I actually haven't been to Hive Fest (yet). I was very close to making it to Mexico, but unfortunately, travel visas are a slow process and I couldn't make it in time. I was this close 👌 though.
This year's hivefe.st will be in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in mid-October and everything is set for a week of bonding, learning and fun!
image source: hivefe.st website
I hope I don't catch heat for this, but hear me out.
The concept of people coming together every year to talk about the amazing ecosystem that is Hive is fun and all, but I'm wondering if we're limiting ourselves to a small audience if we focus only on HIVE. Could this type of conference open its arms to include broader concepts like freedom, decentralization, privacy and the parallel economies that can be built with freedom tools on multiple protocols?
Would it be feasible to consider changing Hive Fest to something like...
Freedom Fest?
One of the main guests/sponsors at this conference would obviously be HIVE, There would be plenty of HIVE branding as well as presence from the games and tools built on HIVE, kind of like we had at Talent Land this year.
photos by 
The difference with Freedom Fest would be that other speakers and sponsors could be part of the event. People from protocols like
Bitcoin
The grand daddy of cryptocurrency and the one with the most recognizable name in the space. There are amazing, open-minded bitcoiners like Vlad Costea from Bitcoin Takeover Podcast who are advocates for freedom and regularly interview folks like 
https://x.com/DigitalCashNet/status/1948439695253266688/video/1
Dash
An awesome, fast, inexpensive and private protocol that has been a long-time friend of the Hive community.
Dash is all about p2p digital money you can actually spend and has been incredibly active online and IRL.
I've not only been using Dash tools (which are pretty awesome) and making content about it, I've been meeting more and more hard-core Dash people and they are an awesome bunch
Litecoin
Litecoin is an OG in the cryptocurrency space that I have to confess I just recently started learning about. They have a solid protocol with an amazing community and are very open to working with other cryptocurrencies and protocols.
Some of my best clients pay me in Litecoin and some of the people I admire most in the cryptocurrency space are regulars at Litecoin events.
Other freedom tools
Meshtastic
I just recently found out about Meshtastic, an open source, off-grid, decentralized, mesh network built to run on affordable, low-power devices.
image source: meshtastic.org
Meshtastic uses inexpensive LoRa radios as a long range communication platform. It's 100% community driven and open-source!
Zypto
Zypto is an amazing tool that lets you do a bunch of things. The main one, for me at the moment, is being able to top up a virtual visa card on your phone to use on regular POS terminals.
I've made a bunch of videos using 
I think the future of truly decentralized economies built on blockchain protocols is multi-chain. I doubt there will be only one chain to rule them all as maximalists tend to spew, so why not bring our favorite friends together and teach, learn, bond, grow and BUIDL together?
Anyway, it's just a thought.
I come in peace ✌️
Please don't crucify me.
