Ctrl/shift powered by NapulETH is a summit designed around Convergence: Web3 (decentralization), AI (intelligence), and Quantum Computing (computation), treated as one intertwined roadmap rather than three separate communities. The 2026 edition is the deliberate next step after NapulETH 2025, which brought 1,200 attendees and 120+ speakers, confirming clear demand for high-quality institutional tech discourse in Italy.

The event runs June 13–15, 2026, in Naples, at Villa Doria d’Angri, positioned as “Southern Italy’s Gateway to the Future.” Three dedicated tracks will run across Artificial Intelligence, Web3 & Digital Assets, and Quantum Computing.

Why this format exists

Ctrl/shift explicitly invites Institutions into the same room as researchers, creators, and protocols, aiming to “trace new patterns” and turn emerging ideas into deployable infrastructure. That institutional framing matters because Web3 is now colliding with AI system design and quantum-era security assumptions, raising questions that are simultaneously technical, legal, and infrastructural.

From a semi-academic perspective, the value is in treating “frontier tech” as a Stack: compute, cryptography, identity, governance, and market structure evolve together, so conference design should do the same. The AI track moves beyond generative models into autonomous agents and intelligence integrated across the tech stack. The Web3 & Digital Assets track navigates MiCA compliance, sovereign identity, and institutional finance. The Quantum track is positioned around preparing for an “inevitable cryptographic Shift”—a multi-year engineering and governance effort that builders and decision-makers need to align on today.

Program pillars: conference + hackathon

The format combines talks and panels with a Hackathon designed for prototyping, solving real challenges, and competing for prizes, grants, and ecosystem opportunities. Hackathons make claims falsifiable: ideas must compile, integrate, and survive peer review under time constraints, creating a pathway from narrative to artifact that is closer to applied research than passive conference consumption.

Side events, including the June 16 boat networking day, are treated as part of the core product—not an afterthought. For most ecosystems, informal settings are where trust, partnerships, and follow-ups actually happen.

Confirmed institutional speakers

The 2026 lineup reflects the event’s institutional positioning directly.

Political and regulatory voices:

• On. Marcello Coppo — Italian Parliament, leader of the Intergruppo Parlamentare “Digital Assets, Blockchain e Bitcoin”
• On. Giulio Centemero — Italian Parliament, digital assets and fintech policy

Financial and academic institutions:

• Luisa Fischietti — Head of Italy ETFs, Borsa Italiana
• Francesco Pierangeli — Director, MSc in FinTech, University of Birmingham. His session will examine how differing regulatory mindsets shape innovation, adoption, and digital assets regulation across jurisdictions.
• Interlocutions ongoing with Banca d’Italia, Consob, Banca Sella, and others (work in progress)

Technology and protocol layer:

• Antonio Sanso — Ethereum Foundation. His talk, Post-Quantum Transaction Signatures for Ethereum: One Year Later, will examine the current state of quantum-resistant signature schemes for Ethereum and what the ecosystem has learned since the first proposals were introduced.
• Eugenio Reggianini — Head of Growth, European Blockchain Association; DIF Contributor; advisor on DLT across EU, APAC, and LatAm. His talk covers Privacy Pools on EBSI, exploring how Zero-Knowledge proofs and W3C Verifiable Credentials can protect user privacy while embedding AML and KYC compliance natively, fully aligned with MiCA, 6AMLD, GDPR, and Capital Markets Union objectives.
• Luca Boiardi — The Crypto Gateway Legal layer:
• Marco Tullio Giordano — Jurist and tech lawyer specializing in cybersecurity, data protection, crypto-assets, and Web3 legal advisory. Author of legal handbooks and speaker at institutional and community events.
• Giuseppe Vaciago — Lawyer at the Supreme Court, PhD in Digital Forensics, university lecturer in legal informatics and data protection, Partner at 42 Law Firm.

The institutional coordination is driven by Ionut Gaucan (Co-founder, ctrl/shift, Responsabile Tavolo RWA at the Intergruppo Parlamentare) and Gianluca Di Bella, who is developing a channel of dialogue with interlocutors at the UK Parliament on digital assets and policy.

WeMakeFuture and the AI track

A key confirmed partnership is with WeMakeFuture, one of Italy’s most important innovation and digital culture events. WeMakeFuture will be present in Naples and will take ownership of the AI programming at ctrl/shift 2026, bringing curatorial depth, speakers, and community to the AI track. This collaboration significantly strengthens the event’s positioning as a multi-vertical convergence summit, not just a Web3 conference with AI content added on.

Media coverage

Ctrl/shift 2026 will receive dedicated coverage from The Cryptoeconomist and BeInCrypto, two of the most authoritative media outlets in the Italian and European Web3 space.

June 16: boat networking day

After the conference days, June 16 is dedicated to the NapulETH VIP Boat Party in the Bay of Naples, described as the “highest-value networking of the week”: a full day where founders, investors, and researchers finalize what they started during the conference. A VIP ticket to the boat party includes full access to ctrl/shift (June 13–15), all co-organized side events, and the June 16 boarding pass.

Sponsors and ecosystem partners

The 2026 ecosystem is supported by a growing sponsor base. Confirmed publicly: NexLabs, Bridgy, NeverLocal, BChainers, BitGet, Regione Campania, and Binance Italy, which has also been publicly announced as joining ctrl/shift 2026 with a dedicated meetup on June 13.

How to join

Tickets are available in Regular (€20) and VIP (€125) tiers and are sold in price tiers—once the next tier unlocks, prices go up.

🎟 Get your ticket before the next tier: ctrl/shift 2026 · Luma

🌐 Official website: https://www.ctrlshift.events/

🎙 Apply as a speaker: https://speak.ctrlshift.events

Contacts ctrl/shift team: https://www.ctrlshift.events/team