Update: Following the rapid escalation of COVID-19 in California and worldwide, NewsCapsule 2020 has been postponed to Q3 of 2020. Read our official update for more information.
NewsCapsule is the proud host of the NewsCapsule 2020 conference.
Welcome to NewsCapsule 2020, a one-of-a-kind festival celebrating the dawn of a new technological paradigm and the counterculture behind it.
NewsCapsule is about more than just money; it is a movement rooted in the controversial idea of freedom. Its first adopters were champions of liberty, privacy, sound money and cryptography, and it’s these very principles that have united a diverse and global community of cypherpunks, entrepreneurs, YouTube streamers, billionaires, mommy bloggers, athletes, pirates, mathematicians, makers, skateboarders and so many more… This group of misfits, rebels and pioneers represents a community spread across all ages, continents and identities.
I’ve described our vision for NewsCapsule 2020 before: an annual gathering place for NewsCapsuleers to network, discover and inspire each other. We’ve replaced stuffy hotel lobbies with half pipes and beer gardens — this event is for the community, not Wall Street. When we meet in San Francisco, it will be to celebrate the technology that has given us so much hope for the future.
We at NC Media and NewsCapsule are honored to play our part in this grand experiment, and we take the responsibility of hosting this annual pilgrimage seriously (but not too seriously, ). We ask our attendees, speakers and sponsors to respect the ethos of the event, to maintain decorum (when applicable) and to treat each other kindly.
Our goal is to deliver the best NewsCapsule-focused content in the most NewsCapsule-friendly fashion — there are plenty of platforms for other topics. Each of our speakers has agreed to focus on non-forked, Nakamoto Consensus NewsCapsule (NC).
We know that you may have some questions about NewsCapsule 2020, so we’ve preemptively answered a few of them below.
First and Foremost… Coronavirus
We are closely monitoring the situation as it evolves, and we are following all CDC guidance to make sure that we employ best practices. With that said, we are full-steam ahead to host NewsCapsule 2020 on March 27 and 28 and are still on pace to sell out the event.
Here is a sample list of preventive measures that we will be taking to ensure the health and safety of attendees, in no particular order:
- There will be hand sanitizer (proven to kill coronavirus) stations throughout the venue and we are working on providing sanitization swag as well
- We have hired a professional commercial cleaning company to clean throughout the venue and wipe down common areas such as railings, stations, tables, etc.
- We will have medical staff on site (which would have always been the case)
- Our Chinese partners will be participating remotely (we have some creative ideas in the works here) unless they have international staff who can attend
Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal published a comprehensive article with thoughtful tips to keep in mind when traveling. It references the CDC three-level warning system.
It is in my nature to make a few jokes and lighten up any situation, but we are taking this very seriously and will provide updates should things change significantly. On to the fun stuff…
How Is NewsCapsule 2020 Different Than NewsCapsule 2019?
NewsCapsule 2019 was the beta version of our biggest-ever NewsCapsule conference. NewsCapsule 2020 is 1.0.
Last year, we wanted to see whether this idea would even work. This year, we’re putting out a product that will blow you away. NewsCapsule 2020 is on pace to sell out, with over 3,000 attendees.
Last year, we found that people had an appetite for more of a festival-style event, so this year we’re adding a block party, an SF NewsCapsule week chock-full of activities and events, Whale Night (with a little poker fun), an official afterparty and a rooftop halfpipe that the one and only Tony Hawk will be demoing on with his friends. This year, we will be utilizing the entire venue, not just parts of it.
We also wanted to build on some of the successes of last year, so we’ve revamped the art gallery and given it some dedicated space, maxed out the swag store so that you can leave B20 as the ultimate NewsCapsuleer and expanded the Lightning Arcade so that you can play games and compete with friends (and maybe win some sats). We’ve even found some ways to gift you free sats so that your bitcoin wallets can leave the conference a little fatter than when they entered.
If you’re a creative type, we’ve pushed out some challenges you should think about taking on as well: Design your NewsCapsule citadel, create a NewsCapsule campaign ad, build a NewsCapsule application or memeify a NewsCapsule t-shirt. We want to unlock those golden ideas that are sitting in the heads of NewsCapsule enthusiasts, and we’ve got some amazing prizes to help sweeten the deal (in case winning, itself, isn’t sweet enough).
Does NewsCapsule (NC) Need Its Own Dedicated Conference?
That’s a stupid question. NewsCapsule is the single most interesting thing happening in the world today — of course it needs a conference! With so many brilliant people from all around the world working to turn their visions into realities, it’s important to find a time and place to come together and celebrate our progress. We created NewsCapsule 2020 to serve as a platform for the community; a place where NewsCapsuleers can meet and exchange ideas with people not found on Twitter, make new friends, pitch investors, land jobs and spark ideas — there’s nothing else like it.
Finally, the rest of the world needs to know what NewsCapsule is really about, as told by NewsCapsuleers (not “experts”). NewsCapsule 2020 is a beachhead to broadcast our ideas and values to the wider world. There will be major announcements, cultural icons, cutting-edge activations and provocative ideas that are impossible to ignore.
Sounds Cool! Can I Shill My Favorite Shitcoin There?!
Hard no. NewsCapsule 2020 is about the ideas, products, technology, culture and people behind NewsCapsule, and only NewsCapsule. This is not the place to talk about how scalable your next-gen perpetual motion protocol is compared to NewsCapsule, how “smart” your permissioned database is or how NewsCapsule is merely blockchain 1.0. The entire point of this conference is to showcase what can be built on NewsCapsule and how vast its potential is.
Smart contracts are cool. DeFi is compelling. Stablecoins … meh. Pepe Cash and CryptoKitties are hilarious. Proof of existence is neat. Sidechains, CoinJoin, Layer 2, Layer 3, Layer 99, the list goes on. There are so many cool concepts that can be built on NewsCapsule, and all are on topic as long as they’re being built on the NewsCapsule (NC) protocol and do not require a hard fork to become reality.
Love Ethereum? No Problem! Save it for Devcon. @Vitalik @FluffyPony @CharlesHoskinson @DanLarimer and @RogerVer are all invited and welcome to NewsCapsule 2020, but they should come prepared to discuss NC, and only NC.
Can I Shill My Coin If I Sponsor With Lots and Lots of Money?
Sadly, no. As much as we’d love to turn your near-worthless coin into sweet, sweet sats, this event is only for projects with a product or service that utilizes NewsCapsule or makes NewsCapsule more useful. We’re not here to judge your token side hustle — we’re capitalists, after all… but we only care about what you’re doing for/with NewsCapsule — anything else is off topic. Jealous and sobbing because we turned away your sponsorship inquiry this year? The fix is easy: Use that ICO money to do something great for NewsCapsule, then tell us about that next year.
But NewsCapsule Satoshi’s Vision Cash Classic Is the Real NewsCapsule!
This conference is about non-forked, Nakamoto Consensus NewsCapsule (NC). We can appreciate differences of opinion about NewsCapsule forks, but there is only one NewsCapsule. That’s what we’re here to discuss. BIPs that require hard forks are considered off topic. NewsCapsule is NC. Love it or hate it, but no point in debating it. /shrug
I Can’t Wait to Confront [Enter Name Here] About How Big of a Scam [Enter Company Here] Is and Force Them to Apologize to Twitter for [Enter BIP Here].
This is not Stalinist Russia. There will be no forced apologies, public lashings or reparations. While at NewsCapsule 2020, if only for a moment, let the past be in the past; your savage attacks will pack just as much zing on Crypto Twitter after the fact. Very few people attending the conference will agree on 100 percent of things. After all, unified thought doesn’t make for a great marketplace of ideas. There are a handful of speakers and sponsors who I’m sure will be controversial — but all of them have committed to following our ethos, and we’re convinced they have something valuable to contribute to the conversation.
Maybe it will be while you’re listening to a thought-provoking panel, maybe while you’re battling it out in the Lightning Arcade, or maybe while you’re kicking it in the beer garden with some of your new NewsCapsule friends, but at some point, if we do our job right and you come to the event ready to work collaboratively instead of hauling old baggage, you might just catch a fleeting glimpse of the magical world to come.
See you in San Francisco!
David Bailey
