Canadian Bitcoin Conference ends in Toronto.

Hundreds of individuals who use bitcoin gathered at the luxurious Chelsea Hotel located in downtown Toronto on June 17 and 18 to attend the first-ever Canadian Bitcoin conference. The conference featured a range of events including talks from Stephan Livera, a podcast host, a workshop by D-Central, a Quebecan mining service provider, where attendees could learn to build their own open-source Bitcoin miner, and a preview of the new mobile wallet by Bull Bitcoin, a bitcoin exchange. The conference was organized by Bitcoin enthusiasts, Daniel and Manuela Carlin, with the help of approximately 12 volunteers. Over 300 individuals attended the conference and paid anywhere from 180 to 498 Canadian dollars (about $136 to $377), depending on the type of ticket purchased. Despite a bear market that has persisted since last year, and a new, stricter regulatory regime that led to the departure of large marquee exchanges like Binance from the country, and the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s prior public ridicule of the dominant cryptocurrency, the launch of the Canadian Bitcoin conference proved that Canada’s Bitcoin ecosystem remains intact and may even be thriving. Daniel Carlin said in an interview with blockchain that Bitcoin adoption has been steadily growing over the last few years and that he believes it will accelerate.

The conference’s highlights included Francis Pouliot, the CEO of Bull Bitcoin, who discussed self-custody before unveiling a beta version of the new Bull Bitcoin mobile app, a non-custodial bitcoin wallet that is fully integrated with the Bull Bitcoin exchange. The integration enables users to purchase bitcoin (BTC) directly from the Canadian exchange within the app. The conference also featured a booth by Panties for Bitcoin, an underwear manufacturer that accepts bitcoin as payment. The company’s booth displayed banners with images of scantily clad supermodels donning orange panties and bras. The Panties for Bitcoin founder, Pablo, is an Argentinian industrial engineer who immigrated to Canada and runs his Bitcoin startup with the help of his son Michael. The conference concluded with Stephan Livera delivering a lively talk on self-custody, contributing to the Bitcoin ecosystem in non-technical ways, and the future of Bitcoin’s two primary use cases – digital payments and acting as a store of value. Livera also denounced the plethora of speculative tokens and affiliated platforms which he cheekily branded “sh*tcoin casinos.”

After finishing everything, D-Central led a small, exclusive group of Bitcoin mining enthusiasts in a three-hour workshop where they built their own open-source Bitcoin miners. Participants had to buy premium tickets for the workshop and were given kits containing BM1397 Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) chips, which they eventually turned into working Bitcoin miners.

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The origin story of the Canadian Bitcoin conference

Carlin was born and raised in Ireland, but after the Great Recession of 2007-2009, he was laid off from his job as a mechanical engineer and given a small severance package. He used that money to move to Canada with his wife Manuela, and the couple discovered Bitcoin around 2016.

“I took the money and said let’s go to Canada,” Carlin said. “So we packed up, sold everything, came to Canada, and started a life here. That was back in 2009.”

While in Canada, Carlin became interested in the ideas of finance journalist Max Keiser, including the idea of investing in Bitcoin.

“I was listening to a lot of Max Keiser,” Carlin explained. “Investing in gold and silver and eventually bitcoin.”

Despite being an engineer, Carlin did not contribute to the Bitcoin ecosystem in a technical way. Instead, he used his people skills, while Manuela brought her event management expertise, and the couple created Canada’s first Bitcoin conference.

“I wanted to give something back and use my skills to contribute to the community,” Carlin said. “Manuela, my wife, she’s a professional event manager. So we combined forces and said, ‘Look, this is something we can do.'”

Edited by Parikshit Mishra.