How He Built Europe’s Biggest Bitcoin Conference From Nothing

Matyáš Kuchař, co-founder of BTC Prague, takes us behind the scenes of building the largest Bitcoin conference in Europe.

What started as a 500-person event is now a global conference with 8,000+ attendees and over 250 speakers.

“It started as a passion project and turned into a full-time mission.”

In this episode:

• How BTC Prague scaled so fast

• The challenges behind running a big conference

• The future of in-person Bitcoin events

• How this all ties into the digital industrial revolution

Timestamps:

(00:00) - Intro

(00:32) - Matyáš's nickname

(02:17) - The Bitcoin-only cafe that started it all

(03:43) - What makes BTC Prague so special

(05:04) - First impressions of the conference

(08:26) - Where the idea for BTC Prague came from

(10:15) - Starting during COVID (500 attendees)

(11:15) - From passion project → real business

(13:10) - How they scaled so fast

(18:23) - What a full year of planning looks like

(22:09) - Team size + behind-the-scenes operations

(24:08) - Biggest problems (you never see)

(25:24) - The venue disaster before opening

(27:22) - The 10,000 beer cups problem

(29:45) - Dealing with weather chaos every year

(30:45) - How they landed top Bitcoin speakers

(31:30) - Traveling the world to pitch BTC Prague

(34:00) - Why Prague is the heart of Bitcoin in Europe

(37:25) - Bitcoin as just the “entry point”

(38:16) - The digital industrial revolution

(40:41) - New trends: AI, biohacking, freedom tech

(42:02) - Can anyone build a conference like this?

(44:45) - The reality of running a business like this

(45:01) - Handling stress at scale

(46:35) - Growth from 500 to 8,000+ attendees

(47:47) - The future of BTC Prague

(49:02) - Bitcoin festival = freedom festival

(49:38) - Why you should attend BTC Prague

(50:10) - Outro

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