From March 26–28, Sofia became the global center of cryptography and cybersecurity as it welcomed the international community for the Real World Crypto Symposium (RWC) 2025. Organized in partnership with Dr. Mariana Raykova from Google, INSAIT had the honor of hosting this prestigious event in Bulgaria for the first time.
Held at the National Palace of Culture, RWC 2025 achieved record-breaking attendance, attracting nearly 700 leading scientists, researchers, and industry experts from 47 countries. Among them were the symposium’s founders, Prof. Nigel Smart and Prof. Kenny Paterson, along with all ten members of the RWC steering committee – attending together for the first time.
The event featured groundbreaking research and innovations from top global tech companies including Google, Amazon, Meta, and Apple, as well as leading academic institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and the University of California, Berkeley.
A highlight of the symposium was the presentation of the 2025 Levchin Prize, which recognizes major contributions with significant real-world impact in cryptography. This year’s laureates were:
- Prof. Adi Shamir, also a Turing Award recipient, for his foundational contributions to symmetric and public key cryptography, cryptographic protocols, and cryptanalysis.
- Team CADO-NFS, for developing CADO-NFS, a leading open-source implementation of the Number Field Sieve algorithm, and for their continued contributions to record-setting factorization and discrete logarithm computations—problems of critical importance in cryptography.
The conference covered a wide array of critical topics, including authentication, secure messaging, post-quantum cryptography, and data privacy—addressing pressing security challenges that affect billions of users worldwide.
Hosting RWC 2025 in Sofia marks a historic milestone for Bulgaria and represents a major step forward in establishing the country as a rising global hub for technology and innovation.