# HARDCORE

**Published by:** [jcb](https://paragraph.com/@pluch/)
**Published on:** 2024-10-14
**URL:** https://paragraph.com/@pluch/hardcore

## Content

HARDCOREHacker Congress Paralelní Polis 2024 My second hcpp is in the books. I attended the first one last year and it was really a breath of fresh air coming from a lot of previous conferences that were more about shilling, networking and popularity contests. But hcpp is different. Focus is more on ideas, philosophy and values. Something that got lost somewhere along the way in most of the crypto world. It was inspiring to see so many people still passionate about ideas and sharing knowledge. When I first went to hcpp last year I knew almost none of the speakers or attendees. Coming back this year I was really pleased to see so many familiar faces. On top of great people and great content I love the fact that programming only starts at 12:00 every day. This gave me some time to explore the city and enjoy a good cup of coffee before the talks started. Another thing I love about this conference is that they only accept crypto for payments. More conferences and project in crypto in general should be brave enough to stick to their principles even if it makes things more difficult for themselves. Cheeky shout out to the Department of Decentralization crew here for also being very true to their principles in all events they organize. Anyway, back to the payments - I really liked paying only with crypto. However, I don't understand why on Earth they didn't allow any Ethereum payments. Let's all be honest here that there's no payment experience better than on Ethereum in the crypto space. I don't know what's behind this decision, but I think this is something to improve on. The important thing is that crypto wins, not which specific chain that some marxi vouches for out of pure principle. I'm sure the guys in the food truck cooking the most amazing Jamaican grilled chicken sandwiches would appreciate not having to wait 5 minutes for a Monero transaction to be confirmed.Beautiful Paralelni PolisI've been in crypto long enough to see people who joined the space with pure intentions and passion getting corrupted by fame and money. I think this a problem that's getting worse and worse. And it leads to more people getting into crypto hoping to get rich quick no matter what it takes. This leads to more and more noise and fuzz that distracts people from building and doing things that actually matter. hcpp had none of this energy and I really appreciate that. The conference and the people there were a great reminder of the reasons why I got into crypto in the first place. If you ever struggle a bit to find the motivation to continue doing things for the right reasons, I really recommend going to an event like this. This year there were talks from people like Paul Rosenberg, Mitch Altman, Amir Taaki, Ryan Lackey, Jarrad Hope and Silke Noa, just to name a few. All of these people gave amazing talks and they also hung out at the conference all weekend and were happy to chat and attend other talks. You don't see that too often these days.Amir Taaki"Privacy projects that have a Discord server have a Discord server because they're not afraid. If they're not afraid they're obviously not doing anything important." - Amir TaakiAt some point during his talk, Amir said the above quote and it really stuck with me. I see so many projects these days that choose convenience over principle. I know it makes things easier and increase productivity, but if we're not able to struggle a bit in order to make the projects that actually do things the right way better, then who will? We really need to try harder collectively! Using Discord because it's easy to setup and has a lot of features, or using the Google Suite, because it just works is not good enough! To finish off I'd like to mention that I am really excited to see what the DarkFI team will build. Their vision is bold AF and they are very brave, but I respect them deeply for the courage they show and I hope they will make the world a better place. It's admirable to see someone staying so true to the cypherpunk values. Also, they probably have the coolest swag I have ever seen ❤️ Another really cool thing that has to be mentioned is the fact that AssangeDAO essentially is the reason that Julian Assange is out of prison. How amazing is it that thousands of people from all over the world can organize and take action, to get one person out of prison? That's something that really shows the power of crypto and how it can be used to make a difference.Silke Noa presenting AssangeDAOThank you very much to all the organizers of hcpp. I cannot wait to see what comes next, but I hope that no matter what it will be that it will maintain the soul and vibe that makes this conference so special.

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