{"id":20592,"date":"2019-01-30T21:30:04","date_gmt":"2019-01-30T21:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ci027cfe70000b2697"},"modified":"2019-01-30T21:30:04","modified_gmt":"2019-01-30T21:30:04","slug":"bitcoin-2019-peer-peer-conference-whole-bitcoin-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/industry-events\/bitcoin-2019-peer-peer-conference-whole-bitcoin-community","title":{"rendered":"Bitcoin 2019: A Peer-to-Peer Conference for the Whole Bitcoin Community"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The first major Bitcoin conference, Bitcoin 2013, was held in San Jose, California. Organized by the Bitcoin Foundation, it was centered on Bitcoin specifically and the more pragmatic issues that Bitcoin was trying to solve, particularly in the areas of Bitcoin technology, Bitcoin mining<\/a>, Bitcoin business and regulatory issues.<\/p>\n

Writing for Bitcoin Magazine<\/em> at the time, Vitalik Buterin commented<\/a>, \u201cFor long-time Bitcoin users, events like this are particularly emotional; here, for the first time, we are able to see fellow Bitcoin users, whom we have loved, worked with and had heated arguments with over forums or Skype\/IRC chat for many months or years as something more than just a username. Entire companies, existing only \u2018on the cloud\u2019 before this day, are finally reunited.\u201d<\/p>\n

This summer, billed as \u201cA Peer-to-Peer Conference,\u201d Bitcoin 2019<\/a> will be held at SVN West in San Francisco, California, hosted by BTC Inc, from June 25\u201326, 2019. In a blog post<\/a> announcing the event, BTC Inc CEO David Bailey noted that Bitcoin 2019 was so named to harken back to that earlier conference \u201cwhen the Bitcoin community was unified and nerds filled the hotel lobby until the early morning while dreaming of what Bitcoin could become.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bitcoin community has grown considerably since 2013, and it has experienced its share of growing pains along the way. People who are passionate about the technology have had differing viewpoints about its direction. As a result, even as Bitcoin has matured and the blockchain ecosystem has evolved, the community itself has become somewhat fractured.<\/p>\n

Bailey sees Bitcoin 2019 as an opportunity to help rekindle the \u201csense of shared wonder and spontaneous commitment to realizing Bitcoin\u2019s potential,\u201d as it was back in 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be able to provide a platform that brings together leaders in the Bitcoin community, along with creators, developers, newbies and enthusiasts, in order to allow for new ideas to freely flow among the people who care most about building the Bitcoin of the future,\u201d Bailey told Bitcoin Magazine<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to help drive the conversation beyond simply scaling Bitcoin. We want to showcase what\u2019s possible to build with Bitcoin, without breaking BTC\u2019s consensus rules, which are rigid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attracting and Supporting New Growth in Bitcoin<\/h3>\n

Bailey\u2019s hope is that this event will bring together people from across Bitcoin\u2019s ideological and political spectrum. He is quick to point out that this is not a \u201cBitcoin Maximalist\u201d or an \u201canti-any-other-crypto-or-fork\u201d event; however, it is unmistakably a Bitcoin\/BTC conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working hard to help curate the content of the conference so that people who aim to be unifying with fresh ideas and cool projects built on Bitcoin are able to have their voices heard,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re not here to argue how big a block needs to be or what Satoshi\u2019s original vision was \u2014 that debate has already happened. BTC is BTC. Everything else is not BTC, and this is an event for BTC.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cWe are coming at this from the perspective that this is a Bitcoin BTC event, but it\u2019s not \u2018anti-other-crypto.\u2019 Regardless of what other projects people have worked on or supported, we want people to not feel excluded from Bitcoin. Just check everything else at the door and come build Bitcoin with us \u2026 at least for a couple of days at the conference.\u201d<\/p>\n

To that end, Bitcoin 2019 has reached out to a wide array of industry leaders and developers to participate in the event. Among the preliminary list of speakers<\/a> are Bill Barhydt, Matt Corallo, Diego Gutierrez, Dan Held, Jimmy Song, Erik Voorhees, Jihan Wu and Bitcoin Magazine<\/em>\u2019s own Aaron van Wirdum. More speakers will be announced in the near future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a pay-to-play event,\u201d Bailey emphasizes. \u201cThe easy part is finding the showcase-worthy projects. We actively seek out and learn about the cool things that are going on. We talk to people all over the world constantly about their new projects they\u2019re working on. The hard part will be deciding which ones we will be able to carve out time for at the conference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anyone interested in participating in Bitcoin 2019 as a speaker, panelist or presenter is encouraged to contact the organizers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In order to make the conference accessible to the greatest number of people possible, tickets will initially be priced at $100. There is also a virtual hackathon \u201cfor ideas built atop and around Bitcoin and the Lightning Network\u201d associated with the event in the works.<\/p>\n

Bitcoin 2019 is powered by Bitcoin Magazine and produced by BTC Inc.<\/em><\/p>\n