On 8 August 2025, Massimo Prota attended one of Europe’s most iconic hacker gatherings, WHY2025, held in the Netherlands. This quadrennial event brought together thousands of curious minds for five days of talks, demos, and hands-on innovation.
The conference covered a wide spectrum of topics including biohacking, quantum computing, artificial intelligence, cloud infrastructure, and IPV6. But what truly set the event apart was its immersive atmosphere. Attendees camped in themed “villages” which were self-organised hubs where communities hosted their own talks, cooked meals, and shared ideas freely. From autonomous pancake machines to DIY speed cameras, the creativity on display was truly inspiring.
The infrastructure was equally impressive. Organisers laid 50km of fibre from Amsterdam to the campsite to deliver a staggering 400Gb/s bandwidth. Chemical toilets were repurposed to house routers and access points, and an internal telephone and postal system, managed by Germany’s Chaos Computer Club, kept the entire site connected.
One of the standout sessions featured a live exploit of a CPU vulnerability affecting major cloud providers. The demo earned a $150,000 bounty from Google, one of the highest bounties ever awarded!
Reflecting on the experience, Massimo shared: “The vibe was really of community and sharing spirit. You could walk around the camping and run into self-built robots, a machine claiming to make pancakes autonomously, and even a self-built speed camera. It was five days packed with talks and activities, really inspiring.”
Massimo’s experience at WHY2025 is a testament to the power of community-driven innovation and the spirit of open collaboration that Nedscaper proudly supports.
Many of the sessions were recorded and are available to watch on the WHY2025 YouTube channel
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