The Baking Sheet - Issue #281

Taking a seat at the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Fintech table

November 14, 2025

It has been an eventful stretch for Tezos, with conversations unfolding everywhere from Philadelphia’s Federal Reserve Bank to the galleries of Paris. The network continues to show up in places where policy, culture, and infrastructure meet, and this week’s edition reflects that momentum in full.

We start with Arthur Breitman’s appearance at the Philadelphia Fed’s annual Fintech Conference, where he joined leaders from Morgan Stanley, BlackRock, Ondo Finance, and top academic institutions to discuss the role of public chains in shaping real-world financial markets. It’s the kind of stage where the tone of future regulation is set, and Tezos had a clear voice in that conversation.

From there, we move into Paris Photo, where Tezos-linked artists and curators opened the week with a strong showing across exhibitions, prizes, and on-chain showcases. It has become one of the most visible moments of the year for the Tezos art community, and this year’s programming continued that tradition.

We also take a look at the launch of the MoMI x Tezos FA2 Fellowship, an educational program inviting artists to explore smart contract creation, and we close with ProtoTest, a new tool for protocol proposal developers that gives builders more power to test ideas locally.

Let’s get into this week’s Baking Sheet.

Arthur Breitman Speaks at the Philadelphia Fed’s Fintech Conference

Last week, we talked about Arthur Breitman’s appearance at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s annual Fintech Conference. This week, we get to look back at what was said on stage in a room full of policymakers, academics, and financial leaders.

Arthur joined leaders from BlackRock, Morgan Stanley, Ondo Finance, and researchers from Wharton, Columbia, Cambridge, and Brookings for a panel on tokenizing real-world assets. It was a rare moment where policymakers and industry builders sat at the same table to talk about how on-chain markets are maturing.

His message was clear: U.S. regulators are beginning to recognize the value of public blockchains as tools for financial innovation and broader capital-market access. That shift in tone opens the door for use cases that have long sat outside the reach of traditional infrastructure.

Arthur pointed to uranium.io, built on Etherlink as an example of how tokenization can unlock markets that were previously closed to almost everyone. Instead of focusing on assets that already have dozens of venues, he encouraged the industry to look toward markets where access, settlement, and transparency are still stuck in decades-old structures.

“US regulators are warming up to the potential of public blockchains to foster financial innovation and expand capital markets. This will allow the industry to serve more meaningful and impactful use cases.”

Day two of the conference continues today, with more discussions centered on the future of on-chain finance and how public networks like Tezos can support the next wave of market structure upgrades.

This Week in the Tezos Ecosystem

Paris Photo Opens to the Public, and Tezos Takes Center Stage

After a week focused on institutional conversations in Philadelphia, the spotlight shifts to Paris where Paris Photo, one of the most important photography events in the world, has officially opened its doors. It’s a full week of exhibitions, talks, curations, and cross-disciplinary work and Tezos is woven straight into the heart of it.

This year, Artverse Paris is presenting a group show curated by Grida on objkt, bringing Tezos-native creators directly into the fair’s orbit. It lands at the same time as the announcement of the Art on Tezos Photography Prize winners, a competition that drew more than 300 submissions across nature, portraiture, urban photography, photorealistic AI, and experimental work.

Fifteen finalists emerged, each earning a spot in a dedicated exhibition at ArtVerse Gallery in the Marais district during Paris Photo week. Five category winners received 1,000 tez each, while ten runners-up received 500 tez, forming a prize pool that reflects Tezos’ ongoing support for photography as a serious artistic discipline.

The winning works range from macro wildlife photography to surreal synthetic interiors, from bold street life to elegant portraiture. Artists like Arijit Mondal, Srivatsan Sankaran, Nari Mazari, Marine Blehaut, and Jakub Kłak brought approaches that show how far on-chain photography has evolved since the early days of Hic Et Nunc.

The jury included voices from OpenAI, bitforms, Serpentine, and Right Click Save, giving the competition real artistic weight. Their selection process underscored what many Tezos creators already know: photography on Tezos hasn’t just grown, it has matured.

Each finalist was also invited to create a brand-new piece exclusively for the exhibition. These works will be minted on Tezos and displayed both IRL in Paris and on objkt, continuing the “URL to IRL” bridge that Artverse is known for.

With thousands of collectors, curators, and institutions moving through Paris Photo this week, the Tezos photography community finds itself exactly where it belongs — right in the middle of the conversation.

If you’re in Paris this week, you can join the community in person at the drinks reception and pop-up show on November 14:

🗓️ Nov 14
⏰ 5:30–10:00 PM
🔗 RSVP: https://luma.com/e4615yiu

With thousands of collectors, curators, and institutions moving through Paris Photo, the Tezos photography community finds itself exactly where it belongs, right in the middle of the conversation.

MoMI x Tezos FA2 Fellowship Begins

Paris Photo may be commanding global attention this week, but the momentum around Tezos and the arts is also growing in New York. The MoMI x Tezos FA2 Fellowship officially kicked off on November 12, opening its 2025–2026 cycle with a strong first session led by Beata and Regina.

The fellowship is open to anyone interested in exploring Tezos as both a creative environment and a tool for artistic expression. Over seven sessions running through May 2026, participants learn the foundations of FA2 smart contracts, experiment with blockchain as a medium, and develop their own projects with guidance from curators, artists, and technologists.

This week’s opening session introduced participants to the history of art on Tezos, how FA2 works under the hood, and how smart contracts can serve as building blocks for generative, interactive, or time-based work. The atmosphere was friendly, curious, and very much in the spirit of what has made Tezos a home for artists over the last four years.

Artists who complete at least four sessions will be eligible to apply for microgrants, offering additional support as they push their ideas further. One collaborative project will ultimately be selected for exhibition on MoMI’s media wall, giving participants a path from experimentation to public presentation.

Learn more about the fellowship and upcoming sessions:

FA2 Fellowship: https://momixtezos.art/fa2-fellowship
Microgrants: https://momixtezos.art/microgrants

The first session set a strong tone for what’s ahead. The next months will give emerging and established artists space to learn new tools, connect with peers, and build work that speaks to the possibilities of on-chain creativity.

ProtoTest v0.1: A New Tool for Protocol Proposal Developers

Wrapping this week’s news, the focus turns back to builders on the technical side of the Tezos ecosystem. This week, Nomadic Labs introduced something that many protocol developers have been asking for since the Quebec upgrade: a way to test proposals locally without wrestling with complex setups.

ProtoTest v0.1 is an experimental tool designed to make that possible. It packages key parts of the Octez suite into a dockerized environment, allowing developers to run the same protocol test suites used in Tezos’ GitLab pipeline directly on their own machines.

The goal is simple. Developers can now:

  • Run existing protocol tests locally

  • Modify or extend those tests to fit the logic of their proposal

  • Reuse test suites from any version of Tezos as a baseline

This gives proposal authors a more realistic view of how changes behave across the protocol’s moving parts, long before community testing begins on public networks.

The hardware needs are the same as building Tezos from source, and Docker is required. Installation instructions are outlined in the repository, along with links to broader Octez documentation for those who want to understand how protocol tests work under the hood.

ProtoTest is still experimental, and feedback is encouraged. The Quebec Protocol Activation Survey made it clear that the community wants better tooling around proposal development. This release is an early step toward giving teams the ability to validate ideas quickly and safely before moving into formal governance.

Nomadic Labs is asking developers to try it out, report issues, and suggest improvements. The more people put ProtoTest through its paces, the stronger future proposals will be.

Tezos Community Events

Tezos Breakfast Club Returns to Buenos Aires

The Tezos Breakfast Club is back, and this time it’s bringing good coffee and great company to Buenos Aires.

Join local builders and community members for a relaxed morning of conversation, croissants, and connection, the perfect way to start the day.

📍 Café Nómada, Villa Crespo
🗓️ Friday, November 21 | 10:00–12:30 (UTC-3)
☕ Hosted by Tezos Trailblazers @BosqueGracias and @lucasoxx_