tl;dr Summary: The Miami Beach Convention Center has just played host to ‘Bitcoin 2022.’ Here are six headline-grabbers from the annual Bitcoin conference!
The Miami Bull
Standing at 11 feet tall and weighing well over a tonne, the first great unveiling at Bitcoin 2022 was the ‘Miami Bull’. The massive sculpture was commissioned by Florida-based trading platform Tradestation, and took pride-of-place outside the Miami Beach Convention Center. The piece is a robotic take on the iconic Wall Street ‘Charging Bull,’ and was unveiled by Miami city mayor Francis Suarez, who claimed Miami to be the ‘world’s capital of crypto’. The bull was not the only large-scale statement artwork seen at the conference, with attendees also able to sign a six foot tall ‘Declaration of Financial Independence,’ found at the ‘Open Source Stage.’
Jack Mallers
Jack Mallers is CEO of digital payments platform Strike, which is built on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network. Mallers used his speech on day two to announce Strike’s integration with Shopify, which will allow any merchant using Shopify to accept payments in bitcoin, and receive US dollars. The system is already live, with streetwear brand Warren Lotus the first to accept crypto payments via Shopify. Strike is also looking to make physical crypto payments commonplace, and Mallers also announced that Strike has partnered with point-of-sale company NCR and payments company Blackhawk to facilitate this across the USA. He lamented the current system, stating that “payment networks have not innovated in over 50 years,” and that bitcoin and the Lightning Network was “just better” than what we have now. As promising as this sounds for bitcoin adoption, the crypto community has been quick to point out inevitable regulatory concerns with the plan, despite Mallers stating he had been working with policymakers “to ensure that we have the right to build freely in this country.”
Peter Thiel
Paypal co-founder and venture capitalist Peter Thiel also made a splash on day two, starting his keynote speech by throwing $100 bills into the crowd. The stunt was designed to illustrate his message that “we are at the end of the fiat money regime.” He then launched a colorful tirade against the bitcoin ‘enemies list,’ in which Warren Buffet was labeled ‘sociopathic’ and ‘Enemy Number 1.’ His speech concluded with a spectacular prediction that bitcoin would 100x from today’s prices, amidst the breakdown of traditional financial infrastructure.
Samson Mow
Former Chief Strategy Officer of Blockstream, Samson Mow, used his time onstage to confirm two new jurisdictions, Prospera and Madeira, will be accepting bitcoin as legal tender. Madeira is an autonomous region of Portugal, whereas Prospera is a region of Roatán, a Caribbean Island officially part of Honduras. After El Salvador’s big announcement last year, many were anticipating another large-scale nation state to announce their adoption of bitcoin at the conference. Whilst Mexico were hot favorites, no such official announcement came. Mexican senator Indira Kempis joined Mow on stage, continuing her well-documented support for bitcoin, and publicly called on the country’s president to adopt bitcoin as legal tender.
Nayib Bukele
El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele used Bitcoin 2021 to announce that the country was to accept bitcoin as legal tender. Unfortunately, after El Salvador declared a state of emergency over gang-related violence, President Nayib Bukele was a no-show for his highly anticipated speech at Bitcoin 2022. The news was announced over Twitter, with the official conference account sharing a letter from Bukele citing “unforeseen circumstances in my home country that will require my full-time presence.” Bukele signed off “with love,” and described the conference as “one of the biggest celebrations of the power of freedom, decentralization and human ingenuity.”
Jordan Peterson
Prominent clinical psychologist and cultural commentator Jordan Peterson provided a fireside talk on day three, and provided a welcome break from the sea of positivity that had been sweeping the Miami Beach Convention Center. Whilst acknowledging the transformative potential that bitcoin could bring, Peterson mused on the unknown consequences that could come from the breakdown of the current financial system, stating “we don’t actually know what would happen if the money is decentralized.” Without making bold predictions of what the future would hold, Peterson raised the point that it would be unlikely that all connotations of global bitcoin adoption would be purely positive, providing a much-needed reality check for the orange-adoring crowd…
