The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth...
...and the best place to find them is...well...hacker-spaces.
I became obsessed with Bitcoin.
Then I became obsessed with hacker culture.
Bitcoin! Monetary salvation!
And not a suit, tie or high-rise office in sight.
There's poetry in that.
This made me smile. I had to see it first hand.
You should too.
So, throw away that shitty #travel guide and live a little...
1). Calafou - Catalonia
Calafou: a post-capitalist industrial colony deep in the Catalan countryside.
Calafou resembles a post apocalyptic wasteland.
It looks kinda like the war scenes in Termintor, where the humans escape to, after the machines take-over.
The site is dedicated to social, technical and political innovation.
This place is bare-bones. It lacks ammenities. It's not for the feint-hearted.
I was fortunate enough to be there just as the Dark Wallet project was taking shape.
I also got to watch Vitalik Buterin and Mihai Alisie in action, before founding Ethereum.
If you want to visit you'll need a direct contact.
The place is not so friendly to outsiders. So look for a hook-up with the old Dark Wallet developers.
2). Macao - Milan.
At the time Unsystem (Dark Wallet) was operating out of 2 hacker-spaces: Calafou and Macao.
This is where the Dark Wallet project was solidified.
The project is kinda dead now (it happens in open source).
Macao, like Calafou, it is not specifically computer hacker or #bitcoin focused.
Instead it is focused on hacking all aspects of society.
It is the home of the local underground resistance.
They even had their own printed money, circulating around the community.
3). Chaos Communication Congress (CCC) - Hamburg
While not strictly a "Hacker-Space", this is a definite must do.
Website here.
This is the largest coming-together of hackers anywhere in Europe.
The Godfather of Ethereum and I drove up from Berlin.
I wasn't sure what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised.
The speaker list was high-quality.
The venue was 1st-grade, enormous and multi-level.
There are lots of events, displays and parties.
We visited on short notice. So we didn't have time to find a room.
We just stayed inside the venue and slept on a couch. No one seemed to mind, which was cool.
There were least 5,000 people at the event.
And female/male ratio of 1/1,000. Such disappoint.
You get used to those kind of figures, in the hacker world.
There are interesting characters from all walks of life.
Even got to hang out with Josephine Witt, from Femene.
Remember her? She's this gal:
Hackerspaces attract so many weird and wonderful characters. :-)
4) The Bitcoin Squat London
This is legendary in the Bitcoin space.
It moves around a lot.
Current location depends on the building situation, at the time.
Recently it was home to this interview about Bitcoin by the BBC, featuring Peter Todd and Chris Ellis.
Follow those guys on twitter for information on this hacker space. #hack on.