"On the blockchain, still nobody knows you're a dog."

(maybe only funny for elderly people like me who have been around in the early days of the internet: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Internet,_nobody_knows_you're_a_dog).

Joe

Ich bin mir sicher da kommt am Mittwoch auch ein Bitcoin-akzeptierender Wirt. Falls du also den Wirt von der Kofferfabrik kennst, frag ihn doch, ob er Lust hat sich ein halbes Stündchen zu uns zu setzen und dann kann er sich von einem Branchenkollegen kurz und knackig erzählen lassen, was das bringt und wie das geht (so er denn prinzipiell Interesse daran hat).

Bis Mittwoch!

Joe

Also ich hab' jetzt nochmal nachgeschaut und festestellt: nächstes Jahr ist tatsächlich 2014, nicht 13 .

Joe

A few brief answers:

Yes, we do have some (important) speakers confirmed already but I really think it is too early to start publishing details at this stage.

As I said, this announcement is to let the community know that this is going on and the time is right because we are planning an event of a size that needs a long time preparing and organising.

Of course, the conference will mostly be in English as it is an international event. There will be parts / sections in German though too, as we want to incorporate a kind of "consumer show" for Berliner / German individuals and businesses who are interested and want to learn everything from "how does this work / what does this mean" to "how can I start using it today?". That includes what we call 'enabling workshops'. This part was so far covered on the conferences by at most one half-hearted talk like 'Bitcoin for newbies' which nobody attended as no newbies have ever attended a Bitcoin conference. As all newbies visiting the Berliner conference will most likely be Germans we will address that target group adequately and that means in German. We have had quite some success so far in creating attention and sparking interest outside the community and are therefor confident that this trend will at least go on if not accelerate over the next year.

Thanks to all who have so far expressed their support and offered their help here or by mail, this is highly appreciated and needed.

Joe

 

How about "digging it out of the digital underground"?

No, seriously, I think "mining" is quite a perfect metaphor and term.

It even communicates Bitcoin's characteristics as a quantitavely limited digital commodity through it's analogy to pm and it creates the association with "work to do".

And it is already established.

Joe

'lo community!

We have discussed if we should announce this at this early stage and decided it is about the right time to do so at least here, sort of internally at the forum, so other groups who may be planning similar events around the same time can coordinate their activities. Also word got out at this week's Berliner Bitcoin meetup and we are getting more and more questions. So we thought we let you know.

We* are planning (better: are in the making of) the Berlin Bitcoin Conference 2014.

To take place end of april / early may 2014.

Bitcoin is attracting a fascinating range of different people with different goals and objectives. There's the Silicon-Valley kind of 'let's get rich'-people on one hand and the 'let's change the world for the better'- revolutionary type of guys on the other. And everything imaginable inbetween.

Our event aims at creating a fusion of these worlds and furthermore to reach out beyond the existing community and invite individuals and businesses to learn and get started using the technology (well just in case by 2014 not everybody has adopted it yet). So instead of being a pure community-event as Bitcoin conferences have been so far, we want the community to gather and to invite and  welcome the rest of the world (which neither works at a 250-bucks-business show nor on an anarchist-society focused revolution-event).

Berlin has one of the most active Bitcoin communities in the world and the highest number of brick-and-mortar businesses accepting Bitcoin. It is in the center of Europe and a great place to visit, especially in springtime.

As I said, this is to let the community know in advance what's in the making here. We are far enough in regards to concept, contents and financing to do so. Any more details cannot be given at this early stage but we will keep you updated on the developments.

To blockchain eternity!

Joe



*We, the organisers, are the members of the Crypto Economics Consulting Group (CECG) consisting of but not limited to the forum-users Ente, Goonie, Sodoku, Yossarian and myself. We are all long-time members of the community, have all contributed a lot of lifetime and resources to the Bitcoin economy in the last years, created tons of positive media coverage for our favourite money and are nowadays consulting businesses and individuals (besides each other ) in regards to their Bitcoin strategies as well as running our own projects.

No I don't think so.

I guess he would just walk on to the next possible platform he can get to say what he wants to say. And it's worth it.

View him as an artist who describes what's going on economically probably nearer to factual reality that your average XXX-anchorman going "everybody's doing great and everything is under control".

Joe

But that's what it did. In that or any other phrasing.

Please check out some charts available everywhere.

Joe

He always was, was he not?

Great setting, out there in the cold ... gotta love that .

If we all agree on that Eris is Satoshi I shall become religious and consider starting to pray every 23rd block.

Joe

Wie sieht das jetzt aus, findet das statt am 13.? Bin nur ein paar Tage in N und würde gerne meine Abende planen.

Ein kleiner Hinweis:

lasst den Doodel-Kram bleiben und konzentriert Euch auf einen regelmässigen Termin, der sich leicht kommunizieren lässt, immer in der gleichen Location.

"Jeden 2. Mittwoch des Monats ab 19:00 Uhr in der Kofferfabrik." zum Beispiel.

So etabliert sich das in wenigen Monaten. Dann kann halt mal der eine oder andere nicht, aber alle Interessenten auf einen Termin zu doodeln funktioniert noch weniger und vor allem finden Neulinge oder Medienvertreter nur so zu Euch. Wenn alle wissen wann die Treffen sind haben sie weiterhin die Möglichkeit, auch Monate im Voraus zu planen. Wir haben in Berlin zum Beispiel regelmässig Besucher von sonstwoher, die ihre Reisepläne schon vor Monaten so gelegt haben, dass sie den Stammtisch mitnehmen können.

Gruss und vielleicht bis Mittwoch!

Joe

Ist es.

Flüge am nächsten Morgen werden allerdings in der Regel verpasst, Du solltest also noch schnell umbuchen!

Joe

Der ist unserer Putzkraft beim Fensterputzen leider entglitten und momentan in mehreren Einzelteilen vorliegend, also nicht sehr transportabel.

Werde mal noch frisches Gaffer tape besorgen und sehen wier ich ihn wieder zusammenfummeln kann, das vorhandene Gaffer habe ich komplett verbraucht um die Putzkraft zu erdrosseln.

 Joe

Bump.

Es gab die Idee, den Stammtisch mal ein wenig wandern zu lassen zu einer der anderen Bitcoin-Locations hier auf dem Kiez.

Kann also passieren, dass wir um 10 oder 11 abwandern in's Devil's Kitchen und dann dort zu finden sind. Ist nur 50m entfernt, wer also in den ROOM77 kommt und keinen Stammtisch mehr vorfindet bitte einfach am Tresen nach dem Devil's Kitchen fragen.

See ya' all later!

Joe

Melde mich auch an für den 13. März. Sehr geil!

Habt Ihr mal den Wirt von der Kofferfabrik angesprochen, ob der Bitcoi akzeptieren würde und gibt es da WLAN?

Fränkischer Gruss aus dem preussischen Exil!

Joe

you won.

Joe

Oh that's good to know .

Joe

No, there's better places to do that (Scandinavia for example).

Germany would really be a bad place to go cashless first, most of all because German politicians like to get their bribes in cash notes in black leather briefcases. The guy who is our minister for finances right now for example lied to the parliament a bit more then a decade ago, saying he wouldn't even know a certain arms dealer and lateron it turned out that he had 100k DM black money from that very arms dealer sitting in his desk drawer that very moment. So politicians here don't want cash abolished at all I guess.

What I would expect therefor is actually a change from a _maximum_ to a _minimum_ limit. So you can only do cash transactions from _no less_ then say 100k EUR or 250k or so on, so that ordinary people cannot do any cash transactions anymore but governmental and corporational bodies as well as rich people can still do business as usual.

Would make sense, no?

Joe

To explain this: the Postbank was run by the state's postal service and by law had to provide everybody with a bank account. Then they sold it to the Deutsche Bank without passing on that duty. I love seeing their ads where they explain how seriously they take their "responsibility for society" .

I know of cases where people cannot get a bank account without a job and no job without a bank account. Or no flat. Can be a mean circle if noone let's you break out.

My girlfriend (student) had real problems last year to get an account in England. Great when someone from HSBC explains to you that these are their normal anti money laundering meassures. No comedian could come up with something funny as that.

However, what I really can see in Germany is that the banks are doing everything to make the handling of cash as unconvenient and expensive as possible (our business handles a lot of cash). They close down counters so the queues in front of the rest of the counters get ridiculously long, they make cash deposits really expensive and a pain in the ass to go through (passport showing, forms filling, ...).

There is no limit on person to person cash transactions yet though. Tax evaders from all over the world are known to pay the real estate they buy here in cash so I guess this is politically welcome.

Joe

XAA

X = international.
The first A reminds of the precious metals like properties of Bitcoin.
The second A brings it on top of the list of international currencies / pm, where it belongs.

Joe

Maybe someone has said that in your funny world with green skies but it wasn't me and it wasn't on this forum as one can easily see here.

Look, you are either not capable of extracting the meaning out of words or you are just trolling around by claiming I would have said things that I obviously have not said.

Given that I want to stop this discussion with you, it's useless.

Joe