The Bitcoin Foundation is busy gearing up for the Bitcoin 2014 conference, which is set to kick off on 15th May in Amsterdam with an impressive roster of guests.

Patrick M Byrne, CEO of Overstock, will feature as the event’s keynote speaker. Additionally, dozens of industry leaders will appear as panellists, including BTC China CEO Bobby Lee, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire, Bitcoin developers Gavin Andresen and Mike Hearn, along with representatives from Elliptic, BitPay, Coinbase, Blockchain, Xapo and many others.

In the run-up to the event the Bitcoin Foundation has also released a shortlist of nominees for the Blockchain Awards. Nearly a thousand individuals were nominated, so being shortlisted was no small feat.

Bitcoin evangelists, investors and innovators

The nominees for the most impactful bitcoin charity are the Bitcoin Society, Sean’s Outpost and Nova Gaia. The most creative bitcoin video award will go to either Satoshi Pollen for I am Satoshi, Mycelium’s Mycelia in Wonderland (Aaron Koenig) or MadBitCoins.

As for technology, the foundation will hand out awards for the best mobile app, best ATM design and most visionary academic paper. Nominees for the best ATM design are Lamassu, Genesis1 and CASH 2 BTC, while the best mobile app award will go to Gliph, Airbitz or Mycelium.

The nominees for the most visionary academic paper are Ferdinando M Ametrano for Hayek Money, Konrad Graf for ‘On the Origin of Bitcoin‘ and, of course, Satoshi Nakamoto for the original bitcoin paper.

The most influential investor award is a big deal and the shortlist includes Marc Andreessen, Roger Ver and Seedcoin. Investors aren’t the only influential names who can make a big difference, so the foundation has shortlisted three names that need no introduction for its bitcoin champion award. They are Matthew Kenahan, Andreas M Antonopoulos and Scott Robinson. The nominees for the foremost bitcoin legal expert are Preston Byrne, Tyson P Cross and Marco Santori.

As for the media, the nominees for the most informative podcast are Consider This!, Let’s Talk Bitcoin and Epicenter Bitcoin. The shortlist for the most insightful journalist includes Ryan Selkis, Perianne Boring and CoinDesk’s own Emily Spaven.

$10,000 up for grabs in startup challenge

Two awards will go two startups that made a mark on the bitcoin ecosystem. The Bitcoin Foundation has set aside $10,000 for the awards, while Ripple Labs joined in with a category of their own – most innovative payment solution.

The prize is the opportunity to win an all expense paid trip to CrossCoin Ventures in San Francisco for a chance to become an incubated company with initial funding and connections to VCs. The winner will also receive 500,000 XRP.

More than 60 startups applied for the challenge, but only eight will be final cut. The list of finalists will be announced on Monday.

Vote count image via Shutterstock