Serving Defcon 31 (2023)
What
This CCS proposal absorbs most of the costs of serving Monero content to about thirty thousand visitors at the Defcon hacker conference in Las Vegas (31th anniversary.)
Who
Two volunteers from the Monero Community and one manager (MSvB.) Volunteers will be selected as fairly as possible from public online chat rooms.
Why
Monero thrives on the contagious enthusiasm inspired by outreach at events.
We have grown experienced at serving Monero and related communities at events. We want to leverage our experience and accept the challenge of serving a massive group of 30K enthusiastic hackers of all ages with Monero giveaways.
How
After negotiating with Defcon management for eight months, we secured an assignment in the Caesars Forum Defcon vendor area. We are the only cryptocurrency or blockchain group at Defcon this year.
Reason
We conduct outreach at events like Defcon, in order to educate and remind people of the beneficial nature of cryptocurrency and the value of privacy technology produced and distributed by the Monero Project.
Expectation
A line will develop in front of our stand area, with many waiting to receive items. While waiting they will observe a banner and a display of Monero branded items. The enthusiasm generated by the giveaway items will likely exceed that of the recent Konferenco event in Prag.
Each of our visitors will have the chance to ask questions about Monero. Focus is placed on distribution of electronic badges and paperback books, while overreaching doctrine is avoided.
Technology
Any Monero group is welcome to participate regardless of technology. The intion of groups in our Caesars Forum area are distribution based, so groups must have something physical to offer and relate their presence accordingly.
Although non Monero groups are generally welcome, we will only focus development on non Monero options if the Monero Community decides to reject participation at Defcon as stated.
License
The parts of stand design under our control is licensed CC-BY-SA-4.
There will be a number of other licenses (hopefully all Opensource) corresponding to images, merchandise, and materials in distribution.
Comprehension
The descriptions in this CCS are not comprehensive. There are costs like storage and tooling which are not billed, and there are activities like sales which are not described.
Budget
| Item | USD | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Stand area | 1170 USD | Cost of one table in Caesars Forum |
| Stand signs | 430 USD | Estimated cost of stand signage |
| Staff compensation | 37.5 XMR | To absorb some or all travel costs |
| Mastering Monero | 2000 USD | Cost of one hundred copies of Mastering Monero |
| Cryptohip badges | 20000 USD | Cost of four hundred electronic badges |
| ---- | ---- | ---- |
| Total | 29600 USD | Total production cost for serving at Defcon |
We assume a price of 160 USD per XMR currency for a expected total 185 XMR.
If XMR loses more than 5% value, giveaway items will be reduced in quantity.
Milestones
The funded amount will be paid in four milestones, once most on-site costs are paid, once production of badges concludes, once books are ordered, and once staff have completed their last day of work.
Communication
Public reports and progress will be published on the Libera #monero-events room or equivalent Matrix or Telegram bridges.
We reached a 90% rate of abandon on past Defcon meetings, so we won't schedule any at all this year.
Participation
All Monero community members are welcome to visit us, regardless of success or failure of this CCS or their inclination to abandon work duties. Staff abandoning their work roles lose rights to staff privileges including compensation.
If you want to be near our area, then book a room at Harrah's or the Linq. Use the Defcon hotel booking site to save money.
Programmes
All of the Defcon programmes that we usually negotiate acceptance for:
Demolabs
Contests
Services
Villages
Workshops
Events
Parties
...are cancelled. We almost always cancel these programmes after acceptance anyway, due to staff absence, abandon, or neglect.
Any program that a Monero community member succeeds at planning in the coming weeks will either be scheduled for Defcon 32 or consume resources outside of the official Defcon programmes.
Disclosures
Some of this engagement may be managed or occupied by other groups who pay for their own travel and stand costs. We are required to behave inclusively of cryptocurrency groups.
Items may be offered by producers in the Monero community according to space available. Payment policy is set and enforced by Defcon management.
Defunding
Most of the costs absorbed by this proposal are due in EUR or USD fiat currency. If the XMR exchange rate causes loss (dropping 5% or more) then we will defund according to need, reducing the quantity of goods purchased or amount of travel compensation offered to staff working free of charge.
Overfunding
If more funds are collected than needed, we will try to use them in an appropriate manner. For example, we may purchase more items to distribute free of charge, plan a staff mini retreat to the shark tank, or invite on site Monero community members to a meet the staff lunch.
It's also possible that we try to return any overestimated amount to the general fund.
Recommendation
It is recommended that we (through voting) deny the Monero community this opportunity at Defcon, unless we can avoid bad language, bad behaviour, code of conduct violations, death threats, and other abuse.
This year we (Defcon leaders) are increasing the family and child friendly nature of Defcon considerably, so we should only try to welcome the Monero community in an official capacity if it's reasonable to expect avoidance of all disgrace.
We just delivered the Konferenco event which avoided all forms of disgrace and attracted families and children, so it's clear that Monero can meet the standard.
Cancellation
As usual, it's our option to cancel the Monero part of the Defcon cryptocurrency area by voting against the CCS. Cancellation is at the Monero community's discretion.
Denying the Monero community an official presence at Defcon would save us money, so it's a valid option to consider.
Many groups (Monero adversaries and most of Defcon management) hope for cancellation of the services provided by this CCS, so it would align with their interests to reject this proposal.
Expiration
This proposal expires on 23 July 2023.