CRITICAL 
DECENTRALIZATION
CRITICAL 
DECENTRALIZATION
CRITICAL 
DECENTRALIZATION

The Critical Decentralisation Cluster (CDC) is returning to the 39th Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg (Germany) during Dec 27-30 2025. We bring together assemblies and projects that challenge centralized infrastructures with decentralised, privacy-preserving and open hardware approaches. Expect talks, workshops and lots of hallway conversations around cypherpunk futures.

Planning for 39C3 is well underway. Follow the links below to stay in the loop, propose sessions and coordinate with the cluster.

assemblies

  • RIAT - independent research institute in Vienna
  • Monero Community
  • Namecoin - decentralized tamper-resistant naming system + PKI
  • Swiss Cryptoeconomics
  • I2P - fully encrypted peer-to-peer overlay network
  • Cyberraum - hackers’ group from Hamburg
  • Radicle - peer-to-peer code collaboration stack built on Git
  • Social Dist0rtion Protocol - ad-hoc riddles and games
  • GNU Boot - de-shittification for your BIOS and UEFI
  • Department of Decentralisation - collective from Berlin
  • Firo - independent blockchain privacy and decentralization tech research
  • Iroh - library and protocol stacks to build next-gen P2P networks
  • FOSSASIA - open-source community in Asia
  • Off-Grid Messaging - independent networks over LoRa and packet-radio
  • Sibermerdeka - hackerspace in Kuala Lumpur
  • Replicant - fully free Android distribution
  • Auditable silicon group TROPIC01 - open-source IC designers
  • Reticulum - resilient cryptography-based networking stack
  • Infinite Build - a peer-support group for builders
  • Crypto Commons - P2P technologies for the stewardship of common goods
  • BORDEL - hackerspace in Prague
  • Gosling - P2P over Tor onion services
  • Cat Pictures Data Distribution Hub - challenges with cute kitty pictures as rewards

We welcome other assemblies in the categories Privacy & Anonymity, Enshittification, Cryptography, Open and Verifiable Hardware and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks and tools.

sessions

The CDC has 2 workshop areas with public schedule. One of them equipped with a mini-stage and recording equipment for short talks.
We invite our assemblies and any other project fitting the cluster themes’ to join in and share their knowledge.

Submissions are open at pretalx.riat.at
Deadline: December 7 2025 23:59 CET

location

The CDC usually takes shape as an area in Hall H with:

  • tables and seats for ca. 120 people
  • 2 info tables and meeting spots
  • 2 workshop areas

contributing

Volunteer work is essential to keep the cluster going.
Checkout our Org Mode todo list for an up-to-date view on what needs to be done.

contacts