Bitcoin Is About Ethics
Aaron Koenig is on the road again. Recently, he visited Prague and attended BTC Prague. In this report, he shares his impressions.
From June 19th to 21st, the 3rd BTC Prague Conference took place—despite adverse circumstances caused by the MiCA regulation, it was once again a complete success. Around 8,000 attendees from all over the world celebrated the recent Bitcoin bull run under the best summer weather.
„Due to the MiCA regulations, it was significantly more difficult this time to promote the conference and attract companies to become sponsors,“ says Martin Kuchar, who founded the conference together with his brother Matyas. Nevertheless, a mood of optimistic new beginnings prevailed in the Prague Expo halls. This was undoubtedly due to the positive developments in the United States, whose new government appears genuinely committed to its pro-Bitcoin course.
Bitcoin rockstar Michael Saylor, always one of the keynote speakers at BTC Prague, began his talk with an analysis of U.S. politics and an introduction to its main actors. He then ventured a prediction that surpassed even the optimism of his speech at Bitcoin 2025 in Las Vegas in May. He estimates the value of a single Bitcoin in the year 2046 at 21 million U.S. dollars. He also presented various strategies for how best to benefit from Bitcoin’s development.
What I particularly like about BTC Prague: even though Bitcoin now involves a lot of money, business, and investments, the Cypherpunk ethos from which Bitcoin emerged is always present. (In case anyone isn’t familiar: Cypherpunks are advocates for the use of cryptography and privacy-enhancing technologies as a means to drive social and political change.)
One of the most exciting side events for me was therefore the Cypherpunk Meet-up held on a boat on the Vltava River, which featured, among others, Paul Rosenberg, one of the founders of the Cypherpunk movement. The event was organized by Lea Petrášová, the founder of Vexl.com, a platform for P2P exchange of Bitcoin for fiat, goods, and services.
Lea was also responsible for the most original appearance at the conference. To announce her Freedom Store, a competitor to Apple’s App Store, she parodied the famous commercial that Apple aired during the 1984 Super Bowl to introduce the Macintosh. Dressed in sportswear and armed with a hammer, she ran through the audience toward a screen with a „Big Brother“ image and smashed it—in true Apple ad style. The clever premise: Apple has itself transformed from a rebellious underdog into a censoring „Big Brother“—they even banned the popular Vexl platform from the App Store, making it unusable for iPhone users.
Thanks to the Freedom Store, iPhone users can now become „Vexlaks“, too. During communist Czechoslovakia, „Vexlaks“ were black market agents who procured foreign currency or other hard-to-get goods. The term derives from the German word „Wechsel“ (exchange), since the Deutsche Mark was the dominant currency behind the Iron Curtain.
Perhaps the most moving talk was delivered by Strike and 21 CEO Jack Mallers. He analyzed the dangerous developments since the introduction of the fiat money system in 1971. Since then, prices and debt—both public and private—have skyrocketed to unmanageable levels, leading to massive social disruptions. Mallers, himself barely over 30, spoke on behalf of the millennial generation that suffers from the poor decisions made more than 50 years ago. He described rising suicide rates among teenagers, growing divorce rates, and more depression—all since the „Nixon Shock“ of 1971, when the last vestiges of the dollar’s gold backing were abolished.
The solution to all the problems his generation faces: of course, Bitcoin. „Fix the money, fix the world,“ is the slogan of Bitcoin activists. Mallers identifies five ethical principles embedded in Bitcoin’s code:
- You shall not steal
- You shall not inflate
- You shall not censor
- You shall not confiscate
- You shall not counterfeit money
I appreciate this near-religious aspect of Bitcoin conferences, where all participants affirm to themselves, time and again, that they’re standing on the right side and belong to the good guys. It does provide some comfort given the many scammers who, unfortunately, are also part of the Bitcoin world.
The best part about such events for me is always that I meet many old friends and acquaintances from around the world—even some from Mexico, Argentina, and El Salvador made the trip. And of course, Prague is a fantastic city with great beer and great food—a place where it’s easy to spend a few enjoyable days.
The only downside: the legendary „Satoshi-Rockamoto“ party, where Bitcoin pop stars like Samson Mow, Joe Nakamoto, or Knut Svanholm pick up guitars, didn’t happen this time for reasons unknown to me. I was actually scheduled to perform some of my own Bitcoin songs, including my new single „Honey Badger Don’t Care.“
So, you’ll have to make do with this YouTube video and wait until the next conference. Maybe we’ll see each other at Baltic Honeybadger in Riga?