09-29, 15:30–16:00 (Europe/Berlin), Main Stage
Scaling technology and scaling values pose fundamentally different challenges. Technology can (in theory) be replicated, optimized, and deployed at scale. In contrast, values are embedded in social and political contexts and need constant revision. Cypherpunk ideals—privacy, decentralization, and resistance to authority—have struggled to scale alongside the technologies they inspired. Bitcoin, once a symbol of radical decentralization, now faces centralization by institutional interests and mining pools. Monero, while upholding privacy, also faces the pressures of technological and social scaling. The question is: Can Cypherpunk values survive in a world where scaling technology seems easier than scaling principles? Have Bitcoin and similar technologies drifted too far from their ideological roots, becoming mere tools in a system of centralized, computational trust?
Matthias is the co-founder of the RIAT Institute and a Monero Cypherpunk. He is a published writer, an awarded researcher in science and technology, and the co-creator of an early Bitcoin art piece Bitcoincloud (2010).