Brescia is Italy’s Capital of Culture for 2023 but not only

Young enthusiasts with lots of experience in the digital space who do strongly believe in the “cypherpunks write code” motto have opened the first hacker-space in Italy.

hack.bs is a non-profit cypherpunk hacker-space located in the heart of the city. The mission of the club is to provide a space where people can meet and learn about Bitcoin, technology, open-source, privacy and freedom, and connect with other like-minded individuals. This is simply a space for hackers that is explicitly designed by hackers.

Regular workshops, meet-ups, hackathons designed and opened to everybody are only some of the main objectives and the “to-do” list of the organisers and the founding members.

The hacker-space is being funded through voluntary contributions from individuals and private companies. If any of our readers are willing to support the project, you can also make a donation. There is a transparency page to show exactly how the organisers are allocating the funds that they receive.

Last month, on the 24th of January, the founding members made a formal gathering to sign all papers and officially launch the club.

Applying their unstoppable tech-based creativity, the founders Alekos Filini and Daniela Brozzoni have created unique medals. They will be awarding with a Medal any member who achieves some kind of a goal in the hackerspace. For example, the first 7 medals were awarded to the 7 people who signed the articles of  the association.

What is more interesting – the collectible Medals are created through the latest advancements in the NFT technology: instead of being a JPG on someone else’s servers, these are physical tokens.

Every Medal has its own unique serial number, and the founders are committed to setting up a web directory with hi-resolution pictures of all of them. Having in mind that the 3D printing is not a perfectly reproducible process, the user-friendly database will be opened and will serve as a gate to verify the authenticity of each Medal – by simply comparing the physical token with the original image.

Another exciting news is that on the 30th of January the founders have signed the lease contract for a commercial space right in the Brescia city centre.

The place is very close to the main subway station that serves the city centre, Vittoria. It’s only a 4-minute walk from there. It’s also close to the train station, at around a 9-minute walk.

The full address is Contrada del Cavalletto, 24, Brescia1.

The club members are now working on furnishing and preparing the office and are planning to host a grand opening event in march. If you do not want to miss it, make sure you are subscribed to the mailing list.

If you want to help the young hackers to create their club, you can support them by providing some used furniture (desks, office chairs, shelves, couches) to fill up the place. In case you live close-by and have something you want to get rid of, the hackers will be happy to come and pick it up.

The plan is to organize at least a meet-up or a workshop event every week that will be opened to everybody. During these events the experienced hackers will be educating the public, and will be explaining why today digital freedom is more important than ever.

The office open premises are being designed to become the hacker’s research lab: many people from different backgrounds will  be working together on open-source, free, hardware and software.

See you there. 🙂