Bitcoin 2022 Recap, GA Day 1. Afternoon: Thiel, Salinas, Keiser, Mallers & More

It’s time for another Bitcoin 2022 recap. That fateful afternoon, What Bitcoin Did’s Peter McCormack hosted. It contains the most talked-about panels and keynotes. We have the perspective of two billionaires, refugees, activists, a loudmouth journalist that may be a billionaire, and the Podcasting 2.0 pioneer. On top of that, the Jack Mallers’ announcement that could change the world.

Grab your popcorn and enjoy an evening of bitcoin hot takes. Things will heat up as soon as you start, so be prepared.

BTC price chart for 04/11/2022 on Coinbase | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com

Bitcoin 2022 * Billionaires

• “Peter Thiel Keynote” with Peter Thiel

The entrepreneur presentation starts with a video from 1999. A young Peter Thiel had recently released what would become PayPal and predicts the future of online payments with uncanny precision. It almost seems like he was talking about the emergence of bitcoin, which happened a decade later. That was the idea behind showing the video, so, Thiel’s presentation started with a bang.

It all went downhill from there. The billionaire explained the Velocity and Value spectrum, and qualified bitcoin as a store of value asset with low velocity. This would be fair if the Lightning Network didn’t exist, but it does. And it was one of the Bitcoin 2022 conference’s hot topics. 

The real blunder, though, was when he used Ethereum as the example of a high-velocity asset. First, this is a bitcoin conference. Second, Ethereum is not a payment network. Not by a long shot.

In any case, Thiel gained some ground back by saying that the benchmark for bitcoin shouldn’t be gold but equities, which is a much bigger market. He also said that the ESG complaints are an attack on bitcoin and the real enemy, and that “bitcoin is a revolutionary youth movement.”

Another interesting factoid is that, so far, his talk is the most popular of Bitcoin 2022’s individually posted ones. And here it is:

• “Cult Of The Central Bank: A Fiat Religion” with Ricardo B. Salinas

The “third richest man in Mexico” was one of the conference’s hits. Ricardo Salinas connected with the audience, seems to understand bitcoin basics, and had the best slides. He claims that, despite the success, his whole family is a victim of the Fiat fraud. “The creation of fake credit has been astounding,” he said to an audience that understood exactly what he meant.

Taking a page from Jack Dorsey, Salinas warned that hyperinflation is coming to the US. And, about CBDCs, he said, “that’s even worse than the dollar.”

Bitcoin 2022 * Activists

• “Bitcoin is Freedom” with Yeonmi Park, Farida Nabourema, Fadi Elsalameen, and Alex Gladstein as the host.

The BLOCK CEO qualified this one as the “best “why bitcoin” intro and panel I’ve seen.” In it, Yeonmi Park from North Korea informed us that in her country the people “don’t know what the Internet is” and the word “profit” is banned. If people manage to escape the country, they can’t take their wealth with them. And that’s where bitcoin comes in.

For her part, Farida Nabourema, a Togolese Human Rights activist, brought back one of the conference’s hot topics: the CFA Franc and the “monetary colonialism” France has over 14 African countries. What do these countries have in common? Authoritarian regimes. The African people need monetary freedom, and that’s where bitcoin comes in. She also announced the African Bitcoin Conference in Ghana.

Last but not least, Fadi Elsalameen. The Palestinian anti-corruption advocate told us how the US, Israel, and the Palestinian government have control and oversight over every remittance payment that goes into Palestine. Guess what? That’s where bitcoin comes in. He also brought forth the idea of a bitcoin conference around those parts, but the project didn’t seem as advanced as the African one.

Bitcoin 2022 * Loudmouths

• “Bitcoin is F*ck You Money” with Francis Ngannou and Adam Curry, hosted by Max Keiser.

Adam Curry, podcasting pioneer and Podcasting 2.0 biggest advocate, hit the nail on the head. He said that bitcoin is not “f*ck you money” because of the purchasing power it gives you. It’s “f*ck you money” because you can send it to anyone without asking for permission. He urged people to take control of their money and put the Canadian truckers’ situation as an example. With ease, the government froze all donations for them except for the bitcoin ones.  “If it happened to sweet Canadians it can happen to anybody,” Curry said.

For his part, Cameroonian mixed martial artist Francis Ngannou brought back the idea of money colonialism. According to him, in Sub-Saharan Africa, 70% of the population is unbanked. That’s where bitcoin comes in. With it, “you don’t need somebody’s blessing to have a bank account.” Ngannou is a bitcoin novice, but when they asked him about the orange coin he said, “The more you know, the more you like it.”

For his part, Max Keiser asked one of the best questions of the whole conference: Is Bitcoin causing the chaos in the world, or reacting to the chaos?

Bitcoin 2022 * Strike

• “Jack Mallers Keynote” with Jack Mallers.

The Strike CEO titled his announcement “The King’s Gambit,” because it’s a chess move like no other. It was so groundbreaking, that it already inspired this and this article in Bitcoinist, and this one in NewsBTC. Long story short, if the company’s gambit pays off, it will finally embed bitcoin into our daily lives. At least in the US, they’ll have access to bitcoin’s superior payment network.

On the one hand, his company partnered with Shopify for the e-commerce giant to accept payments via The Lightning Network. On the other, Strike partnered with Blackhawk and NCR to bring bitcoin payments to hundreds of thousands of Point-Of-Sale terminals in everyday businesses across the US. This includes hypermarkets, major stores, and every fast-food chain.

For extra details and the overarching implications of the announcement, check the NewsBTC article linked above.

Featured Image: Yeonmi Park on stage from this video | Charts by TradingView

Bitcoinist @ Bitcoin 2022 Miami

Bitcoinist will be at Bitcoin 2022 Miami in Miami Beach, FL from April 6th through 10th reporting live from the show floor and related events. Check out exclusive coverage from the world’s largest BTC conference here.