In 2022, SmartCon featured over 150 speakers and more than 100 presentations, gathering experts from both Web2 and Web3 sectors to discuss the next pivotal shift towards minimizing trust through cryptographic advancements. Chainlink Labs played a significant role by unveiling key research breakthroughs in areas such as cross-chain messaging, privacy-preserving oracles, fair trade ordering, and off-chain data aggregation. A major highlight was the development of the Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP), designed to create open standards for secure cross-chain communication, and its integration with Chainlink’s oracle services. Lorenz Breidenbach demonstrated CCIP's capabilities during the conference, and Chainlink Labs announced collaborations with SWIFT and Synthetix to enhance blockchain integration in financial services. Additionally, DECO, a privacy-preserving oracle technology, entered its alpha testing phase, showcasing its potential to securely connect Web2 data with Web3 applications while maintaining data privacy. The conference also introduced the Fair Sequencing Service (FSS) to mitigate the adverse effects of Maximum Extractable Value (MEV) and OCR 2.0, an extension of Chainlink's off-chain reporting protocol, aimed at providing a unified framework for various blockchain services with improved scalability and lower gas costs. Chainlink Labs continues to lead blockchain research, working on complex interdisciplinary problems and fostering trust-minimized standards for a fairer economic landscape.