From December 6 to 8, 2019, the second edition of the Bolt-A-Thon[1] will take place in the natural habitat of Bitcoin and the Lightning Network — the internet. The Lightning-centered hackathon and conference is a follow-up to the inaugural event[2] in April 2019, where many creative ideas were presented and many Lightning-focused projects made tangible progress — for instance, after the multi-platform payments service Bottle Pay won the Bolt-A-Thon, it went on to raise $2 million[3] to boost development.
Speakers at the event, who will be making their presentations via livestream, include Lightning Labs Infrastructure Lead Alex Bosworth, Blockstream researchers Christian Decker[4] and Rusty Russel and c-lightning[5] developer Lisa Neigut.
A Decentralized, Inclusive Conference Fit for the Technology
For a participation fee of only 100,000 satoshis (about $8.30), Lightning enthusiasts from all around the world can purchase single-session tickets to watch these presentations via Zoom. The event has eight sessions (one for each speaker), so the total cost of watching all presentations will amount to 800,000 satoshis. The event’s ticket page[6] allows attendees to choose sessions individually.
In the true spirit of the Lightning Network, signup only requires payment to generate a participation code used to join the livestreams, with the option to submit an email address as well. There is no mandatory KYC process, no requirement to use a real name and no way to discriminate among potential participants. The price is low enough to encourage enthusiasts from all around the world to learn more and engage with the Lightning community.
“Our goal here is to offer an alternative to physical conferences,” Bolt-A-Thon co-founder Andrew Yang told Bitcoin Magazine. “I’ve witnessed situations where tickets were very expensive, and I
