Bitcoin Amsterdam 2022- Conference Summary
11 minutes
About Bitcoin Amsterdam 2022
The Bitcoin Amsterdam conference took place from 12-14th October at Westergas in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
The first two days of Bitcoin Amsterdam were in the form of a conference held by top speakers that delivered panel talks and workshops and offered ample networking opportunities..
While the 3rd & last day, same as in Miami, was the Sound Money Fest – a music festival.
Bitcoin Amsterdam Welcomed:
- Over 3,000 attendees
- Over 50 speakers
- 13 keynote speeches
Image credits: @BtcGandalf
Some of the Bitcoin Amsterdam speakers:
- Adam Back – CEO & Founder at Blockstream
- Peter Mccormack- Journalist
- Allen Farrington – Independent writer
- Dan Held – Bitcoin Educator & Marketing Advisor at Trust Machines
- Matt Odell – Bitcoiner
- Lina Seiche – Creator
- Williem Middlekoop – Founder & CEO at Commodity Discovery Fund
- Jemima Kelly – Columnist at Financial Times
- Leopoldo Lopez – Freedom Activist
- Alex Gladstein – Chief Strategy Officer at Human Rights Foundation
- Obi Nwosu – CEO at Fedi
- Aubrey Strobel – Host & Author at The Aubservation
Image credits: Bitcoin Amsterdam
Bitcoin Amsterdam 2022 Agenda
As introduced above, the event was split into 2 conference days and a music festival on the 3rd.
During the conference, there were ~70 sessions held that covered a variety of topics, ranging from bitcoin fundamentals, mass adoption, economics, energy crisis, the future of sidechains, maximalism, scaling of lightning, privacy, and decentralization, among others.
On another note, participants of Bitcoin Amsterdam could purchase anything with Bitcoin, such as drinks, food, or gadgets, via the Lightning network.
You can watch the conference recordings through this playlist.
Day 1 Wednesday 12th October
The first day of the conference featured ~40 sessions in keynotes, panel discussions, fireside chats, and workshops. The Day 1 playlist with recordings is available here.
Some of the Key Sessions from Day 1:
- Has Bitcoin’s Inflation Hedge Narrative Failed?
- Europe’s Energy Issues
- Julian’s Assange Untold Story Q&A
Has Bitcoin’s Inflation Hedge Narrative Failed?
With Speakers: Greg Foss – Executive Director at Validus Power, Jeff Booth – Author & Ex-CEO of BuildDirect, Prince Phillip – Prince of Serbia, Niko Jilch – Podcast Owner of Was Bitcoin Bringt, and Dylan LeClair – Bitcoin Magazine, Moderator.
The conversation started with the question, “How does the monetary system correlate with inflation?”
Jeff Booth was one to answer it by outlining that the free market is a deflationary force. So, prices should fall as new ways of doing things better are invented, time is saved, and the free market would transition and result in abundance for humanity – that would be natural.
The conversation goes on, and Greg Foss describes that the financial reality we live in can be easily explained from a global perspective. The debt in the world now is over 400 trillion US dollars, and the global economy is only 100 trillion US dollars. Therefore, the rational answer is that the world cannot outgrow its debts, which is the inflation component of the global debt GDP spiral. Greg continues by saying that the actual inflation is because of credit inflation and that Bitcoin can be the insurance against that credit inflation.
A trending topic was the energy crisis in Europe that has emerged due to Russia’s conflict with Ukraine.
The CEO of the mining firm White Rock Management, Andy Long, explained the situation.
“Really, the only affordable energy resources for mining in Europe are in locations where the energy is stranded. When transporting energy, you have losses in the grid, but you also need enough capacity in the distribution network.”
Additionally, Andy Long pointed out that restricted gas pipelines and power plants powered down caused further restraints as renewable energy cannot keep up. Resulting in a difficult task for mining operators to find locations with low cost and stable power.
CEO of Greentech Technologies AG, Jelmer ten Wold, outlined how the EU plans to invest €300 billion in the following years in renewable energy production. Still, a consumption plan seems to be missing.
Jelmer ten Wold stated: “It will result in a lot more need and demand for a stable load and load-balancing applications. The moment that the heat user vertically integrates with a mining farm, producing heat and BTC at the same time, there is no way that an electronic boiler will ever be cheaper.”
Andy Long depicted his company’s energy infrastructure investments in Sweden which led to a domino effect of infrastructure development and further financing into mining ventures by other firms.
Julian Assange’s Bitcoin Story
Julian Assange is a prominent activist and Wikileaks founder who was held at the Belmarsh prison in London at the time of the conference. He was represented by his wife, Stella Assange. She expressed both of their efforts to fight censorship globally.
“Bitcoin and its technology are trying to fight censorship in a similar way to how Wikileaks has fought censorship using cryptography. Julian started Wikileaks with an incredible innovation. He is a pioneer who has changed the way journalism is done.”
Julian Assange’s use of cryptography centered around helping journalists and newsrooms reevaluate how to protect the information source in the internet age. Quickly after Wikileaks started publishing information, the company had to end its activity due to significant payment networks.
“That led to Wikileaks becoming an early adopter of Bitcoin. It’s important to understand the attacks on Wikileaks and the different attacks. The extra-territorial banking blockades, the political and legal attacks.”
Day 2 Thursday 13th October
The second day of the Bitcoin Amsterdam 2022 conference featured 4 keynotes, 6 workshops, 10 panels, 1 debate and 6 fireside chats. Day 2 playlist resume is available here.
Some of the Key Sessions from Day 2:
- Bitcoin’s Media Problem
- Emerging Markets & Bitcoin
- Short the State
With speakers Daniel Prince – Moderator, Pete Rizzo from Bitcoin Magazine, Joe Hall from Cointelegraph, Izabella Kaminska from The Blind Spot, and Jemima Kelly from Financial Times
This panel talk featured an in-depth discussion about responsible journalism, especially about Bitcoin and how it affects people’s lives for the better.
The speakers discussed the challenges of the media reporting on Bitcoin objectively. Sometimes journalists are often taught to maintain a neutral stance in their reporting. Additionally, the early reporting of Bitcoin may have been biased and critical due to the lack of participation in the Bitcoin economy and their desire to be seen as objective. The influence of mainstream media on journalists reporting and the evolution of cryptocurrency journalism were also discussed during this panel talk.
With Speakers Katie Anania and Jessica Holdr from Plan B Passport.
This fireside chat discussed the flag theory, which involves obtaining citizenship or residency in multiple countries to take advantage of different regulatory environments and lifestyles. They argued that this allows individuals to have greater freedom and, thus, limit their dependency on any particular government. Katie and Jessica also discussed how Bitcoin enables flag theory by allowing individuals greater financial independence and freedom from government control.
Side Events During the Bitcoin Week in Amsterdam
In addition to the closing party and whale pass events, there were 8 other verified side events during the bitcoin week in Amsterdam.
- Bitcoin Unleashed: Amsterdam Edition at the Soho House Amsterdam
- Plebs Run: a 5km run exploring the city of Amsterdam
- Satoshi speakeasy –
- Creator Nations – featuring an NFT gallery hosted by Immutable Holdings, Kryptomon and Amsterdam Ghost Gallery
- Golf, beers, beats & bitterballs
The conference finished with a festival – Sound Money Fest.
Final Thoughts
After visiting this year’s conference in April in Miami with 25,000+ attendees, it was great to see also a more compressed version with 3,000+ attendees of this flagship conference.
The event brought together the European and global bitcoin community, and provided quality content and networking opportunities.
Thanks for another quality conference. See you next year!
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