Interview with hacker conference organizer: Bitcoin returns to its cypherpunk roots

First announced on a cryptography mailing list in 2008, Bitcoin is the embodiment of decades of desire among cypherpunks. Long before there was even a viable concept, cryptographers and hackers had longed for a digital currency that could not be controlled by governments, banks, and corporations.

Since its launch in 2009, a whole new type of industry has formed around Bitcoin, and the interests of Bitcoin have expanded far beyond the small group of visionaries. The blockchain technology it brought has inspired many governments, banks and companies today. This cryptocurrency aims to disrupt everything.

The third annual hacker conference (HCPP16) in Prague will evoke Bitcoin’s roots, starting on September 30. The three-day event, held in the black building of Paralelní Polis, will bring together cypherpunks and crypto-anarchists from the Czech Republic, Europe and around the world.

To learn more, Bitcoin Magazine spoke with Martin Sip, project coordinator and organizer at Paralelní Polis, and Pavol Lupták, co-founder of Paralelní Polis.

HCPP16 is a conference related to its location, namely Paralelní Polis. What kind of place is it?

Sip: Paralelní Polis is an anarcho-civilian organization created by the local informal artists’ collective Ztohoven and the Slovak hackerspace ProgressBar. It is a space that promotes the ideas and techniques of Internet freedom, mainly through cryptography and cryptocurrency tools to achieve this freedom.

Luptak: Paralelní Polis is named after the parallel underground society idea of ​​Vaclav Benda, a Czech political thinker and dissident during the Cold War. We are almost all voluntarists or anarchists, and we believe that Benda's ideas can be realized on the Internet through crypto-anarchy technology.

What exactly is crypto-anarchism?

Sip: Simply put, crypto-anarchism is the idea that people can govern and organize themselves without a government, through the use of cryptographic tools, cryptocurrencies, and other decentralized approaches.

Luptak: Using tools like these, we can build a more efficient, freer, and more voluntary society. For example, we can enable a completely decentralized anonymous market with more robust reputation systems and payment services, where any product is 30% to 50% cheaper than in a market where the government taxes and regulates it.

We don’t need to be accepted by the public or politicians. The human nature of satisfying our individual needs first ensures that no one wants to pay taxes to the government in the virtual Internet world. Crypto-anarchists can show how the current tax-based political system is broken.

Do you think this is a good thing?

Luptak: Our current society is too complex and global to be treated differently by authoritarian governments. Reality is too complex, and laws and regulations are too one-size-fits-all for such a diverse population.

If we want to maintain freedom in a complex society, we believe that this freedom can be achieved through a completely decentralized, peer-to-peer, and mutually supportive approach. Any other solution is likely to end in totalitarianism.

Are crypto-philes still involved in assassination markets and other dark concepts?

Luptak: Yes, Jim Bell's assassination politics is probably the most famous. However, while it is technically possible, there is no evidence that the concept has ever been implemented.

I think and believe that the benefits of crypto-anarchism will outweigh its negative effects, just like the Internet, which has provided a venue for pedophilia, Satanism, Nazism, and terrorism, but no one wants to shut down the Internet because of this.

If you don't do evil things and don't interfere with other people's lives, others will not have the motivation to pay to stab you. There are also some crypto-anarchists who believe that if crypto-anarchism existed a hundred years ago, there would be no crazy dictators like Hitler and Stalin in the world, and we would not have experienced world wars. In some ways, they may be right.

The reality that must be realized is that despite the many negative effects of crypto-anarchism, it cannot be stopped at present. It is here and people must face it.

How does HCPP (Hacker Conference) promote crypto-anarchist ideas?

Luptak: One of our speakers is Timothy C. May, a technology and political writer who is probably the first to coin the term “crypto-anarchism” in his “Crypto-Anarchist Manifesto,” which also features the concept of the Fourth Horseman of the Inforcalypse. May’s wild vision has become a reality, and he will be reflecting on crypto-anarchism’s 30th anniversary at the conference.

Sip: Another notable speaker is Paul Rosenberg, author of the crypto-anarchist bible The Traveler's Rental and a recent book called Daybreak. He is also the founder of the online privacy service Cryptohippie and the author of the Freeman's Perspectives blog, which allows readers to "see the real world." Paul's talk at the hacker conference is "How to Evolve and Refine Your Soul."

Lutak: We also have Smuggler, author of the Second Kingdom Manifesto, and of course people love Sam Patterson, the father of OpenBazaar. I personally think that our speakers are all outstanding people in their field, and their work, past or current activities are well respected.

What role does Bitcoin play here?

Sip: Bitcoin allows for unregulated exchange of value on a global scale that has never been done before, and it will have a profound impact on society. People will start doing things that were not possible before, and will organize themselves in a whole new way of communicating and in a whole new structure. I think society will go through a major reformation. Governments, banks, and businesses as we know them will fall apart or change dramatically.

Luptak: Bitcoin is not just about changing business and creating new business opportunities, we really think Bitcoin is a liberating tool that can change society as a whole. I think Satoshi Nakamoto had a similar view.

Although the Bitcoin community was once dominated by this revolutionary sentiment, you may be one of the few people who holds such a view... Luptak: I don’t think so. At least our HCPP conferences are becoming more and more popular year by year, with new crypto-anarchists joining and more and more related projects being launched.

Sip: I agree that crypto-anarchism is not as strong as it used to be in the Bitcoin community, but the existence of this idea is powerful because even if it exists in a small group of the community, that group is where the most powerful innovators are.

How is Bitcoin developing in Prague?

Sip: Bitcoin is developing very well in the Czech Republic and we are proud that Czech Bitcoin companies are part of the Paralelni Polis community. We have some companies that have an impact on the global Bitcoin industry, such as Satoshi Labs, Trezor, the creator of the first hardware wallet, Slush, the first mining pool, and General Bytes, a major Bitcoin ATM provider, which is also the payment service provider for this conference. Moreover, Prague is a very Bitcoin-accepting city, according to Coinmap.org, the city has 80 physical stores that accept Bitcoin payments, which is a large number for a city of 1 million people.

Good reasons to fly to Prague this weekend

Lutptak: There are many conferences in the world that focus on Bitcoin and blockchain business, but none of them are like us, thinking about radical political and technical ideas, and changing our society through encryption technology and anonymous tools. This is what we strive to achieve. It is a Bitcoin underground conference and may be the only true crypto-libertarian conference in the world.

Sip: There are many reasons to participate in this conference, it is actually an informal annual gathering of the Paralelni Polis community. We hope to give our old members and new members a chance to interact, inspire each other, connect, or just spend some time with each other and become friends.

Luptak: If you support or believe in the idea of ​​crypto-anarchism, there is no better conference for you than HCPP2016.