📅 When: Saturday, April 25, 2026, 12:00 PM–11:00 PM 📍 Where: A4 – Space for Contemporary Culture, Karpatska 2, Bratislava, Slovakia

For the first time since 2017, we’re returning to Bratislava with the Bitcoin is Retro 2026 conference, and this time we’ll be looking not only at Bitcoin, but also at Zcash and zero-knowledge proof technologies, which enable truly untraceable transactions—money like cash, free from surveillance and censorship and other technologies.

The conference will take place on Saturday, April 25, 2026 in Bratislava, Slovakia. We are organizing “Bitcoin is Retro!” in Central Europe for a specific reason. Historical memory works to our advantage—our region carries the vivid memory of 40 years of totalitarianism: central economic planning, surveillance, currency reform, restrictions on movement, and the suppression of individual freedom. Central Europe’s historical memory and experience with systemic oppression provide the context for the values of freedom and privacy that technologies like Bitcoin and Zcash represent today. This spirit of decentralization and voluntary coordination is still alive.

The name “Bitcoin is Retro!” comes from a line by Honza Hubík on the Jan Kraus Show, when Hubík, during the early days (2017), grandly unveiled Bitcoin on TV and added that he no longer mines Bitcoin because “Bitcoin is Retro“ and he mines Zcash instead :) At the time, it was a funny line. Today, nearly a decade later, we’re revisiting it. And this time, we’ve embraced not only classic Bitcoin but also Zcash, among other technologies. It is precisely the combination of security, flexibility, and anonymity that makes Zcash one of the tools closest to the crypto-anarchists’ vision today—unstoppable, private money that functions like cash.

The conference’s visual identity is inspired by Bratislava vaporwave; the retro-futuristic aesthetic reminds us that what is revolutionary today may become nostalgic tomorrow, while also reflecting the atmosphere of the era in which we live. Symbols such as the UFO statue from Podunajské Biskupice or old computers evoke the economic centralization of the past, which we can overcome today with privacy-protecting technologies.

The conference will feature presentations by Frank Braun, Juraj Bednár, Juraj Kapris, Martin Habovštiak and other guests, and will include the Bitcoin Way of the Cross, a music program, and massages throughout the event. Bitcoin is Retro 2026 brings together generations of advocates for freedom and privacy and demonstrates that cypherpunk values such as anonymity, censorship resistance, and individual sovereignty are more relevant today than ever before.

If you have a talk or a collaboration proposal, please email marianna@trip.sk