I’m restarting the podcast in preparation for the huge conference in Prague.
I will be hosting a fireside chat with gigachad Michael Saylor and do a keynote presentation on the lessions Bitcoiners can learn from the rebels of 1989.
Looking forward to see you all in Prague!
Join us and use code WASBITCOINBRINGT to get 10% off!
Summary
My conversation with Matyas Kuchar covers the upcoming Bitcoin Prague conference, the significance of Bitcoin in Europe, the VIP stage, side events, and the global impact of Bitcoin. It also delves into the importance of personal connections and the role of Bitcoin in uniting people across different continents.
Takeaways
* Bitcoin Prague conference is a significant event with a focus on Bitcoin and its impact on Europe.
* The VIP stage offers a curated environment for business networking and in-depth discussions with speakers.
* Side events and parties at the conference venue provide opportunities for networking and informal discussions.
* Bitcoin plays a crucial role in uniting people across different continents and fostering lasting connections.
* The conversation highlights the importance of personal connections and face-to-face interactions in the Bitcoin community.
Chapters
* 00:00 Bitcoin Prague: An Overview and Expectations
* 03:19 The VIP Stage: Networking and In-Depth Discussions
* 06:13 Side Events and Networking Opportunities
* 10:23 Bitcoin's Impact on Europe and Unifying Force
* 15:46 The Global Impact of Bitcoin and Uniting People
Full Transcript
Niko (00:00.843)
Welcome back everyone, welcome back to the Fix The Money podcast. I'm restarting my English channel with a new and fresh mission. I'll write about that soon, but today we'll talk about Prague and we'll talk about me meeting Michael Saylor there, interviewing him there. This will be interesting at the VIP stage and with me today is Matthias who is behind it all. Hi, Matthias.
Matyas (00:22.798)
Hello everyone, hello and thanks Nico for being a part of this great mission.
Niko (00:28.491)
Well, thank you for taking the time. I'm very much looking forward to Prague. I'll be doing two things there. And of course, I want to promote what I'll be doing. Yes, Michael Saylor, but before we go into the details, how are preparations going? What's it going to be like in Prague this year?
Matyas (00:46.478)
man, it's so much things to do still. We are now in the sprinting mode with the whole team. We are very looking forward to it. It's gonna be awesome. The only unpredictable thing is the weather, but it's June, so probably it will be nice summer weather, hot and the beer will be cold. So the perfect combination and...
And you know, in the even organizing business, you have one certainty that always something will go wrong, but we are prepared for everything. So you will definitely enjoy it.
Niko (01:25.387)
Who are the main headliners of this year's edition of Bitcoin Prague, BTC Prague? Well, there is Michael Saylor, of course, and who else?
Matyas (01:34.734)
Yeah, so I'm very proud to say that we are bringing Jack Mallers to Prague for the first time. I met him in another two conferences and confirmed his attendance just a few weeks ago. So Jack Mallers, then Adam Beck, then for the first time, Tour de Mestre. I'm sorry if I butchered his name. Then...
Niko (01:59.178)
He's a great guy. I haven't met him personally, but I'm very much looking forward to meeting him. He's amazing.
Matyas (02:06.126)
He is amazing and I didn't know how he looks. Of course, I read all of his work and we just met in Honey Badger conference while waiting for a burger and we were chatting for 20 minutes. I didn't know he's a tour. Yeah. So I thought that I'm chatting to some random guy and then he introduced himself and I'm just like, okay. It's tour and this actually helped me to convince him because I was talking to just a
Niko (02:23.466)
I see.
Matyas (02:36.238)
normal guy random play yeah and then we made a very very good connection and he will he will he's preparing like perfect very very interesting talk it's titled bitcoin is a mythril for Europe so maybe some connection to Lord of the Rings I don't know
Niko (02:55.759)
Well, I'll be talking in my keynote, I'll be talking about the lessons from 1989. I am obsessed with communism and I see lots of strategic lessons that we can learn from the collapse basically of the Soviet Union and especially I'm very excited talking about that in Prague.
There's a reason why there's so much going on in Prague. You also had it in your amazing video. There's a reason why there's so much Bitcoin stuff going on in Eastern Europe in general. We're not supposed to call it Eastern Europe anymore, right? But you know what I mean.
Matyas (03:35.886)
Yeah, no, it's fine. No offense taken. I'm actually proud about our history, you know, because the scars made us what we are today.
Niko (03:47.243)
Absolutely. I mean, there's a reason why the Satoshi Nakamoto statue is in Budapest and there's a reason why the Honey Badger is in Riga and in Warsaw there's the film festival. And of course, BTC Prague is the biggest event in Europe, right?
Matyas (04:04.654)
It is, it is, yeah. Last year we had 6 ,500 people, this year we are ready to welcome 8 ,000 people. We are stretching the venue even more, so we rented more place and the Czech stage will be much bigger because so many Czech Bitcoiners are coming to Prague to see their favorite Czech Bitcoin speakers. And this year...
I think I feel confident enough that I'm bringing few very famous Czech speakers to the main stage. So they are not used to speak in English, but they have a lot to say. So you can, for those who want to see some famous Czech speakers, Daniel Steidrváld, he's a very famous Czech anarcho -capitalist. And he's famous because he...
he can put things in very funny way and pick the most ridiculous things on the state apparatus to show how nonsense this system is. And he's a Bitcoiner, you know, so I'm very, very much looking forward to this one.
Niko (05:16.97)
You see, that's why I want to talk about, you know, 1989, I want to talk about Vaclav Havel and Lech Walesa. I know I'm going to butcher the names. And Hungary even, because here in Austria, we are very East, very much in the East. I'm even more Eastern than you are in Prague right now, like on the map, right? But we don't have anarcho -capitalists.
But we do have communists that I can vote for in the European elections, which I think is absolutely ridiculous. But, you know, that's the that's the reality of it. So I'm also very much so that's the one thing that I'm going to do my keynote on on the Soviet Union. And then there is the fireside chat that I'm going to do with Michael Saylor. I've done that in Innsbruck twice, but that was digital. Now we do it on the stage. What are we going to do, Matthias?
Matyas (05:50.446)
in this.
Matyas (06:13.806)
So, you know the VIP stage is a perfect opportunity for everyone to meet the best and the brightest in the Bitcoin ecosystem, all the speakers, all the entrepreneurs, CEOs and founders of the companies in a curated environment, which is quiet and perfect for business networking and just like jump -starting the Bitcoin journey. It's...
the VIP stage is not recorded, so the speakers are able to share a little bit more from what might be not fitting for the main stage.
And not only because the audience is so big and we narrow it down to like 40 -50 people. So you can imagine after the fireside chat, you can ask a question, the speaker, he answer it. Then sometimes, and I know this from the last time, there is like a discussion between the parties and it's almost like a Socratic seminar style of thing, you know. So it gets very, very natural because it's a small group.
Niko (07:17.77)
Mm -hmm.
Matyas (07:24.079)
And after that you have an ideal situation where the ice is already broken and you can continue in the discussion with the speaker after the official fireside talk finish because the speaker will just hang out in the VIP area.
Niko (07:45.45)
So there's going to be more than one fireside chat, more than one, there's going to be a whole program on the VIP stage, but me and Michael, we're also going to be there. So we're going to have like 50, 60 people. I've seen the VIP stage. I was there last year. I think that honestly, of all the conferences that I've been to, yours was by far the best VIP area.
I mean, we don't want to sound elitist now. The whole conference is amazing. And if you're still on the fence about it, I can tell you that it's going to be absolutely great. I mean, last year there was no BlackRock ETF. You know, this year we are basically in the middle of society here with our Bitcoin conference. Yeah, and Prague is the perfect location for it. So I can tell you, if you're listening, you know,
Use my code was Bitcoin bring this the German code I'll put it in the description and get either a normal ticket or a VIP ticket if you can afford it. I know that there are many Bitcoins who can afford it and I think that and I really mean this now is the time to get in touch with people. It's not just about listening to the talks it's about meeting the other Bitcoiners and building businesses basically.
Matyas (08:58.286)
Yeah, Bitcoin is a growing ecosystem. I can see this from the first hand. I'm a program director of BTC Prague and I work with my brother. He is a business development part of the things and he tells me every day that the companies are hiring. They are looking for more connections.
They are looking not only for developers but marketers, sales, graphic designers and all kind of classic jobs opportunities are rising in the ecosystem because it's just another business like everything else just still new. If I compare it to the dot -com bubble...
early days of internet. We are probably still in the year 95. Yeah. So imagine how, how early we are and we have the very, very good situation that we can bet on the winner already on Bitcoin in the .com bubble. You didn't know which company will survive, but now with Bitcoin being the first and like far better than the second one.
Niko (10:01.129)
Hmph.
Matyas (10:13.614)
the bet is quite easy. So I would say I'm very happy that I'm here now and I wasn't there early.
Niko (10:23.178)
Agree 100 % I can see it also in the downloads and and you know click rates from my German channel, which is my main channel I just had a guest there Florian Bruce who is a great guy is an entrepreneur from from German He's only 26, but he's already running his own e -commerce business on Amazon And he's a big Bitcoiner and he said like his father He told him that he wanted he invested in the dot -com bubble and he didn't know what to invest in back then and then he asked him
would you have invested in the internet itself? And of course you would have. And that's what you can do with Bitcoin. And I think you say it's a business like anything else, but it really isn't because it's, I come from the media world and whenever I meet people from the classical legacy media world, they are super depressed. But today I know that, I mean,
Within Bitcoin, there's so much optimism and there's so much growth that I think, especially in Europe, we have to be super careful and vigilant that this growth stays here. I mean, Czech Republic is one of the most important Bitcoin hubs in Europe. But I think that it's very important to have this huge event in the middle of Europe and also to be talking between Europeans and Americans, because I think that lots of content and lots of discussions are just happening on American stages.
Matyas (11:46.638)
Yeah, yeah, true, true. And this was part of our mission, why we started BTC Prior, because we saw that a lot of information, a lot of discussion happens in English language because of US. It's a big market, one language, so you put something out and it instantly gets across so many people. But in Europe, because we have different languages and we are scattered, the communities are closed.
we saw the opportunity and I actually got this live ball moment in Innsbruck in 2022 when I saw the huge community super friendly, a little bit different than Czech.
but still very similar. And I got this idea to bridge and connect these communities across Europe because this can help us survive in the in upcoming years of uncertainty. You need to feel that you have allies in other countries.
Niko (12:31.497)
Mm -hmm.
Matyas (12:49.902)
and you really do because Bitcoin is uniting us. It doesn't matter where you are, we are decentralized. And I really love the idea of decentralization. If you take anything in the world, not only money, and you decentralize it, it always get better and more healthier.
Niko (13:06.889)
Mm -hmm.
Matyas (13:07.694)
So I really love this and with but still you need some trust. You need to build a bridge. You need to meet for the first time to agree on some terms between each other, make the friendship and then like me and you, yeah, like we met a few times, five times, but I consider you already a good friend because we know we share the values, you know, but we couldn't establish this relationship only via call or...
signal messages, right? It's not possible. You have to be there, meet the people, shake the hand and find the right people for you because the ecosystem is so colorful. Of course it's orange but it has many shapes. So you have to find your way in and show what you got and find the other side of the deal.
Niko (14:02.538)
It's true. I love going to Bitcoin conferences for this exact reason. Why do people go to Bitcoin conferences? Why do they go to meetups? Because most of the people at home, they are the crazy ones that always talk about Bitcoin and then they want to meet other Bitcoiners where it's normal to talk about Bitcoin. But then, of course, when you grow deeper into it, it's about making connections that are really lasting. And it's not about nationalities at all.
Matyas (14:21.55)
Yeah.
Niko (14:31.914)
I remember in El Salvador, I was making a joke about a French Bitcoiner and he was pissed at me because I even called him French. He said he's a Bitcoiner first, right? So it's like the idea that they want us to feel like Europeans, which never really works, but as Bitcoiners, it does work. And it's very important, especially in Europe, you're absolutely right, because...
I know what's going on in the German -speaking Bitcoin world. I know what's going on in the English -speaking Bitcoin world. I know very well what's going on in the US. Everybody knows what's going on in the US, right? But of course, it's very hard to know what's going on in Italy, what's going on in France, what's going on in Spain, and even in the smaller countries, of course, Eastern Europe. So I really enjoy this very much. And I personally have, like I said, with my obsession with communism,
I end up being an Austrian from Vienna. I always prefer going to Eastern Europe actually anyways, you know, but I think we really need to connect and build these relationships. And yeah, I mean, meeting, it doesn't matter on the VIP area or outside or for beers. I mean, what can you tell me about the side events? I mean, what's going on outside of the main venue?
Matyas (15:47.63)
Okay, so maybe I'll cover it from the other side of the question. I just turn it around. Side events, of course we have them, but we changed from last year that we have a party every night in the venue. So you don't have to leave the venue.
We figured from feedback, from surveys, that the people actually don't like to spend too much time traveling around Prague and looking for these small side events and spending a lot of time in the public transport. So we let the venue open until midnight every night and until three o 'clock in the morning on Saturday. And we will craft a party like...
just for networking, don't expect too much dancing. It's gonna be more like there are gonna be enough food and drinks to... You're smiling, you want to dance, right?
Niko (16:48.969)
No, no, no, no, I love, I actually don't want that.
Matyas (16:52.43)
So yeah, that's true. Yeah, like most of us don't want to dance on the after party. We just want to continue to talk to Bitcoiners.
and talk about Bitcoin only and about what we learn during the day, just sorting out the thoughts, making sure that we understand it correctly, because live -bob moment, it can be one, but if you don't catch it, it can just somehow disappear. So that's why it's important, I believe, at least for me, to really just like...
If you get something, maybe ask for more questions, encounter the speaker. Most of the speakers are absolutely happy to talk about their talk. They are very happy that someone asks additional questions. So we decided we will craft, we will create a perfect environment for this, for this mission, for more networking. So there will be a bar.
designed by Maydx, the Canadian artist, and also a stage which during the day will...
call during the day will be for speakers so they can they can use this as a meet and greet place after they talk they say okay guys we don't have more time for questions and answer but I will be at the meet and greet at the Maydex stage for another 30 minutes please meet me there and we can talk yeah this way we open the opportunities for for speakers to meet the audience
Matyas (18:30.286)
And in the night after the talks finish at seven o 'clock, we put the DJ there and we start playing some nice, chilling music, which is not disturbing and it's just underlying the mood for...
perfect networking and slowly finishing the evening until night. So we are ready for the next day and on Saturday evening we put the music a little bit more louder because we will celebrate and finish the whole conference.
Niko (19:06.409)
Yeah, I think this is extremely smart because if you just want to switch from a conference mode to a party mode, people, they're not going to join. I've seen this many times. It works sometimes with smaller, like very small conferences where you know exactly what kind of party vibe the people want, but in the end, people are just going to stand outside and talk to each other because that's what they've been...
coming there for. And of course, you said you told your story about Tour de Mista. This sounds stupid, but all the people that are on stage, they're just people. And there's no imbalance in Bitcoin. I always say that basically, I mean, I'm a Bitcoin podcaster, right? I could do an interesting interview with every single one of the guests, of the 8 ,000 guests that you expect in Prague.
I mean, it would take a while, but everybody has an interesting story to tell. It's just that some people are, you know, gotten into it quicker and now they enjoy staying on stage. And of course, Bitcoin is also about, for many people, about privacy, so they don't even want to go on stage. But I think it's no problem to talk to anybody. It's actually great. I come from legacy media, like I said, right? So nobody would ever come up to me and say, hey, Nico,
thank you for the article that you wrote last week, you know, that just doesn't happen. But on Bitcoin conferences, of course, many people will come up to me because they watch my content. And actually in Madeira, I had two people who asked me why I stopped the English newsletter and the English channel. And that was like, I never expected that. In a million years, I wouldn't expect that. So that's why that's actually that was the start of me thinking about, OK, how can I restart this? Because...
Only doing one language you have this problem with the connection. We couldn't be doing this right now So I'm trying to find a new way and with AI, you know soon We can just push a button and you can you know, you can speak in Czech and I can hear it in German And then it's all gonna be fine
Matyas (21:13.294)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think it's a good idea to actually for you to start an English channel. I would be super, super interested to hear more about what is happening behind the German language barrier. That's probably what I would even read like really like focused newsletter. What is happening in in the market? Yeah, I'm just summarizing it. I would be very happy to read it.
Niko (21:28.616)
Mm.
Niko (21:41.321)
It's completely insane. It's completely insane. I would go as far as to say it's probably the biggest and most important market besides the American market. Because Germans hate inflation and they love engineering and they are now pissed off enough to look for...
Matyas (21:44.686)
Hmm.
Niko (22:04.393)
real solutions and Bitcoin is probably the best way to go about it. And I can see it in my numbers. Now that Bitcoin is going up, the numbers are growing, the interviews get more interesting. It's great and it's also important to have offers not because of the language. The language is important, but it's not just the language, it's the perspective. You need people have...
specific problems, specific countries, so you need a specific perspective. I think it's going well and I see the same thing maybe going on in Italy and Spain. I don't know, but we'll see about that in Prague.
Matyas (22:47.214)
Yes, yes, yes. This year I was focusing on going a little bit more deeper with the main stage because I think that people who like Bitcoin, who are coming to our conference, they are critical thinkers and they like to be challenged with ideas and go a little bit behind their comfort zone.
like you don't want to hear things which are too easy to digest yeah like we like to use our brain and just to connect what you were asking yes we will be we are having a panel on the Saturday which will focus on use cases on the different continents so last year it was all about Europe.
Niko (23:35.529)
Mm -hmm.
Matyas (23:38.926)
But this year we are stretching our influence, let's say, or our our curatorships to the other continents. So there will be Jack Lee speaking about Asia. There will be Abu Bakr Nurkar speaking about Africa continent. And there will be, let me just quickly remind.
for the US. It's Parker Lewis who will be speaking about US and Ricky will finish the line because he's traveling a lot and he knows the emerging markets all moderated by Joe Hall. So this is the panel which I would just pick from the Saturday program to give you...
Niko (24:11.496)
Yes.
Matyas (24:34.415)
give you impression how the Bitcoin is uniting the whole world because same as we have a little differences in Europe, Czechs are maybe a little bit more privacy focused than Germans I would say.
Niko (24:49.288)
Mm -hmm.
Matyas (24:49.39)
And in Asia, there are more about the money aspect of Bitcoin. In Africa, there are more about the technology aspect about the Bitcoin. And if money, it's more about the second layers. In US, it's also a little bit different. So these big pictures presented in one place with the option to go and talk to speakers and people who really told you this information. It's just...
It's just no brainer. This opportunity is so big and so uneven. Yeah, like that I cannot describe it. You know, it's and I have, I never stole this in any other podcast, but I'm very confident to tell you, Nico, that I think that coming to you, to the conference, to Bitcoin conference, it's a life changing, life changing.
opportunity. It's the experience for those who really want can be such big that it opens absolutely different world and I'm talking from my own experience because attending my first conference in 2017 really changed my life and I got the idea that I will organize conferences for others.
Niko (26:12.937)
I couldn't agree more because I know and I've been there and I just know that talking to people personally is just different. Because if you feel each other and if you like each other then things happen. And there are so many people, including Parker by the way, I'm actually using his tool that he's working on right now, Sebride, I'm using for my own Bitcoin company.
my Bitcoin media company and it's great. And of course I have many things that I want to ask that they can even make even better, but that's just one person, right? And there's so many persons that I want to talk to and reach out to and there's at least, I'm looking at this right now, I see Eric Weiss, I see Paolo Ardoinno, Teder of course, sorry for butchering his name.
Ludmila is there, Anil Patel. I'm using Anil's graphics for basically all my Bitcoin talks, right? Because he does the best. There is no second best. There is no second best Bitcoin infographics, right? And there's like, I see 50 other people that I could just, but people just go on the website, btcproduct .com, check it out, use my German code, wasbitcoinbring, get yourself a ticket, come there.
Matyas (27:18.542)
Yes.
Niko (27:32.681)
Matthias, one of the things that I want to do with this podcast is I want to stop it at about 30 minutes because we already have 600 different other podcasts that go about two hours each episode. So I'll leave you there. I'm very much looking forward to see you in Prague. I'm looking forward to do my talk about the Soviets and the Bitcoin and of course the whole Michael Saylor thing. For me personally, of course, is a highlight. I hope to see many people who will listen to this right now.
Send me your questions. You can put your questions in the comments. Send the questions on Twitter for Michael Saylor. Of course we'll prepare something special, but if there is one or two questions from the outside I can bring in, I'm happy to do that.
Matyas (28:16.366)
Thank you Nico for inviting me and it's good idea to end it before 30 minutes. That's the regular time length of my podcast. Would I listen? I usually take like three times for 30 minutes because it's just the time for a good focus, I would say. After 30 minutes, you lose the focus.
Niko (28:37.289)
And it's all... And you know why, just for the end, I'll just tell the story, you know why, you know, like, talk and podcasts are so long and so successful? Like, why Joe Rogan talks for an hour and a half or two hours and why he's so successful? Because Americans spend so much time in their cars.
Matyas (28:54.638)
What?
Matyas (28:59.95)
this.
Niko (29:00.808)
but the Europeans don't spend so much time commuting. So it's more like 20, 30 minutes. So we'll end it there. But Americans can, of course, still listen. We are happy about that. Mattias, all the best. I'll see you soon in Prague. Look very much looking forward to it.
Matyas (29:11.306)
All right. Thank you.
Matyas (29:18.798)
See you everybody, bye.
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