Prague is the birthplace of the world’s first {hardware} pockets, the primary Bitcoin mining pool, and, reportedly, even the primary Bitcoin cafe. It is among the many most prosperous cities in Central Europe, visited by tens of millions of vacationers every year.
Ranked as considered one of Europe’s most charming and exquisite cities, Prague is a burgeoning tech hub with a brand new technology of crypto-saavy people populating its streets.
Fast information
City: Prague
Country: Czechia
Population: 2.7 million (Metropolitan Area)
Established: eighth Century
Languages: Czech, Slovak, English, Ukrainian, German, Vietnamese, Russian
Prague was a number one metropolis within the adoption of Bitcoin.
Understand
Known for its bridges, majestic fortifications and Bohemian structure, Prague was voted probably the most stunning metropolis on the planet final 12 months by Time Out Magazine. At the crossroads of Europe, it’s visited by over 8 million vacationers yearly and has develop into a well-liked alternative amongst filmmakers as a backdrop, together with the makers of Mission: Impossible and Casino Royale.
More than 1,000 years in the past, the migration of the Czech individuals — a Western Slavic tribe — based the City of Prague on the banks of the Vltava river. Prague rapidly developed into a significant metropolitan middle in medieval occasions and was the seat of many Bohemian kings who would additionally reign because the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire.
Ruled over variously by the Austrian Empire, a brief period of independence, after which by Nazi Germany, Prague managed to flee destruction by the hands of Nazis or Allied bombers. But after simply three years of independence after the struggle, communists backed by the Soviet Union staged a coup and toppled the nation’s democratic authorities in 1948. Development stalled throughout communist occasions, and regardless of a flicker of hope for liberalism within the Prague Spring of 1968, it wasn’t till the Velvet Revolution protests that the ruling communist get together resigned on Nov. 28, 1989, placing the native individuals as soon as once more in control of their very own destinies.
The Powder Tower throughout the Habsburg period. Source: Old-Prague.com
Crypto tradition
Today, Prague is a number one tech hub in Central Europe. Having modified currencies as soon as a technology as a consequence of their numerous rulers and independence, the Czech persons are recognized for financial skepticism and have enthusiastically adopted digital currencies. This curiosity has been compounded by the rising inflationary stress on the Czech koruna (CZK), which stood at 18.0% each year in June 2022.
Firms comparable to SatoshiLabs, Alza, Trezor, Braiins and lots of others have ramped up schooling about digital property within the nation. However, the Czech National Bank has largely remained on the sidelines with regard to regulating the business. While curiosity in crypto stays sturdy among the many Czech individuals (particularly these in Prague), current business blowups and bear market sell-offs have hampered confidence considerably.
But that doesn’t take away from the truth that it was right here the place the world’s first {hardware} pockets, first Bitcoin mining swimming pools and first Bitcoin espresso store all got here into motion throughout the previous decade. In current years, Prague has additionally develop into a hotspot for digital nomads, being voted as the highest vacation spot on the planet for distant work, together with Krakow, Poland in 2021. Thanks to the trouble of early adopters, the town is rife with crypto meetups, hackathons, venues and seminars that make it distinct from its neighbors in Central Europe.
Prague’s Old Town Square. Source: Zhiyuan Sun
Notable Projects
Nowadays, cryptocurrency {hardware} wallets are famend for his or her means to safeguard traders’ property in a self-custodied method, however simply who invented them? The thought all began in 2011 after a Bitcoin convention in Prague.
Two crypto lovers, Pavol “Stick” Rusnák and Marek “Slush” Palatinus envisioned a small, single-purpose laptop that might securely retailer customers’ Bitcoin personal keys. In 2013, the 2 based SatoshiLabs. The following 12 months, the first-ever Trezor pockets — Trezor One — launched. Then got here the Trezor Model T, which added a touchscreen to the machine. Both units have offered over 1 million models since inception, with their firmware patched month-to-month or so. It has develop into the usual for {hardware} crypto storage worldwide.
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— Trezor (@Trezor) April 6, 2022
SatoshiLabs contains a basket of corporations (Trezor, Invity and Tropic Square) forming the forefront of crypto and tech growth in Czechia.
The famed Trezor Model T
Apart from its flagship product, it is usually accountable for creating over 20 business requirements, such because the restoration seed and passphrase utilized in all cryptocurrency {hardware} wallets at the moment.
Like many within the crypto business, they have been incensed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine this 12 months and needed to assist. Vojtěch Černý, head of commerce at Trezor, and Bach Nguyen, head of enterprise growth at Invity, drove practically 900 kilometers to the Slovak–Ukrainian border city of Vel’ké Slemence, delivering humanitarian provides and bringing again 4 girls and two kids refugees to security in Czechia.
SatoshiLabs additionally donated 1 million euros price of Bitcoin to charities serving to Ukraine shortly after the struggle began, citing the “results of occupation and destruction of particular person freedom” throughout 5 a long time of Communist rule over Czechoslovakia because the inspiration.
Invity is one other department of SatoshiLabs.
The agency is a worth aggregator that scrutinizes each crypto change and different platforms to seek out the perfect charges for buying cryptocurrency. It combines all the things in a single place with an easy interface designed for customers simply moving into crypto. Invity additionally has a variety of assets about schooling for novel crypto lovers.
Lastly, throughout the growth of Trezor at SatoshiLabs, it turned clear that the agency wanted an auditable built-in circuit with higher safety options than market options. Thus, Tropic Square was born with an bold plan to make an open-source, auditable customized chip to remodel low entropy code into excessive entropy knowledge for cryptographic operations. Led by tech-savvy builders comparable to CEO Evžen Englberth and chief know-how officer Jan Pleskač, chips developed by Tropic Square at the moment are present in every considered one of Trezor’s {hardware} wallets.
Tropic Square workers at SatoshiLabs headquarters. Source: Tropic Square
Before he created Trezor, Palatinus based the primary Bitcoin mining challenge in Prague in 2010, which was merely referred to as Bitcoin.cz. After he moved on, Braiins, an organization doing embedded Linux growth and analysis, took over the mining pool and renamed it accordingly (till just lately rebranding it again to Slush Pool), with 1.3 million BTC mined since inception.
Fast ahead to now, Braiins/Slush Pool has grown to develop into one of many largest Bitcoin mining swimming pools. There are at the moment over 15,000 customers of the agency’s mining optimization software program within the area, with its whole hash price accounting for five%–8% of the general Bitcoin community. The firm derives 100% of its earnings by way of BTC and costs a 2%–2.5% fee from its mining firmware.
Kristian Csepcsar, chief advertising and marketing officer of Braiins, explains that mining and Bitcoin is a lifestyle — not only a solution to earn money:
“Bitcoin miners are some of the hardcore Bitcoiners, and their dedication to safe networks will be seen within the international hash price numbers. Bitcoin’s worth fell greater than 70% just lately, however the hash price has solely dropped about 20% from all-time highs…. Bitcoin’s relative worth to fiat can change, however Bitcoin might be eternally one Bitcoin, and miners deeply perceive this level.”
Braiins core crew at Bitcoin Mining Conference 2022 in Prague. Source: Braiins
General Bytes is the world’s second-largest Bitcoin and ATM producer, with places of work in Prague and Bradenton, Florida. Since its inception in 2013, the corporate has offered over 13,000 machines throughout 142 international locations, most of that are situated within the United States.
A General Bytes ATM. Source: General Bytes
More than 180 fiat currencies can be utilized to buy 60+ kinds of digital property at its money machines. Over 22.5 million crypto transactions have been carried out worldwide on its community of Bitcoin ATMs.
Backed by the $2.5-billion Rockaway Capital, the Rockaway Blockchain Fund is a enterprise capital agency backing main Web3 founders. Founded in 2020, the Prague-based agency has now invested in 36 initiatives and 26 funds. In addition to investing capital and boosting liquidity, Rockaway backs its initiatives by group networking, a staking crew that runs its validator nodes, and an in-house growth crew generally known as RBF Labs. It was one of many early backers of Solana, together with a number of investments within the Cosmos ecosystem, together with Agoric.
Rockaway raised $123 million in its first VC fund, which is now practically 75% deployed with a portfolio worth of roughly $300 million as of June 30. In addition to that, RBF additionally has a separate lending fund that gives loans to market makers and liquidity to DeFi protocols, with an asset beneath administration of roughly $35 million on the finish of June.
Where can I spend my crypto?
Located close to the center of Prague’s Old Town is Bar No. 7, a laid-back venue with multilingual workers that’s extraordinarily well-liked amongst expats and locals alike. It’s additionally a fantastic place to go for worth on one’s crypto: One can get scrumptious cocktails for round 150 CZK every ($6.24) and a pint of beer for simply 25 CZK ($1.04) all paid for with crypto. There’s additionally a Bitcoin ATM situated proper contained in the venue. But beware — it will get packed rapidly within the evenings nearly every single day of the week.
Bar No. 7 Praha. Source: Zhiyuan Sun
For scenic, short-term leases or long-ish stays, you may ebook and pay for lodging with Prague Siesta Apartments utilizing Bitcoin. Apartments are situated on the coronary heart of Prague, a minute’s stroll away from points of interest such because the Old Town Square and the Astronomical Clock. Prices range by season and usually fluctuate above or beneath 2,000 CZK per evening ($83.08) with reductions for longer stays.
Paralelní Polis is the primary espresso store to just accept cryptocurrencies in Central Europe and has been energetic since 2014. Though it has now largely advanced to develop into a co-working area and membership venue, internet hosting numerous occasions, initiatives and refreshments for its members. But one can nonetheless buy the venue’s unique Bitcoin Coffee at its doorstep. Bitcoin, Litecoin or Lightning Network are accepted. It’s named after Czech activist Václav Benda’s 1973 idea of “Paralelní Polis” (Parallel Polis) — an impartial society not oppressed by legal guidelines and selections of representatives of central authorities. The thought turned a rallying name for political dissidents and sounds very very like Libertarian Bitcoiner politics.
Alza is a number one e-commerce platform in Central Europe with near $1.2 billion in annual gross sales. It has a catalog of crypto-related {hardware} units that prospects pays for with Bitcoin (Ether and Litecoin funds are anticipated sooner or later). It additionally accepts Bitcoin on its native e-commerce subsidiaries working in Slovakia, Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom and on Alzashop.com.
For crypto vacationers who don’t have an deal with in Prague to ship to, you will get merchandise shipped to the distinctive Alza Boxes bundle lockers for pickup. And because of General Bytes, it is usually attainable to purchase cryptocurrencies at a few of Alza’s retail places by way of in-store ATMs.
Finally, A Maze in Tchaiovna is a stable venue for tea and craft beer lovers alike. It is an all-in-one cease that mixes components of a teahouse, theater, gallery and bar. Cryptocurrency will be tendered for drinks and snacks. Live music is offered periodically.
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— Braiins | bitcoin mining instruments (@braiins_systems) July 25, 2022
Education
Braiins, the corporate behind Slush Pool, runs a common weblog about easy methods to get began on one’s Bitcoin mining rig, together with the economics of such an operation. Similarly, Alza has its personal weblog sequence devoted to educating readers and buyers about Bitcoin. But Braiins takes it one step additional by additionally publishing a sequence of books concerning the nature of Bitcoin decentralization and the long run. They are free to learn and can be found in each exhausting copies and as full pdfs on its web site.
Currently, the University of New York in Prague is issuing digital diplomas utilizing blockchain know-how for all levels accredited by the Czechia’s Ministry of Education. Students are offered a hyperlink to such accreditation with a QR code hooked up to confirm its authenticity and will be freely shared amongst social networks.
‘Bitcoin: Odluka peněz od státu’ (Bitcoin: The Separation of Money From the State) by Josef Tětek and printed by Braiins. Source: Josef Tětek
Controversies
Being a closely-knit crypto group, Prague is just not recognized for crypto scams or digital asset-related crime. The majority of misconduct occurred within the earlier decade, such because the collapse of the Bitcash.cz crypto change in 2013 and the theft of roughly 485 BTC. Another occasion concerned Czech nationwide Tomáš Jiříkovský and his alleged function in laundering $40 million price of BTC in stolen funds from a securities fraud case in 2015. Earlier this 12 months, an incident occurred with Trezor the place the agency’s buyer knowledge was breached on third-party knowledge vendor Mailchimp. It subsequently advanced right into a phishing rip-off earlier than it was rapidly addressed.
That mentioned, a way more severe incident occurred on August 18. Via a zero-day bug, hackers made themselves the default directors of General Bytes’ ATMs and modified settings so that each one deposits have been transferred to their pockets deal with. A central consumer entry server internet hosting the whole thing of the corporate’s operation was compromised. General Bytes has urged prospects to chorus from utilizing its servers till its house owners patches the exploit in an replace.
Notable People
Pavol “Stick” Rusnák, co-founder of SatoshiLabs; Mark “Slush” Palatinus, co-founder of SatoshiLabs; Pavel Moravec, co-CEO of Braiins; Jan Capek, co-CEO of Braiins; Bach Nguyen, head of enterprise growth at Invity; Vojtěch Frgál, CEO of General Bytes; Evžen Englberth CEO of Tropic Square; Jan Pleskač, chief know-how officer of Tropic Square; Josef Tětek, economist and SatoshiLabs’ model ambassador; Kristian Csepscar, chief advertising and marketing officer of Braiins; Vojtěch Černý, head of commerce at Trezor; Tommy Poole, proprietor of Bar No. 7 Praha.
Cointelegraph members primarily based in Prague:
Ever surprise whose inventive thoughts is behind that of Cointelegraph’s signature creative fashion? Well, Cointelegraph’s gifted artwork crew is led none-other by lead artist and artwork editor Anastasia Zhdanova, who is predicated in Prague. With an artwork profession spanning 13+ years, Zhdanova can be the creator behind the Серые будни магов (Magic Routine) comedian sequence. She graduated from the distinguished Stieglitz Academy of Art and Design in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Europe and crypto as portrayed by the Cointelegraph artwork crew
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