Coin mate, Bitcoin! The ‘c’ is lowercase I learned recently. And the “b” is a whole other story. I had the great pleasure of flying to Miami and attending the 2022 Bitcoin Conference, which happens to be the largest gathering in the crypto world with over 30,000 attendees this year. It was Wednesday afternoon the day before the start of the conference and I still hadn’t purchased the general admission ticket because I had spent a good part of Tuesday evening trying to buy some Bitcoin to pay for the conference as it would yield a $300 discount. After several failed attempts I succumbed to paying for the conference with what I would learn in a few hours: Fiat money. Needless to say, the word “Satoshi” in the promo code field did yield a $100 discount. The fascinating thing about a 6AM flight is that its rarely late since it is the first point of departure for the plane. I landed in Miami 9:36AM, dropped my bags at a lovely Bungalow I found on Airbnb in the Design District and dashed to the conference in an overpriced Uber. I was lucky to catch the tail-end of Cathie Wood and Michael Saylor’s talk on the Nakamoto stage area.
Cathie Wood whose ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) I have invested in, is sitting on enormous losses for the year. However, she is a force to be reckoned with given her impressive foray into the tech space especially during the onset of the pandemic, which led her to achieve outstanding performance for investors. Late comers like myself invested in her fund in early November of 2021 when the word Omicron was as obscure to me as the word Bitcoin. Wood postulated that Bitcoin could go to $1 million by 2030 from its current price of 40,000ish. No need to reference this statement because I literally heard her say those words live on stage. That is a serious endorsement. ARKK has invested heavily in names like Coinbase which is one of the largest crypto exchange platforms and recently launched its much anticipated NFT marketplace. Wood further articulated that Bitcoin is the first and largest decentralized monetary system ever established, and that mass institutional acceptance is not a perquisite for its march toward the $1 million price tag. Here’s her private interview from the conference which I believe is definitely worth a watch: Cathie Wood at Bitcoin Miami 2022. While Wood insisted on Bitcoin’s precipitous rise, Michael Saylor commanded that “you never sell your Bitcoin”.
My personal opinion after attending the conference, having spoken to dozens of attendees, and finally succeeding in buying some Bitcoin; is that Bitcoin definitely will become a widely accepted currency in the financial world as its usage becomes more prevalent in the retail arena. I felt that the Bitcoin revolution is being led by individuals, not institutions, and hence its pervasiveness hinges on the decentralized world of the consumer who will chart its growth path.
Then came Thiel. The man definitely has passion and embraces “in with the new, out with the old” philosophy. No surprise he put devil ears on Warren Buffett and Janet Yellen, and went on to call Buffett a “Sociopathic Grandpa”. To be fair, Charlie Munger is the real villain in the Crypto world after calling Bitcoin a ‘venereal disease’ (Fortune). Thiel exposed the enemies of Bitcoin openly to the crowd and orchestrated a speech reminiscent of a revolution. Did he take notes from Imran Khan? As Thiel dropped one factoid after another, the crowd threw their fists in the air and raged with excitement. If only they had Bitcoin flags to wave. I hardly applaud so I was perhaps the only person seated during these bouts of excitement from the crowd. The fascinating thing about Peter Thiel’s speech was that he revealed that at the time of PayPal’s founding, he did not even know that the Central Bank is the institution that prints money and jokingly shared his Paypal investment deck where he had incorrectly referenced the US Treasury filling that role. Moral of the story: you ought to be an early adopter of a technology that is focused on redefining a market. Like Paypal revolutionized the payment landscape, Bitcoin aims for a similar fate in the world of currency.
Jordan Peterson is another voice I got to hear up close. In November of last year, the controversial philosopher appeared at the Oxford Union while I was in Oxford. The line to get inside the theater was so long you could barely see the end of the street. Peterson is long-winded but had some interesting perspectives to share. In particular, he offered more of a balanced view on Bitcoin by cautioning against “unbridled enthusiasm”. The ‘devil’s advocate’ role played by Peterson highlighted the fact that though centralized control of money poses ethical concerns, the decentralized nature of bitcoin also presents unintended and unclear consequences. “We have no idea what would happen if money was actually decentralized,” he said. While the other voices largely frowned upon the shackles of government control over currency, Peterson posited that some form of government control would be needed for bitcoin to function as part of the financial system. And I have to agree.
In conclusion:
Miami is pulsating with energy and enthusiasm reminiscent of a young emerging city. I started to feel bullish about Miami in 2020 after the pandemic hit and though my investment in ARKK ETF has not yielded the results I expected (yet) I did take a bet on Miami and invested in a pre-sale condominium in the Brickell district. My draw to Miami was triggered by the exodus of east coasters who relocated to the sunny city due to the pandemic and acceptance of remote working by corporate America. When I visited the city in December 2021 (3 years after my last visit) it was hard to miss the vibe – especially given that it was Art Basel. I noticed quickly that Miami caters to a large segment of tourists from USA, South America, UK, and Europe. During the Bitcoin conference I mingled with people from Arizona, Michigan, United Kingdom, Colombia, and the list goes on. It includes Canada of course! I found most people to be quite friendly, curious, and approachable. Even the staff behind the bar and restaurants is quite friendly and despite the busy atmosphere, seems rather laid back. The city will also host Formula 1 next moth, its first ever, which will further draw crowds and stimulate its economy. Hotels and restaurants in Miami are buzzing. Among my favorites are Mila, Faena, and Swan. There’s no shortage of entertainment and with year round festivals, the city is practically Cannes on steroids. Miami has also championed strong personalities of its different neighborhoods, among them: the Design District, Wynwood, South Beach, and Brickell. I admire when a city is able to reinvent itself so ambitiously and Miami has done that in a big way by becoming the Crypto capital of America, among other titles. Miami percolates the young vibe at the heart of the American Dream. The Miami Bull is a depiction of that and represents “global prominence in the world of crypto”. Here’s a YouTube channel that does a good job introducing this perplexing world of crypto in plain language: Bitcoin for Dummies – YouTube.
The last thing I would highlight is the vibe and energy at the Bitcoin Miami conference. It was by far one of the most laidback and inclusive conferences I have attended. Everyone seemed quick with a smile, enthusiastic, curious, and driven. The crowd was mostly young with a mix of zoomers and millennials. In fact its the younger generation that is driving the bitcoin revolution and appears to be fixated on changing the world. Panelists included former prisoners of war who touted Bitcoin’s ability to help provide access to the un-bankable diaspora of people, which sadly rests in the billions. I will definitely return! At times, I felt I was back in school.
Some hard and fast facts on the Bitcoin and Crypto-world to get you up to speed as at April 2022:
- 20% of Bitcoin have been lost forever or stuck in inaccessible wallets which equates to circa 3.8 million BTC which is worth circa $190 billion. The loss is attributable to dead owners, and lost keys, to name a few (Fool.com).
- The United Wholesale Mortgage of USA announced it would accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as mortgage payments.
- Bitcoin transactions are averaging above 250,000 daily.
- El Slavador is the first country in the world to accept Bitcoin as legal tender sparking controversy and push back from the IMF and the World Bank (aka villains in the crypto world).
- Only 21 million Bitcoin can ever be produced – a stipulation built into the coin’s DNA.
- According to BitInfoCharts, there are approximately 98,180 addresses with BTC in excess of $1 million in them. Forbes included 12 crypto billionaires in its 2021 billionaire list which included the Winklevoss twins (the villains or heroes in the Facebook world?).
- Losing your Bitcoin address, which is also known as your private key, not only means losing your unique identification; it also means losing all the bitcoins in your wallet (Simplilearn).
- “Bitcoin” with an uppercase “B” and “bitcoin” with a lowercase “B” mean two different things. The latter (bitcoin) refers to the cryptocurrency that is used to perform transactions. The former (Bitcoin) refers to the ledger that stores information in relation to these transactions. I have clearly messed up in this article!
- Ethereum is the 2nd most popular digital token after bitcoin. Like bitcoin its also traded on an exchange and stored in wallets. Both tokens are decentralized, as in: not regulated by a central authority and make use of the distributed ledger known as blockchain. Despite the similarities, there are some key differences between the two. For instance, unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum (ETH) is intended as a platform to “facilitate immutable, programmatic contracts and applications via its own currency” (Investopedia). In other words, ETH’s aim is not to become an alternative monetary system, but rather monetize the operation of Ethereum smart contract and platform. ETH platform is growing precipitously in the world of finance in areas like arts and collectibles (heard of NFTs?). I recommend further reading on ETH since I myself am far from being an expert in this area and can only offer introductory comments.
You can Pre-register for the Bitcoin2023 conference and save a ton of money for being an early bird. The Whale Pass (aka VIP) is for those looking for a heavily curated experience at the conference and backstage access.
References: Coinbase, Coindesk, YahooFinance, Bitcoin2022, Fortune, Vanity Fair, MotorSport, YouTube, Fool.com, SImililearn, Investopedia, Photo Credit: Forbes, and Bitcoin2023. Please note that this briefing may contain paraphrased summaries and attributes the original content to the news and research sources. Readers are encouraged to visit the links to access the full article and research paper(s) in its original form for a thorough and complete view. You may need to subscribe to the news agency and source for access. Cloudten blog and its authors do not provide any representations or guarantees for the accuracy of facts, figures, or news. Cloudten blog does not offer investment advice and notes the risk associated with investing in financial instruments such as Bitcoin. You must consult your financial adviser and assess the risks associated with investments.