Technical Advisory Council Report: Year One of LF Decentralized Trust

Introduction

As we close out the first full year of the Linux Foundation Decentralized Trust (LFDT), it’s clear that our community has made meaningful strides in strengthening both our projects and our processes. Over the past twelve months, the Technical Advisory Council (TAC) has focused on refining our project lifecycle, expanding task forces to tackle critical areas like security and contributor engagement, and ensuring that our governance structures meet the needs of a growing and diverse ecosystem.

Our projects tell a story of both stability and renewal: mature codebases like Hyperledger Fabric, Hyperledger FireFly, and Besu continue to see strong enterprise adoption, while newer initiatives such as CREDEBL, Smoot, and Hiero are charting fresh paths for interoperability, digital identity, and decentralized infrastructure. At the same time, we have not shielded away from making tough calls—moving projects to labs when necessary, archiving those that no longer fall into our project lifecycle, and doubling down on transparency through annual and quarterly reviews.

This year also required significant rebranding efforts as we transitioned from Hyperledger Foundation to LF Decentralized Trust. The TAC, working with LFDT staff, oversaw the migration of governance documents, project proposal repositories, and labs into the new structure, while ensuring continuity for contributors. These behind-the-scenes efforts were essential to align our tooling and governance with LFDT’s broader mission and identity.

Highlights of the Year

• Strengthening Governance
  
  
  • Refined project lifecycle guidelines to provide clarity on when projects should transition between Labs, Incubation, and Graduation.
    
    
  • Launched task forces on ADOPTERS files, Contributor Ladders, Project Consistency, and Security Artifact Signing (Sigstore).
    
    
  • Established a new governance site, Labs site, and repository for proposals, making our processes more transparent and accessible.
    
    
• Enterprise Adoption & Real-World Impact
  
  
  • Hyperledger Fabric released v3.0 with Byzantine Fault Tolerance, a milestone years in the making.
    
    
  • Hyperledger FireFly continued to expand with adoption by SWIFT, Exxon, Mastercard, and others.
    
    
  • Hyperledger Cacti deepened its role in IETF SATP interoperability work, while maintaining strong contributor momentum.
    
    
  • CREDEBL rolled out in production use cases in Bhutan and Papua New Guinea, showing the impact of open source in national identity systems.
    
    
• New Projects & Ecosystem Expansion
  
  
  • Approved projects like Smoot (interoperability bridge), CREDEBL (digital ID), and Midnight’s Compact Smart Contract Programming Language.
    
    
  • Welcomed proposed contributions such as VelocityCore (verifiable credentials/pay-to-verify), Human-Oriented Proof System, and Decentralized Directory (DeDi) as new labs.
    
    
  • Approved the transition of Hedera Core Network Software, now Hiero, into LFDT and graduated the project.

Challenges Faced

With growth comes learning. This year, the TAC leaned into identifying areas where our projects and processes could be stronger. Rather than setbacks, these moments highlighted where we must focus our collective energy—whether it’s broadening maintainer diversity, improving project health, or addressing ecosystem fragmentation. Each challenge represents an opportunity to evolve and ensure our community remains resilient, inclusive, and impactful.

• Maintainer Diversity

A recurring theme across projects is the over reliance on a single organization, which can impact long-term sustainability and slow broader adoption. To address this, the TAC is emphasizing programs, such as the Fast Track initiative, targeted mentorship programs, and refreshed “Good First Issues,” that help cultivate new contributors and accelerate their path to maintainership. These efforts are designed to lower barriers to entry, expand contributor pipelines, and ensure projects benefit from a truly diverse and resilient maintainer base.

• Project Health Gaps

Throughout the year, status reports for some projects revealed the need for course corrections, such as moving to labs, tightening governance, or refreshing roadmaps, to strengthen their long-term viability. Examples include:

• Hyperledger Cello was moved to Labs due to weak governance and outdated security practices and lack of maintainers to work on these.
  
  
• Hyperledger Caliper remains on probation in incubation, with potential to shift to labs if improvements don’t materialize.
  
  
• Hyperledger Aries was archived, with several components transitioned to the OpenWallet Foundation.

Looking Ahead

The coming year will build on this foundation by:

• Continuing to diversify contributors and maintainers, with a new contributor’s site and contributor ladder, targeted mentorship, community calls, and refreshed “Good First Issues.”
  
  
• Expanding the role of labs as a safe space for experimentation and early-stage projects.
  
  
• Ensuring stronger security and compliance baselines across all projects (OpenSSF, Sigstore, token permissions).
  
  
• Encouraging cross-project collaboration, particularly with ToIP and OWF, and driving forward interoperability efforts like Cacti and Smoot.
  
  
• Improving end-user visibility into adoption through ADOPTERS files and case studies that highlight real-world deployments.

Closing Thoughts

The TAC’s role is to ensure that LFDT projects are not only technically sound but also governed in ways that foster openness, trust, and long-term sustainability. This year has shown that while adoption and innovation are strong, the real work ahead lies in building broader, more resilient contributor communities.

Together, we’ve laid the groundwork for the next phase of growth—one where LFDT continues to serve as the neutral home for the technologies of decentralized trust.

I am excited to see the increased interest in the work that we are doing at LF Decentralized Trust. The number of new project and lab proposals shows that the area of decentralized trust is still maturing and adapting to the needs of enterprises today and in the future. Our collective work is ensuring that, as individuals, we will have more privacy and control of our data. 

This work would not be possible without the dedication of our Technical Advisory Council. In 2025, the TAC is represented by Marcus Brandenburger, Wenjing Chu, Hendrik Ebbers, Char Howland, Tracy Kuhrt (Chair), Enrique Lacal, Peter Metz, Diane Mueller, Venkatraman Ramakrishna, Arun S M (Vice Chair), and Matthew Whitehead. Each of these leaders contributes their time, expertise, and perspective to guide LFDT projects and ensure our community continues to thrive. On behalf of the Governing Board and the broader ecosystem, I want to thank them for their thoughtful engagement and their commitment to open collaboration. 

As always, if you are interested in joining the discussions, the TAC calls are open for everyone to participate. New voices improve the governance for our projects and make the organization welcoming for contributors and maintainers.

Get Involved: Shape the Future Through Governance and Elections

As we look forward to the coming year, your voice in governance matters more than ever. Effective governance is the backbone of a thriving open-source ecosystem. It ensures transparency, equitable participation, and sustainable project growth. Governance defines who gets to do what, how, and when. As more contributors step up to lead, we all benefit from clearer roles, stronger collaboration, and more resilient decision-making. 

That’s why we’re calling on our community to get involved. Whether you're a seasoned contributor or new to the project, this is your invitation to help shape our future. Participate in the upcoming TAC elections to bring fresh perspectives, help refine our governance structures, and ensure we remain inclusive and adaptive. Together, we can strengthen LFDT’s foundation—one where diverse voices lead, and open trust becomes everyone's mission.

Note: this post was created with AI assistance in reviewing 12 months of reporting by the TAC to the Governing Board of LFDT.