As I go about the Miami conference, I wonder, Aside from some of the conference speakers, where are these Bitcoin maximalists I keep hearing so much about?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n When I tell the customs official I\u2019m going to Miami for the Bitcoin 2022 conference, there seems to be a light in the man\u2019s eyes. He peppers me with questions, even though I\u2019d gotten up at 5 am that day to fly, and my smartwatch is telling me that my energy levels are only at 70%. The customs official has way more interest in the subject than I can handle.<\/p>\n Why am I going to the conference? The philosophy of the event fascinates me \u2014 it\u2019s a Bitcoin-only conference \u2014 with the divide between Bitcoin and the rest of the cryptocurrency world growing year by year.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t go into that much detail with the customs official, though. Sometimes, when I interact with too many crypto people, I forget that everyone else has paid so little attention to this space, they still use the terms \u201cBitcoin\u201d and \u201ccryptocurrency\u201d synonymously. If I offload onto the customs official everything that\u2019s on my mind, he\u2019d probably think I\u2019m autistic or drunk (or maybe both).<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019ve always found Miami strange, but not in a bad way. Florida is known for the Florida Man meme<\/a> \u2014 all the wild and wacky stuff happening in the Sunshine State like the naked man downtown who bit off someone\u2019s face in 2012. But that\u2019s largely because of Florida\u2019s strong information-transparency laws. As a fellow journalist, I dream about this sometimes. Where I\u2019m from, Canada, we have to fight twice as hard for half the disclosure. Florida is brash and loud because it\u2019s open. In a way, Florida is America.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n A Florida man was rescued after trying to ride a hamster ball to the Bahamas https:\/\/t.co\/kZAMqAznEp<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/lklPQvIpqM<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Florida Man (@FloridaMan__) May 8, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Indeed, writing in The Globe and Mail newspaper, journalist David Shribman would later say that the American center used to be California, which gave the world the movie theatre, skateboards and the linguistic filler \u201clike.\u201d Now, Shribman writes, America\u2019s center is Florida. The state is the home of former-President Donald Trump, but it used to be governed by the moderate Jeb Bush \u2014 in a way encapsulating the transformation of American conservatism of the last decade. Florida is home to the \u201cStand Your Ground\u201d self-defense law, the rebellion against COVID-19 mask mandates and, of course, Disneyland. No wonder this libertarian fantasy world is attracting Bitcoiners and the tech elite.<\/p>\n Out of California and into Florida, PayPal\u2019s Peter Thiel has made the move. So has another member of the so-called \u201cPayPal Mafia,\u201d the venture capitalist Keith Rabois. Elon Musk, too, has a SpaceX launch site in Florida, and Cathie Wood\u2019s Ark Invest has moved to the state as well. Somewhere in there is also why Bitcoin 2022, the Bitcoin-only conference that excludes other cryptocurrencies, has come to this state.<\/p>\n Note how so many of these tech people moving to Florida are also Bitcoin people \u2014 not just in the eyes of the mainstream who use \u201cBitcoin\u201d and \u201ccryptocurrency\u201d interchangeably, but Bitcoin-only Bitcoin people. Thiel and Wood were both listed as speakers at Bitcoin 2022. Perhaps that\u2019s only natural.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n We’re in Miami, Bitcoin! Check out this #Bitcoin2022<\/a> recap to see what leaders, developers, celebrities, and builders did throughout the four-day event in Miami. https:\/\/t.co\/mQahMG2Au4<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/rEZYoPjaTv<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) April 14, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n During the conference, one of its hosts Natalie Brunell, speaking on the venture capitalist Anthony Pompliano\u2019s podcast, says Bitcoin represents the \u201cAmerican Dream,\u201d with its ethos of \u201cself-determination, freedom, the idea of creating a better life for your family.\u201d But it\u2019s not just that. That reputation of the Bitcoin-only folks \u2014 often called maximalists \u2014 is much like that of the new America that Florida has come to represent. It\u2019s loud. It\u2019s big on individual liberties. The open blockchain is transparent to a fault. Thus, Bitcoin is <\/i>Florida.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Or, at least, that\u2019s one idea. On a different episode of the same Pompliano podcast, an enlightening statistic is brought up: 83% of those who own Bitcoin also own another cryptocurrency. For all of Bitcoin\u2019s distinctness and how its identity is separate from the rest of crypto, that does not seem to extend to its holders. As I go about this Bitcoin-only event in the heart of this new America, I would wonder, How organic, really, is this maximalism sentiment running through it all?<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Bitcoin to the max<\/p>\n It\u2019s hardly a controversial thought to say that other cryptocurrencies cannot be truly compared to Bitcoin because they are not sufficiently decentralized \u2014 and decentralization is the entire point of the first cryptocurrency. Nor is it outlandish to say that most of the tens of thousands of alternative coins and random \u201cblockchain\u201d projects are either scams or, to put it politely, overly ambitious. But Bitcoin maximalists have been criticized for taking that idea up a notch.<\/p>\n On the second day of the conference, there is a zinger thrown during the panel called \u201cWartime Bitcoin.\u201d The moderator asks what the biggest attack on Bitcoin is. Aleks Svetski, an Australian entrepreneur and author of a book on individual liberties, isn\u2019t first in line to speak. But he seemingly gets invigorated by the question. Svetski gestures at the moderator and another speaker. \u201cLet me go first, please,\u201d he says. Svetski speaks with his hands:<\/p>\n \u201cThe attack is cryptocurrency. That\u2019s the fucking attack.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Me with two great men (left to right), Aleks Svetski and Mark Moss, at Bitcoin 2022 in Miami. If you don\u2019t know them, LOOK THEM UP. pic.twitter.com\/famVsYexeC<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Al Blackford (@KetoBitcoiner) April 16, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The crowd cheers. Or, at least, some people do. I can hear the hoots. That is indeed quite clever<\/em>, I think to myself as I watch Svetski. He\u00a0further explains his thinking:<\/p>\n \u201cThe easiest way to Trojan Horse everyone is to pretend like you\u2019re building something technically and architecturally similar [to Bitcoin] and add a fucking wonderboy\u2026 and then roll it out to the lemmings.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Such rhetoric, though \u2014 those who disagree with it, disagree strongly. As the conference goes on, widely followed Twitter account Autism Capital tweets, \u201cWe find it incredibly interesting how the majority of the talks at Bitcoin Miami are people justifying Bitcoin against Ethereum<\/a>\u2026. It\u2019s not a conference, it\u2019s a sermon.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n We find it incredibly interesting how the majority of the talks at Bitcoin Miami are people justifying Bitcoin against Ethereum. The fear is real. It\u2019s not a conference, it\u2019s a sermon.<\/p>\n \u201cTrust in God, do not be tempted, he will protect you, do not dance with the devil\u2019s ether.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital) April 8, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Indeed, at Bitcoin 2021, the boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. was booed when he showed up promoting an Ethereum-based project. Mayweather obviously didn\u2019t do a good job of reading the room. And the boos were perhaps justified, given what happened to the<\/p>\n Ethereum Max token he was promoting to the outside world. But what was on display at Bitcoin 2021 bordered on the religious. A Rolling Stone article on the event was headlined \u201cWelcome to the Church of Bitcoin.\u201d<\/p>\n But I didn\u2019t go to Bitcoin 2021. I only read about it. In person, at Bitcoin 2022, there was much less of that image of Bitcoin maximalism than I expected. Aside from the conference speakers and, I guess, the guys who cheered Svetski, whom I didn\u2019t really see, I would meet very few people who are actual Bitcoin maximalists. In fact, walking in and out of the formal talks and the rest of the conference, it seems as if I am stepping into different worlds.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Floyd Mayweather se luci\u00f3 con su playera de ETH en Miami Bitcoin 2021 👌😂😂 pic.twitter.com\/iPrig4kQbs<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 JJCampuzano.eth 🦇🔊 (@das_grasshopper) June 5, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The conference at the Miami Beach Exhibition Center is altogether four days, with the first being reserved for industry, the second and third for general admission, and the fourth for a music event called the Sound Money Fest.<\/p>\n The way the conference is structured is that there are a few big rooms with stages for the formal events such as the talks, and while those are going on, there is a massive exhibition floor with hundreds of booths by various companies and organizations. There are also quite a few bars strewn around the place.<\/p>\n Everywhere, there are a lot of spectacles around \u2014 aside from the celebrity speakers like Jordan Peterson and Serena Williams. There is a cyborg bull statue outside mimicking the golden one that stands on Wall Street. Inside, on the exhibition floor, there is another bull that you can ride, a mechanical one operated by the exchange Bullish. The person who lasts the longest at the conference would win a whole Bitcoin.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Before #bitcoin<\/a> After #bitcoin<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/06UVT3PAVS<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Documenting Bitcoin 📄 (@DocumentingBTC) April 6, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The exhibition hall also has a Bitcoin volcano, referencing geothermal powered Bitcoin mining in El Salvador, and beside it is a stage with a table set up like at the sports network ESPN. Various personalities would sit around that table throughout the day and give their hot takes.<\/p>\n I spend part of my first day in the exhibition hall trying to look for the booth of this Ukrainian mining pool Hiveon. A publicist reached out to me earlier and said a lot about the company\u2019s involvement in the ongoing war with Russia \u2014 Ukraine raised more than $100 million in crypto. I found that link fascinating, how crypto found its way into this big geopolitics conversation. Much of that was based on Ethereum, however, not Bitcoin.<\/p>\n To give you an idea of how big the exhibition hall is, though, and how absurdly bustling with activity it is, I never really end up finding the company.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n With 20,000 people from around the world descending on Miami Beach, all the celebrity speakers, the global media attention \u2014 it\u2019s hard to believe all of that came out of a white paper by a pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto<\/a> 13 years ago.<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to see, though, that certain diffusion that happens as all ideas take hold. As Bitcoin grew, the border between it and the wider world blurred \u2014 when it became more mainstream, it also became more<\/i> mainstream<\/i>.<\/p>\n \u201cCrypto\u201d used to be synonymous with \u201cBitcoin\u201d because there were no other coins. It was all about peer-to-peer money that can\u2019t be controlled by any one party. When more people paid attention to it, they as much started to become influenced by that idea as they started to influence<\/i> that idea. The result is the tens of thousands of different coins, the Ethereum network and its clones and competitors, the pictures of apes selling for hundreds of thousands, the \u201cblockchain\u201d movement hoping to tap the technology but not the coin, and the scams and the hacks. That is the term \u201ccrypto\u201d as we know it today.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Peter Thiel making a clear declaration in Miami: the Financial Gerontocracy has declared war on Bitcoin as a revolutionary youth movement for good reason. It is thus time the revolutionary youth should understand their enemies & return fire. [Paraphrased]#BitcoinMiami<\/a> #Bitcoin<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/UWHdy9JyrU<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Eric Weinstein (@EricRWeinstein) April 7, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n At the core of it all, there\u2019s still that Bitcoin-only movement, still focused on that singular original idea of peer-to-peer digital money. But they seem to be getting drowned out. Even at this conference that is ostensibly all about Bitcoin maximalism, the exhibition hall is flush with the sort of \u201ccrypto\u201d companies that the speaker Svetski would call the biggest attack on Bitcoin.<\/p>\n The Ukrainian mining pool Hiveon, for example, whose booth I eventually later found, is for Ethereum. Some at the conference are openly selling NFTs. A writer for The Defiant, a DeFi publication, even says, \u201cI see signs that DeFi is taking root in the heart of Bitcoin.\u201d As I go about the exhibition hall, I ask myself, Aside from some of the conference speakers, where are all these Bitcoin maximalists I keep hearing so much about?<\/em><\/p>\n Much later, I get somewhat of an answer. At the conference, I ran into a team from the media company WGMI Studios that has been going around interviewing attendees. Among the questions it asked is \u201cBitcoin or Ethereum?\u201d They later compiled the results for me. Out of 298 people, even at this Bitcoin-only conference, 22% said Ethereum, and 11% said both. One of the WGMI studios guys, Nathan Espinosa, tells me later: \u201cWe also asked people, \u2018NFTs, yes or no?\u2019 toward the end of the event\u2026 It was quite interesting to see how [even some of who] chose Bitcoin and talked down Ethereum still supported NFTs.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Cheese & Hayden are in Bitcoin Miami Conference meeting with other crypto\u2019s. That\u2019s awesome for #SAFEMOON<\/a> \u2014 SafeMoon Fabo (@FaboisMe) April 6, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n On the third day, I see the mechanical bull again, the one on the expo floor that anyone can try to ride to win a Bitcoin. I quickly Google the tips and tricks on how to ride a mechanical bull and sign up. How hard can riding a mechanical bull be? I last four seconds.<\/p>\n I turn to less-physical pursuits after that. I play \u201cLightning\u201d chess where players have only about five minutes to make all of their movies. I lost two games and won two games, which I think is a respectable finish.<\/p>\n What I truly gain from that chess experience, though, is a spreadsheet of all the side-parties going on that an opponent gave me. Among the 32 events on just the third conference day, there is a yacht party or two and a beach event by Maxim magazine \u2014 just to give you an idea of what was on offer.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ETHMiami\u2019s party is, unfortunately, miserable with under a dozen people. I am there for no more than 10 minutes before chugging my beer and walking out.<\/p>\n A much better party \u2014 and one with an open bar \u2014 seems to be one by this outfit called Bad Bitch Empire, which bills itself as a private crypto investment club for ambitious women. Yet the promised free drinks turn out to be a mirage, and there are way too many people all squeezed shoulder to shoulder on a tiny rooftop patio.<\/p>\n I go around asking people about my observation, that, somehow, at this Bitcoin-only conference, I\u2019ve encountered so few Bitcoin maximalists. A man who works at a Bitcoin ATM provider tells me he feels the maximalists are vocal but not necessarily in the majority. Where are the maxis at the conference? \u201cI don\u2019t know, but I see them only on Twitter,\u201d he tells me. Everyone seems to agree with my observation.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Last night at the #bitcoin<\/a> Miami afterparty sponsored by $Croge<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/HBpLTJokLN<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Comet (@CometCalls) April 8, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I also bump into someone from SpaceX, but it turned out he wasn\u2019t an attendee at Bitcoin 2022. In fact, quite few people at those side-parties were, and that\u2019s what strikes me. One sullen British guy, who works at a crypto hedge fund, tells me that the conference is not the point. It\u2019s the meetings you have with all the people who are in town, he says.<\/p>\n I guess he has a point. The conference talks are streamed online anyway. If you\u2019re solely after the information presented, you don\u2019t even need to leave your bedroom. It\u2019s the human connection with the hordes of other crypto folks all in one place that is the real point of such events. So, why pay $1,099 if you can just hobnob for free at the side parties?<\/p>\n That night at the Bad Bitch Empire event, Bitcoin 2022 itself doesn\u2019t really stand out among the dozens of crypto events going on around it \u2014 the Maxim beach party, the yacht gatherings, even that little ETHMiami gathering, as unspectacular as it was. It\u2019s kind of like how, at the conference itself, its theme of Bitcoin maximalism seemed so lost among the wider crypto presence \u2014 even if, without Bitcoin 2022, there would have been none of these side events promising free drinks.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n On the last day, at the Sound Money Music Festival that is to cap off the conference, I speak to a trio of friends who are the absolute opposite of Bitcoin maximalists. One of them, a graphic designer who has gone into NFTs, an artist who goes by WHUT, proudly tells me that he holds no Bitcoin at all.<\/p>\n When I press him, he says, \u201cI have, but it is like a fraction. It doesn\u2019t really make sense to even speak about it. But I do have \u2014 my bag in Tezos is pretty heavy. I own like over 70 NFTs.<\/a>\u201d As an artist, he says, that\u2019s what he gravitated toward. He adds that all the altcoins have advanced the crypto mission that began with Bitcoin.<\/p>\n Another among the trio, a recording artist named Cassius Cuv\u00e9e, says:<\/p>\n \u201cMass adoption \u2014 by way of Web3 \u2014 is by NFTs. Artists are driving the adoption\u2026 You can\u2019t have Web3 with only Bitcoin, basically.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Whatever you make of their view, you can\u2019t dispute that these guys believe it, and they\u2019re not alone among the thousands of attendees of what is supposed to be a Bitcoin-only conference.<\/p>\n It might seem, on the surface, that the conclusion to draw would be that this Bitcoin-only conference is becoming pointless. But the other perspective is that the very existence of all these non-maximalists validates this conference\u2019s purpose. What\u2019s the point, after all, of spreading maximalism if everyone is already a maximalist? Maybe the hordes of non-maximalist crypto people of the past days are exactly the sort of attendees the Bitcoin 2022 organizers want.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Last main day of #Bitcoin<\/a> Miami<\/p>\n Great work by the organizers to pull off something of this scale.<\/p>\n Can\u2019t wait to come back again next year! #Bitcoin2022<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/BrlrcRr5M6<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Bitcoin](\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/magazine-Bitcoin-2022-1-1024x576.jpg\")
Florida state of mind<\/h4>\n
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Four days in Miami<\/h4>\n
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Making moves!!!
🧀👀🚀🌕 pic.twitter.com\/fYjJKVAypQ<\/a><\/p>\nMore bull<\/h4>\n
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The final hours<\/h4>\n
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