Decentralisation was the overall motto of the Hackers Congress at Paralelní Polis in Prague, and the last day really focussed on this topic.
3D printed Stormtrooper at Paralelní Polis' Makers Lab
The day started with a presentation by Manfred Karrer from Austria about BitSquare, a decentralised exchange platform. In the past, several centralised exchanges such as Mt. Gox. Coinbase or Bitstamp were hacked and some people lost a lot of money. It is important to get rid of these "Achilles Heels" of the Bitcoin network and replace them by peer-to-peer based exchanges, where people can exchange their Bitcoins or Altcoins for conventional money without having to trust a third party. As the EU is planning to regulate exchanges, projects like BitSquare will soon be the best option to get Bitcoins without the state getting in the way.
Manfred Karrer from Bitsquare
Next was Pamela Morgan from Chicago, a lawyer specialised in Bitcoin and Blockchain technology. She recommended Bitcoin businesses to include arbitration clauses in all contracts to avoid being judged by local courts. It was suprising to hear how much can be defined through these clauses - decentralised, privatised law seems to be doable already. Courts in all countries who have signed the New York Treaty on arbitration have to follow these clauses and even have to enforce them for you. A very valuable insight!
Pamela Mogan, Third Key Solutions
I missed the next talks as I was on stage myself to present Captain Drakins' Bitcoin Show. We explained why and how we made and showed some episodes. This was probably one of the lightest and least challenging talks of the conference - mostly eye candy and a bit of making-of pics. I was only invited to speak at the conferences two days before, so it was the easiest thing for me to do without any preparation. The audience seemed to enjoy it anway.
Yours truly
The next talk I watched was about Open Bazaar, the decentralised online market place, given by Sam Patterson from the USA. Unlike Amazon or Ebay, Open Bazaar is not a website, but a piece of software that you download. It then connects to the other nodes of the Open Bazaar P2P network. The first version had some flaws, e.g. you had to be online all the time to keep your store open. Version 2.0 corrects this by using the Interplanetary File System.
Open Bazaar is a good example of how innovation works in a permissionless environment (as described by Andreas Antonopoulos in his brillant talk yesterday): Amazon probably laughed at Open Bazaar's rather clumsy first version, which is still far from mass adoption. But guess who will be the one who laughs last? I guess the one who does not charge any fees and does not collect any data about its users.
Sam Patterson, Open Bazaar
After having some delicious Czech dumplings, meat and cabbage (of course for Bitcoin - the only currency that was accepted during the whole congress) ...
... I went to the basement of Paralelní Polis where the Makers Lab is located. It looks like it is run by Gyro Gearloose, full of 3D printers and other fancy machines. I bumped into a workshop where you could learn how to print your own weapon.
A 3D printed weapon
Then Martijn Wismeijer, one of the founders of the Bitcoin Embassy in Amsterdam, gave a talk about how to make Bitcoin products more attractive for normal users. There is definitely still a long way to go to reach mass adoption, but if you see how fast Bitcoin wallets and apps have evolved in the last few years, I am optimistic that we will reach the point where the exponential growth curve turns upwards very soon.
Martijn Wismeijer
The last parallel talks were held by Bitcoin traveller Felix Weis, who travelled for one and a half years around the world using nothing but Bitcoin, and Smuggler. As I heard Felix' talk already at our BXB meetup, I decided to watch one of the most glamourous personalities of this congress again, the masked freedom fighter from Berlin, who was the first person who answered all my stupid questions about Bitcoin back in spring 2011.
Smuggler
Smuggler suggested not to compete with the state but create temporary autonomous zones of liberty and self organisation which are not seen as a threat by governments. He advocated for building up good relationships with our neighbours, so they would rather call the libertarians when they are in trouble than the police.
This friendly, helpful and empathic attitude despite the rather scary outfit is not only typical for Smuggler, but was a leitmotif of this conference.
The HCPP team
For the closing ceremony the organisation team gathered to say some last words and to announce HCPP17, which will start on October 6th next year. I deeply recommend to save this date! It's an amazing congress which I will surely visit more often.