That was the BTC22 in Innsbruck

Mountains and Bitcoin – they go together. At the BTC22 in Innsbruck from September 15th to 17th, the who’s who of the German-speaking bitcoin scene came together. So while the eyes of altcoin space were on the second largest blockchain because of the ETH merge, there was only one topic for BTC22: Bitcoin!

In short, the conference was a success. Organizers Peter Taschler and Lukas Waldner have set new standards in terms of BTC Meetup in the Alpine town. Because in the end it was exactly that: A gathering of up to 700 Bitcoin enthusiasts who celebrated their utopia of a new economic, even social order for three days.

From beer to coffee to lunch, everything could be paid for in BTC. The infrastructure is provided by Lipa, a Swiss Lightning payment provider – and with great success. According to the company, a total of 2,868 payments with a total value of 17,500 euros could be processed. In a blog post, the company writes:

It was an honor for us to process all bitcoin payments for the entire event. We were able to process 2,868 payments totaling over 88 million satoshi without any major incidents.

Conferences like this are always a good opportunity to prove that a future with Bitcoin is not only conceivable in theory but also in practice. In other words: Lightning works!

At bitcoin-only conferences, a utopia is created as they imagine bitcoiners. On the one hand that’s nice, on the other hand it’s a bit like Preaching to the Choir. Because let’s be honest: By coincidence, nobody here put the 599 euros for a ticket (at least) on the table. It would be nice if the community would dare to bring critical voices into the speaker program.

“If a community keeps dropping terms that they have agreed on, then sometimes you make it too easy for yourself,” warns Ijoma Mangold in his excellent lecture on critical thinking within the space.

Jimmy Song: A tad too thick

In addition to Mangold, the well-known top-class players from the Bitcoin space were also on the stage – or at least on the screen above them – and told their story. You already know it: Saifedean Ammous railed against “fiat universities” and their incentive structure, which only produces fiat academics, and Jimmy Song glorifies bitcoin as a kind of moral form of money that also makes men better (and above all more Christian) fathers . So I got out.

Despite the expected Bitcoin romanticization, BTC22 was peppered with inspiring ideas and optimistic participants. I look forward to next time.

All lectures can be found on the BTC22 YouTube channel.