Hello all,
Nextrium is conducting research commissioned by the Cardano Product Committee at IntersectMBO on Layer 2 adoption and interoperability demand in African emerging markets, project CPC-26-0015. Milestone 1 is complete, and interviews are underway.
Posting for two reasons: to explain how the research is built, and to ask for help reaching people.
How the evidence works
Between thirty and forty-four interviews across four groups: African builders and operators on Cardano; infrastructure, tooling and identity teams; bridge, interoperability and wallet providers; and builders who evaluated Cardano and selected something else. The fourth group is required rather than optional.
Every claim carries a confidence level proportionate to its source count. Nothing sits above medium confidence on a single source. Before any blocker is recorded as a Layer 2 blocker, seven alternative explanations have to be tested and eliminated first: liquidity, wallet support, provider access, tooling, commercial uncertainty, compliance and partner access. That test exists because assuming a Layer 2 answer to a non-Layer 2 problem is the most likely way this research goes wrong.
On our position
Nextrium builds on Cardano. That is a conflict, not a credential. Evidence from our own validation work is labelled and separated from independent evidence throughout, and two of our validations went to an external reviewer who rebuilt one from scratch and produced on-chain artefacts on preprod that anyone can verify independently.
Four status claims in our own desk research turned out to be wrong and are disclosed in the method section rather than quietly fixed. One central claim was withdrawn entirely after testing.
Where we need help
Two groups, and the second is where our access is thinnest.
Infrastructure, tooling, identity and application protocol teams building on Cardano. API services, indexers, oracles, identity stacks, Layer 2s, agent infrastructure. You see builder demand at a scale no individual builder does.
Bridge, interoperability and wallet providers. If you have integrated with Cardano, or considered it and did not proceed, your account of what that required is direct evidence for questions the Committee has to answer.
Interviews run forty-five to sixty minutes. You choose before we start whether your input is attributed by name, attributed by category only, or kept fully confidential, and you can change that afterwards. Nothing is recorded without separate explicit consent. Commercially sensitive material can be treated confidentially.
One specific request
We are compiling an inventory of Cardano Layer 2 and scaling initiatives and are seeking current status information on Gummiworm, Eryx, Hydrozoa and Mamba. If you know where any of these stand, or if you know of initiatives that should be on such a list, please say so here.
On publication
All research produced under this grant is licensed to Intersect and the Cardano ecosystem under CC BY 4.0. A public summary follows Committee review at project end. Findings that do not support further Cardano infrastructure investment will be reported as found.
We are not publishing conclusions ahead of that review, so this post is about method and access rather than results.
Happy to answer questions here. To take part, reply or reach us at research@nextrium.org
Abdulbasit Adigun Abdulrahman
NexTrium Global Innovations Ltd