Secure and private transactions on a decentralized network with no central planner controlling the new money supply? That’s what we at Students For Liberty like about Bitcoin!
And our journey aligns closely with that of Bitcoin. Several of our teams were established by early Bitcoin enthusiasts, and numerous alumni are now influential in the Bitcoin sphere, serving as authors, entrepreneurs, or investors.
Students have consistently been at the forefront of adopting new technologies. When these students are affiliated with Students For Liberty and the invention in question enables transactions that are largely untraceable by governments, along with a store of value immune to central manipulation, it’s not surprising that our volunteers have a strong affinity for Bitcoin.
All around Europe, our teams organize local events and meet-ups centered around Bitcoin, and they are also integral participants in any major events taking place in the community.
In the past year alone, our team in Spain participated in the D4A conference in Barcelona, our team in the Czech Republic joined the fourth edition of Chaincamp, the largest non-English-speaking Bitcoin conference in Europe, and our volunteers from Austria were among the 21 partners of BTC23, the largest event of its kind in German, held in Innsbruck.
Our National Coordinator for Austria, Ivane Nachkebia, who previously worked as a Fellow at the Center for Monetary Alternatives at the Cato Institute, reflects on what a memorable experience the Innsbruck conference was for him and the team:
“The BTC23 conference in Innsbruck gathered the most prominent minds in the German-speaking Bitcoin community. Our team, one of the most passionate supporters of Bitcoin in the country, hosted a booth at the conference, which was the spot for engaging discussions about Bitcoin, monetary policy, classical liberalism, and freedom.”
The Czech team has been part of the Bitcoin space ever since it was founded by Jan Škapa, himself a Bitcoin enthusiast. This year’s Chaincamp was the third time the team was present there with their booth, talking about how students too can get involved in the area, but also the first time they were involved in the running of the conference itself.
“A lot of SFLers including myself discovered the ideas of freedom through Bitcoin. This just goes to show that bitcoiners are an important target group for libertarian education,” says Štěpán Kovář, our Regional Coordinator for Central Europe and one of the leaders of our Bitcoin-related projects.
These include not just creative tablings, such as the one with the Bitcoin mining photo booth, but also educational videos on accepting and transacting in Bitcoin, or an activism project he started, focused on promoting of the idea of sound money in the public space.
Finally, in June, our students participated in the largest Bitcoin event in Europe, BTCPrague, taking place in the Czech capital. Five of our volunteers and staff members along with multiple alumni spoke at the event, including our CEO Wolf von Laer.
Our team from the Speak Freely magazine published a special issue centered around sound money, which our volunteers gave away at the conference, alongside their translation of Steven Horwitz’s book, Austrian Economics: An Introduction.
In the upcoming semester, our students are planning to expand their Bitcoin-related activities. The Bitcoin Activism Project is growing to encompass educational videos and other materials as our teams in countries outside of Central Europe become more engaged with the topic.
Moreover, the some of our alumni’s projects, such as the Bitcoin Film Fest, started by our alumnus from Poland, Tomek Kolodziejczuk, are reaching new heights.
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.
