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| UNCHAIN is the lead event of German Bitcoinweek 2020.
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2020 was a tough one. About half of our guests and speakers could not make it due to travel restrictions. We were yet more thrilled to welcome and listen to great talks from Giacomo Zucco, Pavol Luptak, Thorsten Polleit, Olga Ukolova, Andreas Petersson, Travin Keith and Grace Torrellas.
Check out our YouTube channel for talks in full length.
In 2019 we featured Brock Pierce, Tone Vays, Alena Vranova, Hans-Werner Sinn, Rodolfo Andragnes, Rosine Kadamani, Susanne T. Tempelhof, Theo Goodman, Christian Decker, Jed Grant and many more.
Check out our YouTube channel for 2019 talks in full length.
Our speakers 2018 included - amongst many others - Diego Gutiérrez Zaldívar, Erik Voorhees, Sterlin Luxan, David Schwartz, Konstantin Gladych, Rahim Taghizadegan, Jeff Gallas, Eric Benz and Titus Gebel.
Take a look at some of the great talks on YouTube.
Get involved in UNCHAIN 2020!
(Speaker confirmations from foreign countries are subject to release of the respective worldwide travel restrictions. We will keep you updated.)
Charles Shrem IV is an American entrepreneur and bitcoin advocate. In 2011 he co-founded the now-defunct startup company BitInstant, and is a founding member of the Bitcoin Foundation, formerly serving as vice chairman. In December 2014 he was sentenced to two years in prison for aiding and abetting the operation of an unlicensed money-transmitting business related to the Silk Road marketplace. He was released from prison around June 2016. In 2017, he joined Jaxx as its director of business and community development. Later that year, he founded cryptocurrency advisory CryptoIQ.
Giacomo Zucco is Theoretical Physicist, former Technology Consultant for Accenture spa and serial entrepreneur in the field of emerging technologies. Economic blogger and contributor to several Italian newspapers. Involved in several projects in Bitcoin and blockchain space since 2012, he is now CEO of Milan-based research/development/incubation/consulting firm Blockchain Lab, a world-class competence center in the field.
In 2015 the now Ticino based Bitcoiner Giacomo co-founded AssoB.it, the main Bitcoin Association in Italy as well as the Milan Bitcoin Meetup. In 2016 he founded the non-profit initiative BHB Network, aimed to help the development of Bitcoin open standards and R&D, as well as the consultancy company Blockchainlab Switzerland. He hosted the third Scaling Bitcoin Conference and participated as speaker in many major conference since 2017.
Alena Vranova is a serial entrepreneur and strategist. She develops early stage ideas into successful products and services. Her track record includes several startups in traditional finance and technology as well as Bitcoin.
In 2013, she left the financial industry to join the Bitcoin revolution and founded SatoshiLabs, one of the most renowned Bitcoin companies in the world creating the first ever hardware wallet called the Trezor.
Today, Alena helps many companies across different industries building profitable businesses and partnerships, but her passion stays with Bitcoin. Acutally Alena is promoting her book „The Little Bitcoin Book: Why Bitcoin Matters for Your Freedom, Finances, and Future“ that is already translated into several languages.
Alena is a polyglot who speaks seven languages, she graduated in Economic Diplomacy from University College of International and Public Relations Prague where she has studied international economy and monetary system. Alena has also earned a Master's Degree in Marketing Communication and a Master in German from Comenius University Bratislava.
Diego Gutiérrez Zaldívar is the co-founder and CEO of RSK Labs, which builds smart contracts based on the Bitcoin blockchain. He is also the president of the Latin American Bitcoin Association. He will talk about how cryptocurrencies can help the poorest people in developing countries by giving them access to the global financial system.
Pavol Lupták is a cryptoanarchist and voluntaryist focused on technology and society hacking. He started his career as a computer hacker with many prestigious IT security certifications. In 2007 he founded IT security company Nethemba (https://nethemba.com) focused on penetration tests & ethical hacking, few years after, he co-founded a bug bounty company Hacktrophy (https://hacktrophy.com). As a hacker enthusiast, he co-founded Progressbar hackerspace in Bratislava (https://www.progressbar.sk) and Parallel Polis in Prague and Bratislava (https://www.paralelnipolis.cz/en/) hackerspaces in Prague where he is responsible for organizing the international cryptoanarchist conference (https://hcpp.cz/) focused on liberation technologies. He has started the initiative 'We do not work for the government' (https://nepracujemeprestat.sk, https://nepracujemeprostat.cz) grouping of all companies in Slovakia and Czech Republic that have decided not to work for the government and state institutions because of ethical or economic reasons. In addition to technologies, Pavol loves contemporary art as well. He became a member of the famous Czech contemporary art group Ztohoven (http://www.ztohoven.com) which is responsible for many hacktivist contemporary 'media sculpture' projects and started with his friend the digital art company Satori (https://satori.digital). With the development of Parallel Polis, Pavol decided to achieve his vision - completely opt-out of the system. By being global and flexible he decided to give up his permanent residency, switched from bank accounts to crypto-currencies, started to use global health care and mobile phone companies, becoming a global citizen.
Since 2012, Thorsten Polleit is Chief Economist of Degussa, Europe’s largest precious metal trading house. Before that he worked for more than 15 year in the international investment banking business.
Since 2014 Thorsten Polleit is Honorary Professor of Economics at the University of Bayreuth. He is also president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute Deutschland, founded in 2012, and a Fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute, Auburn, US Alabama. In 2012 Thorsten Polleit received The O.P. Alford III Prize in Political Economy. He also acts as investment advisor.
His lastest books are „Mit Geld zur Weltherrschaft“ (2020, Finanzbuch Verlag), "Ludwig von Mises - der kompromisslose Liberale" (2018, F.A.Z.-Verlag) and "Vom intelligenten Investieren" (2018, FinanzbuchVerlag). You can order Thorsten's newest book here.
Liliana Pertenava (Moscow) is the director and producer of the documentary film 'CryptoRush'. She will give a sneak preview of some of its scenes and talks about the background and production process of the movie.
Max is the CEO and co-founder of P2P cryptocurrency exchange Hodl Hodl (hodlhodl.com), CEO and co-founder of real estate platform Househodl (househodl.com), editor-in-chief Hodl Hodl News (news.hodlhodl.com) and organizer of Bitcoin conference Baltic Honeybadger (bh2018.hodlhodl.com). He is a public speaker, member of the board and co-founder of Latvian Blockchain Development Association (lbaa.lv). Max spent 10+ years business development, 5+ years within cryptocurrency & blockchain industry.
Paul Puey is CEO of Edge, producer of the Edge mobile cryptocurrency wallet. The Edge wallet is a decentralized, secure and backed up crypto wallet that aims to provide financial autonomy and privacy for its users. For those who know and have used the Airbitz, Edge is its successor. Airbitz was one of the top 3 mobile Bitcoin apps in the 2014 Blockchain Awards. Paul’s startup was voted the number 1 Bitcoin company by the World Crypto Network. Paul is a graduate of UC Berkeley’s computer science and electrical engineering programs. After his graduation he worked as a lead software engineer for chip manufacturers Nvidia Corporation and Chromatic Research. He writes, “Now my goal is to bring Bitcoin mainstream with software and products aimed at simplifying Bitcoin and making it insanely easy to send and secure this revolutionary cryptocurrency while maintaining the highest level of privacy.” Outside of Airbitz Paul spends time with his family, his wife, their little Maltese and a son. He also loves rock climbing, either at his local gym in San Diego or outside on some nearby outdoor rocks in Joshua Tree. In a previous life he was a manager and instructor at a climbing gym where he first learned how to balance people, business and technology.
Rosine is Co-Founder of the Blockchain Academy, the first Brazilian educational project focused on the development and formation of an innovative ecosystem of entrepreneurs, new business models and initiatives using Blockchain infrastructures and DLTs.
Among the participants of it’s courses are authorities such as the Central Bank of Brazil, the Securities and Exchange Commission, foreign authorities such as the Financial Intelligence Unit of Mauritius, as well as large banks and other companies such as Banco Bradesco, Santander, Banco Votorantim, Caixa Econômica Federal, Bancolombia and Mc Kinsey.
Lawyer for 13 years at Pinheiro Neto Advogados. Specialized in Banking Law. A pioneer in the study of Bitcoin, blockchain and related issues, promoting since 2014 the dissemination of knowledge and debate on the subject through organizing and curating events, participating in dozens of panels, articles, radio and television, and having integrated panel in public hearing for discussion.
Travin Keith is a long-time advocate of cryptocurrency, freedom, and open source, while being involved in a wide-range of projects, ventures, and organizations. Currently, these include BitStory, Consortio Group, Soramitsu, STOKR, and the Open Source Initiative. In addition to these, he speaks regularly at events around the world ranging from small meetups to large conferences.
Olga Ukolova, Medical Doctor, is Co-Founder and COO at Pandora Core, the company building Layer 2 and 3 technologies on top of Bitcoin, and is one of the creators of the FreeAI Manifesto. Combining the development of censorship-resistant technologies (RGB, Prometheus) with biohacking and neuroscientific activities, Olga has spent last 8+ years working with academia, geeks, cypherpunks and blockchain developers in order to bring self-sovereignty and decentralisation to the highest priority of today and tomorrow.
Andrei Martchouk is managing director of KI decentralized GmbH a software house with a strong focus on blockchain technology and solutions. Before co-founding KI decentralized GmbH, Andrei was CEO and Co-founder of Yacuna Exchange, a London and Zurich based Blockchain solutions provider and international trading platform for crypto currencies.
Prior to founding Yacuna, Mr. Martchouk was Chief Architect and Head of software development at ClickandBuy, one of the first German FinTech companies, where he handled the firm’s security, cryptography and was responsible for building and maintaining mission critical financial systems. During his previous 15 years in the payment industry, he focused on online payment processing for e-commerce, e-money wallets and payment card solutions.
The former graduate of Cologne University of Applied Sciences and Minsk State Linguistic University became a Bitcoin enthusiast in 2010.
Pavel Kravchenko is cryptographer and PhD in information security, ex. Stellar team member. The co-author of a trilogy textbook, “Blockchain and Decentralized Systems”, and “Financial Internet”. The company’s mission is to build the Financial Internet—an network of independent accounting systems that "speak the same language".
Manu Ferrari is Co-Founder of Money On Chain (www.moneyonchain.com). With the first Bitcoin-collateralized Stablecoin, the protocol was built for being the cornerstone of DeFi for Bitcoin.
Previously to discovering Bitcoin, Manuel hold executive positions at SAP and other technology firms in Latinamerica.
Manuel is Co-Founder and advisor at Bisblick.org, a non-profit organization that awards scholarships to low-income youth who wish to pursue a tertiary or university career.
He is an invited Professor at IAE Business School (Argentina).
Theo Goodman (Frankfurt) is co founder of the Rarepepe Foundation and MEME Consultant at proofofwork.media.
Aaron Koenig is a consultant, writer and film producer, specialised in Bitcoin and Blockchain technology. He creates short commercial films for clients, most of them Bitcoin and Blockchain start-ups.
He has been actively promoting Bitcoin and Blockchain technology since June 2011 by writing about it and by organising events and meetups. He has been a speaker and panelist at numerous conferences. Aaron is the author of the books A Beginner's Guide to Bitcoin and Austrian Economics, Cryptocoins - Investing in Digital Currencies and The Decentral Revolution.
Holding a master in communication and marketing from the Berlin Unversity of the Arts, Aaron has been working in the creative internet industry since 1994. He has created websites for clients such as MTV, ARD German Television, Die Zeit, Der Stern, Milka Chocolate and many others. He worked in production, distribution and event management for clients such as Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, Kabel NRW, Swisscom, Nokia, Microsoft, Adobe, Intel, Apple, Axel Springer and many more.
Born and raised in Europe's Financial Capital Frankfurt/Main, Dominik Weil has been an early adopter and pioneer in the space of digital currencies. He is currently active as the Co-Founder & COO of Vietnam's first & leading Digital Asset Exchange & has been leading the efforts of the organization to implement Blockchain-based Remittance payments with the goal to provide faster processing times and lower transaction fees.
Grace Torrellas, US-American with Venezuelan roots, is Founder of
Giveth,
Blockchain4Humanity, and
Blockchain4good-rocks! She is an Advisor, a Business and Marketing Specialist, as well as a committed Advocate and Activist for the use of Blockchain, focused on Social and Environmental impact.
Blockchain startup Giveth already successfully transmits donations from donors to beneficiaries on a direct way without any (!) intermediary, like a public social aid organization. Grace is presently living in Switzerland and was added there into the Swiss list of «Digital Shapers» in 2018.
Max Hillebrand is an Austrian economist supporting several open source Bitcoin projects. Grounded in his fundamental understanding of individual sovereignty, Max applies the theories of Rothbard, Mises and Huelsmann to the new agorist frontier of sound money. He is supporting liberating ventures such as the full financial battle station nodl.it, the privacy preserving WasabiWallet.io, the censorship resistant Bisq.Network, the secure ColdCardWallet.com, or the fundraising platform TallyCo.in. Education is key, thus Max is sharing valuable knowledge about the tools peers can utilize in their struggle TowardsLiberty.com on the WorldCryptoNetwork.com.
Jeff Gallas (Berlin) is a blockchain consultant, investor and entrepreneur. He is the founding director of the German Bitcoin Foundation (Bundesverband Bitcoin) and has been consulting different companies and NGOs in the past years, most recently the award-winning fintech startup Bitwala. Currently, Jeff is running Fulmo, an enterprise which is dedicated to research and development of the Lightning Network. Beeing a pioneer in this field, Fulmo has hosted several „Bitcoin Lightning Network Hackdays“ in Berlin and New York City.
Michael Dupree Jr. is the founder of the Denver Bitcoin Center and the owner of EasyBit, one of the largest global networks of Bitcoin ATMs. Dupree started the Denver Bitcoin Center in 2014 as a startup incubator and community center for local bitcoin entrepreneurs. With a background in trading and Internet hosting, Dupree now specializes in international banking, startups, multi-market arbitrage, and global business development, with a particular focus on bitcoin. As owner of EasyBit, Dupree manages business development and long-term strategic planning, and has overseen the company’s growth to over 10 countries and counting. Dupree has a degree in Business Management from the University of Denver, and spent time studying in both japan and Spain.
Hartej is multi-faceted serial entrepreneur, polyglot, creative director, deal-maker, brand-focused investor, with a strong knowledge of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Blockchain, and Cybersecurity. As an industry pioneer, Sawhney has played a key role in elevating standards in the digital asset ecosystem and introducing products and services that set the industry benchmark for security, transparency, and compliance. His efforts have been recognized as paving the way for the ongoing institutionalization of the industry. He has extensive experience with international business development, real estate development, software development, marketing, corporate strategy, and a passion for emerging markets and frontier technology.
Marc P. Bernegger is a web entrepreneur and Fintech-Investor. He co- founded the party-plattform usgang.ch in his twenties and sold it later to Axel Springer Media. He is co-founder of amiando, a ticketing-plattform, which was bought by Xing and has been awarded by WEF as a “Global Technology Pioneer”. Marc has been active as a fintech investor since 2010. He is on the advisory board of FinLeap, co-founder of Finance 2.0 and he is a Board Member of Falcon Private Bank, Crypto Finance Group, Crypto Finance Conference and Greater Zurich Area. Marc bought his first bitcoins in 2012 and is fascinated by the opportunities this new asset class has to offer.
Computer Scientist & AI BSc graduated at Aberystwyth University. Founder & CEO at Satoshis Games. During his professional career, he has won several awards in bitcoin hackathons for his cutting-edge vision, product development and creative development standards.
“Mysterious” nodl co-founder, Askuwheteau - Laurent in meatspace - is an ex-banker. Years of complying with the system and doing just fine, while at the same time not quite fitting in came to a halt around 2016. Since then, it’s been fight after fight in order to align personal values and everyday life. It is worth it every single day, and along the way I have seen how important it is for a growing number of people to share aspirations, tools and know-how. nodl was created with the vision that you could help like-minded individuals in their own personal quests for freedom and in the process build a parallel network of people, to live outside of "the system”.
Federico is COO and co-founder of the Bitcoin payment processor Chainside, providing services to businesses wishing to accept bitcoin payments. He is also co-founder of the BlockchainEdu Italia association, an organisation providing education on Bitcoin with meetups, workshops and conferences in various Italian cities, and co-organiser for the Bitcoin Milano meetup. Federico is also a member of the blockchain task-force of the Italian government where he lobbies for better and less oppressive regulation in the Bitcoin and crypto industry.
Alex worked more than 16 years in the outsourcing industry for international banks, telco's, insurance and media corporations. In early 2016 he started building blockchain communities that are focussed on social impact, whilst he co-founded Shelpin, Leon Blockchain Hub, blockchain4goodrocks and blockchain 4 Humanity. Beyond this Alex is organzier of NON central CONFERENCE in Northern Spain, brand ambassador for RSK and was responsible for the community support at DAppNode.
Ursula has worked in the media industry for more than 20 years. She began her career as a journalist at Reuters news agency, then at the Spanish El País newspaper and Localia television, where she co-directed TV programs for syndication by Latin American televisions channels, all under the aegis of Prisa Communication Group, the most prestigious media firm in the Spanish-speaking world. Ursula discovered Bitcoin in 2012 at a meetup in Phoenix, Arizona. She has extensively covered fintech and worked as a regional leader of Civil Media Company (ConsenSys). Most recently joined IOVlabs as director of business development.
Lawrence a.k.a. Lando Rothbardian is an Anarcho-Capitalist and pushes Cryptocurrency Adoption in Germany. In 2018 he started europes biggest Crypto-Only Onlinestore ShopinBit.com. With 90.000 Products and acceptance of BTC, Lightning, DASH, XMR, LTC, BSV and BCH, exchanging coins is a thing of the past. ShopinBit also offers a Concierge Service where you can get anything for your coins. From rare Whiskys to brand new cars, ShopinBit has shipped various items worldwide. The customers of Lando's service have given him the nickname "Raymond Reddington of Bitcoin". He also started SatoshiGoods.com which offers high quality merchandise and CryptoArt. Merchandise Partners are Cryptomonday - one of Germanys biggest Crypto News Site - and Blocktrainer.
Moritz is building Bitcoin solutions for hodlers, developers and enterprises. He is passionate about how technology, languages and monetary systems shaped our societies, economies and politics. Moritz is convinced that Bitcoin will become the core payment and settlement infrastructure for the internet and that it will provide the incentives to rebuild the internet trust layer with cryptography and digital identities.
Gordon Einstein is a hybrid Crypto-Attorney, Technologist, and Enterprise Strategist. Gordon received his undergraduate degree in Politics in 1991 from Brandeis University in Boston and then received his JD in 1995 from the USC Gould School of Law in Los Angeles. Gordon is also a proud Eagle Scout, having served in Boy Scout Troop 223. Initially Gordon's law practice centered on startup, venture capital, investment banking, regulatory compliance, intellectual property and general business law. As an avid computer and programming hobbyist, in 2012 Gordon was intrigued by Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, and the related technologies. By 2014, he was providing legal services to several individuals and companies operating in this space. And by 2016 the majority of Gordon’s law practice involved working with crypto, blockchain and FinTech startups and funds. This was formalized as CryptoLaw Partners in 2017. Gordon frequently speaks and educates both in the United States and abroad, quite often in Ukraine. Some common themes are issues and developments relating to cryptocurrency, the legal aspects of FinTech, structuring blockchain startups, ICOs, and AML/KYC compliance.
Dr Maxim Orlovsky: cross-disciplinary researcher and entrepreneur, merging neuroscience, machine learning and LNP/BP technology to build a foundation for a post-humanity future, where the fruits of most radical progress would not be sacrificed for the sake of "safety" and "greater common good". Maxim Orlovsky is a CEO and founder at Pandora Core AG, a Swiss compay focusing on building scalable decentralized technology on top of LNP/BP. He and the company are contributors to RGB developement and rust-bitcoin project. He is also an author of Prometheus (technology for scalable computing on LNP/BP), Storm (L2/L3 messaging and storage with economic guarantees), Typhon (trustless one-peg sidechains) proposals, co-author of The #FreeAI Manifesto (https://manifesto.ai) and a founder of BICA Labs, working on new cognitive architectures.
„UNCHAIN was less hype and more meaningful discussion than many other global conferences. Highly recommended.“
„This Bitcoin conference was differet from all other conferences I knew so far: A free-spirited, charming ambience… with unexpected and sustainable impressions from this very new Bitcoin ecosystem…“
„Incredible event!“
„One of the Top 10 Conferences in Blockchain 2018.“
„Unchain Convention is the Bitcoin event to go in Germany - whether you're a Bitcoin novice, a finance professional, a crypto expert or just curious to learn more.“
„Unchain convention is an intersection of art, blockchain, music and freedom loving people. The most thoughtful brains, the most powerful parties and the most euphoric energy combined together in a chemical reaction with unknown but amazing results.“
