The year is 2019. BTCPay Server is a relatively new project, barely out of its infancy phase. The contributors had never even met each other in person. It's a handful of weirdos who keep pushing commits. In hindsight, it's surreal that people from three continents worked together on a piece of software every day for two years and never saw each other in real life! We had to do something about that. The executive order was: "All contributors immediately leave coding caves, board a plane, and let’s paaaaarty with friends." 🥳
We’ve picked Riga, the capital of Latvia, and the famous bitcoin-only Baltic Honeybadger conference (opens new window) as perfect locations for the event. With the immense help of organizers, we made it happen. You could have felt the love and energy in the air if you were there. It wasn’t the most organized event. We can now tell you that we hadn’t slept that night because we were trying to come up with presentations for the morning. We thought no one would show up. We had so many “what–ifs” that we just ended up panicking until the morning.
The event kicked off with our friend Vortex making a remote appearance and blessing the crowd, then Emperor Nicolas had a blue screen of death during his keynote, and our evil-scientists Kukks had a bit too much of Jack Daniels to kill the tension. Still, he killed the presentation when he announced the new API and transmuter. People started coming in, and the event was packed. We had people outside of the building listening to presentations. The funniest thing was that Nopara73, who was a “surprise guest,” didn’t even know he was a surprise guest and kept asking us who the surprise guest was.
Despite all the imperfections, BTCPay Day 2019 (opens new window) was a turning point for the project. It was after that day that most of us realized we want to be fully committed to building a software that ensures an open financial future for anyone, regardless of the political, economical or social barriers. We realized we’re living and breathing BTCPay, and we want to do whatever it takes to keep doing it.
If all those moments from Riga could fit in a picture, it would be this one.
Or if you want to get freaky, then maybe this one.
# BTCPay Day Riga 2022
Back to 2022. Things haven’t been bread and butter always, but here we are; 3 years later, BTCPay is stronger than ever. It has become a synonym for an open-source bitcoin project, an equivalence for a piece of software that the entire community loves and supports. It may sound cliche, but who knows how things could have turned out for the project if there wasn't for Riga and BTCPay Day 2019.
In 2 weeks, BTCPay Server is hitting its 5th birthday. The community, the team, and the user base have grown since the last time we had a chance to meet each other. The amount of improvements and releases is something we won’t even bother counting. It’s time to throw a party again! It’s time for a new executive order.
"All BTCPay contributors, community members, supporters and friends of the project on September the 5th, make sure to leave your caves, board a plane, and let’s paaaaarty with friends." 🥳
We’re incredibly excited to announce another BTCPay Server Day Riga 2022!
A full day dedicated to BTCPay Server, a side event of the Baltic Honeybadger conference. We've gone above and beyond to bring as many contributors as possible to the event. For most of the team, this will be the first time they meet each other. The event aims to gather all people who care about BTCPay and have been a part of the journey.
Without the community, there would be no BTCPay, so on September 5th, 2022, in Riga, we'd love to celebrate the community! You can expect many familiar faces at the event, special guests, and people who have hugely impacted BTCPay. We'll have a few presentations, workshops, demos, and direct interaction with all of you attending. We deeply care about your needs, experiences, and use-cases. We'll try to share ideas and together brainstorm what's next for BTCPay!
Even if you haven’t been directly involved with the project, if you used it, spread the word, or onboarded a merchant, you’ve helped this project evolve, and for that, we’re thankful.
💚 🇱🇻
We’d love to have you join us in celebrating 5 years of BTCPay Day! Here’s how you can grab a symbolically priced ticket.
# Location and Time
- Date: September 5th 2022
- Location: OraculeTang Space (opens new window)
- Address: Doma laukums 2, RÄ«ga, LV-1050
- Time: 14:00-19:00 (Local time)
- Tickets: https://day.btcpayserver.org
# Early Bird Tickets available
To ensure the quality of interactions and that enough time is dedicated to each attendee, we're limiting the attendance. We've attached a symbolic fee to reduce RSVP spam of 21EUR. We'll be using the proceeds from the ticket sales towards the event.
You can book a ticket at day.btcpayserver.org. (opens new window) You will be taken to a page where you can make a purchase. Please make sure to provide a valid e-mail address on the invoice page since you will be receiving your ticket details there. Due to the limited amount of tickets, please buy a ticket only if you're certain you can and will attend.
This event would not be possible without our supporters and the Baltic Honeybadger (opens new window) organizers.
For any questions, contact us at btcpayday@btcpayserver.org or on our Mattermost Chat (opens new window)