A Bitcoin lecture, "Crypto Crowd Funding", has been scheduled for September 11, 19:00, in Google Campus Tel Aviv, Floor 34, Electra Tower, 98 Yigal Alon, Tel Aviv. Gathering at 18:30. Details and registration at http://www.meetup.com/bitcoin-il/events/202484482/. |
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As you may know, Israel has a very active Bitcoin community. One of its biggest hubs is the Meetup group, holding various events including monthly lectures. Most of the content is in Hebrew, however occasionally we host a lecture in English. This thread will share videos of these lectures. Special guest lectures:Quantum Computing and Bitcoin (Vitalik Buterin, November 2013)Fungibility, Privacy & Identity (Adam Back, February 2014)Politics and the Bitcoin Protocol (Peter Todd, May 2014)Tel Aviv Special Bitcoin Meetup July 2014 (lectures by Jack Liao and Marco Krohn) What Bitcoin Private Keys say to Each Other (Nicolas T. Courtois, October 2015)Bitsquare: The decentralized bitcoin exchange (Manfred Karrer, May 2016)English lectures by Israelis:TechAviv Founders Club Dec 2013: The Bitcoin RevolutionZerocash (Eli Ben-Sasson, April 2014)Bitcoin vs. Quantum Money (Or Sattath, August 2014)IOTAFEST Day 2 - Bitcoin track (May 2015) - 4 sessions. One of them in Hebrew, you can skip with the time markers. Advanced Concepts in Blockchain Design (Lior Yaffe, July 2016)Israel Bitcoin Think Tank:Bitcoin Israel Think Tank - Episode 1 (Meni Rosenfeld, Vitalik Buterin, Ron Gross, Dominik Weil and Eli Sklar) |
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O Bitcoinis
velut solis
statu variabilis,
semper ortus
aut occasus;
mercatus odiosus,
nunc bovarius
et tunc ursus,
numquam inconcussus;
egestatem,
potestatem
dissolvit ut glaciem.
The song "O Fortuna" appeared in "Carmina Burana", a 13th century colletcion of about 250 songs, many of which are a satire of the Catholic Church. The song would have probably remained obscure, it it wasn't for the dramatic composition created for it (and several other songs from the collection) the German composer Carl Orff in 1936 - which made it "mandatory" in every Television work requiring a cataclysmic background music.
The song laments on the turbulence of fate, the good fortune that comes and goes, the ease at which a man can fall down from the top of the world to a deep hole - and vice versa. On the face of it, The song merely regrets this sad state of affairs, but I believe it carries with it a message - that we should realize this is our reality, and accordingly show a certain degree of indifference. Since both the good and the bad are destined to quickly pass, we should not be sorry for our misfortune, but also not to be excessively joyous if fortune has smiled upon us.
Many parameters measure the success of Bitcoin, but the most salient and most talked about is of course the exchange rate. When the rate goes up the press covers the topic enthusiastically and the community is filled with excitement, and when the rate goes down we see worry and despair. But it is the nature of the rate to always go up and down, and thus we should not take to heart every fluctuation in the rate.
This is the message I tried to carry across with this song, which is a paraphrase of the first verse of "O Fortuna". I've tried to remain true to the original, but I have placed several significant changes. I do not speak Latin; I've done a bit of research and exercised judgement, but my main source is Google Translate so there are no guarantees. Casually translated to English, the song's words are:
O Bitcoin
like the sun
you are changing,
always rising
or setting;
hateful market,
now bullish
and then bearish,
never stable;
poverty,
power,
melt like ice.
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An independent team of Bitcoin enthusiasts is now raising funds for the feature-length documentary film "Crypto for the Masses". The film will discuss what Bitcoin is, what it can do, explain the flaws in the current state of the economy and aim to change the perception of the illusioned. It will be filmed in Israel and will feature mostly Israel's Bitcoin experts and activists, but it will be watched and push Bitcoin forward everywhere. The trailer for the film is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-O--m7Uz80 (dialogue in Hebrew and English, subtitles in English). The crowdfunding takes place at http://www.headstart.co.il/project.aspx?id=11322&lan=en-US. The goal is 94,500 ILS which is approximately $27,000. Bitcoin payments are not integrated into the Headstart platform, however you can pledge bitcoins in one of two ways: 1. Anonymous donations to 189kiya3XFc8g1vD2CfV1gTj58Cyzz72xZ. You will not get benefits for this. 2. Depositing bitcoins with Ariel Horwitz, also known as WiW. He can be reached at crypto@alefbit.com. You will get the same benefits as with donating through the Headstart platform, and if the drive fails, you will get the money back. The film will be produced with the financial and professional support of the Israeli Bitcoin Association. Join in and help making this a reality! |
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P.S. I think we have actually had a chance to talk once before. I believe we shared a flight to L.A. from the bitcoin event in San Jose and we met on the shuttle.
I recall that on the flight to LA I chatted with Yoni Assia (CEO of eToro), it was in Hebrew but we said "Bitcoin" a lot so someone deduced we're heading back from the conference and approached me. Was that you? I thought it was on the shuttle to the plane or something. But I think that's me. I heard something like "bla-bla-bla bitcoin bla-bla". lol Could be, I think maybe you heard us on the shuttle to the plane and caught me as we were disembarking. But it could have gone any number of ways... |
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I hope that the middle east crisis allows this conference to proceed as planned this time
Thanks for the update saw it in the other thread so thought I would monitor this one as well.
Any idea who will be speaking at the conference or are the speakers the same ones from July just delayed a few months.
Too soon to tell. We'll try to have the agenda resemble the original one. The speakers from Israel will of course attend the new date and give more or less the originally planned lectures. As for speakers from overseas, some of them have confirmed joining for the new date, others haven't yet. We also hope to get a few more speakers who couldn't make it to the original date, but able with the new one. It's fun to visit with other bitcoiners, and it has become part of any trips I make abroad.
For me that's not a problem, as my only trips abroad are to Bitcoin conferences  P.S. I think we have actually had a chance to talk once before. I believe we shared a flight to L.A. from the bitcoin event in San Jose and we met on the shuttle.
I recall that on the flight to LA I chatted with Yoni Assia (CEO of eToro), it was in Hebrew but we said "Bitcoin" a lot so someone deduced we're heading back from the conference and approached me. Was that you? |
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Cool, "The Bitcoin Community" is listed as leading donor. Thanks for the find, Meni
In case you haven't followed up on the latest developments in this thread, I'll recap the story - after the $4730 donation they offered to list me as a sustaining donor, and I asked to rename as The Bitcoin Community, and donated an extra $270 to go up to the leading donor tier. |
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Hey Meni,
I don't want to hijack your thread, but I have a quick question. I can't make it in Oct., however I will be in the region in Dec. Do you guys have regular meetings somewhere? I would love to meet up with some bitcoin peers in Jerusalem when I visit.
-Cheers
Indeed we do! We have a very active Meetup group (and associated forum thread) with a variety of activities. The flagship meetup is biweekly lectures on various Bitcoin topics. These are usually hosted in a venue provided to us by Google's Tel Aviv offices. We also have a physical hub in Tel Aviv for the Bitcoin community, the Bitcoin emBassy, where you can always find Bitcoin people, and which has designated gathering times twice a week. Most of the activity is in Tel Aviv, if you'll be in Jerusalem specifically, there are some Bitcoiners there who will be happy to meet up, and we can try to organize a larger meetup at the time of your visit. |
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Hi all, On October 19-20 we will be holding a Bitcoin conference in Tel Aviv, a joint work of the Israeli Bitcoin Association and Media Bistro's "Inside Bitcoins" brand. More details about the event are available at http://bitcointlv.com/. This will replace the original conference planned for July 28-29, which was unfortunately cancelled due to the recent conflict in Israel. We expect the situation to be fully resolved by the time of the new date. We expect hundreds of people from around the world to participate, and we have ~40 speakers consisting of both Bitcoin's worldwide experts and Israel's local talent. The agenda will be based on the original agenda, with some modifications that will be finalized moving forward. We're designing the conference to have something for everyone, with topics covering both Bitcoin's industry (businesses, start-ups, commerce, communities, regulation and authorities) and technology (core protocol, software, features, algorithms and academic research). The tentative agenda is available on the site, but it is still actively developed with new sessions added and existing sessions being finalized. The early bird registration price is $179 for the whole conference, though there are some discounted ticket options. The deadline for enjoying the best rates will last until the end of August, so make sure not to miss this opportunity to network, learn about developments in the Bitcoin world, and visit the Bitcoin empire that is Israel. Any questions or requests can be directed to conference@bitcoin.org.il. I hope to see you all there! Update: Slides are available at http://bitcoin.org.il/files/Bitcoin%20TLV%202014%20Slides.zip. Videos are available at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiOFfTVghPYjKbkjeYo2LOYEgUgNbIh9t. |
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Good news. Here's a recent email communication: Dear Meni Rosenfeld, We're thrilled by your generous contribution. At Wikipedia, the donation of a single dollar makes a difference in the work we do. When we get a much larger donation, we can accomplish that much more. On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikipedia's readers, you have our heartfelt thanks. As a nonprofit, the Wikimedia Foundation relies on donations to keep Wikipedia going. Every month, half a billion people look to Wikipedia for information that gives them answers and insight into the world around them. Wikipedia now has 30 million articles in more than 275 languages, and it’s growing every day thanks to the thoughtful contributions of readers like you. We’d love to acknowledge your generosity on our Benefactors page, http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Benefactors, where we list those who’ve donated $1,000 or more. Please let me know if you’d like to be added to this page of honor. Some donors choose to acknowledge the name of a loved one on our Benefactors page, and we’re happy to do that for you, too. Thank you again for your generous contribution. Warmly, Rosie Lewis rlewis@wikimedia.orgW: 415-839-6885 X. 6839 F: 415-882-0425 Hi Rosie, Thank you for the offer. I'll be happy to be listed, I have two requests: 1. The donation was based on funds collected from the Bitcoin community, so it should be listed as "The Bitcoin Community" rather than my own name. 2. The donation in question was for $4730, which appears to be just $270 shy of the $5K required for the higher "Leading Donor" tier. Will it be possible for me to donate an extra $270 and be listed as a leading donor? Thanks, Meni I welcome suggestions for a name to credit other than "The Bitcoin Community". Also, apparently some of the entries in the Benefactors page have links, which link would be appropriate? |
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sounds very interesting, i am based in Ireland though, any possibility of perhaps sharing content after the talk?
We upload videos of all our lectures to Youtube. Most lectures are in Hebrew but the Quantum Money one will be in English. Once ready, the video will be linked here and on the Meetup page. |
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