This was clearly not your standard tech industry event. This was not CES. This was not Consensus. Actually I haven’t felt such a level of excitement for a conf since 2007, when Microsoft was throwing those huge developer conferences in Orlando.
Takeaway:
PoS Lightning payments work REALLY well at scale when using dedicated terminals (Bitcoinize devices backed up with BTCPay Server).
The event was about education and this schoolbook is a good start: Financial Literacy for kids.
Mining can be used to optimise production of fresh water (desalination).
The business case for mining in rural Africa articulated by Erik from Gridless.
The choice of space heaters is widening: 21Energy does one that can compete with Heatbit (and definitely with Dyson). RY3T does larger devices for family homes.
Played with Fedi and Aqua wallets during workshops (they are federation-based phone apps supporting Lightning).
Attended a crash course in energy grids by @dazbea.
Watched a preview of No More Inflation, the documentary by Shooter. Be patient and you will eventually watch it on Netflix.
Promising preview of a time chain visualisation movie among the cool trailers of Film Fest Mini.
Splashed out on merch: a Bolt ring, books for friends and too many T-shirts.
Day 1 started at 7am with a 5K run along the seaside, one of many satellite events happening around the three main conference days. There was also a catamaran trip, a 4-hour hike, a mountain trail run, football/golf competitions, an intro to self-defence training, a giant 500-people dinner, a 4-hour film festival, a knowledge exam and more.
The venue was truly original: a football stadium instead of an exhibition hall. Booths were laid out in the indoor space under the stands as well as on the terraces around the stadium, giving a view to the city.
The conference itself was split in five parallel tracks, one of them entirely for kids (with talks and games). Two more tracks were dedicated to presentations and workshops in separate training rooms.
But the main crowd-pleaser sessions were outdoors on the main stage in the stadium, including the one by Michael Saylor.
Most people knew each other and I could spot many familiar faces, not always sure if I saw them in previous meetups or podcasts.
Of course the cheerful atmosphere was buoyed by the price increase of the past 14 months. However there was not much discussion about price, TA nor trading. Instead, the main theme was education: teaching foreigners and locals at any level of prior knowledge, from beginners to toxic node runners. You could tell right from the first morning keynote sessions that it wasn’t about flashy breaking news or product announcements. For instance, Jack Mallers articulated an essential concept around how proof-of-work adds a needed time constraint to the digital world. Ben Perrin gave an overview of the latest tools to make payments or buy p2p. James Lavish summarised the essential defects of the existing monetary system.
The most interesting main stage sessions were on Day 2: one full morning about energy and a full afternoon around human rights.
One thing that surprised everyone was how easy it was to pay around the venue. There was a number of booths selling merch, food, coffee and books. All points of sale were equipped with the same orange Bitcoinize terminals. They looked like regular credit card PoS readers except they were used to generate Lightning invoices. Customers would scan the invoice from their Lightning wallets on their phones or tap with their NFC Bolt card or their Bolt ring. I made quite a few payments and it was very very smooth. My experience with a couple of merchants outside the conference was also very good (they were using apps installed on tablets).
Another surprising thing was how family-friendly the event was. You don’t see kids running around at a Microsoft developer conference. People brought their children and let them play in the kids area that had a bunch of Lightning games and sessions just for them. Given the noise level, they were having fun. Interestingly, there was also a company advertising options for unschooling: taking children out of the standard school system, which confirmed a trend I noticed while speaking to a number of people I met during trips.
For me the highlight of the event was the very insightful series of sessions about energy. If you have time to kill during your commute, why not watch the replays:
Daniel Batten - Bitcoin solving the methane problem
The Multi-Tool for Energy Systems with Erik Hersman from Gridless (mini-grids in rural Africa)
What Does Bitcoin Mining Do Besides Mining Bitcoin? with Willem von Royen from FlowSolve (fresh water generation).
The future of Bitcoin mining in the EU with Susie Violet from Bitcoin Policy UK.
All content on this blog is for education purposes only and should not be taken as professional financial advice or recommendation to buy or sell any asset. No guarantee is given regarding the accuracy of information on this blog.
Also I am not endorsing any company or product mentioned in this article and I am not paid by any company behind any of the products or websites mentioned.
The value of bitcoin is variable, can go up or down, cannot be guaranteed and can be highly volatile. Do your own research before making any investment decision. Past performance is not an indicator of future performance.
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