This was my first time attending the PlanB conference in Lugano, and it was definitely worth it. The organizers did a fantastic job with the decoration, ambiance, booths, games, food court, unveiling statue, drone show, evening parties—everything was well-thought-out.

The PlanB forum app was very helpful, making it easy to track the different talks, speakers, and sessions. With four sessions happening simultaneously across different rooms, the choice overload was a bit frustrating, but I plan to catch up on missed talks on the YouTube channel. Occasionally, the smaller rooms were full for certain speakers, so I had to change rooms to listen to another session instead.

Networking was a breeze, as the app helped connect like-minded attendees with similar interests. Exploring the three floors of booths, I learned about new hardware, like hardware wallets and lucky mining rigs, and enjoyed speaking with the developers of the Keet app and the PlanB network team.

The Go₿rr booth was a highlight for me, and the Bitcoin art gallery was well executed, with a dedicated floor showcasing various pieces.

The talk with Stella Assange and Gabriel & John Shipton, titled "What It Took to Free Julian", was deeply moving. They discussed what Julian’s journey to freedom involved and the personal costs of revealing the truth. Nowadays, many journalists are hesitant to speak out, fearing the consequences if they do. More on this topic can be found on Cointelegraph.

I was looking forward to meeting @JoeNakamoto, @jimmysong, Bitcoin Mechanic, and @BTCsessions, people I’ve followed on YouTube over the years. I had the chance to meet BTC Sessions and even took a selfie #LaserRayUntil100K. In one of his talks, he summarized the evolution of various apps and recommended the best ones for getting started with Bitcoin.

It's always great to listen to Julian from Relai explaining how it's a no-brainer for SME (Small and medium-sized enterprises) to invest in Bitcoin now. Entrepreneurs works their ass off, as money inflates over time, they lose purchasing power.

Bitcoin Mechanic’s talk on the history and evolution of mining pools was captivating, particularly his insights on how Ocean changed the game in mining rewards. He explained that other foundries act as middlemen, taking a cut, which is why choosing Ocean allows miners to earn 10% more. The debate on "The Use of Bitcoin Blockspace" was epic, featuring Luke Dashjr & Bitcoin Mechanic against Peter Todd & Pete Rizzo. Although technical, it was funny to see the (playful) bad faith arguments from Todd and Rizzo as they tried to discredit Ocean mining. More details here.

During breaks, there was a gaming challenge where you could play Snake and bet sats to win. For those planning to attend next year, it might be worth practicing for a shot at the tournament Chain Duel.

Many talks focused on online privacy, such as using a quality VPN like IPVPN or Mullvad VPN. Unlike popular services with heavy marketing like NordVPN and ExpressVPN, the former are better for privacy. Remember, if you pay for your VPN with a credit card, it’s tied to your identity; paying with sats allows you to stay anonymous, which is possible with IPVPN and Mullvad. @sethforprivacy recommended Brave as a browser, but perhaps he isn’t aware of the tracking practices and brainwashing marketing of the Brave team. Alternatives like Librewolf are far more privacy-friendly, which I covered here: #258621 Further privacy insights.

The Rockstar dev talk was outstanding. Wearing a Bitcoin mask with a BTCPay logo on his hat, glasses, necklace, and even matching shoes, Rockstar shared his experience living outside the fiat financial system. I took the time to talk only about these 3 tools: Bitcoin, Nostr, Tor. Since the 1990s, the Cypherpunk movement, championed the use of cryptography to protect digital privacy against pervasive surveillance. At that time, they only dreamed about such a future that we can now be grateful to live. Now that the technology exist, we can and should use it.

In summary, the path forward is clear: understand the truth about Bitcoin, learn how to self-custody (a must), run a node (consider Start9 as a starting point) to strengthen the network and enhance transaction privacy, explore mining (optional), get a second passport (to have options), and learn ways to minimize taxes. Share this knowledge and pass it on, helping others opt out of the fiat system and adopt a Bitcoin standard to protect their purchasing power and reduce government overreach and mass surveillance.

The drone show recounted Bitcoin's major milestones. Watch here 4K: Bitcoin Drone Show Plan B Forum Lugano 2024.

It was funny to hear everyone at the conference sharing common Bitcoin phrases. On stage, Joe would start sentences, and the audience would finish them:

Don’t forget the memes on Stacker News, you got Meme Monday! In the session “The Sophisticated Art of Memetics” Guy Swann and others explained how certain memes became popular in the Bitcoin space. We are living in an information war, trying to plant seeds of truth in people’s minds rather than the lies spread by mainstream media. Even FBI agents are questioning how to stop people from using memes to challenge a trillion-dollar money-printing machine. They emphasized that anyone can participate and create his own meme to make it viral.

Disappointments I was surprised by the talk, "The Use of Bitcoin and Stablecoins in Brazil" with Rocelo Lopes, which was more focused on stablecoin transactions on Tether rather than Bitcoin. Similarly, "On-ground Report on Bitcoin Adoption in Switzerland and El Salvador" was somewhat misleading. Dejan Roljic claimed there was no need to change spending habits when using a credit card, yet discussions with a NAKA booth employee suggested they’re trying to introduce a new POS terminal for merchants to accept payments with a NAKA credit card (I have nothing against that). To me, it seems they are reinventing the wheel. It also seems that payments are made using Tether or stablecoin rather than Bitcoin, which felt counterintuitive and, for a Bitcoin-focused conference, a bit disappointing.

Nevertheless, I hope to be there again next year.