Bitcoin Forum

That's right, I just found I got accepted to speak at DEFCON 19 about bitcoin.

I'm open for input, giving a 20 minute talk.

I don't have specific suggestions, as the wiki and other things are probably enough material.

What I am curious about is what comes out of the conference, as this group would be one of the best 'acid tests' for any obvious problems. Keep us informed, please.

I went to DEFCON 17 and was amazed at the amount of computing genius one can find there. I think if you're talk is even halfway decent, you'll find yourself approached by a ton of people who want to try to do something new and innovative with Bitcoin.

Please do keep us informed.

You can demo your pitch speech/presentation here through a screencast recording, and we can provide critiques.  Just another thought.

Make clear to them that the block chains purpose is "only" to avoid double spending. Transactions themselves use ECDSA.

Too often one has to read here that somebody with 50%+ could forge random transactions -- that's just not true. Someone with 51%+ could really create a mess, but he could not secretly cheat people.

blocking transactions and taking 100% of the coins minted does not qualify as cheating?

I think the difficulty adjustment is pretty clever and is often misunderstood.

Input?

We need programmers, we need programmers, we need programmers.

That is all.

EDIT: For the bitcoin client, startups, oss, anything bitcoin related!

I'd say take Gavin's 5 minute talk and update/expand it a bit:

http://forum.bitcoin.org/?topic=3517.0

Do you have a set of subjects to cover? Did you find something in bitcoin design or implementation or existing network worth discussing at DEF CON? Do you know what Dan Kaminsky has planned in his "BitCoin: Network Manipulation for Fun And (Literal) Profit" presentation?

Fill in some blanks and I'll give you input/feedback :)

Check out: https://www.defcon.org/html/defcon-19/dc-19-speakers.html (https://www.defcon.org/html/defcon-19/dc-19-speakers.html)

Anyone going to be running a cash / kit / coin exchange at DC19?

I'll be there..

I actually submitted a paper to try and speak at defcon about bitcoin also but I got it in past the deadline.  I could give you my ppt presentation if you want to check it out.  40 slides.

All the blackhats already know the basics, and that cypherpunk just became cool again.

You want to wow them with the immediate and future implications of private, secure, e-cash.

We're right in the middle of one, which is the acute need to upgrade web security.

Bitcoin's anonymous and non-reversible nature have led to cross-site forged request attacks, wallet.dat stealing trojans, and a number of more traditional scams.

The entire interweb ecosystem is being upgraded or rewritten to deal with our new post-bitcoin (virtual) reality.

Isn't it funny how bitcoin exploded, right as the first quantum computer shipped and the world's fiat currencies are collapsing?  What a coincidence.

Reminds me of how closely spaced the discoveries of the atomic bomb and LSD were.

op can you provide us with your resume just out of curiosity? you must be a pure techno-head to be accepted there :)

LSD and Berkeley UNIX too.

Make sure you emphasize how bitcoin is the future currency of the world and that they must use it otherwise they aren't 1337.

Theres a topic somewhere on stuff to talk about and stuff to not talk about to the general public.  Has some good ideas, but DefCon isn't the general public so those rules don't exactly apply.  I think I was reading a thread about calling mining auditing instead.  Don't feel like searching for it right now, need some sleep before headding back to the con.

Any chance this will be recorded, so we can watch it later?

DEFCON records all their presentations but you usually have to wait until the next year before they post the audio/video for free. (You can buy it though if you want it immediately.)

Review the wiki, Dan Kaminsky's slides and Brian Warner's slides.

Avoid any unconditional claims like "bitcoin is anonymous", "bitcoin is untraceable" etc. which will be quickly proven silly.