Initial Speakers

Cynthia Lummis is the junior senator from Wyoming, and the first female Senator ever elected to represent the Equality State. Born and raised on a ranch outside of Cheyenne, Senator Lummis has dedicated her career to defending Wyoming’s agriculture, mineral and energy resources as well as championing financial innovation. She began her career in the Wyoming State House and Senate, then went on to serve as State Treasurer, and as the at-large member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 2008 to 2016. Now in the U.S. Senate, Senator Lummis serves on the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, and the Environment and Public Works Committee. She is the founder of the U.S. Senate Financial Innovation Caucus, a bipartisan group committed to promoting responsible innovation in the U.S. financial system, and harnessing technology to make markets more inclusive, vibrant and safe for all Americans. Senator Lummis and her late husband have one daughter, son-in-law and two grandsons, affectionately called Gus and Al.

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Mr. Saylor is a technologist, entrepreneur, business executive, philanthropist, and best-selling author. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Office of MicroStrategy, Inc. (MSTR). Since co-founding the company at the age of 24, Mr. Saylor has built MicroStrategy into a global leader in business intelligence, mobile software, and cloud-based services. In 2012, he authored The Mobile Wave: How Mobile Intelligence Will Change Everything, which earned a spot on The New York Times Best Sellers list. Mr. Saylor attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, receiving an S.B. in Aeronautics and Astronautics and an S.B. in Science, Technology, and Society.

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Starting his professional skateboarding career at age 14, Hawk quickly rose to the top of the sport and helped to dramatically expand its popularity around the world by launching a national exhibition, skateboard and apparel company and eponymous video game series.

In 1999, he famously landed a "900" for the first time in competition in San Francisco, just minutes away from where Bitcoin 2019 was held. In 2002, Hawk launched the Tony Hawk Foundation to help build safe skateparks around the country and the charity now accepts bitcoin donations.

In May 2019, he quipped on Twitter that he had “Been riding [Bitcoin] for 6 years. Haven’t bailed yet,” identifying himself as a HODLer with a penchant for igniting the Bitcoin community.

As one of the first to frequent the in-person "cypherpunk" meetings organized by Timothy May, Eric Hughes and others in the 1990s, Szabo poured himself into the topic of digital privacy, though his interests were much more wide ranging.

Beginning in the early 1990s, he developed the concept for "smart contracts" that became ubiquitous in the blockchain technology space. His proposal for a decentralized digital currency, bit gold, has been seen as laying critical groundwork for Bitcoin, including through its use of cryptographic puzzles.

His writing on countless complex subjects has been referenced by academics and historians alike, and much of it is hosted on his blog (unenumerated.blogspot.com). His 2002 essay "Shelling Out: The Origins of Money," in which he describes how using money has been embedded in the very DNA of humanity, has shaped the way many understand Bitcoin today.