Overview
Participant guide for Cardano Learning & Research for Real Use Cases in Goma, DR Congo. Research competition from November 30 to December 13, 2026. Final workshop on Friday, December 18, 2026, in Goma.
This guide gathers the published rules of the research competition of Cardano Learning & Research for Real Use Cases in Goma, DR Congo: who can take part, the questions to address, the article to publish on Cardano Forum, the principles to follow, the final workshop, and the rewards. Evaluations, participating teams, and results each follow in their own part.
Cardano Forum
Cardano Forum is an online community platform dedicated to the Cardano ecosystem. It brings together community members, developers, researchers, entrepreneurs, and anyone interested in Cardano to share knowledge and exchange ideas.
On Cardano Forum, you can in particular:
- Publish articles and research to present your ideas, analyses, and findings.
- Take part in discussions and exchange with other members of the community.
- Ask questions and share knowledge about Cardano, blockchain, governance, and related technologies.
- Discover projects and initiatives, and follow developments in the ecosystem.
- Share your work with an international community and receive comments from other participants.
Access Cardano Forum: https://forum.cardano.org/ (opens in a new tab)
The research competition of Cardano Learning & Research for Real Use Cases in Goma, DR Congo will take place on this platform. Teams will publish their articles there to present their research, share their proposals, and let the community discover and discuss their work.
Important: Anyone who wishes to take part in the research competition must create their own account on Cardano Forum. You are invited to create your account now, so that you are ready to take part in the competition and publish your work.
Registration on this site does not create a Cardano Forum account. Each person who takes part in the competition creates their own forum account. This site never asks for the forum password.
A Cardano Forum account is required to take part in the research competition. It is not required for the online training sessions or the in-person closing workshop.
A personal introduction on Cardano Forum is encouraged. It is not required to take part in the research competition.
Enter your Cardano Forum username and the public address of your profile. You can do this in this registration. A later change will require verification of your email address.
Presentation
The research competition of Cardano Learning & Research for Real Use Cases in Goma, DR Congo invites students, entrepreneurs, and humanitarian practitioners to study real challenges in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and to assess how far blockchain, in particular Cardano, could contribute to them.
The aim is to encourage critical thinking, evidence-based research, and debate about whether blockchain is relevant in this context.
This is not a hackathon. Teams are not asked to build an application, a prototype, or a smart contract. The work is to understand real problems, study existing solutions, and assess honestly whether Cardano is relevant.
The competition is supported by the Cardano Impact Pot. Teams remain free in their conclusions. A well-argued negative conclusion is worth as much as a favorable one.
Who can take part
- The competition of Cardano Learning & Research for Real Use Cases in Goma, DR Congo is open to students and recent graduates, entrepreneurs and innovators, researchers, humanitarian practitioners, members of civil society, and anyone interested in blockchain and the real challenges of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
- No prior experience in blockchain or programming is required.
- Each person may belong to only one team.
- Jury members and members of the organizing team cannot take part.
Areas of exploration
In Cardano Learning & Research for Real Use Cases in Goma, DR Congo, teams may explore these subjects, and they are not limited to them. Other subjects tied to realities in the DRC are possible. This list does not describe results already achieved.
- Education
- Agriculture
- Supply chains and traceability
- Entrepreneurship
- Financial inclusion
- Certification and digital identity
- Public services
- Humanitarian assistance
In Cardano Learning & Research for Real Use Cases in Goma, DR Congo, these areas are subjects of exploration, not a closed list and not achieved results. If a theme is uncertain, the team contacts the organizers before committing to it.
Research requirements
Each team identifies a concrete problem and carries out structured research around six questions. The research relies on credible sources, observations, interviews, or other relevant evidence. Teams should distinguish verified facts, testimonies, and hypotheses.
1
Problem identification
What is the problem, and who is concerned?
2
Current situation
How is it handled today? What solutions already exist?
3
Difficulties encountered
What are the limits of the existing approaches?
4
Relevance of blockchain
Could blockchain help? How, and compared with which non-blockchain alternatives, such as a conventional database or mobile money?
5
Relevance of Cardano
Is Cardano suited to this context? Why, in light of cost, connectivity, energy, regulation, adoption, and local skills?
6
Conclusion
What are the findings, the recommendations, and the paths to explore?
Teams are not required to conclude that Cardano is suitable. Showing, with a rigorous and documented analysis, that blockchain or Cardano is not an appropriate answer is a valid result.
Article and publication
- Each team produces one original research article: the problem and its context, the evidence and references, an assessment of how relevant blockchain and Cardano are, then a conclusion and recommendations.
- The required language, the word count, the length of the summary, and the required reference format are not published.
- The team publishes the article on Cardano Forum, at https://forum.cardano.org/, between November 30 and December 13, 2026.
- Members take part in the discussion under their publication.
- The authors keep ownership of their article. By publishing it, they accept that it may be read, discussed, and cited, with their names.
- The precise channel for sending the link to the organizers is not published. The email address and the WhatsApp group already shown remain the contact channels.
Principles and ethics
Every participant commits to the following principles.
- Produce original and honest research.
- Use credible sources and cite references.
- Do not present a supposition as a verified fact.
- Respect different opinions and perspectives.
- Collaborate constructively within the team and on the forum.
- Obtain informed consent before an interview, allow anonymity on request, and do not publish sensitive personal data without agreement.
- Avoid fieldwork in a risk area, and prefer a safe place or a remote interview.
- Declare any interest in a project, a company, or an organization mentioned, including Cardano.
- Mention in one sentence any use of an artificial-intelligence tool for translation, editing, or help with writing. The analysis, the sources, and the conclusions remain the team's work. Every cited reference must have been checked.
Plagiarism, fabricated evidence, and misleading presentation of results lead to the team's disqualification.
Final workshop
- The workshop is held on Friday, December 18, 2026, in Bakanja, Goma.
- The selected teams present the problem studied, the main findings, the existing solutions and their limits, the relevance or the limits of blockchain and Cardano, then the conclusions and recommendations.
- The start time, the length of each presentation, and support for people who do not live in Goma are not published.
Rewards
- Three winning teams are named after the jury record is entered.
- Rewards in ADA are planned. The amounts, the payment method, and the deadline are not published. This site does not connect a wallet.
- Every team whose valid article is published receives Cardano promotional items. Their detail is not published.
Evaluations
Evaluations of Cardano Learning & Research for Real Use Cases in Goma, DR Congo, December 14–17, 2026. The jury has five members. Their names, the team scores, and the ranking are not published until the results are.
Jury evaluation, December 14–17, 2026. Jury names and scores are not published.
The jury evaluates the quality of the research and the capacity for critical analysis. It does not judge the ability to propose a Cardano-based solution.
No evaluation record has been published.
Criteria
Understanding of the problem
Points 25
A precise problem, the local context, and the people concerned.
Quality of the research and the evidence
Points 20
Reliable sources, fieldwork, interviews, and honesty about the limits.
Analysis of existing solutions
Points 20
A survey of current approaches and their shortcomings.
Relevance of blockchain and Cardano
Points 20
A reasoned argument, compared with alternatives.
Clarity and quality of the presentation
Points 15
Structure, writing, and references.
Total: 100 points.
In the event of a tie, the higher score for “Understanding of the problem” prevails, then the score for “Quality of the research and the evidence”. This site does not break ties.
- The jury evaluates every piece of research received on time, from November 30 to December 13, 2026.
- A jury member who has a connection with a team declares it and does not score that team.
- Up to five teams are selected for the workshop. They are announced on December 17, 2026. The time is not published.
- Three winning teams are then named. The respective weight of the article and the presentation is not published.
- The first three places are shown on the Results page after the jury record is entered, without the scores.
- Each team may request a short comment from the jury. That comment is not published here.
Participating teams
The teams registered for the competition of Cardano Learning & Research for Real Use Cases in Goma, DR Congo. No email address is shown.
A team has 3 to 5 people. Each person belongs to only one team. It has one team leader, and at most one deputy.
Participants form their team, or ask the organizers for help finding teammates. Team formation runs from November 25 to 29, 2026. The competition is held from five teams.
Each card shows the name, the members, then the topic title and the article link once they are published. The Cardano Forum username and profile link stay with the organizers.
Loading teams.
Team leader space
Only the team leader opens this space, with the team's access code. They add each member's Cardano Forum ID, the research topic, and the public article link.
Attention: keep this code. It is the only way in. If it is lost, contact the team.
Open the team leader spaceResults
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