Baltic Honeybadger 2022: For Bitcoiners, The Yield Is The Friends We Make Along The Way

This is a viewpoint editorial by Josef Tětek, the Trezor brand name ambassador for SatoshiLabs.

After a three-year hiatus, Bitcoiners as soon as again satisfied at the renowned Baltic Honeybadger occasion in the Latvian capital of Riga.

Source: author

Around 800 individuals participated in the conference, so it was a rather little occasion-- by contrast, the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami invited over 20,000 visitors. The stating that "little is gorgeous" used in this case --- compared to the Miami conference, visitors at Honeybadger did not have to fret about unlimited crowds and lines. At the very same time, it was a conference with international prestige and one that was held totally in English, so there was no issue going to compelling talks and later on talking with popular Bitcoiners like Adam Back, Jimmy Song, Peter Todd, Gigi and numerous others. A number of lots speakers provided discussions over the 2 days in 2 lecture spaces: the primary Bitcoin Stage, and the secondary Sats Stage.

The whole conference was shot and the recordings will be offered on the Hodl YouTube channel(at the time of composing, just the Bitcoin Stage talks have actually been released).

Free Speech And Free Money

After an opening speech by Max Keidun from Hodl (the conference organizer), Giacomo Zucco took the flooring. Zucco didn't expose the title of his talk ahead of time, so the audience had no concept what to anticipate. The veteran Bitcoiner, with his particular humor peppered with an Italian accent, did not dissatisfy this time as he exposed the speech title:

Source: author

But as Zucco easily acknowledged, such a title may anger some, so he chose to make it better:

Source: author

Zucco described that liberty of speech is an essential human right to which we can just make an exception when speech ends up being direct aggressiveness, as in the case of purchasing a murder or purposeful scams. He alerted of the increasing level of censorship by both federal governments and corporations; the only useful self-defense is to construct and utilize agorist tools such as the Tor web browser.

Zucco then made a segue to cash, which likewise falls under liberty of speech security (particularly in an age where cash is extremely digital in nature)-- individuals have the basic right to pick their financial instrument and utilize their cash as they choose. As with liberty of speech, flexibility of cash is not ensured: once again, agorist instruments such as bitcoin and the bitcoin environment require to be developed. A quote worth keeping in mind:

" Know-your-customer laws suggest that you do not comprehend economics. The entire point of cash is that you do not need to understand your client."

Bitcoin And Islamic Finance

Another talk worth seeing is "Bitcoin And Islamic Finance" by Allen Farrington Farrington is the co-author of " Bitcoin Is Venice," which in my viewpoint is among the absolute best books composed on bitcoin and economics.

The yield is pals we made along the method. Source

According to Farrington, Islamic financing has actually ended up being a type of a Bitcoin meme: we frequently describe the principle without appropriately comprehending its tenets. We must make the effort to discover more about Islamic financing, since its concepts are practically the ideal reverse of contemporary fiat cash, and are constant with how the world would likely run on a bitcoin requirement.

The 3 primary tenets of Islamic financing are:

• Risk is shared in between trading partners, not moved
• Collateral is moved in between the celebrations, not financialised
• The spirit of the law is very important, not the letter of the law

The effect of these concepts is that, for instance, it is not possible to accept a loan backed by specific security and still have the very same security readily available for usage by the customer (as holds true with home mortgages).

The concepts of Islamic financing let us see the unfavorable side of some commonly utilized monetary instruments, such as home loans. These count on unpredictable future earnings streams, move all the threats to debtors and generate income from real estate, making it unattainable without entering into long-lasting financial obligation. Source

If you discover the mortgage-free world to be a wild concept, then it's worth advising that the over-financialization of property triggered both the Great Financial Crisis of 2007 to 2008, and likewise made a life time financial obligation servant out of essentially everybody who wishes to own their own houses:

" The hostility to financialization in islamic financing originates from the beautiful simple concept that there should be a one-to-one relationship in between a monetary instrument and the underlying real-economy property. The more this ratio diverges, the less genuine financing ends up being and the more we wind up constructing a home of cards that will definitely one day collapse."

-- Farrington

Bitcoin is close to the concepts of Islamic financing due to the fact that when it is utilized as a deal instrument or security, it requires to be in fact utilized and sent out to the counterparty's address (the classic not your secrets, not your coins). The compatibility in between bitcoin (i.e., in the concept of "product cash") and Islamic financing is not unintentional, as these concepts have actually developed over centuries under the gold requirement and a system of commerce that relied greatly on merchant credibility.

However, unlike in the Western world, these concepts have actually made it through to this day in Islamic financing, as they have actually entered into the faith and therefore principles of the Islamic world. As Farrington pointed out, the concepts themselves can be used outside of any spiritual context-- they are just sound monetary concepts.

Security And Hardware Wallets

Another crucial style of the conference was safe bitcoin self custody, a subject that is naturally connected to the markets of hardware wallets and physical backups. These markets were represented by the creators of Trezor, BitBox, Cryptosteel and Tinyseed, who were all present in Riga.

A panel on security. From the left: Douglas Bakkum (BitBox), Peter Todd (Bitcoin designer), Rigel Walshe (Swan Bitcoin), Pavol "Stick" Rusnák (Trezor) and Daniel Prince (" Once Bitten Podcast"). Source: Jan Pecinovský

The idea of air gapping was talked about on 2 circumstances: in the panel on security, and in Douglas Bakkum's lecture. Bakkum specified air gapping as a kind of information transfer in between hardware wallets and computers/phones using SD cards or QR codes (i.e., not by means of USB cable televisions). Attending to SD cards, Peter Todd kept in mind that these gadgets now include intricate microprocessors that most likely have a larger field of attack than USB cable televisions. Stick included that QR codes, not SD cards, can be thought about the correct technique for air gapping nowadays; and likewise that the threat with USB cable televisions tends to be the reverse of what some might fear, i.e., with USB gadgets assaulting the host (computer system or phone), not the other method around.

" We ought to be thinking of security danger modeling. I believe that the security danger design of routine individuals is really various from that of Edward Snowden's. And what we are attempting to do is to deal with the issues of 99% of individuals, however if you have three-letter companies following you, I concur you need to be utilizing something really various than the off-the-shelf services."

-- Stick

From Bakkum's talk: Air gapping has the benefits of simple combination with third-party apps; air gapping makes it possible to bypass iPhone limitations (note: it is not possible to link, for example, a Trezor to an iPhone specifically due to the fact that of constraints on the maker's side). Air gapping likewise supplies the sensation of much better security. On the other hand, the downsides are even worse user experiences and greater firmware intricacy. Source: author.

Bitcoin Counterculture And Its Psychopathic Defenders

Rigel Walshe(of Swan Bitcoin) devoted his speak to Bitcoin culture. According to Walshe, not everybody concurs that Bitcoin represents a culture at all, nevertheless, as he specified, "When you get a number of individuals together, you get a culture."

And Bitcoin culture is finest referred to as a counterculture, that is, a subculture focusing on the active opposition to specific aspects of the traditional culture. The fate of effective countercultures is that eventually they enter into the mainstream: Walshe offered the examples of the increase of punk, hip-hop, cannabis and LGBT subcultures. This shift from counterculture to traditional culture is accompanied by phenomena that can be comprehended through 3 sociological theories:

1. Mimetic Theory: Most individuals embrace the desires of good example, and after that mimic their habits. Numerous latecomers to the subculture can not effectively discuss why they think what they think-- they can just duplicate what others are stating and show up the volume, typically upping one another in extremist declarations. Tribalism and pureness tests occur.
2. Geeks, Mops And Sociopaths Theory: Describes how originalities end up being cool. Cool things begin with developers (Satoshi Nakamoto), that are assisted by enthusiasts (Laszlo Hanyecz, Andreas Antonopoulos) who got the word out and develop the facilities. Come the mops: those who soak up the excellent things however contribute little (numerous Twitter influencers come to mind here). The last group are typically the sociopaths who make use of the entire subculture for their gains (Richard Heart, Do Kwon).
3. The Eternal September Theory: In the early '90 s, the web (or rather, Usenet) was mainly accessed through universities, and every September, it was overloaded by college freshmen who didn't understand what they were doing and needed to be taught by the veterans from previous years. The "everlasting September" came when, in the mid-'90 s, the web began to be utilized by routine homes and noobs began being available in droves every day. Bitcoin is experiencing this phase, with waves and waves of brand-new users not able to comprehend the principles of personal secrets and other formerly hidden aspects.

In conclusion, Walshe explained that there's a trade off in between numbers and subtlety, and the only option is to attempt to find out what the core concepts of Bitcoin culture that we wish to impart on brand-new users are, and turn these into memes, sound bites and absorbable pieces of details.

" So it's on us to boil down these concepts, and to distribute these concepts to the newbies that are coming aboard and to the sociopaths that would utilize bitcoin for their own dubious ends to protect it. And safeguard it like a fucking psychopath."

-- Walshe

The talks explained above are simply a taste of the enormous conference program, which included over 40 private lectures and conversation panels. I'm sure I'll find more treasures in the recordings in the coming weeks-- as in previous years, the speakers had a lot to state and I think we'll be going back to a few of the talks years from now. My preferred talk from the 2019 edition is " Social Impacts Of Gold And Bitcoin"

Conference Announcements

During the Honeybadger occasion, a number of notable statements were made:

Trezor CoinJoin Implementation: Trezor and Wasabi Wallet are signing up with forces to present the CoinJoin anonymization method for hardware wallets early next year. Trezor owners will have the ability to blend their coins utilizing the WabiSabi procedure without their coins leaving the protected environment of the hardware wallet. This is the very first application of its kind and a real transformation in Bitcoin privacy.

BTCPay CoinJoin Implementation(likewise utilizing the WabiSabi procedure): This suggests that a merchant or a charity event organizer can obfuscate the deal history of any gotten bitcoin-- this is quick ending up being a welcome and an intense usage case, as the current demonstrations of Canadian truckers showed.

Trezor Suite, Hodl Trading Offers: For a long time now, it has actually been possible to purchase and offer bitcoin straight in Trezor Suite, the native user interface of the Trezor hardware wallet. Previously, nevertheless, the majority of these deals needed the users to go through a KYC recognition. Throughout the conference, a collaboration with the Hodl decentralized exchange was revealed; quickly it will be possible to purchase bitcoin straight from private sellers, therefore without the requirement for recognition.

Bach Nguyen from Invity (an integrator of trading partners) reveals the Hodl collaboration. Source: Jan Pecinovský

Prince Philip Of Serbia Joining Jan3 As CSO: Samson Mow's Jan3 is a Bitcoin business with the objective to speed up hyperbitcoinization, and Prince Philip of Serbia has actually joined its ranks as primary technique officer.

Fun Off Stage

As holds true at numerous conferences, the majority of the enjoyable was had far from the phases. Honeybadger was a reasonably little conference, it brought in lots of widely known Bitcoiners, and the speakers didn't have their own personal VIP area (conserve for a little beverage space), so they moved amongst the participants and engaged in rewarding discussions.

For me personally, the most fascinating conversation was the one I had with the abovementioned Farrington, where I had fantastic enjoyable speaking about the composing procedure of "Bitcoin is Venice" and of " A Tale of Two Talebs" (I want to have actually encouraged Farrington to release the latter in book kind also!).

It was likewise good to see among the dads of bitcoin, Adam Back, using a BTCPay Server hoodie:

In the exhibit location, participants might talk with folks from Braiins, Mempool.Space (I got a cool piece of boodle from softsimon!), Cryptosteel, Tinyseed, IVPN, Peach, SeedSigner, BTCTKVR, Satochip, Debifi-- while Jimmy Song, Daniel Prince and Knut Svanholm offered autographed books.

What's Next For Bitcoin In Europe?

Baltic Honeybadger was, till just recently, the biggest bitcoin-only conference in Europe. In October, this status will likely be surpassed by Bitcoin Amsterdam That one will likely be superseded by a yet larger occasion: BTC Prague

This is a visitor post by Josef Tětek Viewpoints revealed are completely their own and do not always show those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

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