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Internet Freedom Festival 2016 Report

fernando

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This past weekend I have attended the Internet Freedom Festival in Valencia. This is an event that gathers those who work to maintain the internet open and free of censorship. It was a nice mix of developers, researchers, human rights activists, journalists... and me.

I attended many interesting sessions and talked with a ton of people. I have lost account, but some of them were involved with organizations or projects that are familiar to most of us: Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Tails, Qubes OS or Enigmail. Others were just individuals interested in the field, but they were interesting nonetheless. I had an amazing conversation about funds mixing with a math teacher that really tested the limits of my Dash knowledge.

The IFF is an unconventional event in that it is organized into sessions, that are not exactly talks. They are more like workshops, more open and participatory, so hosts are encouraged to prepare them in a different way. One example of what can happen in those sessions is one I attended about usability. The host asked for volunteers that were involved with the development of a tool that were willing to answer questions. Four of us did, and the session split in for sub-sessions about those tools. By the way, most of the audience went with the Qubes OS developer :(

In general, most people didn't know or care much about cryptocurrencies. The sensation I got was that most of them thought of the space as a place for scammers or pump and dumpers (they don't know the concept, but it reflects very well what they think). After talking to them I think I raised some desire to learn more, but it is striking that the kind of people who could benefit more, know nothing. If this is true about Bitcoin, you can they (don't) think about Dash! Only one guy I talked with had heard about us, and he is kind of active with the MaidSafe project (btw, one of their developers was around too, but when I knew about it, she was not around anymore).

On Sunday I finally hosted my session. The structure was as follows:

1. What is Bitcoin and why it is important
2. How Bitcoin manages privacy, with some blockchain exploring
3. What can be done to use Bitcoin more privately
4. What is Dash
5. How Dash manages privacy, with some blockchain exploring
6. Other cool features in Dash
7. Open questions for discussion

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I could not record the session because the festival has a very strict privacy policy (you can see it below), but I have recorded a screencast that more or less covers what we talked in the session. There were a lot of interruptions and side conversations that I haven't captured in it, so it is kinda boring, but it can give an idea on how things went.


You can find the presentation I used here (.odt) and here (.pdf). If you click on the example transactions you'll be taken to that transaction in the blockchain explorer. Thanks kot for helping with the slides!

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fernando - thank you man. You look pretty relaxed in your photo. This is truly inspirational, I hope others can learn from your experience. There are so many talented people in this community and we all have the knowledge to talk about Dash. Fernando is providing his slides so if you are interested don't hold back.
 
fernando - thank you man. You look pretty relaxed in your photo. This is truly inspirational, I hope others can learn from your experience. There are so many talented people in this community and we all have the knowledge to talk about Dash. Fernando is providing his slides so if you are interested don't hold back.
Absolutely, speaking in public is fun and rewarding. With some searching everyone can find some near event that will need your content. Or a post, interview or whatever. Just stop worrying about the what-ifs and do it.
 
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