Trust Is the New Infrastructure: A Featured Forum at KuCoin Co-Hosted WLS Examines Blockchain’s Role in a Post-Quantum, AI-Driven World

As the World Laureates Summit (WLS) entered its second day—co-hosted by KuCoin—one of the headline sessions, “Science in the Web3 Era: Foundations & Opportunities,” convened world-leading cryptographers, economists, and technologists to examine how blockchain is reshaping trust, security, and scientific collaboration at a global scale. The forum was moderated by Sabina Liu, Managing Director of KuCoin EU.

Opening the session, Sabina invited scientists and the audience to examine “how trust is created, sustained, and transformed in a digital civilization,” highlighting its  growing intersection with economics, cybersecurity, governance, and science.

Keynote remarks from Martin Hellman traced blockchain’s roots from timestamping and hash-based integrity to modern decentralized trust. Thomas J. Sargent framed consensus economically, highlighting incentive alignment, credibility, and coordination among self-interested actors.

In the closing panel, Sabina joined W. Scott Stornetta and Ashok Kumar Das to examine how decentralized systems can coexist with sovereign frameworks—and how trust infrastructure can unlock economic and scientific value. The discussion centered on key Web3 trade-offs: regulation and sovereign money, authenticity amid deepfakes, “sovereign-grade” security with privacy, and blockchain as a bridge between physical signals (IoT/sensors) and digital intelligence, including AI and DeSci.

“Blockchain started as a technical response to establish trust without centralized authority,” said Sabina. “Today, it has become a foundational infrastructure for security, economics, governance, and science. What this forum made clear is that the next phase of Web3 will be defined by resilient cryptography, credible consensus, verifiable identity, and systems that materially reduce the cost of trust for global collaboration.”

Held in the UAE ahead of the World Governments Summit, the forum reflected KuCoin’s commitment to supporting technology that strengthens foundational science and the underlying logic of financial infrastructure—advancing blockchain not just as an innovation, but as a long-term trust layer. As governments, institutions, and scientists grapple with AI, digital assets, and data integrity, KuCoin views forums like WLS as critical bridges between frontier research and real-world deployment—connecting policy, innovation, and infrastructure at a moment when trust itself has become strategic.