Soapbox Sessions: NosVegas - Our Bitcoin 2026 Recap Derek and Heather just got back from Las Vegas and they have a lot to say. This week is a full recap of Bitcoin 2026, covering the panels, side events, music, zaps, and what it all means for where Nostr is headed. Heather started the week at the Women's Bash, where Bitcoin women packed the room, Natalie Brunell hosted, and Senator Cynthia Lummis received an award. Derek spent Sunday at the HRF Reception on the 64th floor of Mandalay Bay, talking Nostr and Agora with developers and freedom fighters, including a filmmaker couple already familiar with Agora through Leopoldo Lopez. Monday brought the expo floor. Derek added a surprise sixth panel on the spot when Justin Moon asked him to cover OpenClaw on the Freedom Go Up stage. Heather spent three hours with David Strayhorn of NosFabrica talking Web of Trust (WoT) and how it can filter the Ditto music feed automatically without manual curation. Check out brainstorm.world. Tuesday night was Las Vegas 2.0, the V4V music side event. Four artists performed and got paid in Bitcoin live on stage. Noah Gruman opened with a half-hour set and earned nearly 400,000 sats. Higher Low followed with 130,000 sats. Abel James pulled in half a million. Sarah Jade closed the night with over half a million sats. Total artist earnings across in-person and remote zaps on Tunestr hit around two and a half million sats. PubPay ran the leaderboard and made zapping competitive in the best way possible. Before the music, six speakers did 10-minute talks. Heather and Sarah Jade opened the night, with Heather spotlighting how Sarah brought four other San Diego women artists into the V4V space and helped clean up how local venues treat independent artists. Derek talked about Ditto and making the internet weird again. Three people pulled out their phones and scanned the QR code on the spot to download the app. Eric Blackstone from Bitcoin is for Everyone talked grassroots meetups. David Strayhorn did a live Web of Trust demo. Paul Keating previewed Primal 3.0. Open Agents closed with a talk on selling compute for Bitcoin. Wednesday Derek moderated a conversation on Nostr beyond social media with Jeff Gardner, Will Casarin, and David Strayhorn on the open source stage. He joined Alex Li and Will Casarin on the Freedom Go Up stage to talk free speech and code as speech, including Nostr Git as censorship-resistant code hosting. He closed the day on the Genesis stage with Justin Moon, Jesse Posner from Vora, and Mark from Maple AI, making the case that Bitcoin plus Nostr plus privacy AI equals the Freedom Tech Stack. Nostr showed up across the conference like never before. The open source stage streamed live on Nostr. The conference app ran on Nostr. A photo app ran on Nostr. Reverend Hodl ran a pirate stream on Nostr. Zapping went live at the open source stage for the first time. And people kept telling Derek that Shakespeare was their first ever vibe coding experience. Nashville 2027 is on their minds. Heather wants music on a bigger stage. Derek thinks Nostr is exactly where it needs to be and gaining ground every year. Both agree the flywheel is turning. Find Derek's full day-by-day recap: https://soapbox.pub/blog/conference-recap-bitcoin-2026 Chapters 00:00 Intro 01:11 Is Nostr Infrastructure or the Main Event? 04:28 We Deserve a Bigger Footprint 08:50 The Case for a Nostr Stage in 2027 10:14 Sunday: Women's Bash 12:00 Cynthia Lummis Award and What Comes Next 14:02 Sunday: HRF Reception at Mandalay Bay 16:17 Filmmakers Already Know About Agora 17:27 Bitcoin Kids Table 19:14 Monday: Expo Floor Opens 20:24 Derek's Surprise Sixth Panel on OpenClaw 22:53 The Bitcoin Bazaar 25:22 Club Orange and the Calendar Consortium 27:27 Hot Style Takeover with Matt Odell 27:55 Noah Gruman Performs Live 31:30 Heather and David Strayhorn on Web of Trust 31:47 Jeff Gardner Launches the Internet Privacy Foundation 33:38 The Beefsteak Dinner 38:55 Lee from Bitcoin Jungle Built Tubester 40:38 Tuesday: Vibe Coding on Bitcoin Panel 44:54 Tuesday Night: Las Vegas 2.0 Side Event 46:06 PubPay Makes Zapping Competitive 47:29 Noah Gruman Earns 400K Sats 48:00 Higher Low, Abel James, Sarah Jade Perform 49:06 Two and a Half Million Sats Total 49:44 Six Speakers Before the Music 52:29 Eric Blackstone on Grassroots Bitcoin Meetups 52:58 David Strayhorn Web of Trust Demo 54:01 Derek: Make the Internet Weird Again 55:44 Paul Keating Previews Primal 3.0 57:41 DJ Tatum Turnup Closes the Night 58:48 Wednesday: Three Panels 59:13 Nostr Beyond Social Media 1:01:03 Freedom Go Up Stage: Code Is Speech 1:03:05 What We Built in Under a Year 1:04:13 AI Plus Bitcoin Plus Nostr Equals Freedom Tech Stack 1:07:13 Now Is the Time to Decentralize Everything 1:08:14 Nostr's Footprint at the Conference 1:09:23 Nashville 2027