Bitcoin Expo 2014 was the first Bitcoin Expo in Canada, held April 11-13, 2014 in Toronto. Organized by Anthony Di Iorio through the Bitcoin Alliance of Canada and hosted at Bitcoin Decentral, it was a pivotal early event for Ethereum.
Ethereum as Sponsor
Ethereum was the main sponsor of the conference, and this was the only time Ethereum ever had an exhibition booth at a conference. By this point, Gavin Wood had spent four months building the first working client and completing the Yellow Paper spec.
"Anthony Di Iorio running that, he'd got Bitcoin Decentral sort of co-working space and venue… He was the head of the Bitcoin Association of Canada. The Bitcoin Association were running the conference. Ethereum were the main sponsor for the conference." — Bob Summerwill
The event was significant for the early Ethereum team as it brought many members together for the second time after the initial Miami conference.
(From Taylor Gerring's photos)
In Crypto We Trust Hackathon
The conference featured the "In Crypto We Trust" hackathon, which ran April 10-11, 2014. The hackathon attracted many notable crypto developers and offered a $15,000 prize.
Dark Market
Amir Taaki and his team won the hackathon with Dark Market, a decentralized marketplace prototype:
"We did the Dark Market just purely for money. Because, you know, $15K." — Amir Taaki
Dark Market would later evolve into OpenBazaar.
Vitalik's Presentation
Vitalik Buterin gave a rare early presentation on Ethereum at the conference, explaining the project's vision and technical approach.
Internal Tensions
The event also surfaced some of the internal tensions that would lead to the "Red Wedding" later that year. Taylor Gerring described issues with co-founder Amir Chetrit:
"I think those kind of conversations came to a head when he was wearing swag of a different organization in Toronto when we had that Bitcoin Expo 2014 and I ended up in the basement of the office there on the phone with like a Cloudflare type company to provide DDoS protection and I'm just like I don't understand why I'm on the phone having the big boy meeting and Amir, who's supposed to be doing this, is not." — Taylor Gerring
Attendees
Notable attendees included:
- Vitalik Buterin
- Gavin Wood
- Anthony Di Iorio
- Taylor Gerring
- Amir Taaki
- [REDACTED]
- Roxana Sureanu
- Chris Odom (speaker)
- Adam B. Levine
"Who likes smoothies? Roxana made these beautiful mango treats before we would take off for Bitcoin Expo 2014 in Toronto" – Taylor Gerring
"Ethereum was not the only star of Bitcoin Expo 2014. Other OGs like Amir Taaki and Adam B. Levine could be found interviewing or giving talks" – Taylor Gerring
Duncan Rawlinson Photos
Photographer Duncan Rawlinson captured extensive documentation of the Ethereum team at an associated meetup in Toronto on April 9, 2014.
