With great regret, on Friday, September 14th, the team organizing Hackers Congress Paralelní Polis (HCPP) was confronted with a statement from both Slush Pool (Braiins Systems) and Satoshi Labs. In this letter, later published on their websites, these firms gave up sponsorship of upcoming HCPP18 which is going to happen in three weeks in Prague.
First of all, we would like to thank SatoshiLabs and Slush Pool for their valuable support during the previous years of HCPP. The more we are sorry about the unfortunate perception of the unfolded events by our long-time valued partners.
Paralelní Polis was deeply concerned about the incident that happened and investigated both versions and both sides.
Board member of Paralelní Polis Mr. Roman Týc was placed for him in a very stressful situation which we must regretfully admit he didn’t handle properly.
After carefully investigating both sides of the argument, we found out that Roman’s intention was to remove the unwelcome guest from the private property (Bitcoin Coffee) where he is a main responsible person. As the main responsible person, he has discretion along with the baristas to ban any person from accessing the premises of the cafeteria.
It is worth to mention that the participant of the conflict did not have an explicit ban to enter the Bitcoin Coffee at the time of the incident and he had a meeting agreed with another member of Paralelní Polis.
We are sorry that this conflict happened and had had a negative impact on yet so fragile crypto community.
We have taken our lesson, and we will handle all complicated situations in the future in a way which is consistent with our core values. We also pledge to make all decisions of the conduct inside of the private premises of Paralelní Polis clear and explicit.
Slush Pool (Braiins Systems) and Satoshi Labs employees that relied on tickets provided to partners ended up without an opportunity to get to the Congress. Since we appreciate the work and enthusiasm of both teams and assure them that Paralelní Polis and our congress is a safe place to visit, we have released four guest passes for the first Slush Pool (Braiins Systems) and Satoshi Labs employees who ask for them (please use hcpp18@paralelnipolis.cz).
We would also like to note that other Parallel Polis spaces such as Paralelná Polis in Bratislava, Slovakia are independent organizations, sharing the main concept of the space, but otherwise being personally and financially completely independent.
We would like to emphasize that Bitcoin Coffee will stay a safe place for all our visitors as well as employees and Paralelní Polis will stay a safe crypto haven for all enthusiasts looking for freedom and parallel society.
This whole situation does not impact the congress – preparations are, and the entire team is united under the idea to deliver an even better program than the previous year.