Bitcoin Forum

I know that part of the draw to Bitcoin for some of us is the feature of anonymity, but I'm wondering if there is any interest in the community for a face-to-face conference (ie: weekend of fun)?  I think that such a conference can also help to build the underlying trust necessary to the survival of Bitcoin.  How about sometime this winter?

That would be awesome, but we'd need some sort of agenda that makes it worthwhile. Maybe this will take off once Bitcoin matures a bit more and there are sufficient reasons for a conference.

If you're interesting in voluntaryst/anarchist type of conferences, there are already plenty of those each year: http://freedomainradio.com/

I actually just got back a few weeks ago from the Ludwig von Mises Institute annual conference http://www.mises.org (http://www.mises.org).  What I like about bitcoin is that it is a community with a solution that we are actually trying.  I don't know many people in real life that are even close to as radical in their thinking as I (and many others on these forums) am.  Surprisingly, however, I am able to talk with my real life friends about bitcoin much longer than my normal rants about "what should be," because bitcoin actually exists ;)

I agree it might be a little premature for a conference, and that we certainly would want to have an agenda.  On the other hand, Bitcoin could be one of those things that experiences viral adoption if the mechanisms, incentives, and market signals are in place for the "average joe" to jump on board.  I feel as if an actual conference for those of us willing to sacrifice our anonymity would add some serious credibility.  Not to mention, it'd be fun.

It is so easy to understand even a truck driver from Australia can use it  :)

Oh man, I second that bit about "we're actually trying". Even though I love Von Mises, it seems that violence, and hence the capacity for government, will *always* exist: there will always be those who wish to enslave others for their own ends.

I've thus come to believe that the *only* way to achieve a non-violent and truely voluntary society is to have exceptional personal defense against the aggression of others. Once I was thinking about writing a sci-fi book with the premise that the invention of cheap and mass produced powerful defensive energy shields would lead at once to a completely voluntary society. Now, in real life, Bitcoin *is* that shield -- or at least as close as we can get thus far in terms of present technology. It greatly reaffirms my believe that freedom will, in the long run, win the battle against force.

Maybe we need a "Bitcoin philosophy" section on the forums for these types of discussions...

Do you know if Steph is aware of Bitcoin yet?

I owe him billions in donations.

I doubt it.

If someone from here was willing to do an interview, I know he loves doing those on his radio show.

Regardless, I'll send him some articles in the meantime....

Nice. I wanted to, but I don't have any relationship with him, and didn't want first contact to be about bitcoin and seem spammy.

I would be interested.  Satoshi definitely needs to be there if it were to gather interest.

I'm up for a conference, or maybe for now having a booth/seminar at another conference.

I know a guy who runs a peer to peer conference. It is piggybacks on a digital media conference. There have been various groups interested in p2p payment systems there in the past.

I could probably get him interested in bitcoin if there was interest here. The group is small in number compared to the giant trade shows, so bitcoin would stand out more.

It is a LA or DC show usually. I haven't been in about three years, but I did get to meet ant party with the edonkey, morpheus, and kazaa folks. Lots of Hollywood types trying to figure out how to get paid for their digital properties there too. Bitcoin could be very useful to that market.

Any thoughts?

We could have a web conference  :)
Live stream the booth on ustream and let people join in from anywhere.

Bah .... I send him a facebook message about it a while ago, and he never did respond. Maybe I'll try again via a different approach. It would really be great to have him talk about it on his radio show.

Bitcoin Conference 2011 NYC

What about this proposed date:  June 23-26 ....?

( We just registered http://bitcoinconference.com )

Reply with a cc to me via email to be certain I get it:  bruce@onlyonetv.com

Started a new thread....

Let's continue this discussion there:

   http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=6150.0