Bitcoin Conference 2026: 500 speakers, 490 of whom are unfamiliar

I was checking out the lineup for this year's Bitcoin Conference coming up in a few days, and honestly, I was thinking, who are these people? It's kinda strange to me that so many of them are total unknowns. I guess if you’re in the Bitcoin biz and you see someone’s made it big, maybe you wanna hear their success stories or tips. But honestly, that doesn’t interest me at all. So, here’s my question to you all: from the speaker list, who do you think is worth watching? And please, no mentions of Saylor or Jack Dorsey because that's a total cop-out.

Has the forum itself had any representation at a bitcoin conference before? I'm not talking about someone noteable here just going, but a group of forum members having their own panel or forum members speaking? Would be cool if there was a group of people there encouraging folks to learn more about this forum and the history behind it. Might bring some fruitful traffic here and entice people to make an account/join the fun. Here's a list of people you should see @nutildah. One of them is going to slip up and mention how they obtained lazer-vision: Yeah, man. I agree. This place is underrated in terms of learning. All games aside, if I was there, I would go see Julian Figueroa who has the "Exit Manual" Youtube Channel. I appreciate the way he communicates fundamentals. His channel is good, and his content can be entertaining/easy to watch.

I don't know if there has ever been an official forum representative at a conference. You would think that it would be a pretty big deal in the world of Bitcoin, seeing as how this was satoshi's forum and a lot of the formative conversations that really got the ball rolling for bitcoin, blockchain tech & everything else, started right here. Those who actually care about the history of it all will certainly appreciate the fact this forum still exists.

Someone may recommend a particular speaker for you and you may listen to that person and never get any positive impact, so I will advise you pick anyone your mind tells you to listen to. If I may ask while did you roll out Saylor or Jack Dorsey just curious to know. I’m sure not everyone investing in bitcoin knows about this forum and it will be interesting if someone speaking in a conference like this and talks about the Bitcointalk forum created by Satoshi Nakamoto, speaking on how it started, the challenges faced and people who have made great sacrifice and impact to see that the forum is functioning very well till date, it will be wonderful if such a thing happens in a bitcoin conference Or has such a thing happened before?

I think Paul Atkins, because it directly impacts your concerns about your bitcoin ownership, that's if you store your bitcoins entirely on CEXs. I'm not sure I want to hear what they're saying, especially the top highlighted figures; they seem to speak based on their own interests and those of their superiors. But I don't know, this is a long list; the more I scroll down, the more it feels like browsing NFT collections on Ordinal or a list of actors on a "website". maybe it would be better to hear some form the lowest list of speakers hahaa

It seems that for now the role of influencers and politicians is increasingly felt for the conference to be carried out but indeed it is a situation that seems normal for now even though the focus may be on bitcoin but there is always a personal gain to be achieved. For Dorsey and Saylor they will probably always make headlines because of the hype that is always there for them especially with Saylor who is always at his maximalist, one more Eric Trump maybe he will also give a shitcoin public lecture lol. I actually want to see Jack Mallers for this conference, despite the controversy I think Jack Mallers is energetic enough to be a speaker especially according to some statements it looks like he will focus more on discussing the Lightning Network so he might be one that I can see for this conference.

Just curious to know how it would be seating in a setting like that with such a number  of great minds and bitcoin enthusiasts and listening to 530+ speakers! I’m still wondering and imagining how the event is going to be. But I’m sure they all deserve to say something about the great Bitcoin. I wish I would be able to attend the conference, but unfortunately I’m not in anyway close to that place.

I think that at such events, you should listen to all the speeches and write down the points that you find important in the speeches. Actually, not everyone can give a good speech on all topics, because not everyone knows everything. Every person is an expert in some subject, so each speech contains valuable knowledge and important points, which can be understood better if you listen carefully. So you can keep a note and write down the favorite parts of each speech. Again, some speeches can be skipped. For example, I need knowledge about Bitcoin mining, in which case someone who is a good mining expert would be the best choice and I should totally listen to his speech. This way you can choose both the speaker and the speech! But in that case, it is better to know what the speakers are experts in and on what topic.

I am surprised that the Conference has become a political gathering. Most of the speakers are political appointees of the US government. Maybe they will be able to handle issues that relate to Bitcoin regulations and future policy directions. From the list, my best pick is Jack Mallers for his contributions to making El Salvador the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. Natalie Brunell should also be on the list because of her ability to use her communication skills to promote Bitcoin awareness.

Why don't you just visit https://2026.b.tc/agenda and see which agenda interest you based on the title and list of speakers/moderators? But i find most of the agenda title not really interesting. For example, "How Much Bitcoin Do You Really Need to Retire?" is what i expect on social media or forum rather than coference.

I don't have much idea about most of the people here, so I can't say much about them in details. However, among the two people you left out, I wanted to comment about Saylor, but since you excluded him, I did not go into it. You mentioned that they are wrong, but it would have been better if you explained how they are wrong, I would have appreciated that. Apart from Saylor and Dorsey, I know a woman who has shared good ideas on these topics. I have watched some video content from Danielle DiMartino Booth, where she discussed the global/future economy, the fiat and bitcoin in a clear way. Before going into bitcoin, she explains the economic background properly, which makes it easier to understand the full picture. I found her approach helpful and you can also look into her work if you are interested.

Satoshi Nakamoto loved privacy and anonymity, and after his disappearance, Gavin Andresen took over Bitcoin development, and the wallet renamed to Bitcoin Core with leading development from Gavin. Of course this man has great contributions for Bitcoin project in early years, but then things changed and he became no longer a trusted contributor in Bitcoin community. However Gavin Andresen joined the first Bitcoin Conference in 2011 as a speaker there. I don't know that in later Bitcoin Conferences, the forum had any members joined them as speakers. I try to find J Lopp in the speaker list but his name is not there. Lopp just posted on a forum yesterday with his statoshi account. History revisited: the first Bitcoin conference 2011. All You Need To Know About Gavin Andresen, The Founder of Bitcoin Faucet

OP this is a conference which means that resources persons with in depth knowledge and experience are coming to speak, there should be no reason why only one or two speakers should be in our mind when the conference eventually kick start. Every resource person is important and will be contributing his knowledge about Bitcoin so every speaker is worth listening to in this program that is coming up. Nice one to the bitcoin community because these types of conferences remind Bitcoin enthusiast that Bitcoin is still alive and kicking despite all oppositions in the past.

The Bitcoin Conference used to have better speakers. I don't see Saifedean Ammous coming in 2026, this person is the ultimate no-coiner debunker, he humiliated Peter Schiff last year. These 490 you've never heard of are probably just random Twitter accounts that the algorithm rewards on content consistency around Bitcoin. And yes, there's probably not much of an interest. Jeff Booth will have something interesting to say.

Personally, I think you should listen to Fred Thiel talk. He will probably not only talk about tips for success in Bitcoin-related businesses, but also talk about his own experiences directly involved with Bitcoin. He might also offer his perspective on Bitcoin bright future, as I know, he is been a strong supporter of Bitcoin. In fact, he even predicted a future Bitcoin price explosion, leading to massive adoption by institutions. So, I think his lecture will be more in-depth regarding Bitcoin. By the way, will this talk be broadcast live? I know it is not free, but there might be recordings available, especially if they are summarized. So, is there any information on that?

The chances of me attending a bitcoin conference is pretty slim well a question like what if the forum was hosting one well my opinions about attending may likely not change either not like I dislike them but personally I don't fancy them very much that's all. Chances of this happening is pretty close to zero. There's been a few on the forum though that are hosted by just a few reputable members but I think justification is Also a problem sometimes too.

After the institutional investors have entered the Bitcoin market as the major player, I don't think we should be surprised that a conference that's said to be hosted for Bitcoin will be full of people who don't actually have a huge impact on the success of BTC, but will be the speakers of the event hosted because of BTC because it is now the game of politics and institutional investors. Meanwhile, this is another alarming sign that we should prioritize self custody of our BTC, or else this is what we'll see in the future for all Bitcoiners that have their BTC on thirdparty custody.

I also don't see Vitalik Buterin in the list. Yes, he is for ETH but I believe, the development of eth is also owed to btc and so he has a lot to say also to this conference. Anyway, they can all talk but they need solid foundation in order for the public to be informed on what's fact about btc and not and how it can truly change their financial aspect.

I think they are trying to appeal to everyone. Want to hear from politicians got some of them. Want to hear from mining businesses got some of them. Want to hear from exchanges got some of them. Want to hear from software people got some of them. Want to hear from talking head celebrities got some of them. Want to hear from investors got some of them. And so on. Looks to have fewer pure tech people then years before which I think makes it less appealing to people here on this board. But I do see the logic of having a little bit of everything and from there you can see who gets full rooms and who has a dozen people there. So for next year and the year after you can do a little more planning. I have seen similar things in decades past in computer / tech conferences. Went from all engineers to engineers and marketing to engineers and marketing and upper management people. Kept adding and expanding till they figured out what people wanted and then they started pulling back. [Then the .com implosion happened] -Dave

Going through the list makes me see some key persons with great insight and knowledge into how various parts of the Blockchain technology functions and the real world applications that hasn't yet been effectively applied. There's some great CEOs present on the list like that of Kalshi, Tarek Mansour, who is well versed in the world and workings of the predictions market, there's the creator of Cashu, Calle, who may speak and expansiate more on Bitcoin privacy in this modern times where self sovereignty is the goal of cryptocurrency for individual real investors. There's also Robin Linus, the creator of BitVM which is expected on speak much on base layer applications that were thought impossible. I really didn't even bother about Saylor or anyone else, because I have a big knowledge about these persons and the news almost always have their companies under review and scrutiny both for authenticity and the trust factor of which they understand better and would be given talk time to let us into their thought pattern.