Series
Las Vegas hacker-conference badge lineage, including source-backed electronic badges, non-electronic puzzle badges, paper or identity artifacts, and image-rights-limited gaps across the DEF CON 1-33 public source trail.
Las Vegas hacker-conference badge lineage, including source-backed electronic badges, non-electronic puzzle badges, paper or identity artifacts, and image-rights-limited gaps across the DEF CON 1-33 public source trail.
Badges
Official announcement and archive-photo documented pre-electronic name tag
A DEF CON 1 pre-electronic name-tag and paper-badge artifact documented by the official 1993 announcement, the official DEF CON I archive page, and the official DEF CON media-server badge photo.
Official-photo documented pre-electronic chest credential
A DEF CON 2 physical access/identity credential documented by InfoconDB event metadata, the official DEF CON II archive page, and official DEF CON media-server event photos from the Sahara Hotel and Casino.
Official-photo documented pre-electronic waist credential
A DEF CON 3 physical access/identity credential documented by InfoconDB event metadata, the official DEF CON III archive page, and official DEF CON media-server event photos from the Tropicana Resort & Casino.
Official-photo documented pre-electronic chest credential
A DEF CON 4 physical access/identity credential documented by InfoconDB event metadata, the official DEF CON IV archive page, and official DEF CON media-server event photos from the Monte Carlo Resort and Casino.
Official-photo documented pre-electronic hanging credential
A DEF CON 5 physical access/identity credential documented by InfoconDB event metadata, the official DEF CON 5 archive page, and official DEF CON media-server event photos from the Aladdin Hotel & Casino.
Official-photo documented pre-electronic conference credential
A DEF CON 6 physical access/identity credential documented by InfoconDB event metadata, the official DEF CON 6 event page, and official DEF CON media-server photos from the Plaza Hotel & Casino.
Official-photo documented pre-electronic lanyard credential
A DEF CON 8 physical lanyard credential documented by InfoconDB event metadata, the official DEF CON 8 event page, and official DEF CON media-server event photos from Alexis Park.
Official-photo documented pre-electronic lanyard badge
A DEF CON 9 physical lanyard badge documented by InfoconDB event metadata and official DEF CON media-server event photos from the Alexis Park conference.
Pre-electronic physical badge with corner-hole lore
A DEF CON 10 physical badge artifact documented by InfoconDB event metadata, the official program's note about the badge form factor, and official DEF CON media-server badge images.
Official archive photographed pre-electronic identity badge
A DEF CON 11 human badge documented by InfoconDB event metadata, the official program PDF, and official DEF CON media-server photos explicitly filed as DEF CON 11 badge images.
Unofficial forum identity badge
A community DEF CON 12 forum badge documented by the official forum thread as a printable avatar/nickname template, intended as an extra badge for forum members rather than the official attendee credential.
Public-domain photographed pre-electronic identity badge
A DEF CON 13 human badge documented by a public-domain Wikimedia Commons original photo and an official pre-conference DEF CON forum note that the 2005 badges were ready before registration.
First official DEF CON electronic badge
A Joe Grand-designed skull-shaped PCB badge for DEF CON 14, built around active electronics, open hackable circuitry, two blue LEDs, one button, seven soldermask role variants, and an official badge-hacking contest.
95-LED scrolling-text badge with capacitive controls
A Joe Grand / Grand Idea Studio electronic badge for DEF CON 15, built around a Freescale MC9S08QG8, a 5-by-19 matrix of 95 LEDs, capacitive touch controls, customizable vertically scrolling text, persistence-of-vision behavior, and another official badge-hacking contest.
SD-card infrared file-transfer and TV-B-Gone badge
A DEF CON 16 electronic badge built as a hackable Freescale-based platform with SD-card storage, infrared file transfer, TV-B-Gone behavior, role-color variants, one-button state control, and published source, schematics, and development resources.
Sound-reactive RGB badge with MC56F8006 DSP
A Joe Grand / Grand Idea Studio electronic badge for DEF CON 17, built around a Freescale MC56F8006 16-bit digital signal controller, an amplified MEMS microphone, an RGB LED, wired multi-badge communication, and a static serial bootloader.
Lithographed aluminum e-paper-style badge
A DEF CON 18 electronic badge built as polished hackable jewelry: lithographed aluminum, a low-power 128x32 Kent Displays cholesteric display, USB connectivity, role variants, and published badge-making materials.
Titanium non-electronic puzzle badge
A Ryan Clarke / 1o57 DEF CON 19 badge that intentionally stepped away from electronics and used a waterjet-cut commercially pure titanium physical artifact as the event credential, puzzle surface, role marker, and social-interaction prompt.
Propeller multicore IR puzzle and development badge
A Ryan Clarke-designed DEF CON 20 electronic badge manufactured by Parallax around the Propeller P8X32A multicore processor, infrared badge-to-badge communication, eight LEDs, USB programming, many physical variants, and a crypto/social badge challenge.
Non-electronic PCB playing-card puzzle badge
A Ryan Clarke-designed DEF CON 21 badge series built as poker-card printed circuit boards: non-powered identity artifacts whose copper, soldermask, silkscreen, inner-layer metal, role variants, and encoded face-card relationships formed a cryptographic and physical badge challenge.
Propeller 1 infrared puzzle and contest badge
A Parallax-built official DEF CON badge for DEF CON 22, based on the Propeller 1, infrared transmit/receive hardware, touch-pad buttons, LEDs, full USB programming, exposed I/O, and thirteen attendee-role styles.
Playable vinyl-record noir puzzle badge
A Ryan Clarke / 1o57-designed DEF CON 23 badge issued as an actual playable 7-inch vinyl record, with role-colored editions, printed mystery alphabets, inner-groove markings, lanyard ciphers, record audio, and a noir-themed badge challenge.
Unofficial DEF CON 24 STM32 and RFM69 badgelife badge
The AND!XOR DC24 Bender Badge was an unofficial DEF CON 24 badgelife badge with a Bender-shaped PCB, STM32F103 controller, OLED screen, RGB LEDs, RFM69W 433 MHz radio, USB serial terminal behavior, games, GPIO breakouts, and a public post-event hardware/software archive.
Electronic skull badge with Konami and serial puzzle paths
A Ryan Clarke / 1o57 DEF CON 24 electronic skull badge with a mini processor, buttons, LED eyes, printed codes, hidden-trace/silkscreen text, serial strings, lanyard data, conference-media files, and a badge challenge that used the Konami Code as an early visible hook.
Unofficial DEF CON 25 nRF52 BLE badge with BOTNET game
The AND!XOR DC25 Badge was an unofficial DEF CON 25 badgelife board built around a Rigado BMD-300 / Nordic nRF52 module, color TFT, WS2812B LEDs, sensors, microSD, BLE smartphone integration, TCLish scripting, BYOB bling, CHIP8/SCHIP games, and a badge-to-badge BOTNET game.
Rubber identity badge in a badgelife breakout year
A DEF CON 25 official admission badge recorded in DEF CON feedback as a rubber or plastic identity badge, not an electronic puzzle board, paired historically with an unusually large wave of unofficial DEF CON 25 hardware badges and badge-maker coordination.
Unofficial DEF CON 26 ESP32-WROVER Wild West of IoT badge
The AND!XOR DC26 Badge was an unofficial DEF CON 26 badgelife board themed as the Wild West of IoT, built around an ESP32-WROVER module with WiFi/Bluetooth, a color LCD, microSD, IS31FL3736-driven RGB lighting, CP2102N USB serial, LULZCODE scripting, the B.E.N.D.E.R. console challenge, and badge-to-badge networking ambitions.
Tymkrs electronic text-adventure badge
A Tymkrs / Toymakers official DEF CON 26 electronic badge with a PIC32MM0256GPM controller, reverse-mounted LEDs, capacitive controls, four-AA battery stack, USB serial interface, badge-to-badge connector, add-on header, and a retro text-adventure badge challenge.
Unofficial DEF CON 27 nRF52840 hardware-hacking badge
The AND!XOR DC27 Badge was an unofficial DEF CON 27 badgelife board built around a Rigado BMD-340 / Nordic nRF52840 core with an IS31FL3741 LED matrix, light pipes, glow-in-the-dark capacitive touch, USB-C, FT2232H hardware-hacking bridge, SWD/Tag-Connect programming paths, SAO 1.69bis support, BOTNET mesh behavior, and B.E.N.D.E.R. v2.0 challenges.
Crystal NFMI badge-game platform
A Grand Idea Studio DEF CON 27 badge built around NXP hardware with a KL27 ARM Cortex-M0+ controller, NFMI communication, quartz or crystal face details, role-specific badge identity, public firmware and schematics, and a conference-wide interaction game.
Unofficial DEF CON 28 STM32F412 badge with BlackBerry keyboard CTF
The AND!XOR DC28 Badge was an unofficial DEF CON 28 Safe Mode badgelife board shipped through pandemic-era proxy drops, with an STM32F412RET6 MCU, 0.96 inch OLED, ST7735 128x160 TFT, APA-102C LEDs, BlackBerry Q10 keyboard, USB-C, Keystone 1020 battery holder, MyBASIC hardware scripting, and an embedded BENDERPISS CTF text adventure.
Cassette-tape puzzle badge
A LosT / 1o57-designed DEF CON 28 Safe Mode support badge built as an audio cassette in a jewel case, with puzzle material spread across the A/B tape audio, lanyard characters, printed liner notes, media-server contents, and DEF CON forum solving space.
RP2040 New Normal macro-pad badge
An MK Factor official DEF CON 29 electronic badge built around Raspberry Pi's RP2040, a 1.8-inch LCD, six-button D-pad surface, SAO connectors, USB-C, speaker, coin-cell plus USB power behavior, UF2 firmware updates, HID macro-pad mode, and a New Normal challenge path.
MK Factor musical keyboard badge
An MK Factor official DEF CON 30 musical badge with Raspberry Pi Pico/RP2040-class hardware, a playable keyboard, display, speaker, audio input/output behavior, boot-mode and mass-storage update paths, and a music-and-pop-culture badge challenge spread across nine badge variants.
Mar Williams physical badge with SAO chamber
A Mar Williams / spuxo official DEF CON 31 physical badge produced for a deliberately non-electronic year, with the public pre-con badge news centered on a customization-friendly SAO slot and media-server add-on design assets.
RP2350 handheld-game badge
An official DEF CON 32 electronic badge built around Raspberry Pi RP2350 silicon, a handheld-game-style interface, LEDs, firmware archives, and a DEF CON 32 badge game whose GB Studio project files were published after the event.
Unofficial ESP32-C3 handheld-style DEF CON 32 badge
The Hackbat Badge is an unofficial DEF CON 32 badgelife board documented by the Hackbat project page and GPL-3.0 GitHub repository, with ESP32-C3 Wi-Fi/BLE, OLED display, WS2812 LEDs, six buttons, AA-cell case support, and production files.
Layered-lens physical badge
An official DEF CON 33 non-electronic physical badge by Mar Williams, built around layered art, 3D image interactions, lenses, clue spotting around the con, and an Arts & Entertainment booth badge challenge.
Unofficial badgelife robot-fighting badge set
NilbinSec's Hack 'Em Crack 'Em Robots was a DEF CON 33 badgelife release announced in the DEF CON #Badge Life forum, sold as a limited full-size badge set through RENXCHANGE, and listed in the DC33 community schedule as a badge drop.
Planned electronic Human badge with SAO specs
DEF CON's official preregistration copy guarantees an onsite DEF CON 34 Human badge, and the official media server publishes DC34 SAO electrical and mechanical specifications that make the 2026 badge a source-backed planned electronic-badge record.