Tidwell

Absolute Legend

Really excited to have nogood doing our designs and art for our final conference.

Cool posters, Shirts, available for purchase at

this year.

Burn LLM Tokens, Hack BTC https://blossom.primal.net/5421a4edd0ff517a1acd7f2cfd3e4613d6174f279d6a037ae78f7cf8a39286f4.png

CONFIRMED: This will be the final TABConf.

After many incredible years, we have decided that this year's TABConf 8, happening Oct 12-15, 2026 in Atlanta, GA, will be the last one.

TAB started in 2016, back when there weren't many Bitcoin meetup groups. In 2018, we started the conference because the meetup had grown insanely large. From the beginning, TABConf was arguably technical, and over time it became even more technical, partly because that is what interested us, and partly because there was a real gap after Scaling Bitcoin faded away.

Today, that gap is much smaller. There are now many great technical Bitcoin events and communities: regional bitcoin++ events, Adopting Bitcoin, OP_NEXT, Presidio, MIT Bitcoin Expo, the Bitcoin Conference open source stage, BitDevs groups, and many more.

That is a good thing!

TABConf was never built as a business. It has always been community service: volunteer run, historically carried by a small core group of a few people, with a much larger group of volunteers making it possible every year.

The goal was always simple: keep it technical. Avoid price action, charts, "wen moon" talks, and hype.

I have always said TABConf is not the place to come learn why Bitcoin is great. It is the place where, once you know Bitcoin is great, you come to learn what you can do next.

It has always been a builders and doers conference.

I still believe true sovereignty requires a minimum level of technical competence. I think this remains one of the most underrated ideas in the space. It is often dismissed by people who believe the entire burden is on developers and designers to abstract everything away. But in reality, the healthy place is somewhere in the middle. Taking responsibility for your own digital money is still a new idea for many people.

No one is too old, too new, or too "non technical" to learn how Bitcoin works. But that knowledge requires practice, repetition, and maintenance.

TABConf tried to create that space. It was a space that wasn't afraid to experiment with interactive puzzles and bizarre/funny formats that involved many people in the room instead of just generic panels and talks.

I also want to give special thanks to Brandon, who has been doing TAB with me for 10 years. He stuck it out with me through all of it, and TABConf would not have been what it was without him.

Brandon was also the one who had the idea to use GitHub and go fully open source with how the conference is organized in public. I really think that kind of open programming and communication made TABConf unique, and it is also something others have experimented with since.

There are many others I want to thank too: Stephen, Brianna, the Socratic BitDevs Village hosts, the Next Generation Village hosts, our speakers, volunteers, attendees, sponsors, and everyone who contributed.

I am not trying to play favorites..... but the full list is probably hundreds of people deep. Thank you to everyone who helped make each TABConf an amazing experience.

Over the years, I have heard from so many people about friendships, jobs, projects, companies, general opportunities that came from TABConf. There's even people who have met their spouses! It is hard to measure the impact, but the vibes have always been high, and I believe we all made serious good use of our time at TAB events.

That means more to me than I can properly express.

Let's send it off the right way!

I hope you will consider coming to TABConf this year and helping us make the final one a blast. We are accepting sponsorships, selling tickets, and, as always, it will be in Atlanta, GA.

All info should be available on the main TABConf website.

Thank you to everyone who came to

7 and made it wonderful this year!

4 days of: cordial debates, technical workshops, talks and panels, interactivities, meshtastic devices, hardware hacking, the CTB puzzle. So much fun.

7 Things I would like to share from TABConf 7.

1. Huge sponsor love for enabling our grants and supporting the conf: lclhostresearch

   npub17xvf49k…rhc9as

   , SetDevBTC, BitcoinTutorials

   npub1spralxq…rs8s72

   FulgurVentures unchained jintekc nostr:nprofile1qyxhwumn8ghj7cnjvghxjme0qyt8wumn8ghj7etyv4hzumn0wd68ytnvv9hxgtcqyrsrelsprkq5yjakpgfwn6cvkryudzxrgufvx72vqafwquvtx600yfg3uh5 @andurobtc CleanSpark_Inc lightspark, DCD

2. So many new faces inspired to build on Bitcoin. Special love to the Brazilian crew who also hit the Rust Bitcoin Summit at nostr:nprofile1qyxhwumn8ghj7cnjvghxjme0qyt8wumn8ghj7etyv4hzumn0wd68ytnvv9hxgtcqypwly85wcy0zreahzzk86my5gf6q0tnfaya8lncdpglw97kylhyykqkwds9 . Shout to nostr:nprofile1qyxhwumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmvqyw8wumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytnzd96xxmmfdejhytnnda3kjctvqqsq7dkjp0qy78cwwak2e3lhkvy202k4l6dhw3xwafjfrtshv2uvrrq85wx7f on the great work with vintenum and nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyv9kh2uewd9hj7qgnwaehxw309aex2mrp0yhxvdm69e5k7tcqyqtyk83lj8mjyeazd999qm7xxmfanew84xr2kfqfx5c205yw50knjpj5lnq (Nov 7).

3. Thanks for personalized education and attention from so many talented folks especially some core contributors like nostr:nprofile1qy88wumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmv9uq36amnwvaz7tmwdaehgu3wvf5hgcm0d9hx2u3wwdhkx6tpdshsqgy4xcdzks4zds3t4sakk6aych9vf5mfqm4se7ucy6rgr3z6xqw9rqdwmzvs and achow101. And those encouraging technical education with a carrot 🥕 via CTB donors, you rock!: jintekc fedibtc nostr:nprofile1qythwumn8ghj7cnfw33k76twv4ezuum0vd5kzmp0qy2hwumn8ghj7etyv4hzumn0wd68ytnvv9hxgqpq563z6kxmvuy7s8zhzan8m0hzmkavyfzg2aw6h7f0fvcvdms398cs9kkm3m Anchor Watch, TaprootWizards.

4. Adhoc and satellite events and activities were a blast: nostr:nprofile1qyshwumn8ghj7en9v4j8xtnwdaehgu3wvfskuep0w3uhqetnvdexjur5qy88wumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmv9uqzpxvff4mhj5snxn95nyf7yvupuxt2rwcsuklrahkcu857pqplmpndukqdk5 nostr:nprofile1qy88wumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmv9uq36amnwvaz7tmwdaehgu3wd46hg6tw09mkzmrvv46zucm0d5hsqgxyzefv97w93slluaegtnevwlu8h4zmf3me3fwcrewsdh6jegevrsv6weg2 👷🧑‍🏭💃 nostr:nprofile1qyx8wumn8ghj7cnjvghxjmcpzamhxue69uhkxcfwdaexzmn8v4cxjmrv9ejx2asqyrjuvl0ff20kza7q47x0yfmxl29lv0nls2gjd53207fvh5qfehlqgvrj0t7 nostr:nprofile1qyw8wumn8ghj7mn0wd68yttjv4kxz7fwwak8vuewwdcxzcm9qythwumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytnxd46zuamf0ghxy6t6qqsppp673v5h2dawvpmw4r3xq9vw6mczuvmmpee2nvv9fw3l8usfl7svuw9ut Afterparties 🥳 @npub1337xxyne0pw52zgd984xqqs2q7qhqpt7phhn7xp6t9yt406vrvescdpkdt Mario Kart Double Sats 🚗 nostr:nprofile1qythwumn8ghj7etrd35hqum99ec82c30wfjkccteqy2hwumn8ghj7etyv4hzumn0wd68ytnvv9hxgqpqe0z776cpe0gllgktjk54fuzv8pdfxmq6smsmh8xd7t8s7n474n9s46upw4 Bitcoin at work-shop. The chess tournament crew: jondomedia nostr:nprofile1qyt8wumn8ghj7ct5d3shxtnwdaehgu3wd3skueqprdmhxue69uhkymm4de3k2u3wd45ku6tzdak8gtnfdenx7qpqctrsduxssdgthmmx7lz7erhqt2hjgj99tzkt22g2uyvayhxd9asq6ljejq bitcoinburnbabe. ♟️

5. Massive thanks to nostr:nprofile1qqsyzlnh5fgkekljwzc2uvyfcsjrgztpppkjyxg7udew2y5cl28a0vq69eq6x nostr:nprofile1qyt8wumn8ghj7ct5d3shxtnwdaehgu3wd3skueqpz4mhxue69uhk2er9dchxummnw3ezumrpdejqqgppmn59u9tqs6lpkus7g2mrd3dg6809ky7syj8pdemwxnrf2ytt4g3yuxte nostr:nprofile1qyw8wumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytfsxyhxymmvwshx7cnnv4e8vetjqywhwumn8ghj7mn0wd68yttsw43zuam9d3kx7unyv4ezumn9wsqzpmdxs3wvyf5magg0qyr5fttegzdvkuffm959049lr8szw6tzny5j6laedw Brandon nostr:nprofile1qyvhwumn8ghj76mwdaehgu3wdejh2arjd9hx2tnrdakszrthwden5te0dehhxtnvdakqqgq0g0mw933zc2ke77274exdu0km7y7kv25nuvql7jae92qy2cqc5vr4zjnt nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7etyv4hzumn0wd68ytnvv9hxgqgdwaehxw309ahx7uewd3hkcqpq6anjdksmvn5x08vtden04n64rw5k7fsjmedpw8avsx8wsh8ruhlq8ad0zz and all volunteers for setup and breakdown in record time. lclhostresearch crushed the Socratic BitDevs village as always. Hardcore trivia was amazing and super efficient.

6. Debate panels drew big crowds again. Year 2 of the format and going strong. Thanks Paul Sztorc and nostr:nprofile1qyg8wumn8ghj7vf5xqhxvdm69e5k7qgewaehxw309askgatvwshrzwrsd36hxtnnda3kjctvqqsqqqqqqqpn93urrkw94x03swhu9qf6da56zmka5lm0crkczyzkdesmf0g64 for setting context and involving the audience.

7. The warnet hosted by Zipkin was awesome. Big shout to chaincode for supporting it the last 2 years. Hacking LN ⚡️⚠️ nodes was a blast. Our evening WoT with nostr:nprofile1qyx8wumn8ghj7cnjvghxjmcpz4mhxue69uhk2er9dchxummnw3ezumrpdejqqg9y36t3zss748h2esd84tmjc7lajk3ndmxrfe5pdwpwx66evsjsecg6ua6t 🔐workshop sparked ideas for recurring web of trust events at TAB.

I cannot wait to see you all next year for TABConf 8. Tickets are on sale now at early prices. Support the conference and grab yours today! Save the date: TABConf 8 is Oct 12-15, 2026. Mark your calendars! 🗓️

I'm wearing the

hoodie today in a coffee shop, a girl there knows my name is mike. She asks me.. "Are you Mike from tunestr". Holy crap.. small world, and too many Mikes.

🚨

tickets are $121, going to ⬆️ $256 on Friday!

🎟️ Your ticket includes: 🍳 Breakfast & lunch for 4 days 🎉 Afterparty on a rooftop w/ carnival games + open bar 🛠️ Free hardware swag Don't miss it 👉 http://tabconf.com #Bitcoin #TABConf

Maybe written with LLM 🤖

Can we objectively measure (point in time) relay filter effectiveness? We can by looking at the friction a Tx/usecase faces getting into a block.

Filtering on datacarrier (preventing OP_RETURNs from exceeding 83 bytes) lives in the [pink box] Sharing this as a discussion point.

Hey Rusty. Just planting the seed that I'd love for you to make it to

this year Oct 13-16. Happy to give you space to talk about GSR.

note, Oct 13-16 in ATL we are going to have bunch of meshtastic hacking going on at

Is it possible to think that late-night shows in general are on their way out? Ratings are tough because of competing platforms, these shows are expensive to produce, and the FCC shouldn't be used as a political arm to censor speech, the FCC very likely overstepped here.

AND

There was a nonzero chance this was used as a convenient excuse to suspend a late-night host as a way to bring publicity and help promote the next person who would replace this host.

Asking for a friend, because apparently whenever this is asked, the first thing that comes up are analogies comparing this supposedly "gross" question to something about Charlie Kirk's murder. Smh. We are so cooked in terms of being able to debate stuff.

Yo

what's up my love

I'm working on the relaunch of my website and server backend, one thing I'm wondering if someone stumbles upon my game and wants to register with Nostr but doesn't have an account. Where should I point them?

https://nostr.com/ ?

I don't really want them to generate the keys on my website if I can help it because I want them to be responsible for not losing their nsec. Any ideas from what others have done?

Check this out https://m.primal.net/PAjw.png

Made some pretty cool art on

My new favorite block on Satoshi Settlers is block 880300.

One of the most interesting talks at TABConf 6 this year.

Tadhe Dryja. goes over the: The Ethereumization of Bitcoin.

"The reasons Bitcoiners don't like ETH no longer apply"

make sure to update your notes.

Your life is short. Build something positive that will outlive you.

Remember to also celebrate progress in reference to scale and privacy.

Besides @Wizardsardine (Liana) Lightning Labs (TapAss) @TaprootWizards (NFTs)

Who else is doing something with taproot outside of just simple sends? I'm looking for something in production.

can't believe they still accept usd for this.

Here is a personalized Nostr recap of TABConf 6 here.

I really do believe we made another historical event as a top 20 bitcoin conference of all time. No price discussion. No political discussion besides a bit of freerossing. Big focus on tech and steps towards progress. We experimented with some really cool ideas that worked out this year which we will be expanding on next year. Some examples were an emphasis on hardware, rotating debate panels, and rapid explainer game show.

Really looking forward to having TABConf also have a minor focus on meshtastic and doing long range mesh networking. Perhaps we will even connect

to

in the future.

The first ever TAB awards (Tabbies) happened this year. I think for a first pass it went pretty well.

Looking forward to having more Nostr involvement next year, perhaps people reading this may feel inclined to run a Nostr specific room or do an entire Nostr day at the same venue next year. Let me know if you want to plan this!

I believe TABConf is the only truly open source conference that is organized, and I hope we can keep expanding and improving the uX to make people feel comfortable getting involved.

We are selling tickets for next years conference already (Oct 13-16, 2025) mark your calendars. Tickets are all inclusive, there is no class of tickets and you aren't marked like cattle with an unremovable wristband.

Hope you consider coming out and building next year with us. If you feel like you aren't technical enough, you are missing the point. There is something at

for everyone.

Enjoy this video of me walking around talking to a few awesome people at TABConf 6 this year in the general hacker space.

Very happy so far with

this year. It's making me incredibly bullish. The amount of hard work going into learning so much in such little time is truly inspiring.

I arrested

on stage today at

. We got em' boys!

Got him on 35 counts of unlicensed RBF.

There seems to be a dick measuring contest for some people when it comes to diminishing and comparing bad situations. Many people are oddly critical that some have found a valid reason to justify their vote preference this year. I think it's one of the most concrete reasons I've ever come across ever. #freeross

it’s about get that special kind of bitcoin nerdy spooky https://image.nostr.build/829cf453f99e5917e441e72d0d091d4c4f09970740c7bf56fdde098448a88452.jpg

So so so so many things I'm looking forward to next week at tabconf:

Some random things off the top of my head but not limited to:

• The hacker badges working with infrared to send and receive sats and make a game of laser tag. (good luck
  npub1c878wu0…2n8avm

  )
• Understanding malleability for public key reuse, and hash only encumbrance within taptree and transactions.
• Hacking old versions of Bitcoin core via Warnet workshop.
• Doing the codex32 workshop and actually understand what I'm doing.
• Getting meshtastic conference network going, and people building on top of it.
• Trying to mine a Bitcoin with all the bitaxe's we are getting.
• Seeing people learn deeper stuff with bip32, bip39, and tapscript via the CTB puzzle.
• Seeing friends.
• and ofc playing chess with
  npub1fuk7q4y…t9mzly

I've been spending the last several weeks learning about Bitcoin, specifically deep things and nuance with bip32, how apps have implemented this, and combinations with bip39. It amazes me how little I know whenever I do a dive like this..

gave me some words of motivation the other day, I think I want to start doing technical content again soon through Blocktime podcast. After

I'll plan to knock a few videos and see if it gets some traction.

For those of you running a Bitaxe, what's your best difficulty so far?

After a few hours I got a 6.52M.

I understand why one would do solomining with a bitaxe, If a Bitaxe costs about $150, and you can make about 2-3 cents of bitcoin per day. Than it would take about 14 years without difficulty change to make your money back (i.e. will never pay for itself). Vs.. lottery ticket + more decentralization + big pay day + fun.

Am I wrong?

Crazy to think, if you had 1 bitaxe in it's current form in 2017, you'd of had more hashrate than the entire network at the time.

Anyone with good experience with meshtastic want to help

have an amazing meshing time?

two of the primary food groups, parmesan cheese and brisket.

pretty sure a major food group is parmesan cheese

It is very concerning how hard it is for people to get travel visa's to come to

. It's also concerning how many non Americans I met that don't want to travel to the US even if they could get a travel visa because of safety and security. My eyes have been opened this year on just how bad this is. If this doesn't eventually get better I'm going to have rethink a few things about TABConf.

Parmesan is the best cheese.

We have 141 contributors to bitcoin core in roughly the last 12ish months for github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin going back to v24.1

I just realized I'm denoted as one of them on the 26 release. 😅 Many like me may only have trivial commits, but it's still pretty cool to be associated along some very talented people.

26 contributors are active on 3+ releases in the 12 months. I'm planning an award ceremony at

this year to help bring to light some of the hard work done behind the scenes for Bitcoin and related projects. Starting the tradition this year.

Let's try to see if I can put Nostr to work:

I'll send sats to every valid suggestion.

If you were giving out 3 awards for bitcoin that were technical in nature, which categories would you come up with?

Bonus sats if you come up with 4 candidates for your proposed achievement categories.

For someone who constantly feels busy, what is the best source on Nostr to keep up with current news.

I'm the guy in the corner. But the good news is, with enough people having fun and building, we'll figure out how to defeat the guys valid tweet thread.

I would really like for a bunch of hardcore nostr hackers to come to TABConf this year, please spread the word, and show some love give a follow to our TABConf account.

Follow TABConf for nostr updates.

Inevitability needs action to become reality. Don't sit on your hands and do nothing, come build the future you want to see. October 23-26, we will have a focused builders conference in Atlanta GA. please don't make an arbitrary excuse not to come. We also have a grant program for those who need it. https://tabconf.com

Get tickets, and plan your trip this weekend.

there are some bitcoin devs that have are consistent af with their contributions https://m.primal.net/KdGJ.png