Students For Liberty has always been active in the Bitcoin community, and nowhere more so than in the Czech Republic, one of the Bitcoin capitals of the world. Indeed, it is home to the first hardware wallet, the first mining pool, and a growing number of innovations in the field of decentralized technologies.
The local team has strong ties with the country’s Bitcoin entrepreneurs, influencers, authors and investors, and many of the group’s alumni work in the field. It is therefore not surprising that they have been involved in the country’s largest local-language conference, Chaincamp, as partners for the past three years. When its organizers decided to go bigger this year and launch BTCPrague, the largest Bitcoin event on the continent, Students For Liberty could be counted on to step up.
Our Speak Freely team prepared a special printed edition focused on Bitcoin, in which both our students and alumni, as well as our partners like Stephan Livera, talked about sound money, privacy, secure transactions, and much more. Our volunteer Radek Cieslar put together new designs, quizzes, and polls, to make the Students For Liberty booth really stand out.
At the three-day event that attracted over seven thousand attendees, twelve of our volunteers from seven different countries talked with attendees, while five of our other members spoke about a wide range of topics on stage.
Our CEO, Dr. Wolf von Laer, spoke on two panels. One covering Bitcoin education, discussing the role of student organizations, and another talking about building Bitcoin communities. Jan Škapa, our Senior Director of Systems, delved into Bitcoin and privacy, also sharing the story of how Bitcoin led him to found the Czech volunteer group in 2013.
Another team member, Jan Mošovský, discussed how Students For Liberty utilizes Bitcoin in advocating for a freer future worldwide in his talk titled “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once.”
Two of our volunteers spoke on stage as well: Lucie Komárková from our team in the Czech Republic gave a talk titled, “Is Bitcoin the New Batman,” in which she disputed myths connected with Bitcoin — such as the idea that it contributes disproportionately to global warming, among others.
On the final day of the event, our member and founder of our team in Poland, Tomek Kołodziejczuk, talked about the inherent link between technologies as Bitcoin and advocacy for liberty, as well as about his project, Bitcoin Film Fest, which is now the largest such event in his country.
Moreover, our volunteers networked, made valuable connections, and gave interviews — together with our CEO Wolf von Laer, other interviewed SFLers include one of our youngest members Teodor Kuběna, along with Tania Rak, an editor at SpeakFreely and coordinator from Ukraine.
This piece solely expresses the opinion of the author and not necessarily the organization as a whole. Students For Liberty is committed to facilitating a broad dialogue for liberty, representing a variety of opinions.
