Our annual gathering in Berlin this year was another incredibly fulfilling chapter in Bread Cooperative lore. Thank you to everyone who came out, stopped by our space, sat in on a session, or shared a drink with us at the end. Seeing you in person is the best part of the whole thing.

Yes, Berlin Blockchain Week is a massive draw for us. But Berlin itself is a special place for all things that align with our values: a freer, open internet that is run and operated by regular people like us.

Here's how our week went.

We ran the Bread Cooperative Zone at Funkhaus, an iconic Berlin building that's an essential stop on your next visit to the city. It was built in the early 1950s as the headquarters for East Germany's state radio, designed by Bauhaus architect Franz Ehrlich.

Our curation was well attended, and for the second year running people came up to tell us our space was one of their favourites of the whole summit. We know that our narratives are atypical of the crypto space, and we embraced it since this is where people's sentiments currently are. One of these hot-button topics was a talk on the Pope's encyclical on AI, which was very well attended.

We used the occasion to share more about what we're building, and raised over 200 euros for a fundraiser supporting a family in Gaza.

DappCon was a polished and well-organised event hosted by Gnosis, the chain on which we build our solidarity tools. Our booth was in a great part of the venue, giving us a great flow of visitors. Folks could just walk up and we'd tell them about Bread. Watching people's eyes light up when we explain how the Solidarity Fund works makes every foray out into the event circuit memorable, and this was no different.

In addition to learning about Bread, visitors to our setup got to enjoy a mini game. Inspired by bread-related German late-night TV, the game had participants guess the weight of a pretzel in order to win a prize.

Josh also ran a workshop on Bread Stacks, our savings circle tool, and showing it to people got a real conversation going. We received plenty of interest and some sharp questions about who it's for and how it holds up in practice. That's exactly the kind of feedback we came for, and and have already started implementing into the product. If you're interested in reading more, we've got a detailed at the embed below.

We returned to Funkhaus for round 2! Josh interviewed renowned Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis on stage and it was undoubtedly the highlight of the trip. And for Josh, a moment he'll remember forever. If you've heard of ideas such as technofeudalism, that's all thanks to Yanis Varoufakis.

Varoufakis gave the crypto space its due critiques but remains open-minded about its potential to empower. The conversation was mentioned on Euronews, which you can read right here.

For some of us, it was the first time actually meeting our colleagues in person. Having jumped straight into the action with planned scheduling, we found the open final session a welcome break.

So we wound down activities on a warm day at Tempelhofer Feld, an old airport park with a community garden. We got drinks, food, music and enjoyed a great time with faces new and familiar well into the evening.

Touching grass with the people we talk to on Discord every day was surreal. The Bread team reflects the Breadfam in that we are based all over the world, united by the belief that technology can reflect our values.

Bringing together the people who make our community possible has been energising. As we march towards our landmark 24th $BREAD distribution, the chance to physically meet those who have supported us on every step of the journey clarified our sense of purpose. We got to discuss the upcoming public release of Bread Stacks, reflect on what makes the Solidarity Fund galvanise our community, and feel the human connection that we want tech to facilitate & amplify. Tech is often guilty of prioritising mechanisms before the outcomes, and Berlin enabled us to speak directly to the people for whom we are building.

It was an incredible week together that really flew by. Thank you again to everyone who spent part of their week with us. We'll see you in Berlin next year.

Solidarity forever 🍞