Introducing the 20th Tezos Protocol Proposal: Tallinn

The next chapter of Tezos is taking shape. Nomadic Labs, Trilitech, and Functori have unveiled the name of the upcoming Tezos protocol proposal: Tallinn, the 20th in the network’s evolution.

Tallinn builds on the steady progress of recent upgrades, continuing the march toward faster finality, leaner consensus, and greater efficiency across the network.

At the heart of Tallinn is one simple goal: to make Tezos feel faster, smoother, and more efficient without compromising decentralization.

Here’s what’s inside:

• 6-second block time

Following the reductions achieved in the Quebec upgrade, Tallinn will lower block time from 8 to 6 seconds, cutting Layer 1 finality from 16 seconds to 12 seconds. That means quicker confirmations and more responsive applications on Tezos and its Layer 2s.

• All bakers attest to every block

Tallinn will enable every block to be attested by all active bakers, powered by BLS signatures introduced in the Seoul upgrade. Once more than 50% of bakers migrate to tz4 (BLS) addresses, this feature will activate, improving consensus security, streamlining validation, and making rewards more predictable.

• Optimized contract storage

Through the new Address Indexing Registry, Tallinn introduces a lighter and more efficient way to store token and NFT data. Instead of storing full addresses repeatedly across contracts, each address will now be stored once and assigned a compact numeric ID — reducing storage needs by up to 50–100× for contracts that adopt the feature.

Together, these changes bring a faster, more efficient Tezos with lower storage overhead, stronger consensus, and a protocol design that’s ready for the next generation of builders.

The proposal is currently being finalized and will be released for governance on November 14, with testing now live on its dedicated Nextnet. Bakers, developers, and ecosystem teams are encouraged to test their applications and share feedback to help refine the rollout at Tezos Agora.

Etherlink Partners with Google Cloud to Power the Next Wave of Builders

As the Tallinn proposal looks to make Tezos faster and more efficient, the work to support builders on top of that foundation is also expanding. This week, Etherlink announced a new partnership with Google Cloud, opening the door for developers to access world-class resources through the Google Cloud Web3 Startup Program.

The program is now available to Etherlink builders who have received grants from the Tezos Foundation, giving them up to $200,000 in cloud credits, along with technical guidance, engineering support, and introductions to investors and go-to-market partners.

For many teams, early infrastructure costs can slow down development. This partnership helps remove those barriers, giving builders the breathing room to experiment and scale with confidence.

Etherlink is becoming a home for developers who want to build openly and at scale. By combining Google Cloud’s global reach with the security and flexibility of Tezos, the partnership gives builders the tools to grow faster while staying true to the network’s core principles.

If you’re building on Etherlink and have received a Tezos Foundation grant, you can learn more and apply to Google Cloud’s Web3 Startup Program.

This Week in the Tezos Ecosystem

The Tezos Spooktacular Challenge 👻

It’s Halloween season, and the Tezos community is bringing the creativity. The Tezos Spooktacular Challenge invites artists, creators, and AI enthusiasts to make a Tezos or Etherlink–themed Halloween video, using tools like Veo3, Sora2, or any AI video generator of their choice.

The rules are simple: follow @Tezos and @etherlink, tag both in your post, add the hashtag #GMIfYouDare, and reply with your entry. The ten best submissions will each take home 250 tez, for a total prize pool of 2,500 tez.

If you need a little inspiration, here are a few ideas to get your imagination going:

• A mysterious knock at the door followed by a voice saying “Trick or tez.”

• A haunted wallet that suddenly fixes itself with perfect opsec.

• Etherlink as a glowing portal opening on Halloween night.

All entries must be original, PG-13, and free of third-party IP. The contest runs until November 4 at 19:00 CET, so get your prompts ready and summon your creativity.

The scariest, funniest, or most clever submissions will take the spotlight.

Tezos @ the London Blockchain Conference

London played host to another major stop on the global blockchain calendar this week, and Tezos was right in the mix. From the main stage to the exhibitor floor, the conference highlighted how Tezos continues to power new ideas across finance and real-world assets.

At the Uranium3 (xU3O8) booth, visitors got a firsthand look at how uranium ownership is coming on-chain, built on Tezos and its EVM-compatible layer, Etherlink. Product Lead Ben Elvidge shared how xU3O8 is turning one of the world’s most tightly controlled commodities into a more open and accessible market.

Meanwhile, Tezos co-founder Arthur Breitman joined the main stage to share how financial institutions are using Tezos to modernize payments, settlement, and corporate banking. His talk reinforced what many in the room are starting to recognize, that Tezos offers a clear, secure, and efficient foundation for real-world financial applications.

Mauvis Ledford and the Vision Behind Sogni Protocol

This week’s spotlight turns to Mauvis Ledford, the founder and CEO of Sogni Protocol, whose work is reshaping how artists and technologists approach artificial intelligence.

Ledford’s goal is simple: make creative tools accessible to everyone. Through Sogni, he’s building a decentralized network where artists can use open-source AI models without the heavy costs or restrictions that come with traditional platforms. At the same time, people with gaming PCs or Macs can share their unused computing power and earn income by helping others create.

The result is a shared ecosystem that benefits both sides. Artists can experiment and render faster, while GPU owners contribute to a growing network that rewards participation instead of limiting it.

Sogni’s growth has been impressive. After raising $3.5 million in funding, including support from the Tezos Foundation, the team launched its live network earlier this year. Universities are already exploring ways to integrate Sogni into their creative programs, using its infrastructure to teach students how AI and decentralization can work hand in hand.

Ledford often describes Sogni’s journey as one of solving real problems rather than chasing ideals. “We started with a simple pain point, artists locked out of tools and built from there,” he says. That focus on practicality, community, and open access echoes the spirit of Tezos itself.

You can read the full interview with Mauvis Ledford in The Peak Magazine here.

MoMI and Tezos Foundation Renew Partnership for 2025–2026

Wrapping up this week’s news, The Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI) and the Tezos Foundation are continuing their collaboration into 2025–2026, extending a partnership that has become one of the most recognized bridges between contemporary art and on-chain creation.

Building on the success of last year’s program, the new cycle will feature a series of commissions, performances, and educational initiatives that explore blockchain as a creative material rather than just a tool.

The upcoming season includes:

• Five artist pair commissions to be displayed on MoMI’s media wall
• A new FA2 Fellowship for artists and developers
• Microgrants supporting projects that use Tezos as a medium
• Live performances and time-based works throughout the year

The first round of participating artist pairs includes:

James Bloom × Gottfried Jäger,
Sarah Friend × Yehwan Song,
Linda Dounia × Rhea Myers, and
Jonas Lund × Yoshi Sodeoka.

Applications are now open for the FA2 Fellowship, which helps artists and builders learn smart contract applications, collaborate with experts, and bring new projects to life on Tezos. Completing the fellowship also qualifies participants to apply for microgrants, providing extra support for expanding their work.

A dedicated website, momixtezos.art, will document the entire cycle, showcase new commissions, and highlight the fellowship’s progress throughout the year.

Learn more and sign up for the FA2 Fellowship here, or explore details on the Microgrants.

Tezos Community Events

Art on Tezos: Berlin

Happening November 6–9, Art on Tezos: Berlin is set to bring together over 200 artists, curators, galleries, and platforms for a multi-day celebration of digital creativity, collaboration, and community. It’s the first time so many contributors from the Tezos art ecosystem will gather under one roof and the result promises to be a rich, diverse portrait of the culture that’s been growing since 2021.

With participants like objkt, bitforms, Galerie Met, Office Impart, and The Second-Guess, the event features everything from interactive installations and live performances to film screenings and special curatorial projects. Highlights include:

• A performance by Berlin-based artist allapopp

• TeleNFT’s newest showcase is turning live teletext into on-chain artworks

• Immersive exhibitions and guided tours across the venue

Art on Tezos continues to evolve, and this Berlin event captures the heart of that movement. Make sure you RSVP to attend before space fills up!

🔴 Now Streaming: Paper Buddha | Collage, Code, and the Spirit of Tezos Counterculture

We trace Paper Buddha’s path from collage and Buddhist iconography to securing Tezos as a baker, exploring how remix culture, meditation, and code fuse into a global counterculture practice. Along the way, we unpack permanence on-chain, sustainable patronage, and multi-chain strategy that rewards collectors without hype.

• collage as a language for remix culture and East–West fusion
• Detroit grit, Zen practice, and authenticity shaping process
• three-stage workflow: wild sourcing, meditative cutting, intentional sharing
• impermanence versus permanence and why censorship resistance matters
• generative mandalas in P5 and encoding style into algorithms
• Tezos as punk rock: accessibility, global culture, and Turkish freedom mints
• baking as sustainable patronage and income smoothing for artists
• bridging validator and art communities with practical tooling
• multi-chain vaults, pricing equilibrium, and collector rewards
• upcoming drops for Marfa, Halloween, and Miami, feeding back into the baker landscape, and staying committed to a long-term vision for digital art and storytelling.

Watch the full episode on YouTube.