Matyáš Kuchař, co-founder of BTC Prague, takes us behind the scenes of building the largest Bitcoin conference in Europe.
What started as a 500-person event is now a global conference with 8,000+ attendees and over 250 speakers.
“It started as a passion project and turned into a full-time mission.”
In this episode:
• How BTC Prague scaled so fast
• The challenges behind running a big conference
• The future of in-person Bitcoin events
• How this all ties into the digital industrial revolution
Timestamps:
(00:00) - Intro
(00:32) - Matyáš's nickname
(02:17) - The Bitcoin-only cafe that started it all
(03:43) - What makes BTC Prague so special
(05:04) - First impressions of the conference
(08:26) - Where the idea for BTC Prague came from
(10:15) - Starting during COVID (500 attendees)
(11:15) - From passion project → real business
(13:10) - How they scaled so fast
(18:23) - What a full year of planning looks like
(22:09) - Team size + behind-the-scenes operations
(24:08) - Biggest problems (you never see)
(25:24) - The venue disaster before opening
(27:22) - The 10,000 beer cups problem
(29:45) - Dealing with weather chaos every year
(30:45) - How they landed top Bitcoin speakers
(31:30) - Traveling the world to pitch BTC Prague
(34:00) - Why Prague is the heart of Bitcoin in Europe
(37:25) - Bitcoin as just the “entry point”
(38:16) - The digital industrial revolution
(40:41) - New trends: AI, biohacking, freedom tech
(42:02) - Can anyone build a conference like this?
(44:45) - The reality of running a business like this
(45:01) - Handling stress at scale
(46:35) - Growth from 500 to 8,000+ attendees
(47:47) - The future of BTC Prague
(49:02) - Bitcoin festival = freedom festival
(49:38) - Why you should attend BTC Prague
(50:10) - Outro
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