How would mainstream media portray a typical hacker? Wearing a mask and shades to hide his true identity? Frank Braun from Berlin, today's first speaker, fits perfectly into this stereotype. He never shows his face when he speaks at conferences as a statement against face recognition software and the surveillance state.
Frank Braun
In his talk he gave practical tips for a free life with as little involvement with governments as possible. He claimed that cryptography, be it through digital anonymous money or encrypted emails, is a must for this, but not enough. How to live in the physical world is important, as humans are physical and social beings. He suggested to form cryptotribes that live in a self-organised way and become completely independent from the state.
The next talk I saw could not have been more different. While Frank Braun recommended to stay away from politics, Adam Ernest from the USA wants to make elections fraudproof. His experience with the presidential elections of 2000, when George W. Bush was named president by the supreme court, although the results of the elections looked rigged, inspired him to solve this problem. His software Follow My Vote, which is still under development, is using blockchain technology to guarantee anonymous elections that cannot be manipulated.
Picture wall at Paralelní Polis
After a short lunch break with some nice rice and curry from a food truck that only accepts Bitcoin, I went to Juraj Bednar's talk called Liberty Is a DIY project. To my surprise, his talk was almost entirely about nutrition. He recommended to eat less carbohydrates and use fat as the body's main source of energy, as it lasts longer and makes the brain work better. Since he applies this bio-hack, he has too eat less often and has no cravings for sugar anymore, which many people mistake for hunger.
Paul Rosenberg
Even more surprising to me was Paul Rosenberg's talk called How To Evolve And Hack Your Soul. Paul publishes the monthly newsletter Freeman's Perspective, has written many books on liberty and runs Cryptohippie, a company that provides Internet anonymity technology. His great talk about human development was mostly about subjects like the right approach to self-esteem and love. I would have expected to hear this from a buddhist master, not from an engineer and cryptoexpert on a hacker's congress.
Juraj Bednar and Andreas Antonopoulos
Next came Andreas Antonopoulos, one of the most well known Bitcoin experts. His talk attracted the biggest crowd so far. It filled the main hall and was streamed live into the smaller ones and to the entire world. Andreas is an ingenious speaker who can explain new technologies like Bitcoin in a way that makes your grandmother understand it - and have a good laugh.
He compared the power of permissionless innovation, e.g. on the Internet and in blockchain technology, with a tsunami: on the ocean you can hardly see it, as the big wave builds up under the surface. It only becomes big when it hits the coast.
Exponential growth is something human beings always underestimate. New technologies like the open source operation system Linux or Bitcoin tend to not be taken seriously by big corporations with their huge development departments.
Nevertheless, the innovations with the highest impact are usually developed by passionate individuals in a slow, step-by-step process. When the exponential growth curve takes off, they can become as powerful as a tsunami.
Andreas signs his book 'The Internet of Money'
In the Q&A session I asked Andreas about his opinion on Steem. Although he was irritated by the usual sales pitch of "Hey, get on Steemit and earn a few thousand dollars with your first post", he liked the combination of social networking and digital currency and sees a lot of potential in projects like Steem, Synereo or Yours.
After so much input to my brain I needed some fresh air and coffee, so I missed most of the following skype conference with Timothy May. He is one of the founders of the cypherpunk movement and the author of the Crypto-Anarchist Manifesto. I later heard that he was clueless about digital currencies such as Bitcoin, although his 1988 manifesto predicted them.
Timothy May in a skype talk
In the evening, the film Down the Deep Dark Web celebrated his world premiere. Parts of it were shot at last year's Hackers Congress. Frank Braun, the guy with the mask, and his equally disguised colleague Smuggler, are the stars of this well made documentary by Yuval Orr from Tel Aviv.
It starts out as you would expect it from a film made for public television: at the first glimpse the Dark Web seems to be a hotbed of drugs and crime. But then the film shows that there is more to the Dark Web than this stereotype: it actually is a means of self- defense against opressive regimes.
Pavol, Smuggler, Yuval, Frank and Martin
A panel discussion with Yuval Orr, the mask warriors and two organisers of the congress rounded up a day that was truly mindblowing. Congratulations to the organisers for putting together such a diverse mix of talks and speakers!
Fashion show with 3D printed clothes