They have been called crazy, fanatics, speculators. Digital militias? Too.
They don’t care. “We don’t care what they think,” a bitcoiner tells me. “Whatever they do, they won’t be able to stop us.”
Nor convince them that they are clouded by a bubble that can burst in their face at any moment.
Here in Wynwood , the most hip neighborhood of Miami, the fervent defenders of the largest of cryptocurrencies are They have come together to worship the currency and do business outside the warnings of governments and central banks.
It is a microcosm where people trust more in the decentralized power of the code than in the institutions. And in the supremacy of the algorithm over the international financial system.
For them the dollar has not yet died, but it is dying, and Jerome Powell, the president of the Federal Reserve of the United States, has not It is more than the powerful icon of a system that in the coming years will be studied in the history books.
That was the atmosphere on June 4 and 5 in Bitcoin 2017, the world’s largest conference on the subject and where the disciples of Satoshi Nakamoto , the mysterious creator of a currency that generates devotion among his followers,
met 
It was hot. It was 9 a.m. on Friday, June 4, and the line to enter the event stretched for several blocks.
If we were part of a zoo, there would be exotic species of all kinds there, from the who wore tattoos, even whales (as those who have a lot of bitcoin are called), through Wall Street sharks camouflaged among the rest of the animals.
Also some beast of cryptography and cats that want to be lions.
And there is everything in the incredible fauna that bitcoin loves: anarcho-capitalists, libertarians, techno-breakers, hackers , entrepreneurs, investors, speculators. And they were all gathered in the same place.
All with the idea that they will be richer than they are now. Because if there is something that was not missing there, it was money.
As countries have not yet agreed to regulate this emerging market and have also been slow to develop their own digital projects to compete with the currency (except China, which was ahead of all the others), bitcoin continues to grow with each passing day .
It is as if the world follows its normal course, and the bitcoiners live in a parallel universe, where the price of cryptocurrency moves like a roller coaster.
No stomach ache
Yes, it is true, the volatility of the cryptocurrency becomes ridiculous. As it happened in April when it reached an all-time high above US $ 50. 000 and in one month fell by half . That is how brutal the fluctuation of its price is.
And when that happens, the most convinced do not sell a single bitcoin, with the certainty that in the long term it will be the best investment of their life.
Especially those who paid US $ 755 for a bitcoin in 2017, or those who paid US $ 1 for a bitcoin in 2011.
Those who have blind faith in cryptocurrency sit and watch the price go up and down without a stomach ache. The slogan is “do not sell”, do not panic.
And to lift the spirit, there is a whole slang created around cryptocurrencies. For example:
- BTD : Buy the Deep (buy more when the price drops).
And so the crypto synergy keeps spreading with a bunch of other concepts and acronyms like NFT, DeFi, hash or h alving , which could lead to writing a small dictionary.
One of the most extravagant characters of the event, Max Keizer, who took the stage to talk with him Billionaire Michael Saylor, turned the masses on fire by shouting “We are not selling!” (“No let’s sell ”).
Followed by “ Fuck Elon “, referring to the founder of Tesla (Elon Musk) who first announced that he would accept bitcoin as a means of payment and then backed down because of the” environmental damage “caused by the gigantic energy consumption required for computers to solve the puzzles. mathematicians that allow generating (“mining”, in the jargon) new bitcoins.
The public’s exaltation was such that it gave the impression of being at a political rally just before the election, or in a recital when the artist appears on stage, or perhaps at a religious gathering.
As if there was a passion for the code creates do by Nakamoto in 2011, a system that bitcoiners consider the greatest revolution after the internet, so great that will replace the current monetary system created in 1971 under the US government of Richard Nixon.
Hence, many see them as a kind of cult and call them crazy.
Others have simply invested a part of a diversified portfolio waiting for a good time to sell. Nothing more. They are at the party just to get as much money as possible, the same way as if they were playing in a Las Vegas casino.
Not in vain large investment banks such as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan or Morgan Stanley, have created their own teams specialized in cryptocurrencies to handle the investments of their richest clients.)
In Bitcoin 2021 there were more devotees than cryptotourists , I have the impression, although it was difficult to know who was who in that jungle.
“Death to the dollar”
Surrounded by gigantic murals, the Mana Events Center became the epicenter of a conference that used to be held in California, but this year, for the first time, moved to Miami.
The graffiti artists hired for the event worked outdoors, in addition to the skaters and the players of basketball.
In one of the outdoor environments you could disconnect for a while from the presentations and rest with the DJs mixing electronic music. Or have fun with the huge sumo wrestlers hired for the occasion.
Others went around looking for how to do business and get as many contacts as possible. Those were clearly working.
Some of the attendees went in and out of the smaller stages where the bitcoiners shared their experiences, while others did not leave the bar (where you paid the mojitos with bitcoin, of course.)
Not a single tie was seen, only sneakers (tennis, sneakers), and there were those who walked around without a shirt.
There was also an exclusive area called The Deep , where only those with a Whale Pass for which they had paid close to US $ 16. 000 .
Oh, I almost forgot. He was near the entrance of the event. A US $ Lamborghini 270. 000 to be drawn among the attendees.
What else ?, well, the number 21 was everywhere.
The figure refers to the limit of 21 million of bitcoin that may exist, as established in the code developed by the enigmatic / a / es Nak amoto at 2009, when you created the first block that gave rise to the first 50 bitcoin history.
I cannot fail to mention that there was an area of professional gamers whose computers were connected to a giant screen.
And an area of bitcoin artists, to make it clear that this is all “a movement,” as Miami Republican Mayor Francis Suárez put it, who aims to turn the city into the cryptocurrency capital of the world.
The bitcoin art deserves a separate chapter.
I will only say that a part of the jobs did not have any po component explicit lithic, but another … was the maximum expression of the anti-establishment movements.
Even the mask that represents Guy Fawkes, the Englishman who tried to blow up the House of Lords (the upper house of the British Parliament ) on 1605, popularized in the movie V for Vendetta and adopted by groups protesting against financial institutions and the entire establishment in general, was repeated in several of the works of art.
And a lot of “death to the dollar” everywhere. Dollars torn, intervened with paint, annihilated.
‘ Nakamoto stage ‘
Going up some stairs was the main stage of the event: Nakamoto stage .
There was a party in there. Crowded with people (without a mask, by the way), the electronic music was loud and the atmosphere was electrified in anticipation of a promising day.
In the background , they set up a giant screen with palm trees that moved placidly to the rhythm of the breeze.
If there is something that Miami is not in short supply, it is money and palm trees. And the more than 12. 000 crypto evangelists who came to the event and who have seen each other for the first time since the pandemic began. Maybe that’s why there was an atmosphere like liberation.
Or maybe because bitcoiners found the perfect space to feel that despite all the predictions against them, they do know where the world is going.
Characters as different as former Republican congressman Ron Paul and the founder of Twitter and Square were invited to the conference , Jack Dorsey.
Paul and Dorsey? Yes, Paul and Dorsey.
Also among the big names were bitcoin mogul Michael Saylor, co-founder of MicroStrategy; Nick Szabo, pioneer scientist and cryptographer in the world of cryptocurrencies (forerunner of Nakamoto); the billionaire Winklevoss brothers and other celebrities like the boxer Floyd Mayweather or the skater Tony Hawk.
The “ideological father” (of some bitcoiners)
One of the most surprising moments of the event occurred when former Republican Congressman Ron Paul took the stage.
Since many of the attendees were young adults with that pseudo-avant-garde techno-disruptive air, it didn’t seem like a particularly Republican audience.
But when Ron Paul appeared on the stage, I realized that I was at a loss on Saturn.
The man received a standing ovation shouting amid an effervescence that no other speaker woke up.
It was a moment of collective euphoria, as if it were a rocks tar . There was this gentleman from 85 years of the extreme right in his respectable formal suit in front of the public. The first speaker of the conference.
“If you don’t like the dollar, you should have the absolute right to use whatever you want as money,” said who was a three-time candidate for the White House, first by the Libertarian Party and later by the Republican Party.
“ We don’t need the Federal Reserve. It has been built with corruption. So, what we have to do is abolish or get rid of the Federal Reserve ”, he added, once again igniting the shouts and applause of the audience.
Considered as“ the godfather ”of the Tea Party movement in The United States, Paul gave a kind of ideological sustenance to bitcoiners, making it clear that this goes beyond making money.
“The monetary issue is important, but so is freedom. And we can solve our problems if we have freedom. ”
Every time he used the word“ freedom ”, the audience cheered.
It’s that an important part of the followers of the cryptocurrency sympathize with the current of thought that claims the des r total regulation of the markets, the reduction of the government to its minimum expression, and, without a doubt, it detests taxes.
And if we go a little further, there are also the anarcho-capitalists who advocate the elimination of the State as an economic agent.
Could it be that at some point in this crypto-philosophy Paul and the anti-system artists who wear the Guy Fawkes mask converge perfectly well?
Or could it be that since I’m on Saturn I don’t understand anything? It should be the second option, sure.
Later the brothers Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, billionaire twins known for their dispute with Mark, took the stage Zuckerberg on the creation of Facebook.
Tyler referred to the dollar as “the biggest shit coin” , while Cameron wore a T-shirt It looked like a rock band but not really, with the Federal Reserve photo that said R age against the machine (rage against the machine).
Michael Saylor: the crypto guru
Considered one of the crypto gurus, Michael Saylor, founder and CEO of the successful firm MicroStrategy, was one of the main stars of the day.
Saylor, who refers to traditional money nal as trash ( cash is trash ) and whose company has bought more than 90. 000 bitcoins (with an estimated current value in US $ 3. 549 millions), praised the cryptocurrency.
“Bitcoin is the supreme property of the human race. This is the first time we’ve figured out how to create real property that can be taken over with full custody rights. ”
“ For the first time in history, we can grant property rights to 8 . 000 millions of people, “added the businessman who graduated from the Institute of Technology in Aeronautics and Astronautics. Massachusetts (MIT).
Bitcoin, he argued, “synchronizes the world in all political jurisdictions, restores rationality to the entire financial system, and restores freedom and rights property to the entire human race. ”
“ We say that bitcoin is hope. Bitcoin fixes everything. ”
Jack Dorsey:“ If I wasn’t on Square or Twitter, I’d be working on bitcoin ”
As convinced as Saylor is Jack Dorsey, who spoke on stage with Alex Gladstein of the Human Rights Foundation.
“For me, bitcoin changes absolutely everything . What attracts me the most is the spirit, what it represents. The conditions that created it are so rare and so special and so precious, and I don’t think there is anything more important in my life than working on this, ”stated Dorsey.
“Whatever I can do, whatever my companies can do to make (bitcoin) more accessible to everyone, is the way I want to spend the rest of my life. If I were not on Square or Twitter, I would be working on bitcoin “, he pointed out.
The focus of his speech was on what he considers to be the social role of cryptocurrency to improve people’s lives, especially in the poorest areas of the world.
“Go to Nigeria for a day and see the people’s struggle with their government and their money. Go to Ghana, which has a lot of immigrants from all over the continent and you will witness the same thing every day. Go to India and you will see the same. “
” It is quite incredible to realize that we finally have a currency that can be traded anywhere on the planet, “he added. “I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure that happens.”
Regarding the criticisms that have arisen in recent months in relation to the polluting footprint left by the production (mining) of bitcoins, Dorsey argued that this is changing, as clean energy sources lower their prices. costs.
“I fully believe that bitcoin, over time, and currently, does incentivize more renewable energy and gives people more freedom to convert unused and wasted energy into something that truly creates value to billions of people around the world. ”
The surprise of El Salvador
In On the second day of the conference, something that nobody expected happened.
Through a video, the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, announced to the world that his country would make bitcoin a currency of legal course.
- What is known about the Bitcoin Law that will make El Salvador the world laboratory of this cryptocurrency by making it legal tender
Four days after the announcement, Congress approved the Bitcoin Law and this small Central American country of just six million people will probably become a great experimentation laboratory.
It is the first time that a country declares that bitcoin will circulate through its monetary system at the same level as the dollar (which it adopted as the official currency in 2000).
Apparently Bukele’s plan is that, as time passes and people have cell phones connected to the internet, Salvadorans will end up making more transactions in bitcoin than dollars.
The change is so radical that the law establishes that economic agents who are offered a payment in bitcoin, “must accept it.”
In practice, McDonalds will have to accept that they buy their burgers with bitcoin.
As this is the first experiment with cryptocurrency in an entire country, it is likely may the eyes of the great powers be on an experience that, be it a success or a failure, will set a precedent.
A silent war
Event ended The impression remained that there is a silent war between the “crypto-evangelists” and the financial, economic and political power.
Followers of bitcoin believe that the currency will be so powerful that it will end the hegemony of the dollar and transform the monetary system from its roots, based on the theory that we are witnessing the end of a historical cycle.
This was the case with the “gold standard” (which ended with the First World War) and with the monetary system created in the Bretton Woods Agreements (which ended at the beginning of the 70 when the US government unilaterally decided that the money would have a legal value of its own).
From that moment, the money we use is called money fiat , that is, backed solely by trust in the issuing State.
Have passed 50 years since the last change in the monetary system and now, say the bitcoiners , the time has come for a new cycle.
Although at the beginning there will be a transition period where the two monetary systems will coexist , they explain, in the end bitcoin will win.
“It’s very simple, believe it or not,” tells me a millennial who preaches the gospel of the digital currency.
“I believe that bitcoin will change the international monetary system, but also the economy, politics, everything. There will be a new company . What if it will be better or worse? I don’t know, but what I do know is that it won’t be the same. ”
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