Forget the keynote speaker line-ups padded with sponsors. Forget the expo floors that smell like empty promises. This September, Amsterdam is hosting something different: a full week of decentralized, community-organized events built around privacy, cryptography, and the kind of conversations the industry actually needs.
Amsterdam Cypherpunk Week runs from August 31 to September 6, transforming Amsterdam into an open playing field for builders, researchers, and anyone who thinks surveillance capitalism is a problem worth solving. The week is deliberately leaderless—anyone can organize a meetup, workshop, or discussion under its banner.
Anchoring the week is Common S3nse (September 4–5), a two-day conference and hackathon organized by CryptoCanal. The event focuses on privacy, security, cryptography, decentralized systems, and liberty — and it’s designed from the ground up to be free of sales-driven agendas.
What’s on the program?
Two stages running talks and panels, breakout rooms for hands-on workshops, and a format called the Otter Tank —a riff on Shark Tank where builders present projects, ideas, and works-in-progress to a room of peers rather than investors. The hackathon spans one week online before culminating in live presentations at the venue.
Oh, and hackers get in for free. No strings. Apply at taikai.network/cryptocanal/hackathons/commons3nse.
Why Amsterdam?
The city has quietly become a gravitational center for privacy-first builders. A long hacker tradition, a historically liberal culture around free expression, and an increasingly active Web3 scene make it a natural fit for an event that takes decentralization seriously — not as a marketing term, but as a design principle.
Cypherpunk Week is also explicitly open for others to participate in by organizing side events. Individuals, collectives, and projects are encouraged to add their own gatherings to the week.
Tickets and details for Common S3nse: commons3nse.cryptocanal.org
Full Cypherpunk Week info: cypherpunkweek.com
Privacy is normal.
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