After about 120 hours of planning and drawing, I finished my artwork 'Bitcoin - Capital Prague'.
 
Why Prague should be of interest to every Bitcoiner and it's no coincidence that this jewel of a city is the biggest pleb magnet in Europe:
 
'Those who give up freedom in order to gain security end up losing both'. These words could not be more fitting for the Czech people. For centuries, ordinary people had to assert themselves against the oppression of the church and state powers and fight for their freedom and rights.
 
In order to present the most formative events of this people's struggle for freedom in Central Europe in chronological order, I have chosen a circular arrangement that extends from the Middle Ages through the 20th century to the early years of the Bitcoin era.
 
The first defenestration of Prague in 1419, in which 10 high-ranking representatives of the city were thrown out of a castle window, symbolizes the fierce resistance and marks the beginning of the Hussite Wars in Bohemia, part of what is now the Czech Republic.
 
The wars unleashed religious as well as national and social tensions from the previous years: after Jan Hus from Bohemia, an important reformer and critic of the then Papal States, refused to recant his teachings during the Council of Constance, he was burned at the stake as a heretic in 1415.
This finally broke the camel's back for the ordinary people, who had already been suffering for many years, and the riot flared up.
 
Jan Žižka, the most important Bohemian commander of the Hussite Wars, was a follower of the teachings of Jan Hus, who had been burned four years earlier for exposing the church state. His armies, consisting mainly of simple peasants, consequently helped the simple nobility to win the Hussite Wars.
 
But freedom and peace were a long way off. 200 years later, in 1618, the second Defenestration of Prague took place, during which city leaders and high nobility were once again allowed to enjoy the view over the city on the Vltava outside the window.
 
The second Defenestration of Prague, commonly known as the ‘Defenestration of Prague’, marked the beginning of the fatal Thirty Years' War, which devastated the whole of Europe and caused terrible suffering for decades.
 
The problems and social tensions in the territory of today's Czech Republic did not diminish as we entered the modern era. Here is a list of the most formative events:
 
- 1918, WWI: foundation of Czechoslovakia.
 
- 1938-1945: Terror of the Nazi regime.
 
- 1968: Prague Spring, efforts to implement a liberalization and democratization programme in Czechoslovakia.
 
- 1977: Charta 77, a civil rights movement of the opposition against the communist regime.
 
- 1989: Velvet Revolution, political system change in Czechoslovakia, fall of the Berlin Wall.
 
- 1993: Foundation of today's Czech Republic.
 
 
Such a collection of historical events, all motivated by the urge for freedom, justice and independence, burns itself into people's minds.
 
With the awakening of the Bitcoin network on January 3, 2009, it didn't take long for the first Czech Republics to realize what a valuable tool of freedom Bitcoin is, and it was developed..:
 
- 2010: World’s first mining pool created in Prague Slushpool/Braiins.

- 2011: World’s first international Bitcoin conference hosted in Prague.
 
- 2012: World’s first Bitcoin hardware wallet Trezor created in Prague.
 
- 2013: World’s biggest Bitcoin ATM manufacturer Generalbytes launched in Prague.
 
- 2013-2014: Worldwide Bitcoin standards BIP39 & BIP44 created in Prague.
 
- 2018: World’s first custom ASIC firmware created in Prague.
 
- 2023: The biggest, most influential Bitcoin event btcprague in Europe ever, in Prague.
 
- 2024: the second btcprague, channeling 10,000+ Bitcoin only enthusiasts in Prague.
 
 
One can see that the Czech Republic has many scars of oppression, domination and political despotism from the past, but in people's minds this only sows the seeds of more creativity and freedom.
 
I have learned a lot in the course of this drawing, especially that Bitcoin's history began long before 2009. Bitcoin's history began with the oppression of the people by state powers and the power utensil of inflation.