What a weekend. Good weather, fantastic location, lovely people - what more could you wish for?
Some personal highlights of the Bitcoin Zitadelle 👇
2/ Of course, meeting all the amazing people behind the handles is always the best part. Making new friends, meeting old friends, meeting very close friends for the first time - nothing beats that.
3/ Using lightning as a default was awesome too. The ice cream truck was fantastic from a point-of-sale perspective. I LOVE LIGHTNING ⚡🧡
4/ "Smart und Cremig" and an amazing mustache to boot!
Fun fact: I scammed myself because I read "70.000 sats pro Kugel" -- NO RAGRETS
5/ Meeting the crew was so good. I wish I could show you all these beautiful people, but there was a 'no photos' policy when it comes to faces. Not everyone is a nym, of course, but it pleases me that plenty of plebs are.
6/ Everyone contributed in their own way. Shout-out to all the helpers, organizers, barkeepers, chefs, DJs, and everyone else. You all did an amazing job 🧡
7/ The diversity of backgrounds and ages was astounding. Some came with their families, others skipped school to attend, many drove for 10 hours or more. All had laser focus and "backflip off the wall" energy.
8/ Permissionless merch, art, self-produced honey and soap; it is amazing what kind of people you meet at these events. Artists, entrepreneurs, musicians, and of course builders and coders and hackers and all the rest of it.
9/ Speaking of builders: "lightning beer" was the best thing ever. You send some sats, and as soon as the invoice hits, the beer starts flowing. Our weatherman managed to spend over 1 EUR. (One beer was 21 sats.)
10/ The art exhibition in the catacombs of the castle was great too. The artist put a lot of thought into his works, using coins dissolved in acid as paint.
The TIMECHAIN was my favorite, of course.
11/ After midnight, the catacombs were transformed into a dancefloor. I'm not sure who took these pictures. I'm quite confident that it wasn't me.
12/ What #Bitcoin is and how we understand it is changing all the time. This participatory art installation was evidence of that fact. The current consensus is quite clear: Bitcoin is penis.
13/ I want to leave you with a line from this beautiful poem that @Shqiptar_Bulls recited to me.
"Ich dagegen bin mit den Plebs unterwegs,
denn wir lassen es nicht zu, dass die Welt untergeht!"
FIN/
I will take the liberty to loosely translate this to English:
"Hanging out with plebs, peer-to-peer, friend-to-friend,
BECAUSE WE WON'T ALLOW FOR THIS WORLD HERE TO END!"
“This is our meme world, everyone else is just living in it.”
With this quote by @bitstein I began my talk about “memes” and “the world” at the @BTCZitadelle this weekend. 👇
My talk wasn’t about memes, since I wouldn’t be able to top Bitstein’s talk anyway.
It was about the difference between memes and the world.
Memes are thoughts, ideas, information.
“[A meme is] a unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another.”
2/ In light of recent comments by legislators and politicians, we must not forget what Bitcoin does and how it does what it does. Bitcoin is text. Bitcoin is speech. Bitcoin is math. Bitcoin has no jurisdiction, just like 2+2=4 has no jurisdiction.
3/ A private key is a large number. You can create a private key by flipping a coin or rolling some dice.
There is a reason why Satoshi chose to stay pseudonymous. He knew what he was getting into. He knew he had to disappear if his project would be moderately successful. It is impossible to disappear if everyone has your real identity.
#Bitcoin was designed with pseudonymity in mind. You don't need a government ID to use it. You don't need a face. You don't need a name. All you need is the ability to produce a valid signature. This is a feature, not a bug.