OpenSSL Corporation · Conference Prague · Edition № 02
Hosted by · OpenSSL Corporation & Foundation
Diplomat Hotel Prague · Prague 6
Privacy as a fundamental human right

OpenSSL

Prague·13—15 October 2026

The OpenSSL maintainers, three days in Prague — the room you can't get on a video call.

Follow along
§ 01 · The Binding
Thema·Munus·Vinculum

A theme, and a mission,
held across the same gap.

Why this conference, and why this community, this October
§ 02·a — The Mission

OpenSSL Corporation.

A non-profit organisation stewarding the cryptographic library that most of the modern internet links against.

The mission is direct: make cryptographic privacy a fundamental human right.
That means keeping the library free, trustworthy, FIPS-validated, and quietly maintained by people paid to do the work properly — for as long as the world depends on it.

This conference is the one place each year where the people doing that work — and the people who depend on it — sit in the same room, and decide together what stewardship looks like for the next ten years.

§ Mission filed · stewardship in perpetuity
§ 02·b — The Theme

The Křižík Effect

In 1881 a Czech engineer struck an arc between two carbon rods and refused to let it sputter out. The world stopped calling it a novelty and started calling it electricity.

Cryptography stands in that same gap now. It has crossed the line from specialist concern to civic infrastructure — payments, identity, transport, energy, the message you are reading. The work is no longer adjacent to the modern world.
It is the part that does not glow until it fails.

Edition № 02 is for the people who hold those rods steady — and who will choose, this October, what comes next when the rods themselves change.

§ Prague · 1881 2026
Plate III·a The arc-lamp head — two carbon rods clamped
opposite, the regulator easing them apart as the
tips burn back. After Křižík, Prague 1881.
§ The binding · vinculum

The theme is the moment cryptography becomes infrastructure.
The mission is keeping that infrastructure free, trustworthy, and maintained.
The conference is where the people who do that work meet.

— Edition № 02 · Programme Committee · Prague, October 2026
§ 02 · The Offer

OpenSSL Conference,
three days in Prague.

A tutorials day, the three-day programme, and a Monday evening with the maintainers — sold separately, designed as one trip.

№ I
Mon 12 OctTutorials Day

A hands-on Monday — the maintainers, the codebase, and you.

A working day with the people who build the cryptography you ship.

Live-coding with the OpenSSL engineering team against the canonical codebase. The HSM bench. PKCS#11. Bill Buchanan on applied cryptography. The conference token, programmed by you, in your pocket on the way home.

What you take home
  • An HSM-backed conference token, loaded with code you wrote in the room
  • A limited-edition tutorials pin, handed to you by the engineer who ran your session
  • Direct line to two OpenSSL maintainers for the rest of the week
  • The patch on your laptop you couldn't write alone
4 benches · 80 seats Mon 12 Oct
Pricing to follow Reserve a bench
№ II
Tue–ThuThe Programme

OpenSSL Conference 2026where the next spark catches.

Three tracks, three nights, the people you came to Prague to meet.

Keynotes, deep-dives, and the closing panel across three tracks at the Diplomat. Coffee and lunch on the garden terrace. Tuesday night on the Vltava, and more evenings to come. The hallway track that makes the trip worth it.

What's included
  • All keynotes & tracks · Tue, Wed, Thu
  • Welcome reception at the Diplomat · Tue evening
  • Vltava cruise · Tue night
  • Wednesday evening social · venue to be confirmed
  • Closing night · Thu · to be confirmed
3 tracks · 3 days · 3 evenings 13–15 Oct
Tier 01 · early330 Reserve a seat
№ III
Mon eveningHost Dinners

Have yourself heard — ask the question, start the debate.

A small, off-the-record table where the conversation goes deeper than the talk could.

Three intimate Monday-night tables across the city — Tim Hudson, David Hook, and Matt Caswell at the head of each. Five seats per host, advance sign-up, off the record. Where the gap closes between the people writing the code and the people running it.

The three tables
  • Tim Hudson · venue firms up by June · co-author of SSLeay, the original code that became OpenSSL
  • David Hook · venue firms up by June · post-quantum, BC, the long view
  • Matt Caswell · venue firms up by June · the Foundation & the long view
3 rooms · 15 seats · sold separately Mon 12 Oct
Pricing & sign-up
on the dinners page
Reserve your table
§ Add-ons sold separately · register on one ticket Tickets release in tiers · pricing rises as seats fill
Day 01 · 09:30 · Hall A once.

Illuminating the history
of SSLeay.

Thirty-one years apart. One room. One morning.

The two co-authors of SSLeay — and one of the maintainers carrying the keynote on behalf of the team today. Three signatures from the original AUTHORS file, in one room, for the first time.

1995 — MCMXCV — First build
Eric Young
The arc was lit in 1995. We've kept it alight ever since.

Eric Young

Co-author · SSLeay · Brisbane

1995 — MCMXCV — First build
Tim Hudson
We wrote it because there was nothing to use. Thirty-one years on, the thing we wrote is the thing the internet uses.

Tim Hudson

Co-author · SSLeay · President, OpenSSL Corporation

2026 — MMXXVI — Carries it now
Matt Caswell
A maintainer's job is not to write code. A maintainer's job is to make sure the code outlives the maintainer.

Matt Caswell

President · OpenSSL Foundation

§ 03 · First names lit

The room
you'll be in.

The roster firms up through May.
First names rolling in weekly.
Daniel J. Bernstein
Plate I · Day 01 · Plenary

Daniel J.
Bernstein

Research Professor · Computer Science · University of Illinois Chicago

Coming soon

Read full profile
Lina Böcker
Plate IX · Day 01 · Panel

Lina
Böcker

Partner · Specialised Attorney for IT Law · Osborne Clarke

Coming soon

Read full profile
Bill Buchanan, OBE
Plate III · Day 03 · Plenary

Bill
Buchanan OBE

Professor of Applied Cryptography · Edinburgh Napier University

Coming soon

Read full profile
Matt Caswell
Plate XV · Day 01 · Opening Keynote § Foundation · 30 years on

Matt
Caswell

President · OpenSSL Foundation

Coming soon

Read full profile
Marcel Dasen
Plate VI · Confirmed

Marcel
Dasen

Executive Vice President of Engineering · Securosys

Talk title forthcoming.

Read full profile
Hayden Delaney
Plate X · Day 01 · Panel

Hayden
Delaney

Partner · Thomson Geer Lawyers

Coming soon

Read full profile
Aaron Escamilla
Plate VII · Confirmed

Aaron
Escamilla

Senior ML Engineer · Threat Intelligence & Hunting · NetSTAR Global

Talk title forthcoming.

Read full profile
Tereza Formanová
Plate VIII · Confirmed

Tereza
Formanová

Attorney at Law · Sedlakova Legal

Talk title forthcoming.

Read full profile
Peter Gutmann
Plate IV · Day 01 · Track 01

Peter
Gutmann

Founder & Maintainer · cryptlib

Coming soon

Read full profile
David Hook
Plate V · Day 02 · Track 01

David
Hook

VP Software Engineering · Bouncy Castle

Coming soon

Read full profile
Tim Hudson
Plate XIII · Day 01 · Opening Keynote § Co-author SSLeay · 1995

Tim
Hudson

Co-author SSLeay · President · OpenSSL Corporation

Coming soon

Read full profile
Tanja Lange
Plate II · Day 02 · Keynote

Tanja
Lange

Professor · Mathematics & Computer Science · TU Eindhoven

Coming soon

Read full profile
Michele Sartori
Plate XII · Confirmed

Michele
Sartori

Senior Product Manager · PQShield

Talk title forthcoming.

Read full profile
Eric Young
Plate XIV · Day 01 · Opening Keynote § Co-author SSLeay · 1995

Eric
Young

Co-author · SSLeay (1995)

Coming soon

Read full profile
01 / 15 — first names confirmed · auto-cycling · click any face to pause
Names roll in weekly. Subscribe to hear them first. The Journal · podcast & dispatches · one email per drop, no nudges
Edition № 02 is only the second conference this community has held — and fifteen speakers are already confirmed. The full roster, with abstracts and bios, sits one click away.
§ 04 · The Trip · Prague · October

The reason you
fly to Prague.

Four rooms across one city — the auditorium, the salon, the deck, the pivnice. The conference is the excuse; this is the week.

Confirmed · Edition 02
Diplomat Hotel Prague exterior at dusk Plate I · the auditorium
Tue · Wed · Thu 3 days · the conference proper

The Diplomat.

Home base for three days. Four tracks under one roof — plenary in the main hall, deep-dives in the side rooms, garden terrace for coffee.

hoteldiplomat.cz
Confirmed · Edition 02
Vltava river bridges at dusk with cruise boat Plate II · the deck
Tue night · on the river

The Vltava.

Two hours on the river. Prague Castle on one bank, the Old Town on the other. The whole conference on one boat — as the city lights come up.

prague-cruise.com
The full week — host dinners, evenings, getting around — sits on its own page. See the venue & full week
§ 05 · Edition 01 in motion

What it looked like the first time.

Edition № 01 · inaugural · Prague · October 2025 · three days · four halls · one city

A short reel from the inaugural room, and a handful of frames.
The same city, the same community — back in Prague for Edition № 02.

The main hall at Edition 01, Prague — packed audience under magenta stage lighting
▶ Watch · Edition 01 recap · 2 min
A speaker at the main stage gesturing at a slide reading "Why are we Fixated on This?"
Plate I · Main stage · standards talk
Close-up of an attendee mid-conversation in the hallway
Plate II · The hallway track
Five panellists on stage at the OpenSSL Conference Prague backdrop
Plate III · Closing panel · five voices
Three attendees raising glasses at a dinner table
Plate IV · Evening · the dinners
§ Photographs · Edition 01 archive · Prague · October 2025 Open the recap on YouTube ↗
§ pat-26 · ledger of patrons
Patrocinium · MMXXVI

With the patronage of —
those who make the room possible.

A ledger of the institutions that make Edition № 02 possible
Platinum Sponsor — principal patron of Edition № 02
Sponsors — in alphabetical order
AWS Legion of the Bouncy Castle NetApp NetSTAR PQShield Securosys
Partners — in residence at Edition № 02 · Monday 12 October
University Partners — co-host institutions of Edition № 02
Brno University of Technology · Faculty of Information Technology Masaryk University · Faculty of Informatics Edinburgh Napier University Rochester Institute of Technology

Patronage of Edition № 02 underwrites the bursaries, the host dinners, and the work of the maintainers we are gathered to honour. With thanks.

All patron tiers →
Praga · Caput · Regni
Prague — head of the kingdom, and the city Křižík taught to glow.
Inscribed on the Old Town Hall · 1518 · still true

That is the room. Yours, if you take the seat.

§ 07 · Tickets · three tiers

Three tiers, three windows.
Pricing rises as windows close.

Early Bird · closes 31 May 2026
Tier 01 · Individual Early Bird

The individual seat

(Academics & Individuals)

For students, researchers, and independent contributors. In a personal capacity, not on a company badge.

330

Early Bird · 23 Mar — 31 May
Standard €410 · Final €510

  • Students, researchers, independent contributors
  • 3-day pass · Tue–Thu · all keynotes & four tracks
  • Two networking events · Tue evening & night
  • Daily coffee & refreshment service
Reserve Tier 01 →
Tier 02 · Team Most chosen

The team seat

(Small Businesses)

For companies of up to one hundred. The teams shipping the cryptography most of the web runs on.

430

Early Bird · 23 Mar — 31 May
Standard €640 · Final €850

  • Companies of up to one hundred
  • Everything in Individual, plus
  • VAT invoice with company details
  • Three or more? Open a conversation.
Reserve Tier 02 →
Tier 03 · Enterprise Early Bird

The enterprise seat

(Large Businesses & Distributions)

For estates of one hundred and up. The integrators, distributions, and platforms the work runs underneath.

510

Early Bird · 23 Mar — 31 May
Standard €770 · Final €1,050

  • Estates of one hundred and up
  • Integrators, distributions, platforms
  • Everything in Team, plus bulk-seat conversation
  • VAT invoice with company details
Reserve Tier 03 →
The Linden Leaf
National tree · since 1848
The Twin-Tailed Lion
Přemysl Otakar I · 1212
Charles Bridge
Sandstone Gothic · 1357
The Astronomical Clock
Old Town Hall · since 1410
Křižík's Tramway
Letná → Stromovka · 1891