A Christmas Note to the Tezos Community

Hello Tezos community,

It’s holiday season, and this week feels like the right moment to step back from the usual rhythm and simply talk to each other.

Looking back on the past year through the lens of the Baking Sheet, what stands out most is not any single announcement, but the steady way Tezos kept moving forward. Not loudly. Not chaotically. Just consistently, with care, precision, and intention.

On the protocol side, this year reminded us why Tezos governance matters. We saw upgrades like Rio make everyday participation smoother, shortening cycles and reducing friction for bakers and delegators alike. Seoul went live with changes that quietly improved security and usability, from native multisigs to simpler unstaking. And as the year wrapped up, Tallinn moved through governance with strong participation, showing once again that this community does not just talk about decentralization, it practices it.

Etherlink had a big year too. Apple Farm brought waves of activity and experimentation, showing what happens when incentives meet real usage. Farfadet went live, pushing performance forward, and when an issue appeared, the response was fast, transparent, and accountable. The follow up with Etherlink 6.1 was a reminder that shipping quickly only works when teams are willing to explain the details and fix things properly. That kind of openness builds trust over time.

Beyond infrastructure, the ecosystem continued to widen in ways that felt tangible. Lyzi enabling crypto payments at Porsche and Lamborghini dealerships did not feel gimmicky. It felt logical. Revolut dropping fees on Tezos delegation rewards made participation simpler for millions of users who may never open a terminal or read a whitepaper. Umami wallet shipping shielded transactions brought privacy into the hands of everyday users without asking them to change how they interact with the network.

And then there were the creative moments. Art on Tezos continued to show up in galleries, festivals, and conversations that reached well beyond crypto circles. Events like TezDev in Cannes brought builders, artists, and community members together in ways that felt genuinely energizing. Tools kept improving. New collectives formed. Experiments launched, some quietly, some boldly, all contributing to a living culture rather than a static ecosystem.

Gaming deserves its own pause here. Seeing projects like Reaper Actual take shape this year was a reminder that Tezos is not just a place for ideas, but a place for ambition. Persistent worlds, real time systems, and player driven economies are not easy problems, and watching teams take them on with patience and realism has been one of the more exciting threads to follow.

And through all of this, the Baking Sheet kept doing what it has always tried to do. Slow things down just enough to tell the story properly. To connect the dots between governance votes, technical upgrades, creative work, and real world adoption. To make space for context, not just headlines.

This week, things are quiet. Many teams are offline. Commits slow down. Conversations pause. That is healthy. A network that never rests is not sustainable, and neither is a community.

So today, more than anything, we want to say thank you. Thank you for reading, for sharing, for debating, for building, for voting, and for sticking around through both the exciting moments and the quieter ones. Tezos works because people care enough to keep showing up year after year.

We will be back next week with our regular programming, ready to jump into what the new year brings. For now, we hope you are enjoying some rest, some warmth, and some time with the people who matter most to you.

Merry Christmas, and thank you for another year together.

The Baking Sheet team. 🎄