MoneroKon 2026: What to Expect at the Biggest Monero Privacy Conference

MoneroKon 2026 is almost here. The sixth edition of Monero Konferenco takes place June 5–7 in Warsaw, Poland — and for the first time in the conference's history, it moves outside of its usual Czech home to one of Europe's most iconic venues: the Kinoteka cinema inside the Palace of Culture and Science.

PegasusSwap is proud to be a contributing sponsor of this year's event. But beyond our own involvement, we wanted to write this piece because MoneroKon deserves more attention than it typically gets. It's one of the most intellectually serious privacy conferences in crypto — not a pitch fest, not a bull market party. Just researchers, developers, cypherpunks, and privacy advocates doing the actual work.

Here's everything you need to know: the history of the conference, who has spoken there, what's on the agenda for 2026, and why it matters.

What Is MoneroKon?

Monero Konferenco — MoneroKon for short — is an annual gathering of privacy advocates, cypherpunks, researchers, and developers focused on advancing privacy-enhancing technologies and decentralised systems. Unlike most crypto conferences, it's not sponsored by venture capital firms or driven by token launches. It runs on community donations and sponsorships from aligned projects.

The conference covers three tracks: Security, Privacy, and Decentralisation. Talks range from deep cryptographic research (ring signatures, zero-knowledge proofs, post-quantum cryptography) to broader topics like financial freedom, regulatory philosophy, and the sociological implications of surveillance money.

All talks are recorded and published free on the Monero Community Workgroup YouTube channel. The entire archive is publicly accessible — which matters, because MoneroKon talks age well. A presentation from 2019 on network-level anonymity is still as relevant today as when it was delivered.

The History of MoneroKon: Every Edition

MoneroKon 2019 — Denver, Colorado (the origin)

The first Monero Konferenco took place in Denver in 2019, setting the tone for everything that followed. From the first edition, the conference committed to publishing all talks publicly. Highlights included deep dives into Monero's UTXO model, hardware wallet compatibility, and discussions on why privacy-by-default matters for fungibility. The 2019 edition also explored what "critical decentralisation" means in practice — a theme that has recurred at every subsequent conference.

2020–2021 — Hiatus (COVID)

Like most in-person events, MoneroKon went dark during the pandemic years. No conference was held in 2020 or 2021. The Monero community remained active online, but the annual in-person gathering resumed only when it could be done properly.

MoneroKon 2022 — Lisbon, Portugal (the return)

The comeback edition landed in Lisbon and immediately signalled that the conference had grown in ambition. Seth for Privacy sat down with Marc Meillassoux (director of the documentary The Crypto Game) for a fireside chat on private money and financial freedom. Max Hampshire presented on network-level anonymity for cryptocurrency services. Howard Chu (known as "hyc") addressed decentralisation of Monero mining. Juraj Bednar made the case for Monero as a true peer-to-peer system. The 2022 edition also brought one of the most-watched talks in MoneroKon history: Konrad Baechler, Marco Purtschert, and Brian Boss on Monero's relationship with its cypherpunk roots and national participants.

MoneroKon 2023 — Prague, Czech Republic (the first at Paralelni Polis)

Prague became MoneroKon's home for three consecutive years, starting in 2023 at Paralelni Polis — itself a legendary cypherpunk space. The 2023 speaker lineup leaned heavily into technical research. Pavol Luptak presented on Monero as the most powerful liberalising tool for global capitalism. Benedikt Wagner delivered a holistic security analysis of Monero transactions. ArticMine covered security, spam, and scaling challenges. Amir Taaki returned with his work on anonymous set proofs for infinite ring size. Evgeny Poberezkin presented on SimpleX Chat as a model for private, serverless messaging. Luke Parker covered full-chain membership proofs. Stoic.xmr made the case for a "Monero Standard." noot demonstrated ETH-XMR atomic swaps — a direct precursor to the kind of non-custodial cross-chain swapping that PegasusSwap enables today.

MoneroKon 2024 — Prague, Czech Republic (with the first hackathon)

The 2024 edition added a first-ever hackathon component and drew one of the most diverse speaker lineups yet. Stefanos Chaliasos presented on SoK: what we don't know about Monero. Amir Taaki delivered a provocative "Manifesto for a Dark Renaissance." Jeremy Rand spoke on what it means for money to be truly meaningful, trustless, and private. John Winter Murphy argued that Monero is free and open-source software in the fullest philosophical sense. Juraj Bednar gave a retrospective on cypherpunk past, present, and future. Liam Eagen presented on Bulletproofs++. Luke "Kayaba" Parker covered full-chain membership proofs. Jan Jilek and Tomas Elbert addressed the realities of self-custody inheritance. Aaron Feickert asked how we design genuinely secure protocols.

MoneroKon 2025 — Prague, Czech Republic (La Fabrika / Second Culture)

The fifth edition moved to a new Prague venue — La Fabrika, also known as Second Culture — and dropped the hackathon to focus entirely on talks and workshops. Notable presentations included Jeremy Rand and Robert Mindo on SocksTrace as a proxy leak detector for anonymous network applications; afungible on stress-testing the Monero network; Juraj B. asking "Fellow Monerites, are we lost?"; Martin Arness on Monero After DAC8 and building anonymous off-ramps; Alan Szepieniec on post-quantum anonymity; Robert Blinov on the value of P2P networks; Francisco "ArticMine" Cabanas on the FCMP++ post-emission fee market; deki on how Ayn Rand's ideas connect to privacy and crypto; Marcel Plch on whether we allowed cyberpunk dystopia without the good stuff; and stringhandler on Tari and the challenges of P2pool and merge mining.

MoneroKon 2026: What's Happening in Warsaw

The sixth edition marks the conference's first move to Poland. The venue — Kinoteka inside the Palace of Culture and Science — is genuinely striking: a Stalin-era skyscraper turned cultural hub, which has a certain fitting irony for a conference about escaping surveillance and financial control.

The official topic tracks for 2026 are:

• Human Rights and the Blockchain
• Cryptocurrency Laws and Regulations
• Innovative Privacy-Preserving Cryptographic Methods
• New Applications of Zero-Knowledge Cryptography
• Social and Economic Philosophies that Empower Liberty and Decentralisation

• 
  

The speaker schedule has not yet been published at the time of writing, but given the trajectory of past editions, expect a mix of cutting-edge cryptographic research, regulatory analysis following MiCA and global KYC tightening, and philosophical discussions about what financial privacy actually means in 2026.

Tickets are available at shop.twed.org/twed/MK6/.

Why PegasusSwap Is There

PegasusSwap is a contributing sponsor of MoneroKon 2026. We didn't sponsor this event for exposure — the MoneroKon audience is small by crypto conference standards, and that's precisely the point. The people who attend MoneroKon are the people who actually understand why privacy infrastructure matters: researchers who are building it, developers who are shipping it, and users who depend on it.

PegasusSwap exists to make private, non-custodial crypto swaps accessible to anyone. No account. No KYC. No identity check — ever. That's not a feature. It's a value. It's exactly the value that MoneroKon has been advancing since 2019, and it's why we're proud to support this community.

If you're attending, come find us. If you're not attending but you want to swap XMR privately right now, you can do that without leaving your chair.

Swap crypto privately on PegasusSwap — no KYC, no account, non-custodial 

FAQ

When and where is MoneroKon 2026?

June 5-7, 2026 at Kinoteka, Palace of Culture and Science, pl. Defilad 1, Warsaw, Poland.

How many times has MoneroKon been held?

2026 is the sixth edition. Previous editions: Denver 2019, Lisbon 2022, Prague 2023, Prague 2024, Prague 2025.

Are MoneroKon talks recorded?

Yes — all talks from every edition are published free on the Monero Community Workgroup YouTube channel. The full archive goes back to 2019.

Is MoneroKon only about Monero?

Monero is the anchor, but the conference covers privacy-enhancing technologies broadly: zero-knowledge cryptography, decentralised systems, financial privacy philosophy, regulatory analysis, and more. Projects working in adjacent privacy spaces also present and sponsor.

How is PegasusSwap involved?

PegasusSwap is a contributing sponsor of MoneroKon 2026. We're there because we share the same core value: financial privacy should be the default, not the exception.

Can I swap XMR without KYC on PegasusSwap?

Yes. PegasusSwap is fully non-custodial and requires no account, no ID, and no KYC. You swap directly wallet-to-wallet.