Two Overlooked Talks From The Bitcoin 2021 Conference In Miami

As promised, we’re also covering some of the presentations that don’t have big names associated with them. Powerful ideas about Bitcoin abound in these. In stark contrast from one another, ex-government officials star in the first one, and dangerous anarchists star in the second one. We’re exaggerating, of course. Nevertheless, the point is, the ideas they contain are not that different. 

These two are from day one of Bitcoin 2021. We’ll do a couple more from day two, of course. And many, many more, are going to end up on the editing floor. The content was just too good and we can’t cover them all. 

By the way, did you all notice that all the criticism this conference got was directed elsewhere? The large lines for anything, the tribalism, Max Keiser’s baptisms (don’t ask,) the “insensitive” cash is trash selfie dumpster, but not the content. The content was excellent… except Floyd Mayweather’s talk, of course.

Anyway, let’s not waste any more time and get into it.

Related Reading | Will The Bitcoin Miami Conference Be A Catalyst For Recovery?

Supporting Innovation From Inside The System

With Chris Giancarlo and Brian Brooks. 

They both served in government, Giancarlo was chairman of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Brooks was Acting Comptroller of the Currency. They knew what they were talking about and brought the thunder, but…

• Brian Brooks: “When the chairman of the fed is looking at you, you’re doing something right.” He thinks Bitcoin is already too big to be attacked or outlawed, “We’ve got out Uber moment. Is too late.” People deny this because  they suffer from “Status Quo bias.” This means that whatever they’ve been doing feels like the baseline. He feels that what the movement needs are more of your voices talking about the problems we’re solving, “that’s when we’ll win the argument.” He thinks the  Digital Dollar will never happen; “Governments are not good at building stuff. When they do, it usually sucks.”

• Chris Giancarlo:  “Bitcoin has proven its value proposition at any price.” He also thinks the movement needs spokesmen who can answer to any FUD rapidly and credibly. He also believes that the Dollar needs to evolve from an analog instrument to a Digital Dollar. “Money is as much a social construct as it is a government construct.”

They both talked about the fact that cryptocurrencies are used as a mode of payment in ransomware attacks. Giancarlo said, “Wherever value is being transfered, there will be bad guys.” Therefore, “The fact that there’s criminality shouldn’t surprise anyone.” And Brooks firmly affirmed, “We caught them because of Bitcoin.” 

By the end, Giancarlo said that fighting KYC procedures wasn’t helping anyone and got booed out of the stage.

Related Reading | Day TWO: Key Quotes And Ideas From The Bitcoin 2021 Conference In Miami

What To Do When Your Country Bans Bitcoin

With: Alejandro Machado, Boaz Sobrado, Francis Pouliot, and Matt Odell. Host: Hector Rosekrans.

• Alejandro Machado: Talked about the situation in Venezuela. The government is creating mining pools, and private citizens are creating their own to have an alternative. The country heavily uses Bitcoin for remittances, but there’s no real penetration. Most people use it without really knowing they’re using it.  He thinks, “Companies need to care about specific jurisdictions,” about serving specific populations. When asked about privacy, he said wallets should turn on Coinjoin by default
• Francis Pouliot:  Talked about the situation in Cuba. How none of the conference’s sponsors would work in Cuba, but, “Bitcoin doesn’t care. It still works.” Bitcoin in Cuba is very much peer-to-peer, a few small local initiatives take care of that. Even though Paypal or Localbitcoin wouldn’t work in Cuba, while on stage, he sent $100 worth of Bitcoin to an entrepreneur in Cuba in two seconds.

• Boaz Sobrado: He thinks the narratives created around 2017 help a lot, for example, “Running your nodes makes you a bitcoiner. Owning your keys makes you a bitcoiner.” “He doesn’t want Hyperbitcoinization until we build censorship-resistant tools for everyone. He doesn’t think the tools exist yet for the average person to be fine.  When asked about censorship, he said that it’s ironic that it’s a US mining pool that is censoring transactions, “the censorship is not coming from China.” He also pointed out that in some countries is non-compliant to have information that can be leaked. By asking all of that info for KYC purposes, exchanges are in breach of that. 

BTC price chart on Okcoin | Source: BTC/USDT on TradingView.com

That’s it for today and from day one. Expect more and from day two, soon.

Featured Image from Bitcoin 2021's Twitter | Charts by TradingView