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Inside LABITCONF, one of the oldest Bitcoin conferences in the world, from the POV of a new speaker who’s disgusted by shitcoinery.
The first thing I noticed about LABITCONF’s thirteenth edition was the lack of billboards around Buenos Aires. In previous years, there was advertising all over town weeks before the event. Not this time. I wondered if LABITCONF was downgrading, reducing its size. Nothing could’ve been further from the truth.
This time, the conference accepted the Bitcoin fiction talk I proposed to Accelerating Bitcoin. I was going to be at the Creators Area, which is one of LABITCONF’s smallest stages. I was in, however, and preparing to talk about the coolest topic in Bitcoin.
Even though my headquarters are in Buenos Aires, I’ve only attended one previous LABITCONF edition. The shitcoin presence was too much for me. You see, LABITCONF is an old institution. The people behind the conference came up at a time when Ethereum was seen as a real alternative to Bitcoin and not the portal from which all scams come.
I assume they think other blockchains have valid use cases, and they’re entitled to their opinion, but that kept me away from the conference for years. This time, though, LABITCONF gave me the chance to bring an extremely important message to the Bitcoin community. I’m extremely grateful for that.
So, off to LABITCONF I went.
This edition of the conference was much bigger than the last time I went. There were seven very active stages blasting information non-stop, something interesting was happening at all times. And, even though there were shitcoin-related topics on every stage, the Bitcoin-only material was so prevalent that you were guaranteed to always miss something useful.
On my previous visit to LABITCONF, I saw Jimmy Song and Samson Mow battling it out with Vitalik Buterin on stage. It was electric. And that debate closed the first day, a lot of names were still to come. This time, on the other hand, the organizers didn’t even announce the speakers beforehand. There were no giant bitcoiners attached to the conference.
The message and the community were the protagonists. The focus was on Bitcoin personalities from the Spanish-speaking world. The strategy was to empower the organizers of the seven stages and let the many perspectives battle it out for attention and audience.
It worked surprisingly well.
LABITCOINF allocated time and a spotlight to citadels, experimental jurisdictions, and new forms of government. It was fascinating. Even when Liberland confessed to having a controversial and questionable character as a Prime Minister, I couldn’t look away.
Among the talks LABITCONF hosted were “Citadels and special jurisdictions based on Bitcoin” and “Liberland – A sovereign playground for Bitcoin and freedom.”
The president of Liberland explained how to rule a country under meritocracy, Próspera representatives presented the Infinita City project, and the creator of Argentina’s own Aleph Citadel described the current state of the Bitcoin-only project.
I felt a disturbance in the force when I realized I wasn’t invited to the inaugural party. You see, there were two tiers of speakers, and I fell on the wrong side of the divide. At the conference, only famous Bitcoin influencers and people who paid for the privilege were allowed in the VIP area, where the action happens and the deals close.
I understood the move from a business standpoint. There were too many speakers. For access to the VIP area to be valuable, the organizers had to create artificial scarcity.
However, famous Bitcoin influencers already have a huge ego problem. Is it wise to contribute to their delusions of grandeur? Have a heart and think about their mental health.
Also, will up-and-coming speakers remember as an insult the awkward moment they tried to enter the VIP zone and were denied? How will they take that memory when they develop a huge ego problem of their own? Only time will tell.
On the one hand, this was the coolest stage. The energy was palpable and the creators were the best dressed of the conference by far. On the other hand, the presence of shitcoin projects was too prevalent. Every other talk was about other blockchains and the so-called Web3.
It’s understandable, artists need to eat, and the state of the economy puts them in a desperate position, but still… How can creators not see that all other blockchains are slowly dying and Ordinals are a scam of epic proportions? Isn’t it obvious?
One of the authors of the “Bitcoin Circular Economies” book, Gabriel Kurman, spearheaded several discussions related to the topic. Representatives from Bitcoin Beach, Bitcoin Ekasi, and Motiv from Peru, among others, told their story and shared insights on how to create and sustain circular economies based around Bitcoin.
Among the talks LABITCONF hosted were “Strategies for raising funds for Bitcoin Projects and Circular Economies”, “Africa: Insights of onboarding shops into Bitcoin,” and “Circular Economies in Latin America.”
There were phenomenal technical talks, even though some of the material flew over my head. A protocol for asynchronous payments on Lightning, a daemon that simplifies running a Lightning node, the ultimate submarine swaps. The projects I saw left me with an optimistic taste in the mouth, the future looks bright for Bitcoin and Lightning.
LABITCONF’s Tech Stage also hosted several talks about Ethereum projects, though. To each its own, I guess, but come on…
As stated, LABITCOINF is one of the world’s oldest Bitcoin conferences. The experience they’ve accumulated is evident in the production. Every stage worked flawlessly, people flowed around without interruption, and all the booths in the expo area seemed to have a privileged position. Most of them were for shitcoin-related projects, but what are you going to do? Someone has to pick up the bill.
On the backend, everything was automated, speakers could upload their presentations without a problem, and the QR tickets arrived on time.
No complaints. World-class production.
I got to open day two of the Creators Area. It was too early, and I’m not going to lie, the time for Bitcoin fiction might be far away in the future. It’s fair to say the interest was limited, but hey… I got to practice my presentation in front of a few people, and a Hi-Def video of it will hit YouTube at some point or another.
If I can say so myself, I predict it will become the “Andreas Antonopoulos talks to a half empty classroom about Bitcoin” for future generations. In that order of ideas, I gave myself the award for best slides in all of LABITCONF. Just look at this beauty:
The protocol to end all protocols, most Bitcoiners’ favorite social media clone, Nostr was very much present at the conference. From introductory talks, to - Mostro - the P2P platform to exchange BTC without KYC, to new and improved Nostr direct messages, the protocol was the talk of the town.
Among the talks LABITCONF hosted on this subject were “NWC: Lightning subscriptions, subaccounts & app connections with Nostr Wallet Connect,” “Mostro: Permissionless and uncensored Bitcoin P2P,” and “What The F*ck Is Nostr?”
One of LABITCONF’s staples is the Premio B·Arte, an initiative of the Bitcoin Argentina NGO. To their credit, this time they distanced themselves from NFTs and called for projects for a Satoshi Nakamoto statue to be installed at “Parque de la Innovación” in Buenos Aires.
Almost 300 artists submitted projects, and the winner was “Somos Génesis” by Ricardo and Celeste. This is the miniature version:
I didn’t even see one talk at the Main Stage, the little ones were much more interesting to me. It was huge and comfortable, though. Besides that one and the previously mentioned, there was an Academy stage, which was more didactic; the Bitcoineta stage, which was Bitcoin-for-beginners focused; and the 21.lat stage, whose focus was to connect Bitcoin-only communities in Latin America. They gave me this beautiful and tasty cookie, so kudos to them:
So, considering it all, LABITCONF was Bitcoiner-y enough.
Soon, LABITCONF will land in Mexico for a special edition. The organization is stretching even further, the conference is ever-growing, and they just proved they don’t need big names to sell out. It seems like nothing can stop them.
However, shitcoins are still paying for the party. Spiritually, that can’t be healthy. Even if the organizers see value in other blockchains, the dark energy of scams and ponzi schemes is still present. Can LABITCOINF afford to exclude them, though? Probably not.However, sooner or later, shitcoins will eat themselves. The end is nigh. The writing is on the wall. Will LABITCONF survive? I vote yes.
