39C3 Support

Hey all! The Chaos Communication Congress (C3) is having their annual conference at the normal dates. December 27-30. We haven't put up a CCS request for this for several years now. Between COVID, and smaller scope after we went back in-person, we didn't feel the need to ask for anything for it. But last year, we went big again. The Critical Decentralisation Cluster (CDC) (where Monero has had its presence in the past) was as big as its glory days, and had a ton of foot traffic. MoneroKon had its own booth, and a lot of the content we platformed was about privacy and cryptocurrency. There were several sponsors that helped to build it back up to that stage last year, and there will probably be sponsors this year again, but we wanted to also go back to the tried and true method of getting the Monero Community involved.

We're looking to raise 200 XMR so we can improve the things that were good last year, and double down on the things that went well. We want to have Monero specific workshops (setting up nodes, wallets, going over some of the cryptography, etc) and continue the trend of having Monero folks run a coffee booth among other things. C3 itself is pretty crypto-wary (like Defcon), but we are having people submit main stage talks to talk about things like FCMPs, SLVer bullet, and more cool research that would be interesting to the hacker community at large, and sneak some good Monero content in that way.

The money itself will be used for all sorts of things. Truck and car rentals, fuel costs, parking, storage, workshop materials, limited accommodation compensation and travel stipends (COI disclosure: I, Diego, will not receive either), and things like tickets for the volunteers.

A more complete budget will follow soon. The asked 200 XMR does not cover all expenses, but, again, additional sponsors are already on board, so the expected risk of not being able to deliver if this CCS is funded is essentially zero.

As usual, the only cryptocurrencies that have any sort of presence there are Bitcoin and Monero. C3 begrudgingly lets us in, but they do so pretty much every year. They have to. We get a ton of foot traffic. In a previous C3 proposal (36C3) I had said: "I cannot stress enough just how important this is. Monero is beginning to solidify itself in these hacker ethos spaces, and one day in the future we will be a known, common, and perhaps even necessary fixture in it (as most of us already believe we are)." Funny. Cuz we're indeed a big draw and primary fixture there now. Let's keep that going.

Two milestones are requested. Half up front for us to pay for some things. Half at the back end to pay for other things and reimburse some people.

Any questions let us know. Thanks!