Samantha de Waal

Ben is Samantha’s Dad - he first discovered Bitcoin in 2010 and after mostly ignoring it for a year, stumbled across it again around a year later and was shocked enough that it still existed to finally start spending some time understanding it. Ben has had several roles in the Bitcoin space and currently works as the Vice President of Engineering at Swan Bitcoin. Nearly 25 years in software development and engineering management, focused primarily on system architecture. Discovered Bitcoin in 2010; rediscovered it in 2011; more actively involved socially/professionally since 2013; living on Bitcoin since 2017; working in the Bitcoin space full time since 2018 (after spending around 3 years struggling to get Bitcoin projects going in his previous company). Aside from his "day job" as VP of Engineering at Swan Bitcoin, he also does consultancy primarily focused on Bitcoin adoption in business operations for medium to large enterprises. Previous "day jobs" in the Bitcoin space have included:

Head of Technology Development at CoinBau (now bankrupt mining hardware manufacturer from Germany)
Head of Software Development at Northern Bitcoin (now renamed Northern Data)
Senior Engineering Manager Lightning Labs


Sessions

11-15
14:55
15min
Growing up in a bitcoin world
Samantha de Waal

Samantha has been a Bitcoiner for 11 years. She's also 11 years old. A part of the first generation to grow up with Bitcoin in their lives, Sam sees the world from a different perspective to those of us who grew up learning about how money works in the fiat world.

ECON
Bitfinex Stage
11-16
12:30
30min
Politics in the Bitcoin space
Samantha de Waal

Not everyone is an "anarcho capitalist"; how we might have more reasonable discussions around differences of opinion and understand Bitcoin in a broader political aspect

Auditorium
Auditorium
11-16
15:35
40min
Orange Pilling the World's Masses
Ulf Heyden, Paco, Riccardo Giorgio Frega, Samantha de Waal, Alan Jackson

World travellers and experts share their first-hand accounts of trying to orange pill people that have never heard of Bitcoin before.

ECON
Bitfinex Stage