Project:Bitcoin/Bitcoin Weekend 2011
See also: Bitcoin Workshop 2011-09-25
About
A meetup for Bitcoin contributors, enthusiasts, and everyone curious about Bitcoin. We will discuss the code, the infrastructure, the mechanisms of currency systems, and many other things. A great chance to bring new people together.
The event is scheduled for Saturday, 24 Sept 2011 and will start around 2pm. Location:
Day 0 schedule
(This is a draft and will change a lot.)
- 14:00 Keynote by Amir Taaki (10 mins)
- 14:15 Bitcoin song (10 mins)
- 14:30 Break (15 mins)
- 14:50 Technical talk by Amir Taaki (15 mins)
- 15:05 Mining talk by Vladimir Marchenko (15 mins)
- Getting started with bitcoin mining
- Common mining rig designs
- Common software
- Using bitcoin mining pools (do's and dont's)
- Bitcoin mining axioms.
- 15:30 Geek discussion (30 mins)
- 15:45 Break (15 mins)
- 16:05 Economics talk by Gary Mulder (15 mins)
- What is money?
- Bitcoin inflation vs. government fiat inflation.
- Investing in bitcoins.
- Future of bitcoins.
- 16:20 Legal talk by Jason Chia (15 mins)
- 16:40 Roundtable with speakers and audience (30 mins)
- 17:00 End (5 mins)
Day 1 schedule
- 14:00 Security talk by Vladimir Marchenko (30 mins)
- Security is not a state, it is a process.
- How to do quick and simple risk assessment
- How to safeguard your bitcoin wallet
- How to safely operate bitcoin mining machines.
- 14:30 Practical bitcoin workshop by TBC (1 hour)
- 15:30 Break (30 mins)
- 16:00 Developer workshop - use bitcoin on a simple PHP website by Amir Taaki (2 hours)
Speakers
Vladimir Marchenko
Vladimir Marchenko, is a seasoned IT professional who started decades ago and since than run a FIDO node in Russia in early 90's; worked for Russian Ministry of Defence, worked for companies such as Coca-Cola, Pipex, Ebuyer, founded and run a number of private companies in UK. He is known as an author of websites filedonkey and figator (p2p). Vladimir is currently running a private supercomputer, which is one of the largest private bitcoin mining operations in UK and probably in the World.
- Founder and owner of bitcoin.org.uk
- Sysop of FIDO node
- Bitcoin Mining Operations Management Service under ( https: en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Marchenko_Ltd Marchenko Ltd )
- Developed the figator.org search engine.
Amir Taaki
Another lover of all things free. Known by nickname genjix.
- ( http: libbitcoin.org/ libbitcoin ) - first full-node alternative implementation of the bitcoin protocol.
- Co-founder of ( http: bitcoinconsultancy.com/ Bitcoin Consultancy )
- Owner and operator of ( https: britcoin.co.uk/ Britcoin ) (largest UK exchange) and the new exchange (soon to replace Britcoin) for USD, EUR and GBP, ( https: intersango.com/ Intersango ).
- ( https: gitorious.org/freecoin/freecoin Freecoin ) bitcoin fork.
- Other stuff like vibanko wallet service, bitcoin poker client, Spesmilo thin-GUI, pastecoin and others...
- Been around free software fulltime for 10 years. Was into 3D before.
- ( http: www.bbc.co.uk/mundo/noticias/2011/06/110624_divisas_moneda_virtual_bitcoins_sao.shtml BBC World News (Spanish) )
- ( http: www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jun/22/bitcoins-how-do-they-work Guardian )
- ( http: www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/hack-attack-pushes-bitcoin-to-the-brink-2300384.html The Independent )
- ( http: rt.com/programs/keiser-report/finance-politics-gold-money/ Russia Today: Keiser Report )
- ( http: www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwNfBgwbqng This Week In Startups )
Jason Chia
To be completed after: Jason Chia is a barrister specialising in the bitcoin legal situation. He has been closely following the law around bitcoin during the last few months.
Gary Mulder
Gary first encountered the Internet in 1992 and has bounced around the world and the IT industry for nearly 20 years. Realising that there was more money to be made in investing than being a wage slave, he decided to learn as much as he could about economics. Bitcoins are both a pure artifact of the Internet and a very interesting financial experiment with many novel applications.
- sysadmin for William Hill online gambling site.
Contributions
(This is a draft and will change a lot.)
Proposed
Suggestions for talks and other contributions, along with people who could run it:
- ...
Confirmed
These contributions have been confirmed, and the contributor can make the schedule:
- ...
Invitations
Groups we should invite:
- ...
Email Draft
Subject: Call for Contributions: Bitcoin Weekend at the London Hackspace
Hello,
(introduce yourself)
We're preparing a series of Bitcoin-related talks, discussions and workshops at the London Hackspace on the weekend of the 24th/25th of September. We're quite excited about it; there have been very few Bitcoin contributor meetings so far, even outside the UK. (We'll try to record the talks and will make the videos public.)
Want to participate? Or know anybody else we should ask?
Some of the confirmed attendees:
- Amir Taaki ("genjix") is an open source software developer, co-founder of the Bitcoin Consultancy, the author of libbitcoin, has helped build a few Bitcoin exchanges and is running one himself (Britcoin, the UK's largest exchange.)
- Jason Chia is a member of the Bitcoin Consultancy and a barrister in the UK specialising in corporate law.
- Vladimir Marchenko was previously known as the author of the FileDonkey and Figator P2P search engines. He is currently running a private supercomputer which is one of the largest private bitcoin mining operations in the UK, and possibly the world.
Regarding yourself, we're particularly interested in:
- software developers familiar with the Bitcoin codebase
- cryptographers who can comment on Bitcoin crypto mechanisms
- admins/developers with experience running Bitcoin infrastructure
- economists and lawyers/barristers with a good understanding of Bitcoin, and optimally some practical experience
- Bitcoin merchants and exchange providers
... but generally we're just curious to hear your suggestions. We're not necessarily looking for someone prolific; we're looking for someone who can understand, explain and critique these systems. Put them in a wider context.
The London Hackspace is run as a non-profit, we don't have a budget to pay people for talks, and attendance will be in the low dozens rather than hundreds; but we draw a passionate crowd of specialists and hackers of all kinds of interesting backgrounds. We recently had an event with people from Pachube and the Nanode project and had people travelling from as far as Belgium to attend… this one drew a brilliant crowd.
http://london.hackspace.org.uk/
I.e., someone young and/or naturally inquisitive is going to enjoy this; someone who's mostly interested in building a high profile probably won't get much out of it.
Regards,
(your name)