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0 sats \ 9 replies \ @0330830bf9 14 Oct 2023 \ parent \ on: Bitcoin Conferences Are for Losers bitcoin
Can you name someone in the space with something big that doesn't go to conferences?
absolutely... Many... but one person stands out is @fiatjaf who does not go to conferences but has built and impacted bitcoin community in many ways.
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He's prolific, but very few people can build so much shit to sling at the wall to see what sticks.
To the extent his projects have any notoriety outside a dozen developers is because those developers and entrepreneurs go to conferences and talk about those things. Or do you think Jack dropped coin without any social signal?
Nostr is itself derivative of other relay-based prototypes discussed at 2018 hackdays and 2019 in Berlin (and thus subsquently on podcasts). It wouldn't exist without conferences. They are an indelible part of the ecosystem.
To say that a few hundred bucks on a ticket is a poor investment is to not understand asymmetry, and terrible investment advice. Money and particularly Bitcoin is an inherently social network. Basement dwelling is sub-optimal.
Anyone looking to jump-in Bitcoin full-time would do well to disregard such blackpilled incel views, and experience the energy at several conferences before deciding whether or not they are useful to them.
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Local meetups, Hackathons, podcasts are many good ways of meeting, learning and building and I don't have any problems with that. Also the Nostr conferences such as Nostrica and Nostrasia (Nov 1-3) are also good because they do not have sponsors or tickets.
I am only pointing to the big bitcoin conferences that are not creating any value.
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There's the backpedal I was expecting. Those are conferences too. Someone is always paying for the space food etc. You just dislike the sponsors less.
The BTC Mag conferences aren't my first choice either, I passed on both this year... but they are something interested people should experience at least once so that they appreciate the smaller conferences. Even someone on a budget could skip the conference ticket and just lobbycon / offsite parties in the area.
Just because you didn't extract value from them doesn't mean there was none to be had for someone more resourceful.
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Meetups and hackathons are labeled mostly as meetups and hackathons and at times they happen around conferences too. I think we agree that the BTC Mag conf are mainly the bad ones but also we have other ones with over 1000+ attendees.
My goal for this article is to spark a debate and get some specific examples where people benefited by going to these events. While I provided you with example of someone made a real impact by not going to conferences, I would like to get some real examples of people benefited from going to these conferences.
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Your example was a case study in the importance of conferences.
If you're denying the personal and professional growth that comes from meatspace interactions, SoURcE1!!, God help you because I can't.
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My goal for this article is to spark a debate and get some specific examples where people benefited by going to these events. While I provided you with example of someone made a real impact by not going to conferences, I would like to get some real examples of people benefited from going to these conferences.
I went to bitcoin++ last weekend and it was great to meet all these interesting people I only "knew" from online so far. It feels different to attach character + face (some never show their face online) to projects instead of just nyms. Makes it more personal and you start to care more about projects (for some reason)
For example, @calle made a short presentation about ecashu and that inspired me to look more into it. The community around it is still small (4-5 people according to a contributor I met) so it's quite easy to get involved. The protocol also isn't finished yet.
So great time to get involved :)
There was also a lot of fedimint stuff which I also didn't look into yet so the conference was a great primer for a lot of things I never took the time to look into yet. Including NixOS, the theme of the conference.
But I agree. It probably depends a lot on the conference. Small vs big, commercialized vs developer focused etc.
But I think all are great to meet people and getting yourself out there (to get inspired and potentially be inspiring!?). Just depends on what kind of people you want to meet.
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Really cool! Nice to meet you, please do get involved! My estimate is more in the range of 10-15 people working on Cashu projects, some more some less! We are still early and we plan to upgrade the protocol this year but we'll try to keep it backwards compatible for the time being. If you use libraries, you might not even notice but we will see!
Make sure to join our dev chat and say hi! https://t.me/CashuBTC
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