I’ve been going to DEF CON long enough to remember when it felt like a secret. Not exclusive in the snobby sense, but niche in the way only a gathering of curious misfits, tinkerers, and unapologetic troublemakers could be. It was a place where you could walk into a random hallway and end up in a three-hour conversation about buffer overflows, lockpicking, or some bizarre telephony exploit from the ‘80s.

This year, though, something felt… different. Maybe it’s me. Maybe I’ve grown out of it. Maybe it’s just the sheer mass of people — the lines, the photo ops, the Instagrammable “hacker aesthetic” that makes it feel more like a pop culture event than a gathering of weirdos solving problems no one else cares about.

And then it happened: I saw a picture of Jeff Moss, the founder of DEF CON, doing jello shots with the NSA. Not a metaphor. Not a rumor. Literally jello shots. With the NSA.

The moment was like watching the punk band you loved in high school play a corporate-sponsored halftime show. I stood there, caught between thinking this is hilarious and what the hell happened here?

It’s not that I expect DEF CON to stay frozen in time. Things evolve. Communities grow. People change. But this was a visual that perfectly summed up my uneasy feeling — the line between “us” and “them” has blurred, and maybe it’s gone altogether.

I don’t hate it. I’m not even saying it’s wrong. But I can’t shake the feeling that the DEF CON I fell in love with — messy, raw, niche, and slightly dangerous — isn’t here anymore.

Maybe that’s progress. Or maybe it’s just a sign that the underground doesn’t stay underground forever.