As we close out another remarkable year for Hedera, I find myself reflecting not only on the progress of the network, but on the people behind it—builders, council members, ecosystem teams, entrepreneurs, educators, and community members who show up every day with conviction and creativity.
Hedera has never been just a technology story. It’s a trust story. It’s a story about what it means to build an internet-grade public ledger that can support real economies, real communities, and real human needs, without compromising on fairness, security, or sustainability.
2025: A Year of Steady, Meaningful Momentum
This year has been defined less by hype and more by substance. Across the ecosystem, we’ve seen continued maturation in three areas that matter deeply to me:
Real-world utility taking center stage.
The conversation around distributed ledgers is shifting from “what might be possible someday” to “what is working now.” We’ve watched tokenization, enterprise adoption, and practical decentralized services gain traction, driven by teams who are focused on outcomes over optics.
Governance evolving with purpose.
Hedera’s Governing Council model remains one of the most important differentiators in this industry. This year brought additional governance decisions and continued council expansion, which are signals of a network that is serious about resilience, decentralization, and long-term stewardship.
Community scale and sophistication growing.
What inspires me most is not only the growth of the community, but the growth of its discernment. Hedera’s community asks hard questions, pushes for clarity, challenges assumptions, and celebrates progress when it’s real. That is exactly what a healthy decentralized ecosystem should look like.
My Time on the Board, and a Look Toward 2026
I joined the Hedera Board as an Independent Director with a simple mission: to help articulate Hedera’s enterprise value and support the network’s evolution toward a truly human-centered trust layer for the internet.
Serving in this role has been one of the most meaningful chapters of my professional life. I’ve had the privilege of working with extraordinary council peers, leadership teams, and ecosystem builders who take the responsibility of public infrastructure seriously.
I want to share an update in advance: I’ll be stepping off Hedera’s Board in 2026, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to have served.
Transitions are a natural part of strong governance. They bring fresh perspectives and renewed energy, and they ensure stewardship remains larger than any one person. I appreciate the trust you’ve placed in me, and I’ll continue supporting Hedera’s mission and community well beyond any formal role.
I will continue to champion the values that drew me to Hedera in the first place: dignity in digital systems, privacy by design, and infrastructure that serves the many, not the few.
What I Believe Hedera Is Really Building
At its best, Hedera is not “just another network.” Hedera is quietly building the rails for a future where:
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Identity can be proven without being surrendered
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Data can move without being exploited
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Value can be exchanged without gatekeepers
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Trust can be established at scale, without centralized control
Those are not abstract ideals. They are the requirements for a digital society that doesn’t collapse under the weight of surveillance, fraud, exclusion, and misinformation.
The future of public ledgers is not about replacing institutions. It’s about making institutions more honest, more interoperable, and more accountable to people.
An Inspirational Message for 2026
As you step into 2026, I hope you carry two things with you:
First: Stay human-first.
Every line of code, every governance proposal, every product launch—ask yourself who it empowers, who it protects, and who it might accidentally leave behind. Scale without humanity is just another form of extraction.
Second: Build for the long arc.
Decentralized infrastructure doesn’t win in a single cycle. It wins by outlasting short-term noise, by earning trust through reliability, and by being useful in ways that matter to ordinary lives.
If 2025 was about maturation, then 2026 can be about meaningful acceleration: acceleration of utility, interoperability, inclusion, and responsible innovation.
My hope is that Hedera continues to be the place where ambitious technology meets grounded ethics, where decentralization is not theater, but a real commitment to the public good.
Thank you for letting me serve. Thank you for building with courage. And thank you for believing that trust at scale can still be aligned with human dignity. I can’t wait to see what you create next.
With gratitude and conviction,
Monique Jeanne Morrow
Independent Director, Hedera Board (through 2025)
