CoinFest has been running successfully for five years, now, and is held annually on the first full week of April. This will be the third consecutive CoinFest in that tradition, and we fully expect it to be the biggest one yet thanks to rising Bitcoin prices and some new partners.
Planning is now in the final stages, with most events confirmed. As usual, the primary attraction will be the International Hangout, which unites simultaneous events with distributed presentations related to cryptocurrency. The Lightning Network will also be featured prominently, with many exciting surprises in store.
CoinFest Global funds will be redistributed to qualifying event organizers. If you are interested in becoming a partner or sponsor, please reach out at
[email protected]!
International HangoutThe CoinFest experience is cheaper than traditional conferences largely because its nature saves on travel and logistical costs. In order to make a decentralized convention out of a bunch of events around the world, however, it’s not enough just to run them at the same time using the same name. Conferences help people bond around a common passion by allowing those with complementary skills and resources from around the world to interact.
CoinFest is constantly looking for ways to help attendees at different events interact, so the International Hangout was designed to create a distributed audience. Projectors and webcams are set up at simultaneous events worldwide, and all our joined via video chat with some of the most exciting speakers in the cryptocurrency industry. Participating cities include Vancouver, Manchester and Arnhem; the line-up is below.
April 5, 5-9 PM UTC
The primary International Hangout on April 5 and 6 will again be hosted by Alex Sterk of BlockTalk fame, CoinFest’s oldest broadcasting partner. Keep checking his YouTube channel for the live view links so you can tune in and ask questions from anywhere in the world.
CoinFest founder Andrew Wagner will give the yearly CoinFest Announcements
Blockchain Gaming panel with CoinDroids, SaruTobi, Age of Rust, Spells of Genesis and Beyond the Void
Digital security discussion with Andrew Wagner, Mike Olthoff and Jared Harrill about some high-profile incidents
A talk about the Lightning Network with Adam Soltys, founder of the Bitcoin Co-op
April 6, 7-9 PM UTC
A discussion about decentralized artificial intelligence with Ali Raheman, founder of Autonio
Cryptocurrency exchangers’ panel with QuadrigaCX, MyBTC.ca, the Nebula Exchange and Bitpaction
April 9, 1-3 AM UTC
The final broadcast for CoinFest will again be conducted by the Crypto Show, a world-renowned FM radio show about cryptocurrency that airs in Austin, Texas twice a week. They’ve interviewed all of the most famous people in the cryptocurrency industry, and are gracious enough to include us as part of their money non-profit endeavors. Stay tuned for content announcements!
Merchant Adoption 2.0Years ago, CoinFest began with a specific purpose: to spread Bitcoin adoption among merchants and consumers. Good times were had by all (except the Federal Reserve) as we celebrated with free events at Bitcoin-accepting venues around the city and world—often simultaneously—in keeping with decentralized and open source principles.
Interest in spreading merchant adoption waned as transaction fees and confirmation times rose. Now, however, Bitcoin has been reinvigorated by institutional adoption of SegWit and the advent of the Lightning Network, a protocol layered on top of Bitcoin’s and other blockchains. It allows for instant transactions that are not only vastly cheaper, but can be conducted across blockchains to link them together!
Therefore, in a new twist on an old tradition, we’re going back to several of our favorite Bitcoin-accepting merchants to set up the Lightning Network using the demo of the upgraded CoinOS POS system. The system will be very beta and require downloading the CoinOS mobile app, but standard network fees are now pretty low, regardless, for those who want to do it the old-fashioned way.
If you have (or are) a merchant who wants to get hooked up to the Lightning Network for free, please reach out; CoinOS was developed by Adam Soltys as an open source program to support the Bitcoin community. Merchants participating so far are below.
India Gate Restaurant and Bar
Waves Coffee House
Bestie Sausage Parlour
BC Dance
DCTRL Vancouver
Old Country Pierogi
Good Company Lager
CoinCards
Participating EventsAbuja, NigeriaApril 5
Nigeria is the largest economy in Africa, but this is only their second time hosting CoinFest. Organizer Babarinde Kayode has been working hard year-round, however, and is very active on Twitter where he’s posted some of the news articles already out about CoinFest Nigeria 2018. They’ll be flying in some excellent speakers, the keynote being Dr. Andrew S. Nevin, a high-level economic adviser and frequent TV commentator in West Africa.
Website:
http://coinfestng.orgArnhem, the NetherlandsApril 5
What if you could turn your city into a Bitcoin City? The Bitcoin enthusiasts of Arnhem did exactly that, and now it’s one of the most Bitcoin-friendly cities in the whole world. They call it Arnhem Bitcoinstad, and they’re encouraging others to join them, both in their campaign to convert the world to Bitcoin as well as at their Meetup on April 5th. It will be a standard meet and greet with a monitor tuned into the International Hangout for those who want to watch.
Meetup:
https://www.meetup.com/ArnhemBitcoinCity/events/248200088/Irvine, United StatesApril 7
Long-time CoinFest organizer Tim Tayshun is bringing CoinFest to Irvine, California, home to many prominent tech companies. His company Blockchain BTM will show off one of their Bitcoin ATMs and sponsor a variety of other activities. These include the return of the Wheel of Bitcoin as well as a “speed dating” event to match developers with investors. Free food and entertainment provided!
Meetup:
https://www.meetup.com/So-OC-Bitcoin-Blockchain-101-Disruptive-P2P-Tech-intro/events/247065102/Manchester, EnglandApril 5-7
The CoinFest UK event in Manchester has grown to be the largest annual CoinFest event in the world thanks to the hard work and dedication of Adam Rizvi, founder of CryptoBatesGroup with a variety of projects. They routinely have hundreds of attendees, and this year they have well over 500 people RSVP’d.
To accommodate a convention of this size, they will be meeting at the Manchester Conference Centre. There they will have three days of activities, including presentations and panels, the International Hangout, crypto musicians and art gallery, booths of all kinds, and a raffle and “ticket hodler” with prizes. There will also be a variety of workshops for crypto aficionados and newbies alike, so be sure not to miss out and remember to RSVP!
Website: coinfestuk.org
Vancouver city, CanadaApril 5-7
Vancouver was an early pioneering ground for Bitcoin enthusiasts, housing many of the first merchants in the world to accept Bitcoin as well as the first ATM. This year, they will be breaking new ground again by spearheading merchant adoption of the Lightning Network using the Bitcoin Co-op‘s CoinOS app.
They will visit a variety of event venues converted to the system, including a dance studio, a German restaurant, the first Indian restaurant in the world to accept Bitcoin, and the cafe housing the world’s first Bitcoin ATM. They’ll also have free beer from a Bitcoin-accepting brewery, and a food truck will come to events at the offices of CoinPayments and RightMesh where presentations, panels and booths will be set up. DCTRL will host the International Hangout.
Meetup:
https://www.meetup.com/bitcoinvan/events/248462569/Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/events/157745278265992/Google Plus:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/coucniv35jp4gtmgk38atoudkc4Link: http://www.coinfest.org/coinfest-2018/
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