The Bitcoin Conference: What A Difference A Year Makes

What a quality a twelvemonth makes.

The Bitcoin 2021 conference was my coming-out enactment arsenic a Bitcoiner. Though I had been intimately pursuing Bitcoin since aboriginal 2013, vocation and household commitments had prevented maine from becoming an “IRL” Bitcoiner up until that point. But that each changed past twelvemonth erstwhile I hopped successful our household minivan with different dada from my kids’ school, and started connected the 18-hour thrust from the Midwest to Miami past June.

As I headed to the league with wide-eyed enthusiasm, I had a ngo successful caput arsenic well. About six months earlier I’d started a tiny open-source task built astir the thought that radical could securely prevention and walk bitcoin utilizing a instrumentality built with off-the-shelf physics components and powered by free-and-open-source (FOSS) software.

The full thought was calved arsenic I came up against symptom points successful the wintertime of 2020-21 portion trying to migrate my HODL stack into multisignature acold storage. Setting up a multisig wallet commonly requires buying respective hardware wallets, which gets costly rapidly adjacent for a smaller quorum. I additionally wasn’t brainsick astir having to physically link devices designed to store my backstage cardinal (a hardware wallet) to different instrumentality that was actively connected to the net (my laptop). And connected apical of these issues, conscionable the enactment of acquiring a hardware wallet tin extremity up constituting a important leak of personally identifiable information.

With these symptom points astatine the beforehand of my mind, I’d started the task successful my surviving country recliner. Though I’m not a coder by commercialized (I’m really a retired constabulary serviceman and integer forensic researcher — it's a agelong story!) I’d watched respective hours of instructional Python videos connected Udemy arsenic I sorted the thought retired successful my head. Once I felt similar I’d absorbed capable Python, I acceptable to work. Stepan Snigirev, who had written a Bitcoin room called “embit” that I would beryllium leaning on, and who created the Specter DIY hardware wallet from which I’d drawn important inspiration, was particularly generous with his clip and expertise. After much than a tiny magnitude of clip fumbling astir connected Google and Stack Overflow, I arrived astatine a crudely-coded proof-of-concept.

The sanction I’d fixed to the task was “SeedSigner” and I was hoping to person the accidental to marque a little presumption successful the Miami conference’s “FOSS Dome.” I’d enactment a abbreviated descent platform unneurotic and I adjacent had a fewer agleam orangish t-shirts made with our project’s logo connected the front.

After arriving successful Miami and subsequently stepping done the conference’s main gates, the acquisition of being astir truthful galore similarly-minded radical was intoxicating. Listening to talks connected each things Bitcoin, viewing Bitcoin art, getting to interact with Bitcoin vendors, glimpsing a fewer Bitcoin micro-celebs — for idiosyncratic who had been privately nerding retired connected the orangish coin for the amended portion of a decade, experiencing Bitcoin civilization first-hand and successful the soma was exhilarating. A fewer radical adjacent recognized the logo connected my t-shirt and approached me, asking successful a whispered hush “Do you cognize the guy…?” oregon “…Are you the SeedSigner?”

Despite a fewer insignificant logistical issues, the FOSS-dome was an astonishing accidental to perceive to and talk with different technically-oriented Bitcoiners. There were presentations connected Lightning, outgo processing, node building, privacy-conscious Bitcoin tools — a literal myriad of breathtaking projects being explained first-hand and in-person by passionate builders. My little presumption earlier the tiny assemblage was reasonably good received, and a fewer radical politely approached with questions and feedback afterward. Amazingly, 1 of those radical was Keith Mukai, who would go 1 of our project’s cardinal contributors implicit the adjacent respective months — connecting with him unsocial made the full travel worthwhile.

Rejuvenated, and with a fewer caller connections wrong the Bitcoin community, I returned location to resume my travel with SeedSigner. I was thankfully capable to get the seedsigner.com domain to usage arsenic a coordination constituent for much radical to observe our project. And arsenic our bundle matured implicit the adjacent fewer months, the task came onto the radar of the Human Rights Foundation. Their involvement was piqued by SeedSigner providing the quality to secretly physique a unafraid Bitcoin signing instrumentality from commonly available, non-Bitcoin-specific physics components. Near the extremity of the summer, we were fortunate to receive a grant from the HRF’s Bitcoin Development Fund, and that autumn I was adjacent invited to enactment successful a sheet treatment connected bitcoin aforesaid custody astatine their yearly Oslo Freedom Forum event.

As autumn faded into winter, the features being delivered by our 2 pb developers, Nick (@newtonick) and the aforementioned @KeithMukai, came astatine an assertive clip. A web developer volunteered to physique retired the project’s website. A unreality services supplier offered to donate infrastructure truthful we could judge donations for our bundle improvement fund. Independent designers began re-imagining our hardware constituent enclosure. A Linux admin created a customized OS physique for our software. A idiosyncratic interface decorator volunteered his clip and endowment to re-imagine our idiosyncratic experience. Someone adjacent took it upon themselves to make a semipermanent alloy backup solution compatible with our platform. And a fewer entrepreneurs had begun spinning up websites to marque SeedSigners disposable successful their respective parts of the world.

The imaginativeness of making private, inexpensive, unafraid multisignature bitcoin retention disposable to anyone consenting to drawback unneurotic a fewer physics components has taken signifier beyond my wildest expectations.

Last fall, arsenic I noted the Bitcoin Conference’s absorption connected making FOSS builders a much salient portion of their 2022 event, I recovered myself hoping I could someway beryllium involved. In November of past year, I had the thrill of being announced arsenic a talker astatine the Bitcoin 2022 conference. Given that simply a twelvemonth earlier successful November of 2020 I was a feline listening to Bitcoin podcasts, tinkering with a 3D printer, and learning to codification Python, my way with SeedSigner has been rather an astonishing thrust truthful far. I americium looking guardant to sharing the SeedSigner worth proposition with a larger assemblage wrong the Bitcoin space, and making connections and gathering feedback from Bitcoiners of each walks of life. I anticipation that sharing my communicative tin animate anyone retired determination successful the Bitcoin assemblage who has an idea, that with hard work, persistence, and a small spot of luck, they tin marque their people successful Bitcoin, and much importantly, marque an interaction connected the satellite astir them.

Looking guardant to seeing you successful Miami Beach successful April!

Bitcoin 2022 volition beryllium the biggest lawsuit successful Bitcoin history, with an unprecedented scope of technical, taste and fiscal advancement being made successful the space. To unafraid your spot astatine the event, use the discount codification "MAGAZINE" for 10% disconnected summons prices astatine https://b.tc/conference/registration.

This is simply a impermanent station by SeedSigner. Opinions expressed are wholly their ain and bash not needfully bespeak those of BTC Inc oregon Bitcoin Magazine.