TL/DR If you missed this month's Off The Ledger episode, you can catch Alex, Ioana and Tadej here on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es_K7JygIQU
When we sat down for the final Off The Ledger episode of the year, it wasn’t about ticking off milestones. It was about stepping back and asking: what did this year feel like from the inside? Joined by Alex Lakatos, Ioana Chiorean and Tadej Golobic, the conversation meandered through what moved us, what surprised us and where that momentum naturally wants to go next.
The Summit That Felt Like a Pulse Check
There are industry events, and then there are moments that feel like the work finally shows up in the world. The ILF Summit was the latter. Watching Raul pull back the curtain on the new Interledger card in front of a full room had this mix of excitement and relief you only feel when hard work lands.
Students, Energy and Unexpected Wins
2025 was a big year for student hackathons — Mexico, South Africa — about 600 students in total. It was chaotic in the best way: long nights, rapid pivots, local universities stepping in as partners, students walking into rooms with no idea what they’d build and walking out changed. One student team even won third place in the main hackathon event after a workshop led by our team. That doesn’t just feel good, it signals something deeper about what happens when you put trust and tools into the hands of curious people. At the same time, Rafiki moved into beta. Multi-tenancy, performance boosts, new Open Payments login flows.
Stacking Up Across Tech and Tools
We didn’t just ship features, we broadened the ecosystem. The Open Payments SDK is available it more programming languages, opening doors for those who haven’t traditionally lived in the TypeScript world. What’s remarkable isn’t just the output but the community contributions woven into it.
Another highlight reel moment was delivering custom cards and smart POS devices just in time for the summit, despite tight timelines and logistics that would make any engineer grimace.
Progress with Web Monetization also took a turn that feels like the entire web is about to shift the paradigm. The extension is getting closer to broader browser integration and open community calls have made that journey shared instead of siloed.
The Community That Keeps Showing Up
Through all of this, the ILF Community Slack surpassed 3,000 members. That’s not a vanity metric, it’s a network of people showing up and helping each other out, pushing the signals forward.
To wrap up, we're thankful for a wonderful 2025 and for all those who are part of our journey--hackathon participants, conference attendees, community members and the curious ones.
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Missed the 2025 Interledger Summit in Mexico? No problem, we got you 🙌🏻
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