Welcome to Bitcoin 2020!

Bitcoin Magazine is the proud host of the Bitcoin 2020 conference being held in San Francisco on March 27th and 28th, 2020.

Welcome to Bitcoin 2020, a one-of-a-kind festival celebrating the dawn of a new technological paradigm and the counterculture behind it.

Bitcoin is about more than just money; it is a movement rooted in the controversial idea of freedom. Its first adopters were champions of liberty, privacy, sound money and cryptography, and it’s these very principles that have united a diverse and global community of cypherpunks, entrepreneurs, YouTube streamers, billionaires, mommy bloggers, athletes, pirates, mathematicians, makers, skateboarders and so many more… This group of misfits, rebels and pioneers represents a community spread across all ages, continents and identities.

I’ve described our vision for Bitcoin 2020 before: an annual gathering place for Bitcoiners to network, discover and inspire each other. We’ve replaced stuffy hotel lobbies with half pipes and beer gardens — this event is for the community, not Wall Street. When we meet in San Francisco, it will be to celebrate the technology that has given us so much hope for the future.

We at BTC Media and Bitcoin Magazine are honored to play our part in this grand experiment, and we take the responsibility of hosting this annual pilgrimage seriously (but not too seriously, clearly). We ask our attendees, speakers and sponsors to respect the ethos of the event, to maintain decorum (when applicable) and to treat each other kindly.

Our goal is to deliver the best Bitcoin-focused content in the most Bitcoin-friendly fashion — there are plenty of platforms for other topics. Each of our speakers has agreed to focus on non-forked, Nakamoto Consensus Bitcoin (BTC).

We know that you may have some questions about Bitcoin 2020, so we’ve preemptively answered a few of them below.

First and Foremost… Coronavirus

We are closely monitoring the situation as it evolves, and we are following all CDC guidance to make sure that we employ best practices. With that said, we are full-steam ahead to host Bitcoin 2020 on March 27 and 28 and are still on pace to sell out the event.

Here is a sample list of preventive measures that we will be taking to ensure the health and safety of attendees, in no particular order:

• There will be hand sanitizer (proven to kill coronavirus) stations throughout the venue and we are working on providing sanitization swag as well
• We have hired a professional commercial cleaning company to clean throughout the venue and wipe down common areas such as railings, stations, tables, etc.
• We will have medical staff on site (which would have always been the case)
• Our Chinese partners will be participating remotely (we have some creative ideas in the works here) unless they have international staff who can attend

Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal published a comprehensive article with thoughtful tips to keep in mind when traveling. It references the CDC three-level warning system.

It is in my nature to make a few jokes and lighten up any situation, but we are taking this very seriously and will provide updates should things change significantly. On to the fun stuff…

How Is Bitcoin 2020 Different Than Bitcoin 2019?

Bitcoin 2019 was the beta version of our biggest-ever Bitcoin conference. Bitcoin 2020 is 1.0.

Last year, we wanted to see whether this idea would even work. This year, we’re putting out a product that will blow you away. Bitcoin 2020 is on pace to sell out, with over 3,000 attendees.

Last year, we found that people had an appetite for more of a festival-style event, so this year we’re adding a block party, an SF Bitcoin week chock-full of activities and events, Whale Night (with a little poker fun), an official afterparty and a rooftop halfpipe that the one and only Tony Hawk will be demoing on with his friends. This year, we will be utilizing the entire venue, not just parts of it.

We also wanted to build on some of the successes of last year, so we’ve revamped the art gallery and given it some dedicated space, maxed out the swag store so that you can leave B20 as the ultimate Bitcoiner and expanded the Lightning Arcade so that you can play games and compete with friends (and maybe win some sats). We’ve even found some ways to gift you free sats so that your bitcoin wallets can leave the conference a little fatter than when they entered.

If you’re a creative type, we’ve pushed out some challenges you should think about taking on as well: Design your Bitcoin citadel, create a Bitcoin campaign ad, build a Bitcoin application or memeify a Bitcoin t-shirt. We want to unlock those golden ideas that are sitting in the heads of Bitcoin enthusiasts, and we’ve got some amazing prizes to help sweeten the deal (in case winning, itself, isn’t sweet enough).

Does Bitcoin (BTC) Need Its Own Dedicated Conference?

That’s a stupid question. Bitcoin is the single most interesting thing happening in the world today — of course it needs a conference! With so many brilliant people from all around the world working to turn their visions into realities, it’s important to find a time and place to come together and celebrate our progress. We created Bitcoin 2020 to serve as a platform for the community; a place where Bitcoiners can meet and exchange ideas with people not found on Twitter, make new friends, pitch investors, land jobs and spark ideas — there’s nothing else like it.

Finally, the rest of the world needs to know what Bitcoin is really about, as told by Bitcoiners (not “experts”). Bitcoin 2020 is a beachhead to broadcast our ideas and values to the wider world. There will be major announcements, cultural icons, cutting-edge activations and provocative ideas that are impossible to ignore.

Sounds Cool! Can I Shill My Favorite Shitcoin There?!

Hard no. Bitcoin 2020 is about the ideas, products, technology, culture and people behind Bitcoin, and only Bitcoin. This is not the place to talk about how scalable your next-gen perpetual motion protocol is compared to Bitcoin, how “smart” your permissioned database is or how Bitcoin is merely blockchain 1.0. The entire point of this conference is to showcase what can be built on Bitcoin and how vast its potential is.

Smart contracts are cool. DeFi is compelling. Stablecoins … meh. Pepe Cash and CryptoKitties are hilarious. Proof of existence is neat. Sidechains, CoinJoin, Layer 2, Layer 3, Layer 99, the list goes on. There are so many cool concepts that can be built on Bitcoin, and all are on topic as long as they’re being built on the Bitcoin (BTC) protocol and do not require a hard fork to become reality.

Love Ethereum? No Problem! Save it for Devcon. @Vitalik @FluffyPony @CharlesHoskinson @DanLarimer and @RogerVer are all invited and welcome to Bitcoin 2020, but they should come prepared to discuss BTC, and only BTC.

Can I Shill My Coin If I Sponsor With Lots and Lots of Money?

Sadly, no. As much as we’d love to turn your near-worthless coin into sweet, sweet sats, this event is only for projects with a product or service that utilizes Bitcoin or makes Bitcoin more useful. We’re not here to judge your token side hustle — we’re capitalists, after all… but we only care about what you’re doing for/with Bitcoin — anything else is off topic. Jealous and sobbing because we turned away your sponsorship inquiry this year? The fix is easy: Use that ICO money to do something great for Bitcoin, then tell us about that next year.

But Bitcoin Satoshi’s Vision Cash Classic Is the Real Bitcoin!

This conference is about non-forked, Nakamoto Consensus Bitcoin (BTC). We can appreciate differences of opinion about Bitcoin forks, but there is only one Bitcoin. That’s what we’re here to discuss. BIPs that require hard forks are considered off topic. Bitcoin is BTC. Love it or hate it, but no point in debating it. /shrug

I Can’t Wait to Confront [Enter Name Here] About How Big of a Scam [Enter Company Here] Is and Force Them to Apologize to Twitter for [Enter BIP Here].

This is not Stalinist Russia. There will be no forced apologies, public lashings or reparations. While at Bitcoin 2020, if only for a moment, let the past be in the past; your savage attacks will pack just as much zing on Crypto Twitter after the fact. Very few people attending the conference will agree on 100 percent of things. After all, unified thought doesn’t make for a great marketplace of ideas. There are a handful of speakers and sponsors who I’m sure will be controversial — but all of them have committed to following our ethos, and we’re convinced they have something valuable to contribute to the conversation.

Maybe it will be while you’re listening to a thought-provoking panel, maybe while you’re battling it out in the Lightning Arcade, or maybe while you’re kicking it in the beer garden with some of your new Bitcoin friends, but at some point, if we do our job right and you come to the event ready to work collaboratively instead of hauling old baggage, you might just catch a fleeting glimpse of the magical world to come.

See you in San Francisco!

David Bailey

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