The first top-class bitcoin conference

The VoB is a top-class dialogue event that brings together bitcoiners, investors, bankers, executives, media and politicians to debate fundamental questions around Bitcoin.

Speaker and Attendee Feedback

2019 conference in retrospect

Dr. Saifedean Ammous

Author, “The Bitcoin Standard”

Dr. Christopher Wallet

Exec. VP, Federal Reserve St. Louis

Jochen Metzger

Director, Deutsche Bundesbank

Prof. Dr. Thorsten Polleit

Chief Economist, Degussa

“I was very much impressed by the amount of high quality discussions which occurred during the conference and would like to participate again.”

“Thank you BayernLB for working up the courage to enable such a worthwhile exchange of knowledge. I’d like to see similar emotional debates at classical treasury and finance forums as well.”

“This was one of the best banking conferences I ever attended. It was quite revealing, balanced and entertaining. I’d highly recommend this conference to colleagues from the banking and investment industry.”

“One of the best bitcoin conferences that I have ever attended.”

Be part of a globally unique experience in 2020

Video recordings of 2019

One day of in-depth knowledge and discussions

Conference Schedule

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07:30

Doors Open – Main Entrance

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08:00

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Workshop

The Bitcoin Experience by BayernLB

Manuel Andersch – Senior Economist at BayernLB

In diesem interaktiven Workshop werden in einer Mischung aus Erläuterungen und Simulation des Bitcoin-Netzwerkes die grundsätzliche Funktionsweise von Bitcoin vermittelt, und das alles nur mit Stift und Papier.

Der Workshop zielt auf Bitcoin-Einsteiger sowie alle jene ab, die ihr theoretisches Wissen um eine intuitive und praktische Erfahrung erweitern wollen. Im Workshop wird nicht nur Mining betrieben, es entsteht auch eine Blockchain und damit die Herausforderung, dass das dezentrale Netzwerk an Teilnehmern einen Konsens über den Stand dieser Datenbank findet. Um die ökonomischen Anreize des Bitcoin-Systems zu veranschaulichen, gibt es beim Mining natürlich auch etwas zu gewinnen.

Teilnehmer: max. 75 – Anmeldung notwendig
Sprache: Deutsch
Ziel: Lernerfahrung der Konferenz maximieren dank eines besseren Grundverständnisses für die Funktionsweise von Bitcoin

Die Experience ist ein kostenpflichtiges Produkt der BayernLB und ist im Rahmen der Konferenz kostenlos für Konferenzteilnehmer.

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09:00

Breakfast Snacks and Coffee

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10:00

Welcome

Welcome from your hosts

Jürgen Michels – Chief Economist at BayernLB
Daniel Wingen – Organizer of VoB Coneference

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10:10

Presentation

Everything they told you about Bitcoin is a lie

Giacomo Zucco – Director at BHB.Network

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10:30

Presentation

Security of Bitcoin private keys: from hardware to quantum attacks

Dr. Stepan Snigirev – Quantum Physicist and CTO of CryptoAdvance

This talk covers the most common remote, software and hardware attacks including quantum attacks on elliptic curve cryptography and “NSA backdoors” in hardware.
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10:50

Panel Discussion

Security and risk in Bitcoin from a technical perspective

Dr. Stepan Snigirev, Jörg Hermsdorf and Dan Held
moderated by Peter McCormack

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11:15

Coffee Break

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11:30

Presentation

Good Money, bad money – and how Bitcoin fits in

Prof. Dr. Thorsten Polleit – Chief Economist at Degussa

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11:50

Presentation

Bitcoin as the working free market alternative to national central banks

Prof. Dr. Saifedean Ammous – author of “The Bitcoin Standard”

For a century, governments have enforced a monopoly on the two core functions of central banking: payment clearance and monetary policy. After ten years of reliable operation, Bitcoin has proven itself as the only viable free market alternative capable of performing these functions. Bitcoin replaces politically-controlled money with advanced cryptography, autonomous payment settlement, and the world’s hardest currency and the first strictly scarce liquid asset. Central banks might soon realize they are competing against the most advanced monetary technology ever.

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12:15

Panel Discussion

A free market for private money – central banks under pressure?

Prof. Dr. Thorsten Polleit, Dr. Saifdean Ammous, Dr. Christopher Waller and Jochen Metzger
moderated by Valentin Schmid

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13:00

Lunch Break

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14:00

Presentation

Bitcoin as catalyst for Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC)

Dr. Cyrus de la Rubia – Chief Economist at Hamburg Commercial Bank AG

While many economist still fight about the question if Bitcoin is money or not, central banks are not willing to wait for an answer. Instead, they are thinking about modernising their money system via Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). There are many motives for central banks to setting up research projects about CBDC. However, it is clear that Bitcoin’s main technological invention of being able to transfer value through the internet in an immutable way requires monetary authorities to rethink their own technology. The presentation will be about the main differences between Bitcoin and CBDC and why Central banks may have a good chance to survive the disruptive Bitcoin-technology if they act soon.

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14:20

Presentation

Digital Cash as potential opt-out from substantial negative interest rates

Prof. Dr. Gerald Mann – Professor of Economics at FOM Munich

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14:40

Panel Discussion

CBDC and Digital Cash – opportunity or risk for central banks?

Dr. Cyrus de la Rubia, Prof. Dr. Gerald Mann, Prof. Dr. Aleksander Berentsen, Dr. Christopher Waller and Jochen Metzger
moderated by Jürgen Seitz

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15:20

Presentation

All (Crypto) Roads Lead to Bitcoin

Michel Rauchs – Research Lead, CCAF Cambridge

This session will explore the initial design considerations behind Bitcoin, the first private money existing exclusively in the digital realm. Key properties such as artificial scarcity, unseizability, and censorship-resistant value transfer will be discussed, with a focus on how these characteristics are achieved. An argument will be brought forward that Bitcoin (and similar cryptocurrency systems) need to be inefficient by design in order to prevent a single actor from unilaterally taking control. Next, Bitcoin will be compared to other cryptocurrencies in terms of liquidity, network effects, security, and usage; making the point that no cryptocurrency properties are real unless it is nearly impossible to change them. Finally, the session will conclude with cautionary remarks highlighting that all cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, are ongoing socio-economic experiments that could still fail at any point in time, while also highlighting Bitcoin‘s 10+ year track record.

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15:40

Presentation

Bitcoin – Beyond money as we know it today

Jörg Hermsdorf – Blockchain architect

Most of the current public debate is about how Bitcoin competes as a payment technology for existing use-cases from the 20th century and before. Only few see the 21st century monetary and non-monetary use-cases it enables and where Bitcoin is a competition-less, non-optional technology. We’ll also look into the potential market size of these use-cases in the near future.

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16:00

Panel Discussion

Bitcoin from a financial market and investment perspective

Dr. Alexis Eisenhofer, Hans-Jörg Naumer, Max Keidun and Giacomo Zucco
moderated by Mai Santamaria

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16:40

Snacks, Wine and Beer

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16:55

Presentation

Bitcoin mining uses energy, and that is ok

Dan Held – Founding partner and director of business development at Interchange

This talk provides a simple explanation of how Bitcoin mining works and dives deeper into why it’s energy usage is doing something useful

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17:15

Presentation

The (un)sustainability of Bitcoin

Alex de Vries – Founder of Digiconomist.net

The Bitcoin mining business has been booming over the past few years. But how does this translate to global and local impact?

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17:35

Panel Discussion

Is Bitcoin an environmental disaster?

Alex de Vries, and Michel Rauchs
moderated by Peter McCormack

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17:55

Presentation

Experiential Report: paying employees in Bitcoin

Holger Wolff – Managing Director at MaibornWolff

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18:10

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Fireside Chat

Outlook: Global adoption and regulation

Mai Santamaria and Shunichi Kimuro

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18:30

Snacks, Wine and Beer

The pioneers are

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