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| HOPE (Hackers On Planet Earth) | |
|---|---|
 The Last HOPE, 2008 | |
| Genre | Hacker convention |
| Frequency | Biennially (possibly annually starting in 2025) |
| Venue | New York City, U.S. (was typicallyHotel Pennsylvania) |
| Locations | Queens, New York City, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 40°44′59″N73°59′26″W / 40.74972°N 73.99056°W /40.74972; -73.99056 |
| Inaugurated | August 13–14, 1994 |
| Most recent | August 15–17, 2025 |
| Organized by | 2600: The Hacker Quarterly |
| People | Emmanuel Goldstein |
| Sponsor | 2600 |
| Website | hope |
| Part of a series on |
| Computer hacking |
|---|
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TheHackers on Planet Earth (HOPE)conference series is a hacker convention sponsored by thesecurity hacker magazine2600: The Hacker Quarterly that until 2020 was typically held atHotel Pennsylvania, inManhattan,New York City.[1]
Traditionally occurring biennially in the summer (possibly becoming annually after 2024), there have been 16 conferences to date.[2][3] HOPE 2020, originally planned to be held atSt. John's University,[4] was instead held as a nine-day virtual event from 25 July to 2 August, 2020.[5] The most recent conference, "HOPE XV", was held at St. John's University inQueens from the 12th to 14th of July 2024.[6] HOPE features talks, workshops, demonstrations, tours, and movie screenings. The next HOPE conference, "HOPE_16" occurred at St. John's University in Queens from 15 to 17 August 2025, marking HOPE's announced transition to an annual event.
HOPE was significantly inspired by the quadrennialHack-Tic events in the Netherlands which also inspired the annualChaos Communication Congress (C3) held in Germany.Summercon was an additional influential predecessor.[citation needed]
In early 2026, HOPE became a non-profit501(c)(3) organization[7].
HOPE had been held at Hotel Pennsylvania inMidtown Manhattan every time except once since 1994 until the demolition of the structure, previous plans for which conference organizers helped circumvent in the past. It thereafter has been held at St. John's University in Queens. The event is always structured in a similar way. It consists of three days and three nights of activities, including talks, workshops, and performances. It also featureshackerspace villages, a film festival,lock picking villages, a wide variety of vendors, art installations, live video,vintage computers, robots, anamateur/ham radio station, electronics workshops, and book signings.[citation needed]
Theclosing ceremony is a regular part of the event, celebrating the event, the organizers, and volunteers, but also features performances. Since 2006,monochrom'sJohannes Grenzfurthner is a regular performer at the closing ceremony.[8][9]
The con and many other hackers and computer security conferences, and camps, from around the world are discussed onOff the Hook, a weekly hackers radio show on longtime NYCcommunity radio stationWBAI which is hosted by2600 members and conference organizers.
Held August 13–14, 1994 at the Hotel Pennsylvania, the first HOPE conference marked2600: The Hacker Quarterly's 10th anniversary. Over 1,000 people attended, including speakers from around the world. Access to a 28.8 kbit/s local network was provided.[10] This conference was visited and covered in the second episode of the "Your Radio Playhouse" show, later renamedThis American Life.[11]
The August 8–10, 1997 Beyond HOPE conference was held at thePuck Building, in Manhattan, New York City. Attendance doubled, with 2,000 attendees.Bell Technology Group helped to support the hackers. The hacker groupL0pht Heavy Industries presented a panel discussion that covered some of their recent projects, accomplishments, emerging trends and shortcomings in technologies, and a deep dive into Windows NT password internals. A TAP reunion and a recorded live broadcast ofOff the Hook took place.[12] A 10 Mbit/s local network was provided to attendees.[13]
The 14–15 July 2000 HOPE returned to the Hotel Pennsylvania, where subsequent conferences have been held. The conference ran 24 hours a day, bringing in 2,300 attendees.Jello Biafra gave a keynote speech. In a cultural exchange between thepunk rock icon/free speech activist and the hacker community, Jello drew connections between the two communities, despite his lack of computer experience. TheEFF also raised thousands of dollars. The conference provided a workingEthernet and aT1 link to the internet.[14]
H2K2, 12–14 July 2002, had a theme focused on U.S.Homeland Security Advisory System. H2K2 included two tracks of scheduled speakers, with a third track reserved for last-minute and self-scheduled speakers, a movie room,retrocomputing, musical performances, a State of the World Address by Jello Biafra, keynotes byAaron McGruder andSiva Vaidhyanathan and discussions on theDMCA andDeCSS.Freedom Downtime premiered on Friday evening (July 14). The conference provided wireless 802.11b coverage and wired Ethernet, an open computer area for access to a 24-hour link to the Internet at "T-1ish" speeds, made available by the DataHaven Project[15] and an internal network.[16]
The Fifth HOPE, 9–11 July 2004, had a theme on propaganda, and commemorated the anniversaries of both the H.O.P.E. conferences andOff the Hook (with a live broadcast of the show from the conference, Beyond H.O.P.E.). Keynotes speakers wereKevin Mitnick,Steve Wozniak, and Jello Biafra. There was also a presentation by "members" of thePhone Losers of America who celebrated their tenth anniversary. TheCult of the Dead Cow hacker collective celebrated its twentieth anniversary at the conference. The conference provided access to a four-layer public network with two T1 lines, plus backup links to the internet via a public terminal cluster, various wired connections, a WiFi network on three floors and a video network.[17][18][19][20]
HOPE Number Six, 21–23 July 2006, included talks fromRichard Stallman and Jello Biafra.[21] Kevin Mitnick was scheduled to be at the conference but was unable to appear: while on vacation inColombia an illness prevented his timely return to the U.S. HOPE Number Six had a 100-megabit Internet connection; the conference organizers claimed it was the fastest Internet connection to-date at any U.S. hacker conference. The event's theme was based on the number six andThe Prisoner (a designation shared by the titular "prisoner,").[22]Notable occurrences:
"The Last HOPE" took place 18-20 July 2008 at the Hotel Pennsylvania. A change from past years was the use of anInternet forum to facilitate community participation in the planning of the event.
The conference name referred to the expectation that this would be the final H.O.P.E. conference due to the scheduled demolition of its venue, the Hotel Pennsylvania. The Save Hotel Pennsylvania Foundation was created to work toward keeping the building from being demolished by its then-new owner,Vornado Realty Trust.[29]The "Next HOPE" was scheduled for Summer 2010. At the closing ceremony it was revealed that the use of the word "last" could also refer to the previous event, or one that had ended (referring to The Last HOPE itself).
Steven Levy gave the keynote address. Kevin Mitnick, Steve Rambam, Jello Biafra, Marcia Wilbur andAdam Savage ofMythBusters were featured speakers. Descriptions and audio of the talks can be found at thelasthope.org[30][31][32]
The 8th HOPE convention, "The Next HOPE", took place on 16–18 July 2010.[33] The Next HOPE was held at the Hotel Pennsylvania,[33] as the plans byVornado to demolish the hotel are on hold.
HOPE Number Nine occurred 13-15 July 2012 at Hotel Pennsylvania in Manhattan.[34][35]
Keynote presentations for HOPE Number Nine were given byThe Yes Men (withAndy Bichelbaum as principal speaker andVermin Supreme also participating) and NSA whistleblowerWilliam Binney.[36]Chris Kubecka, principal speaker of a presentation about internet censorship was served a cease and desist letter in an attempt to censor the presentation byUnisys and threatened with termination[37] for a presentation titled "The Internet is for Porn! How High Heels and Fishnet Have Driven Internet Innovation and Information Security".[38] Unisys demanded all information regarding the presentation be removed from the internet, but theStreisand effect occurred, with the censorship attempt posted on thousands of websites instead. A first for the conference, a ghost speaker @JK47theweapon had to deliver most of the presentation due to legal threats against Kubecka. Prior to beginning, the MC invited "any hangers on or associates of the law firm of Baker & McKenzie" to speak to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).[39]Baker & McKenzie is the law firm ofUnisys Netherlands which threatened to terminate its employee by letter for giving a presentation about internet censorship.[40]
HOPE X took place from 18-20 July 2014 at Hotel Pennsylvania. The keynote speakers wereDaniel Ellsberg andEdward Snowden; also featured was noted formerNSA official and whistleblowerThomas Drake.[41] The theme of the conference was "dissent", andwhistle-blowing was a topic of a good number of talks.[42] But the conference also featured critical talks about the state of hackdom, for exampleJohannes Grenzfurthner ofmonochrom spoke about the problems ofrockstar martyrdom within the hacker scene and the creation of hacker cult figures (like Snowden, Appelbaum or Assange) by unreflective members of the community or the media.[43]
Notable changes included a massive increase in available bandwidth. Previous conferences had a 50Mbit connection; HOPE X had a 10Gbit fibre optic connection provided byHurricane Electric. This geometric increase in bandwidth made possible live streaming of all conference talks in real time. The Ellsberg/Snowden keynote was seen in over 120 countries. This also was the first year all conference areas were fully connected to the conference network, albeit with the Workshop floor with slightly limited connectivity (a 1 Gbit connection, as compared to the 10 Gbitbackbone of the other conference spaces). Five different wireless networks were provided to conference attendees. The hammocks on the mezzanine level, which provided a place for some attendees to sleep if they were unable to procure a place to otherwise do so, were replaced by inflatable furniture in a dedicated "Chill Space" area. Mezzanine space was also explicitly dedicated to attendee meetups in the form of villages, similar to assemblies at Chaos Communication Congresses and villages at hacker camps, specifically "Village Zone A" (primarily a soldering and electronics workshop), "Village Zone B", "Lockpickers Village", and "Noisy Square". Workshop tracks were published in the schedule and the conference took nearly all the hotel's available meeting space.[citation needed]
HOPE XI (The Eleventh HOPE) took place from 22-24 July 2016 at Hotel Pennsylvania.[44]Cory Doctorow was the[45] keynote speaker. Like last time, HOPE XI was providedInternet transit by Hurricane Electric at111 Eighth Avenue over a fiber connection leased fromRCN Corporation.[46]Aruba Networks sponsored 50wireless access points which were used to provide 3wireless networks for attendees, two of which were secured with either WPA orPSK, another network for theNOC, and one for the press and speakers.[47]
Network connectivity was fully provided for in all areas, which came into use throughout the conference as many talks were filled to capacity and attendees either watched streams on their own devices or in designated overflow and viewing areas.[citation needed]
The 12th HOPE conference, "The Circle of HOPE", occurred 20-22 July 2018. Speakers includedChelsea Manning,Barrett Brown,Richard Stallman,Jason Scott,Matt Blaze,Micah Lee, andSteve Rambam, among many others.[48] The conference was marked by protests fromalt-right activists.[49]
A conference was originally planned for 31 July-2 August 2020 at a new venue, St. John's University inFresh Meadows, Queens.[4] Due to theCOVID-19 pandemic it was changed to a nine-day virtual event from 25 July to 2 August 2020.[5] In addition to a longer schedule for talks, most of the originally planned events will be streamed, including workshops and musical performances. Keynote speakers areLibby Liu of theOpen Technology Fund (OTF), Flavio Aggio of theWorld Health Organization (WHO), Idalin Bobé of TechActivist.org, Tiffany Rad of Anatrope Inc,Yeshimabeit Milner ofData for Black Lives,Jaron Lanier,Cindy Cohn, Cory Doctorow, andRichard Thieme. Conference participants communicated primarily using the first year appearance of HOPE's ownMatrix chat server.
An in-person HOPE conference was planned for summer 2021, breaking from the typical biennial conference interval, but was cancelled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.[5]
The 14th conference, A New Hope, was held at St. John's University in Queens, New York City from 22-24 July 2022.[50] The event was a hybrid event, combining a virtual online event with the in-person event in New York, usingMatrix combined with video streaming of the talks.
The keynote was a conversation betweenFacebookwhistleblowerSophie Zhang andYan Zhu.
Further notable occurrences:
The 15th conference was held at St. John's University in Queens, New York City from 12-14 July 2024.
The 16th con was stylized HOPE_16 and was announced as a switch to annual events, again held at St. John's University and this time a month later than the typical July dates preceding DEF CON and Black Hat, from 15-17 August 2025. Significant speakers included404 Media co-founder Joseph Cox, authorSeth Godin, CIA whistleblowerJohn Kiriakou, former Barack Obama campaign CTOHarper Reed, "myth buster" Davis DeWitt,Kagi search engine CEO Vladimir Prelovac,ICEBlock developer Joshua Aaron, and engineer/seed investor Sahil Lavingia who worked at "DOGE".[53]
