We’re back from Riga! The Baltic Honeybadger 2019 was a life-changing experience for many of us. It was the first time for the team and for the community to meet in person after 2 years of work on the software.
On the first day, Nicolas Dorier announced (opens new window) the BTCPay Foundation (opens new window) and our first grant from Square Crypto (opens new window). The ovation from the audience and heartwarming congratulations and words of encouragement, made us feel special throughout our entire stay in Riga. We really appreciate all the support and especially all the extra beers and shots. Unfortunately, we haven't seen much of Riga since we were focused on coding, fixing, brainstorming, and also preparing for the first BTCPay Server official event, the BTCPay Day.
The idea behind BTCPay Day at first was to have a small office where our core team can work for a day and have time to meet each other. However, it grew organically and spread throughout community, that we had to expand it. Thanks to HodlHodl, CryptoCash and PayBis, we were able to get an entire office space free of charge.
CryptoCash and PayBis office entry stand
BTCPay Day (opens new window) kicked-off on Monday, in the wonderful office space of CryptoCash (opens new window) and PayBis (opens new window). The event was packed throughout the day. People were greeted at the door and stickers and t-shirts were given away to attendees.
The event started at 11:30 with Vortex (opens new window) welcoming everyone and blessing the event. Vortex has provided lots of support to the project from day one and brought plenty of positivity and vibes, but has also channeled the energy of people who later become essential contributors, such as brittttt (opens new window).
Vortex blessing the conference
Konstantin from CryptoCash and PayBis, our host, did an opening intro and introduced guests with their businesses and gave a bit of insight into Bitcoin adoption in Latvia.
Konstantin (PayBis and CryptoCash)
Next was, Pavlenex (opens new window) with “Introduction to BTCPay Server”. The focus of his talk was a quick explanation of what BTCPay was, is, and can be. Pavlenex presented BTCPay as a freedom toolbox which allows you to use tools inside to fix and improve your life or buidl bridges and entire businesses on top of BTCPay.
Introduction to BTCPayServer by Pavlenex (opens new window) | (opens new window) (opens new window)Video (opens new window) | Slides (opens new window)
Next on stage was Nicolas Dorier who started his presentation with a bang – literally. His PC crashed and opened floodgates to Windows crashing jokes. Nicolas' talk was divided into three parts. The first part, "BTCPay - Be Like Water" was a philosophical overview of how to build and manage the FOSS community.
After that, Nicolas announced hack0, an early version of BTCPay in a box, built by DG Labs in cooperation with Shift CryptoSecurity. The presentation evoked lots of good questions and all five early prototype units (signature edition) were sold out at the event. Final presentation was brief overview of the earlier announcement of the foundation and SquareCrypto grant.
Our surprise guest was Adam Fiscor (opens new window) from Wasabi Wallet. His presence was such a well-kept secret that at some point, Adam himself tried to guess who the surprise guest was. Adam’s talk was quite different than what we’re used to from him. It revolved around statistics of 4 different code-bases and interacted with the audience by asking them to attempt to guess the project. The projects mentioned were Bitcoin Core, Wasabi, NBitcoin & BTCPay Server.
NBitcoin, BTCPay, Wasabi Wallet by nopara73 (opens new window) | Video | Slides (opens new window)
Ketominer (opens new window) is the co-founder of Nodl (opens new window), a bitcoin personal assistant hardware device. Nodl was one of the first to package BTCPay Server in a portable hardware device and has been a valuable member of the community for a long time. His technical talk "Bulletproof BTCPay" revolved around security and infrastructure.
Ketominer announced their upcoming cloud version of Nodl, offering an enterprise-grade hosting solution for BTCPay Server and other Nodl supported services. Their newer Nodl hardware device prototype was also briefly displayed and its improvements explained.
Bulletproof BTCPay by ketominer (opens new window)
After the lunch break, Christian Moss presented Nayuta (opens new window), a new non-custodial bitcoin and Lightning wallet with BTCPay and Tor support, together with the ability to connect it to your full node.
Nayuta Wallet by MandelDuck (opens new window) | Video (opens new window) | Slides (opens new window)
Kukks (opens new window) was on last, and showcased his latest crazy ideas & features for BTCPay Server. The GreenField API will open up BTCPay Server for an array of new business use-cases while BTC Transmuter will allow merchants to achieve fiat settlement on their stores without needing a custodial payment processor.
BTCPay Greenfield API and Transmuter by Kukks (opens new window) | Video (opens new window) | Slides (opens new window)
Everyone was having such a great time talking to each other, so we just let people enjoy the conversations and brainstorming. The Nodl team (Ketominer (opens new window) and IAskuwheteau (opens new window)) managed to set up Nodl and BTCPay which is now used as PoS at CryptoCash office.
Special thanks
- HodlHodl (opens new window) – for helping us manage the event
- CryptoCash (opens new window) – for providing free office space and incredible hospitality
- Edgars – our community member who was our local guide to Riga during our stay, supplied everyone with delicious locally brewed beer.
- KriptoMedia (opens new window) – recording, and live-streaming the event free of charge.
- Bitko Yinowsky (opens new window) – for designing “This is lies” stickers that everyone enjoyed
- kristapsk (opens new window) – for helping us find local Latvian stickers supplier in a tight time-frame
- CoinCards (opens new window) (Mike and Angie) for supplying us with drinks during the event, but also during the entire conference
We would like to thank everyone who came and supported the event.
Inspired by the success of our first event, we've decided to have more of these events in the future.
A picture is worth 1000 words. 💚