{"id":19214,"date":"2019-10-04T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-04T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ci027dc0d950002489"},"modified":"2019-10-04T04:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-04T04:00:00","slug":"the-lightning-conference-preview-in-six-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/industry-events\/the-lightning-conference-preview-in-six-stories","title":{"rendered":"The Lightning Conference Preview In Six Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Between October 19 and October 20, 2019, The Lightning Conference<\/a> will turn the city of Berlin, Germany, into the bona fide world capital of the Lightning Network. The event is an opportunity for developers, investors and enthusiastic community members to get together and exchange their experiences with Bitcoin\u2019s second layer payment network<\/a>. For the first time since its early-2018 Bitcoin mainnet launch, representatives and fans of all four major Lightning implementations (Lightning Labs\u2019 lnd<\/a>, Blockstream\u2019s c-lightning<\/a>, ACINQ\u2019s eclair<\/a> and Nayuta\u2019s Ptarmigan<\/a>) will get together and discuss their ideas and innovations in a friendly and collaborative way.<\/p>\n

The event is a spiritual successor to the Berlin #LightningHackday series<\/a> and takes place just over a year after the September 2018 event. But unlike the \u201cbarcamp\u201d format of the previous developer-centric events, The Lightning Conference broadens its reach to also appeal to businesses and the larger community. This approach is also reflected in the choice of speakers, among whom one can also find podcasters, open-source entrepreneurs and representatives of businesses that use Lightning as a means of payment.<\/p>\n

In order to find out more about the significance of this first-of-its-kind event, Bitcoin Magazine<\/em> spoke with a Lightning executive (Lightning Labs CEO Elizabeth Stark), a researcher (PISA Research CEO Patrick McCorry), an entrepreneur (Wasabi Wallet<\/a>, World Crypto Net, Nodl and Coldcard Wallet<\/a> investor Max Hillebrand), a marketer (Bottle Pay<\/a> Co-Founder and Operations Manager Peter O\u2019Donoghue) and two developers (Satoshi\u2019s Games<\/a> Co-Founder Carlos Roldan and Bolt-A-Thon<\/a> Co-Organizer Andrew Yang).<\/p>\n

These six speakers and participants have been asked two fundamental questions:<\/p>\n

1. What is the significance of this first-of-its-kind Lightning-centric event?<\/p>\n

2. What will you be presenting (if applicable) and which panels get you most excited? <\/p>\n

Their answers varied according to their backgrounds and interests, and ultimately revealed the spirit of this first edition of The Lightning Conference.<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Stark on the Importance of Togetherness<\/h2>\n

As CEO of Lightning Labs, Elizabeth Stark has been in the spotlight of the Bitcoin scaling debate for more than three years. Prior to becoming a larger-than-life personality in the Bitcoin space, Stark taught at Stanford University and Yale University and advised young entrepreneurs. <\/p>\n

Stark emphasized the importance of meeting people in person and exchanging ideas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d seen this community emerge online over the past few years, and we decided it was finally time to get everyone together in one place,\u201d she said. In the case of this conference, this \u201cone place\u201d is Berlin: \u201cBerlin was a great choice, as there had already been lots of Lightning Hack Days there, and there\u2019s a strong local community.\u201d<\/p>\n