BITCOIN CONFERENCE 2021 MIAMI

BITCOIN CONFERENCE 2021 MIAMI

By Jadan Horyn

South Florida played host to the largest gathering of crypto enthusiasts yet assembled on the planet this summer. Bitcoin Conference 2021 Miami took place in Wynwood amongst the warehouse and hipster vibe one thinks appropriate given both are part antique and part disruptor. Bitcoin seeks to take the world of finance and currency - an old and staid industry - and revolutionize it for the digital world of the future. Bitcoin Conference 2021 assembled Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency enthusiasts along with the ecosystem of companies that have sprung up in the space to cater to this new market. Entirely new modes of thinking have been employed in conceptualizing the companies and their business models. From Decentralized Finance - DeFi for short - companies like Celsius and Blockfi, to NFT exchanges that protect the authenticity of a product, to Crypto exchanges - companies that facilitate the conversion of one token to another or out to liquid currency. The conference was a menagerie of Burning Man types, traditional media and finance types, tech bros, and the countercultured all with vast new sums of wealth. Whole nightclubs were booked out by Bitcoin Whales (those with one thousand bitcoin worth roughly $19Million) Yachts filled the slips in

Sand around Miami as the new wealth flexed its muscle. Ubers, Hotels, and Restaurants were slammed with business. The infrastructure strained to handle the sudden influx of tenthousand people. Yet the conference and what it represents is the future. A future where finance is disrupted and democratized - often the vanguards of change appear different and anomalous to a normal person - yet their oddity becomes the new normal. This virtue of disruption to normalization is how the Bitcoin Conference crowd looks at the world. A world they are reshaping in real-time. Today, Miami, tomorrow, Bitcoin.