Chaos Communication Congress

The Chaos Communication Congress is an annual hacker conference organized by the Chaos Computer Club. The congress features a variety of lectures and workshops on technical and political issues related to security, cryptography, privacy and online freedom of speech. It has taken place regularly at the end of the year since 1984,^[1] with the current date and duration (27–30 December) established in 2005. It is considered one of the largest events of its kind, alongside DEF CON in Las Vegas.

Chaos Communication Congress
Genre	Hacker con
Frequency	Annually, 27–30 December
Venue	Congress Center Hamburg
Location(s)	Hamburg
Country	Germany
Inaugurated	1984 (1984)
Most recent	2024 (38C3)
Next event	2025 (39C3)
Website	events.ccc.de

31C3 in Hamburg

Audience at the keynote of Glenn Greenwald at 30C3

The 22C3 in December 2005

History

The congress is held in Germany. It started in 1984 in Hamburg, moved to Berlin in 1998, and back to Hamburg in 2012,^[2] having exceeded the capacity of the Berlin venue with more than 4500 attendees. Since then, it attracts an increasing number of people: around 6600 attendees in 2012, over 13000 in 2015,^[3] and more than 15000 in 2017.^[4][5] From 2017 to 2019 it has taken place at the Trade Fair Grounds in Leipzig, since the Hamburg venue (CCH) was closed for renovation in 2017^[6] and the existing space was not enough for the growing congress. The congress moved back to Hamburg in 2023, after the renovation of CCH was finished.

A large range of speakers are featured. The event is organized by volunteers called Chaos Angels.^[7] The non-members entry fee for four days was €100 in 2016, and was raised to €120 in 2018 to include a public transport ticket for the Leipzig area.^[8]

An important part of the congress are the assemblies, semi-open spaces with clusters of tables and internet connections for groups and individuals to collaborate and socialize in projects, workshops and hands-on talks. These assembly spaces, introduced at the 2012 meeting, combine the hack center project space and distributed group spaces of former years.^[9]

From 1997 to 2004 the congress also hosted the annual German Lockpicking Championships. 2005 was the first year the Congress lasted four days instead of three and lacked the German Lockpicking Championships.

2020 was the first year where the Congress did not take place at a physical location due to the COVID-19 pandemic, giving way to the first Remote Chaos Experience (rC3).^[10][11]

The Chaos Computer Club announced to return to the now newly renovated Congress Center Hamburg for the 37th edition of the Chaos Communication Congress. The announcement confirms the usual date of 27-30 December, notably omitting the year it will be held.^[12] On 18 October 2022, they confirmed that the congress will indeed not be held in 2022.^[13] On 6 October 2023, the CCC announced that 37C3 will take place again on the usual dates in 2023.^[14]

Congresses from 1984 to today

No.	Year	Motto	short	visitors	venue place
1	1984	CCC'84 nach Orion'64			Eidelstedter Bürgerhaus in Hamburg, Germany
2	1985	Du Darfst
3	1986	Damit Sie auch morgen noch kraftvoll zubyten können
4	1987	Offene Netze – Jetzt!
5	1988	ich glaub' es hackt
6	1989	Offene Grenzen: Cocomed zuhauf
7	1990	(no motto)
8	1991	Per Anhalter durch die Netze
9	1992	Es liegt was in der Luft
10	1993	Ten years after Orwell
11	1994	Internet im Kinderzimmer – Big business is watching you?!			Bikini-Haus in Berlin, Germany
12	1995	Pretty Good Piracy – verdaten und verkauft			Eidelstedter Bürgerhaus in Hamburg, Germany
13	1996	Der futurologische Congress – Leben nach der Internetdepression
14	1997	Nichts ist wahr. Alles ist erlaubt.
15	1998	All Rights Reversed		2300[15]	Haus am Köllnischen Park in Berlin, Germany
16	1999	(no motto)	16C3[16]
17	2000	Explicit Lyrics	17C3
18	2001	Hacking Is Not A Crime	18C3
19	2002	Out Of Order	19C3	3000[17]
20	2003	Not A Number	20C3 NaN	2500[18]	Berliner Congress Center in Berlin, Germany[19]
21	2004	The Usual Suspects	21C3	3500[20]
22	2005	Private Investigations[21]	22C3	3000[22]
23	2006	Who can you trust?	23C3	4200[23]
24	2007	Volldampf voraus!	24C3	4013[24]
25	2008	Nothing To Hide!	25C3	4200[25]
26	2009	Here Be Dragons	26C3	9000[25] (including streaming viewers, unlike all other numbers in this table)
27	2010	We come in peace	27C3	4000[26]
28	2011	Behind enemy lines	28C3	3000[27]
29	2012	Not my department	29C3	6500[28]	Congress Center Hamburg in Hamburg, Germany
30	2013	(no motto)[nb 1]	30C3	9000[29]
31	2014	A New Dawn	31C3	12000[30]
32	2015	Gated Communities	32C3	13000[31]
33	2016	Works for me	33C3	12000[32]
34	2017	tuwat	34C3	15000[33]	Leipziger Messe in Leipzig, Germany[6][34]
35	2018	Refreshing memories[35][36][37]	35C3	16000[38]
36	2019	Resource Exhaustion[39]	36C3	17000
–	2020	remote Chaos Experience[40]	rC3	–	Online
–	2021	NOWHERE[41]	rC3 2021	–	Online
–	2022	–	cancelled due to effects of the COVID-19 pandemic[42]	–	–
37	2023[43]	Unlocked[44]	37C3	14500[45]	Congress Center Hamburg in Hamburg, Germany
38	2024	Illegal Instructions[46]	38C3	15000[47]

Gallery

• 
  Glenn Greenwald gives his Keynote at 30C3.
• 
  „Seidenstraße” (Silk Road), a Pneumatic tube system introduced at 30C3
• 
  Assemblies and the Pneumatic tube system at 30C3
• 
  Sarah Harrison appears with Julian Assange for an appeal at 30C3.
• 
  Main hall of the Leipzig Trade Fair during 34C3
• 
  The Leipzig Trade Fair seen from the west during the 35C3

See also

• Chaos Communication Camp
• SIGINT
• DEF CON

Notes

1. In the opening talk of the 30C3 (2013), Tim Pritlove stated that there was no motto because everyone was speechless after what happened that year: the Snowden revelations.