MoneroKon

MoneroKon is the annual Monero community conference + comprehensive video archive of every talk from 2019 onward — the central live-event surface where Monero developers, researchers, community members, and external academic cryptographers gather in person, plus the recorded archive (free, hosted on monerokon.org + community video infrastructure) that makes the talks available to everyone who couldn't attend. Listed at Grade A because MoneroKon is the canonical community conference for Monero — talks here are where major protocol roadmap announcements happen, where Monero Research Lab researchers present findings to the wider community, and where the project's social and political dimensions get serious attention alongside the technical detail.

Background. MoneroKon was first held in Denver, Colorado in June 2019, organised by Monero community members with support from the broader Monero Project. Since then, the conference has rotated locations: Lisbon, Portugal (2022), Prague, Czech Republic (2024), and other cities as suitable venues are identified. Format: 2-3 days, multiple talk tracks (Protocol & Research / Community & OPSEC / Policy & Advocacy / Workshops), with networking time between sessions. Funding: ticket sales for in-person attendance, sponsorships from privacy-aligned organisations (typically Monero-ecosystem entities, not surveillance-adjacent crypto exchanges), and donations. Recording archive: every talk is recorded and published free on monerokon.org + cross-posted to community video platforms (PeerTube instances, Internet Archive); this is the canonical Monero conference archive going back to 2019. Organising team: rotating community organisers; the team behind a given year's MoneroKon is publicly named on the conference website. No commercial entity — MoneroKon is a community-run conference, not a corporate event.

What you trust. Community-organised — the conference is run by Monero community members, not a corporate entity with monetisation pressure. Recorded archive is free and open — every talk is published online; you don't need to attend in person to access the content. Speaker selection is community-curated — talks are reviewed by an organising committee; the bar is "is this talk valuable to the Monero community?" not "did the speaker pay enough sponsorship?" Annual cadence with rotating location — different cities each year reduces single-jurisdiction risk and lets different parts of the Monero community host. Cross-validated with the broader research community — speakers include both Monero contributors and external academic cryptographers who have worked on Monero protocols. What you don't trust: individual talk content is the speaker's responsibility — MoneroKon as an organisation provides the venue but doesn't endorse every individual position presented. Treat talks as the speaker's view, not "Monero Project consensus." Conference location matters for in-person attendance — choosing a venue means choosing a jurisdiction (visa requirements, surveillance posture, conference-recording legality). Recorded archive removes this dependency for video viewers.

Operational specs. Main hub: monerokon.org — current year's conference info + full archive of past talks. Archive format: video (typically MP4/WebM), often with slides published separately as PDFs, sometimes with talk-paper references for protocol-research presentations. Talk tracks (typical): Protocol & Research (Monero Research Lab work, FCMP++, Seraphis, cryptography updates), Community & OPSEC (privacy practitioner education, threat-model discussions, wallet security), Policy & Advocacy (regulatory developments, Monero's stance on legal-compliance questions, privacy-rights advocacy), Workshops (hands-on sessions on specific tools or skills). Languages: talks are primarily English; subtitles in some languages are community-contributed for select talks. Live-stream during conference: in recent years, MoneroKon has live-streamed talks during the event for community members who can't attend in person. Cross-archived: talks are typically cross-posted to Internet Archive, PeerTube instances, and sometimes YouTube (community uploads); the canonical home is monerokon.org. No accounts, no signup — the archive is publicly accessible.

Philosophy. MoneroKon's editorial differentiator is the community-run-conference with free-archive model. Most cryptocurrency conferences are corporate-sponsored, exchange-aligned, or speculation-focused; MoneroKon is privacy-aligned, community-funded, and explicitly oriented toward Monero's privacy mission. The free recording archive is the editorial signal that distinguishes it from paywalled-conference models: every talk is published online, the community at large gets the educational value, and the conference's mission is to advance the privacy ecosystem rather than to monetise attention. The trade-off vs corporate crypto conferences: smaller in scale, fewer luxe production values, lower marketing-budget gloss. For Monero community members, this is a feature, not a bug — MoneroKon is by-the-community-for-the-community.

Grade rationale. Grade A reflects: 6+ years of operational continuity (since 2019); annual cadence with rotating locations; comprehensive free video archive of every talk from 2019 onward; community-run organisation (not corporate); cross-track coverage (Protocol & Research, Community & OPSEC, Policy & Advocacy, Workshops); speakers include Monero Project contributors + external academic cryptographers; live-stream during conferences for remote attendees; cross-archived on Internet Archive + PeerTube for resilience; cross-listed in web3privacy and Monerica peer directories; the canonical Monero conference reference. Last verified 2026-05-11.

Useful when. You're a Monero developer, researcher, or contributor — MoneroKon is the canonical in-person community surface; attending in person creates relationships that matter for ongoing collaboration. You want to understand current Monero protocol developments — MRL researchers present at MoneroKon; their talks are often the clearest explanation of complex protocol work. You're a privacy practitioner or activist looking for OPSEC content — the Community & OPSEC track regularly features high-quality content from working practitioners. You're a policy advocate or journalist covering Monero — MoneroKon's Policy track presents the cryptocurrency-regulation landscape from Monero's perspective. You want to browse the archive for specific topics — the 2019-onward archive covers most major Monero developments. You're a researcher studying privacy-currency design — MoneroKon talks are useful primary sources alongside MRL papers. You're considering attending in person — registration is open during the months leading up to the event; tickets sell out as the date approaches.

Caveats. In-person attendance has costs — travel, lodging, conference ticket. For most users, the free recorded archive is the practical access path; in-person attendance is for those who want networking + the conference experience. Recording quality varies — early years (2019, 2020) have lower production values than recent years; audio and video quality has improved over time. For older talks, expect some audio-quality compromises. Talk selection is community-curated, not academically peer-reviewed — MoneroKon talks are valuable but they're not peer-reviewed academic publications. For canonical protocol-research statements, cross-reference with MRL bulletins / papers. Live-stream availability varies by year — some conferences have live-streamed talks, others have only recorded archives. Check the current year's conference page for live-stream details. Travel-jurisdiction matters — different host cities have different visa requirements, conference-recording laws, and surveillance postures. If you're attending in person from a region with travel restrictions, plan accordingly. No formal proceedings — unlike academic conferences, MoneroKon doesn't publish formal proceedings; the recorded talks + slides are the canonical record. Conference website redirects vary — recent MoneroKon archives are on monerokon.org; some older content may live on archived versions or community-maintained mirrors. Doesn't replace MRL or getmonero-docs for primary research — MoneroKon is the community presentation layer; for primary research, go to MRL papers and getmonero.org/library. For protocol-level technical detail, the source code at github.com/monero-project/monero is the ultimate authority.