CoinFest 2015

[The Bitcoin Co-op]

Do you have a press release/press kit?

We don't really have a press kit; I just email news outlets from time to time, and have personal connections with certain journalists. All the CoinFest organizers in other cities also engage the press independently, in a decentralized fashion.

Please hit me up if you're doing anything in New York.

The Bitcoin Co-op won't be doing anything in New York for CoinFest, but many people have suggested to the NYC Bitcoin Center that they should participate by organizing an event there. I've yet to hear back from them about it.

[The Bitcoin Co-op]

CoinFest has got a bunch of a new partners, more website upgrades and news articles on their way. We've spread to 12 cities in 8 countries, celebrating cryptocurrency in over 7 languages across the Western Hemisphere. Stay tuned for more exiting news!

[Dotrego]

I would like to give my support to this event in the Netherlands.

That's great news! The history and culture of the Netherlands is pretty much ideal for the spirit of CoinFest. You guys have that Bitcoin Boulevard, right? That would be a perfect place to do it. Please let me know what support you can offer--we don't have any organizers in that area, yet.

Arnhem would also qualify. You might want to get in touch with the guys of Bitkassa, they have experience organizing events there. I would recommend Patrick van der Meijde.

Would be willing to provide an extra set of hands at the event itself if it were to be held in the Netherlands. Too busy to help out in planning or preparations though.

[The Bitcoin Co-op]

I would like to give my support to this event in the Netherlands.

That's great news! The history and culture of the Netherlands is pretty much ideal for the spirit of CoinFest. You guys have that Bitcoin Boulevard, right? That would be a perfect place to do it. Please let me know what support you can offer--we don't have any organizers in that area, yet.

Arnhem would also qualify. You might want to get in touch with the guys of Bitkassa, they have experience organizing events there. I would recommend Patrick van der Meijde.

Would be willing to provide an extra set of hands at the event itself if it were to be held in the Netherlands. Too busy to help out in planning or preparations though.

Thanks a bunch for your support! We actually reached out to Arnhem, already, and have emailed with Patrick. He said he likes the idea and will give it some thought, but that he is very busy. Maybe if he knew you would lend an extra pair of hands as a volunteer day-of, you could encourage him to join us!

[Dotrego]

Cool. Will let him know next time I see him
Organizers of existing meetups like this or this might also be interesting to talk to.

[The Bitcoin Co-op]

Lots of new cities on board. Helsinki has arrived thanks to the Helsinki Bitcoin Hobbyists, and The Dutch Bitcoin Boulevard in the Hague will be participating, as well.

Also, Hyderabad, India will be the first city in Asia to host a CoinFest, and the 17th city worldwide. Major thanks to Venugopal Badaravada from Bitcows!

See the updated list: http://www.coinfest.org/coinfest-2015-2/

UPDATE: we just spread to the United States, as well, in Denver, Colorado and Marietta, Georgia. That makes 19 cities!

[The Bitcoin Co-op]

Sorry we've been out of touch for so long. The Co-op's social media guy was summoned to Dubai to educate government officials on the blockchain, and spent the month spreading crypto around the world! Good news, though:



CoinFest is now in 21 cities around the world. 3 previous ones were lost (at least for now), but we gained so much more. Despite the wishes of Vladimir Putin, CoinFest has spread to Mother Russia, where a collapsing ruble has left them with bigger concerns.

Because Bitcoin is against the law in Russia, and they are actively arresting those who refuse to comply with the order to cease its use, we have made the following exception to the traditions of CoinFest: Russian cities that fail to find a cryptocurrency-accepting venue will still be listed by CoinFest.org, as average business owners cannot be expected to be as brave as the heroes behind CCFR and CoinFestRussia.

The blockchain is bigger than all of us. Keep fighting the good fight, guys.


EDIT: a mistake was made. 2 cities are about to be added, making 23.

[The Bitcoin Co-op]

We've finally launched the CoinFest page for Vancouver! All CoinFest events will be listed here. Several more are on their way, as well as a map and the transparency statement--use this as your source of local CoinFest information in our city: www.bitcoincoop.org/coinfest

CoinFest organizers around the world are starting to launch their events, too. Check out this one in Columbia: https://www.facebook.com/events/322574727938382/

[The Bitcoin Co-op]

As part of the path towards full decentralization, coinfest.org now keeps its funds in a multisignature address. This means that no one person can control the CoinFest wallet. For now, only the most trusted CoinFest nodes can be signatories, but the number of signatures will be increased from 5 to 15 once CoinFest 2015 is over, and the DAO will utilize an all-inclusive consensus-based model.

Please see the updated transparency page at http://www.coinfest.org/transparency/. The CoinFest wallet currently requires 4 of 5 signatures to issue transactions; the current signatories are:

• Gary Lachance of DDP fame
• Gabriel Scheare of Fort Galt
• Josh Nekrep from the Bitcoin Alliance of Canada
• CoinFest Vancouver assistant organizer Bryan Hellard
• The Founder, Andrew Wagner

[The Bitcoin Co-op]

Despite another couple cities dropping out of the running, CoinFest's global expansion has only continued. With 4 cities in Russia and now Tallinn in Estonia slated to participate, CoinFest has spread to 25 different places all over the world!

Check out CoinFest Estonia at www.coinfestestonia.org, or see the updated map and listing at http://www.coinfest.org/coinfest-2015-2/

[The Bitcoin Co-op]

A couple nodes dropped out, but we're still over 20 cities. Due to a delay in our ATM's shipment to Africa and problems with fundraising, CoinFest Africa has been delayed until March; that gives the Africans more time, however, and more nodes in Africa are likely to come online. One of our directors might be going to Nigeria, himself!

The plans for CoinFest in Vancouver are huge, but they're pretty much laid out, now. There are more than twice as many events as last time, over 3 days, once against culminating in a conference. We've posted to a lot of places, to get as many new faces at CoinFest as we can; his Meet Up provides a pretty good summary of events, however: http://www.meetup.com/bitcoinvan/events/220469989/

If you wanna celebrate CoinFest with us, but are trapped in a city that is lacking, don't fret! We're setting up lots of Google hangouts, like this one on Saturday, where you can tune into CoinFest Vancouver and meet our community.

[The Bitcoin Co-op]

I see Tauru(s)ex(c)hange renamed to Taurus Bitcoin Exchange.



Wise call, but how can you miss that  

Haha, I didn't notice that. I'm gonna go make fun of Yuri now, thanks

[taurusexchange]

We're aware of the issue and are working HARD on it. Not. 

This was the most straightforward domain name available and we like it. 

[The Bitcoin Co-op]

So took keep everyone posted: CoinFest was huge overall, with significant turnouts across Europe and exciting adoption efforts in Latin America. Canada was dethroned as the center of attention, which is mostly good, because CoinFest is decentralized. It just hurt our egos a bit.

Unfortunately, there were a lot of problems with mail: we sent it a bit late due to lack of funding, then all of it was held up by weather and/or customs. Without the Skyhook BTM, CoinFest Botswana was forced to delay, and CoinFest Ghana chose to do so, as well.

Now, other nodes want to join, so we're organizing CoinFest Africa! 3 events in Botswana and Ghana are confirmed, with others possible in Uganda, Sierra Leone and Tanzania. Mark your calendars for March 20-22.

They will be joined by a solidarity event in Vancouver on March 20. The CoinFest Vancouver wallet will be multisigged, and private keys given to a chosen group of trusted organizers for distributed control. It's time to start building the DAO!

We'd like to thank all of the local sponsors around the world who made this possible, as well as our current global sponsors, the Taurus Exchange and ASICSPACE. We'll report back next year with the final results of CoinFest 2015, and the plans for CoinFest 2016.