more native liquidity

With more protocols joining in and over $3 million in rewards still on the table, Apple Farm is where the action is for DeFi users on Etherlink.

Tezos Summer Events

WebX 2025: Arthur Breitman to Speak in Tokyo

August 25–26, 2025 | Tokyo International Forum, Japan

Arthur Breitman, co-founder of Tezos and Council Member of the Tezos Foundation, will be a featured speaker at WebX 2025, Asia’s leading conference for Web3, digital assets, and emerging technologies.

With a background in applied mathematics, computer science, and quantitative finance, Arthur brings a sharp, systems-driven perspective to the evolving landscape of decentralized networks. His session will explore the current state of Tezos and the future of scalable, upgradeable infrastructure.

WebX draws builders, policymakers, and entrepreneurs from across the globe. Arthur’s participation puts Tezos front and center in conversations shaping the next wave of global adoption.

→ More details.

Tezos Breakfast Club at WebX

August 26, 2025 | Tokyo, Japan

Kicking off WebX with good coffee and great company.

The Tezos Breakfast Club is a relaxed morning meetup for builders, explorers, and curious minds across the Web3 space. Whether you're new to the Tezos ecosystem or already part of it, this is your chance to connect with the teams behind Tezos, Etherlink, and Uranium.io — all over breakfast.

What’s on the table:

• Complimentary coffee and fresh baked goods

• Friendly, informal networking with developers, creators, and community members

• Conversations with folks from Trilitech, TZ APAC, and Tezos Commons

• A chance to learn more about what’s happening across Tezos Layer 1, Etherlink, and the future of real-world assets

It’s a low-key way to start a big day and a great chance to connect before the sessions begin.

→ Request to join.

🔴 Now Streaming: Building the Invisible Future with Jev Bjorsell of ECAD Labs

On this episode of TezTalks Radio, Brandon catches up with Jev Bjorsell from ECAD Labs to talk about Tezos' ongoing evolution at the protocol level. From new encryption standards to decentralized governance, Jev shares how Tezos is maturing into the kind of infrastructure that quietly powers the future—reliable, secure, and invisible by design.

Our guest is Jev Bjorsell, helping shape the tools and protocols that keep Tezos running strong.

🔍 In this episode, we’ll explore:

Sol and Security: How the new protocol introduces BLS encryption and what it means for performance, protection, and progress.

Cloud-Ready Tools: ECAD Labs’ work on Signatory now supports cloud HSMs and Amazon integrations while adding double-baking protection.

Testing from the Inside Out: A culture of dogfooding ensures the tools built for Tezos are tested on Tezos first.

Infrastructure You Don’t Notice: Why success looks like invisibility and how Tezos is quietly reaching that stage.

Governance Grown Up: Moving past top-down decisions and embracing the messy, empowering work of real decentralized governance.

Ecosystem Energy: A look back at TezDev Cannes and why the Tezos community feels more aligned—and more ambitious—than ever.

Watch the full episode on YouTube.