• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Idelto

Cryptocurrency news website

  • About
  • Monthly analysis
    • August 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
  • Bitcoin/Ethereum
  • How to invest in cryptocurrencies
  • News

community

How To Keep Bitcoin From Driving You Crazy

03/06/2022 by Idelto Editor

Bitcoin is a financial revolution with a uniquely passionate community. So protecting your mental health as you engage can be challenging.

The Bitcoin network may be powered by unbiased math, but the users who transact with bitcoin are ruled by the neurons coursing through their brains, so mental health is truly the foundation of financial sovereignty.

And watching the market value of bitcoin fluctuate can be incredibly stressful. It’s crucial for bitcoin investors to question their own motives when they want to buy or sell.

“If you know what you need for immediate needs and long-term needs, then try not to check the market all the time,” said New York-based therapist Aja Evans, who specializes in issues related to financial wellness. “Recognize that you’re emotionally involved in your financial decisions. If you’ve seen other people lose money in the past and it was scary, that’s a great thing to acknowledge in yourself. The real question is, do you need this money right now, so quickly? Is there an urgent need, or is anxiety inspiring that consideration?”

Stress Management

Although some experts associate cryptocurrency trading with the same mental health risks associated with gambling and compulsive spending, bitcoin may be less affiliated with those habits if users view it as digital money, rather than primarily as a trading tool. Money is already a stressful topic for most people, regardless of volatility. According to surveys by the American Psychological Association, 76% of millennials say “money” is their greatest source of stress and this topic also rates in the top-three stressors for both Gen Z and Gen X as well. As such, Evans’ advice for bear market anxiety was in line with other psychology experts.

“If you can, just don’t look at your accounts for a couple of months. If this is the first downturn where you’ve had significant skin in the game, when gains are all you know, losses can feel really dramatic,” said California-based therapist Elizabeth Sterbenz, who specializes in financial therapy. “Once you’ve seen a few market cycles, you’ll have faith that it will come back around. That, statistically speaking, the long-term projection isn’t as bleak as it may feel today. Take yourself out of the anxiety of watching the market and focus on mindfulness, what you can control, where you are right now.”

Yet bitcoin holders who aren’t anxious about market volatility still find themselves in an emotional minefield. With all the talk of revolution, rebuilding the financial system and human rights, bitcoin’s narrative is often intertwined with deeply-held worldviews and even social standing. In a nascent industry where networking is crucial to job access and funding, plus an open-source culture that encourages people to work in public or develop parasocial audiences on platforms like Twitter, it can be tricky to separate our personal identities from our professional selves.

“Everyone’s interpretation of what’s happening is different, based on what they value,” Sterbenz said. “Money can have an impact on family dynamics and other relationships, defining who has power. It can be a way people feel they are measured, whether they are important or whether their opinion matters. Those insecurities get activated or triggered when something happens with money.”

When people argue about what is “good for” Bitcoin versus an “attack on” Bitcoin, or express other frustrations about the bitcoin economy, it can be a reflection of whether they personally feel their access to that ecosystem is threatened or secure, or whether they feel valued by the colleagues they work with in contributing to the ecosystem.

“Even though we pretend our money decisions are purely logical or motivated by math, actually, we’re coming to those decisions with our personal histories and behaviors. When it comes to an evangelical or tribal association, it’s because you’re associating it [digital money] with your personal journey,” Evans said. “If you came from an extreme situation to one where you feel better, whether that’s acquiring wealth or weight loss, it will impact how strongly emotional you feel about that strategy.”

Managing stress is all about asking ourselves why we feel what we’re feeling. Most of the time, anxiety or outrage are related to the perspective we’re coming from, even as they frame a situation in the present.

Conflict Resolution

Perhaps the best way to disarm our trigger-happy, hormotional brains is to remind ourselves that we’re all coming from different perspectives.

Whether it comes to family planning, networking with friends to look for a Bitcoin-related job or participating in online debates about open-source development decisions, Financial Therapy Association board member Nathan Astle, a therapist in Kansas, said that human interactions related to money are inherently emotional. And they can make us feel more intensely than other topics that we already know to identify as personally sensitive. In fact, miscategorizing passionate reactions to this topic as purely ethical or logical, rather than as personal perspectives, is precisely what creates fanatical blind spots or justifications for harmful behavior.

“Lots of my clients feel like they learn to live and spend money based on what they see around them. So when they join new social groups there’s a cultural shift where people worry about betraying either their past, or their new community,” Astle said. “Shame is the enemy of change.”

The fear of shame can be especially powerful in a fledgling economy rife with scams and fraud, because reputations are everything. Accusing a bitcoin user of not truly adhering to the cypherpunk ethos can have disastrous career implications. The propensity to work in public, and on community-driven projects, compounds the fear of shame enforced by performative belonging. People often behave differently in front of a crowd than they would in a small group or one on one. While it’s impossible to imagine Bitcoin without public debate and reputational risks, it’s important for our mental health to consider the distinction between honesty or accountability and online harassment or bullying.

In the Bitcoin community, people sometimes associate harassment with social media. While it is true that online harassment trends can have severe mental health implications, trolling is not the only form of bullying. From Bitcoin companies to academia, bullying can also take quieter forms. Sepler & Associates founder Fran Sepler, a Minnesota-based workplace investigations expert known for researching corporate cultures and strategies for reducing harassment, described quiet bullying as when someone tries to isolate rivals through reputational harm. This pattern is most common among women bullying other women, as women are less likely to be outspoken in their aggression, although it takes place among all genders.

“The manipulative and deceptive methods might involve things like inventing false information about someone with a grain of truth to it, so it can be defended, encouraging other people to complain about someone or see faults in someone in an attempt to isolate them, positioning oneself as a friend then divulging information that was given in confidence,” Sepler said. “Other strategies might be excoriating someone behind closed doors but pretending to be their champion publicly.”

Where is the line between community accountability and bullying? It depends on the circumstances. In terms of protecting our own mental health, this might mean first processing conflicts in private and taking time away from screens, regardless of how other people are behaving online.

“We do have performative requirements in our responses. So this is about knowing when and where to seek help and take care of ourselves,” Sepler said. “We shouldn’t say emotions are incorrect or shouldn’t be processed, but we might need to process them in a different situation or with different people.”

The best way to reduce conflict within the Bitcoin community is to focus on clarity of expectations, up front, and managing expectations. Both Sepler and Sterbenz agreed that most utility friendships, formed by working together or learning together or intentional networking, should not be confused with close personal friendships. Trust must be earned, with full awareness of what the other person wants from you, not inherently granted to those who also identify with the Bitcoin ethos. (This can help people avoid wrench attacks as well.) Sepler and Astle both added that everyone makes mistakes, whether communicating poorly or investing in a regrettable project.

Giving both ourselves and others grace is the best way to defang the shame that motivates our brains to justify problematic behavior that perpetuates conflict.

Know Thyself

Overall, all of the above-mentioned psychology experts said that most of the time when people have a passionate reaction to a situation involving digital money, there’s probably personal context at play that isn’t being acknowledged.

Once we acknowledge where we’re coming from, why we feel so passionate about a particular issue, we’re less likely to make impulsive financial choices or have conflicts with other people about Bitcoin. After all, it is self-sovereign money. We’re all able to use Bitcoin however we want, regardless of what other people think.

When it comes to being your own bank, it’s important to be able to receive new information about the technology and the market, in order to identify the best Bitcoin tools and software choices for a particular use case. Since people inherently tend to confirm their own biases and overlook or ignore information that contradicts their own desires or deeply-held beliefs, the best way to be impartial is to know what you value.

If everyone who owns bitcoin spent a few minutes thinking about his or her own money history, then kept it in mind when processing information related to bitcoin, the new financial system might include fewer politicized pitfalls than the previous system.

“Changing your perspective takes work. There’s no magic pill,” Sterbenz said. “It takes a decision to say this is something that you want to be curious about and learn about how it’s affecting you. Once you start thinking about other perspectives or options, only then will you be able to see if other ways work better for you. Coming back to curiosity is always a good choice.”

This is a guest post by Leigh Cuen. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

Filed Under: Bitcoin Magazine, Bitcoin Price, community, culture, English, Feature, Health, toxic maximalists, Twitter

The Evolution Of Bitcoin Pizza Day Celebrations

24/05/2022 by Idelto Editor

One Bitcoiner is here to show how far we’ve come from the original Pizza Day celebration of Papa Johns.

This is an opinion editorial by Casey Carrillo, associate editor at Bitcoin Magazine.

Bitcoiners have a certain penchant for taking things to the extreme. When it comes to privacy, I’ve never witnessed a group of people with a bigger vendetta against sharing information. If we’re talking about lifestyle, many Bitcoiners have entirely removed seed oils from their diet and then have refused to use sunscreen. And I couldn’t discuss extremes without mentioning the obvious point that many Bitcoiners have an exposure of 100% — or more — to bitcoin in their financial portfolio.

So with the Bitcoin Pizza Day holiday approaching, I should have realized that some Bitcoiner out there would set out to create the best pizza celebration possible.

Enter Rick Poach, a Bitcoin enthusiast, poet, author and contributor here at Bitcoin Magazine.

Poach was a previous resident of New Haven Connecticut, a famed center of pizza innovation and cuisine. He’d always enjoyed and loved New Haven pizza, but after becoming a Bitcoiner and learning about the Pizza Day holiday, he knew he could combine his two passions.

“I wanted to set myself up to be able to do Bitcoin Pizza events from now on, because I’m behind bitcoin, I’m behind pizza and the marriage between the two is perfect,” Poach explained when asked why he decided to do this.

He hosted a Pizza Day gathering in which delectable pies from his catering service, Make America Great Apizza, were available for Bitcoiners to delight in — and tickets were only available in bitcoin!

In New Haven style, Poach made the pie’s crust entirely from scratch, and he only used the freshest vegetables and ingredients. In addition Poach said, “I’m also importing sodas from New Haven, because all of your legit New Haven pizza joints all sell this one soda, Foxon Park.”

I told Poach that it sounds like an incredibly immersive experience. Poach went on to say,

“When you say immersive, you’re absolutely right … I have a few artistic skills, one of them is that I sing very well. We have Rat Pack playing … So you have a pizzaiolo, singing at the top of his lungs slinging pizza, and my assistant James, he can throw a pie 10 feet into the air, so it’s kind of like dinner and a show, it’s immersive and it’s fun.”

All in all, it sounds like that pizza would make anyone hungry. But there’s more to this story than the deliciousness of the pizza — like exploring some of the differences in how we celebrate pizza today and how Pizza Day came to be.

What this Pizza Day story is truly a demonstration of, is how far we have come. The original Pizza Day story involves a rather clunky transaction that actually required a decent amount of trust before Lazlo was able to enjoy his pies. In addition, those pies were fast-food junk created by a company that could have cared less about Bitcoin.

In contrast, today we have dedicated enthusiastic Bitcoiners willing to gather to simply celebrate the holiday. So dedicated are these Bitcoiners that they provide one of the most immersive pizza-dining experiences I’ve yet heard described to me. The pizza is world-class, the ingredients phenomenal and the cooking utterly precise. The cherry on top of this all is that those in attendance each paid for it via bitcoin, most likely utilizing one of the myriad of applications available to us Bitcoiners today.

To say that we’ve come a long way might be an understatement. This event is one indication of the growing culture around Bitcoin, the increasing attention paid to it by people of all walks of life and the joy and fun Bitcoiners are bringing to their community.

After asking about how he perceives the future of Pizza Day celebrations, Poach reported, “The one thing about the Bitcoin community that I’m not into is futurism.” However, he did say, “I would like to see it expanded, of course, in 10 years from now, I’ll probably be too old to be slinging the pies myself … I would like to see this catering thing spun up into a real business that goes from Bitcoin event to Bitcoin event and I sit down and bark out orders and have a good time.”

Given the way he describes his pizza’s being made, I could very well see this future unfolding.

“I would say I’m at 90-95% of what a New Haven pie should be,” Poach stated.

His pie might be 90-95% New Haven, but it’s 100% Bitcoin, I’d say. 

Filed Under: Bitcoin Magazine, community, culture, English, Marty's Bent, Opinion, Pizza Day

Five Stalls That Caught My Attention At Bitcoin 2022’s Bitcoin Bazaar

17/05/2022 by Idelto Editor

Ingenuity, community and fun were on display at the Bitcoin 2022 Bazaar, a marketplace of merchandise from Bitcoiners.

Bitcoin 2022 was home to high-profile keynotes, announcements and panel discussions. But the plebs had their spotlight as well. The Bitcoin Bazaar was the place to get to know some of the most interesting projects in Bitcoin merch — not necessarily world-changing but definitely uplifting.

Panties For Bitcoin

“BTC — Be Truly Confident”

— Panties for Bitcoin

What I first considered as a whacky Bitcoiner meme turned out to be high-quality, Italian-made lingerie run by a lovable family. Pablo, the mastermind behind the business, is an Argentinian emigrant with decades of experience in the underwear industry and a passion for money free from government intrusion. Several years ago, he combined his two obsessions and founded Panties for Bitcoin. With “no more fiat panties” and “Be Truly Confident” as company mottos, Pablo and his family — his wife Silvia and his son Michael — do their part for the circular economy, offering a 10% discount on orders paid in bitcoin.

Check the panties out at pantiesforbitcoin.com. For now, only ladies’ lingerie is offered, though the family is considering launching a men’s line as well.

Pablo and Michael.

Buzz It Forward

“Look better. Feel better. Do better.”

— Buzz It Forward

Every large conference seems to have a barber these days, and the Miami gathering was no exception. Buzz It Forward wasn’t offering just a haircut, though; the project’s mission is to help disadvantaged children and juveniles through sponsored haircuts and mentoring. So whoever had a haircut at the conference actually sponsored three haircuts for those that can’t afford it; the idea being that a good-looking hairline could be the decisive factor for landing a first job for a 16-year-old, or otherwise help in similar situations. When asked about accepting bitcoin as a payment, the (very likable) barber at the booth answered that it’s still a new thing for them, but they believe it’s the future.

You can check this project out at Buzzitforward.com.

Coinertime Blockwatch

“Goodbye factory time. Hello Bitcoin Standard Time (BST).”

— Coinertime

Do you need to check “Moscow Time” several times a day? Do you have an obsession of checking whether blocks are ticking at an average 10-minute pace? Well fret no further, as you can now switch from fiat time to a universal Bitcoiner time with Blockwatch! This neat wearable allows you to switch between Moscow Time (sats per 1 USD), current block height, and a QR code of one’s public key. Fiat UTC time is available as well, but only as a flash function when certain buttons are pressed.

Coinertime (the company behind Blockwatch) is from Florida, accepts only Bitcoin via BTCPay Server for their product, and sticks to an open-source philosophy, with both the watch hardware and software available under an MIT license. Blockwatch is a hobby side project for the Coinertime team, their main business being Bentaus, a Bitcoin mining company that aims to build small-scale mining farms in all 50 states.

Check ‘em out at coinertime.com.

Mear One

“Bitcoin embodies this revolution — it is the most important one of our time with a currency I can get behind, offering a new alternative economy based on non confiscatable sound money principles. It liberated me as an artist and in many ways, like graffiti art, saved my life a second time by empowering me to continue on creating conscious art for a community that reflects this same sentiment – Bitcoin is the new graffiti.”

— Mear One

There were quite a few artists at the Bazaar, and Mear One was the one that caught my attention due to his kickass T-shirt designs. Unfortunately, we only managed time for a brief chat, so I fully appreciated his work only after the conference, when I had a chance to look through his work in detail. To my delight, I found out that Mear One designed the album cover of Non Phixion’s “Future is Now” — one of my favorite hip hop albums of all time!

Link to tweet.

Mear One is based in Los Angeles and he drove across the entire United States to come to Miami.

Check out his work at Mearone.com, and read his thoughts on Bitcoin and art here at Bitcoin Magazine.

SHAmory

“It’s always best to have the help of a pal.

So Satoshi called a monster friend named Hal.”

— Goodnight Bitcoin

Bitcoin has been around for 13 years, and as it comes of age, Bitcoiners mature as well. While the mainstream journalists still paint us as youngsters chasing their Lambo dreams, in reality a growing number of us are 35+ years old with low-time preference values such as a spouse and many kids. And in every Bitcoiner’s household, the kids are inevitably going to ask: “What’s that Bitcoin thing you talk about all the time, Dad?” “Mom, Dad wants to give me my allowance in sats, what’s that?” “Who’s that Satoshi guy you keep on mentioning?” and so on. So naturally, we need child-friendly resources that help the young ones learn about the orange coin.

Scott and Mallory Sibley were in a similar situation, so they created SHAmory, a memory-inspired card game about bitcoin mining. SHAmory is a simple game that even a three-year-old can play (personally verified claim 🙂 ), and it explains the basic mechanics of mining while introducing relevant terms such as “nonce,” “block,” “reward” into the vocabulary.

SHAmory by itself would be pretty cool, but Scott and Mallory also wrote and illustrated “Goodnight Bitcoin,” a simple story in verse about Satoshi, Hal and the creation of Bitcoin. The best part? Both SHAmory and “Goodnight Bitcoin” feature the same, cute monster-themed artwork, so kids naturally fall in love with both.

Find out all about SHAmory at SHAmory.com.

Scott and Mallory Sibley are the team behind SHAmory. 
In SHAmory, kids need to find a nonce that corresponds to the target; when they do, they get a bitcoin reward and extend Bitcoin’s blockchain by another block. But watch out for those pesky difficulty adjustments!

Soul, Sparkle And Smile Of Bitcoin

Besides Bitcoin Bazaar, there were many interesting booths that filled the huge Expo Hall. This was the place to be if you wanted to meet your favorite Bitcoiners (I finally got some of Mandrik’s legendary baklava!), get a book signed by Saifedean Ammous or Allen Farrington, or shop for a new hardware wallet. To be honest, I enjoyed the time mingling with the plebs in the booth maze more than any of the talks. You can always watch the talks online later, but you can’t ever recreate the feeling of meeting new friends, exploring the niches of the buzzing Bitcoiner culture, or — if you’re manning a company booth — getting firsthand feedback from your users.

Busy time at the Trezor booth.

Bitcoin 2022 was awesome; not so much for the high-profile keynotes, but rather for meeting the fellow orange-pilled Bitcoiners who add the soul, smile and sparkle to the monetary revolution.

This is a guest post by Josef Tětek. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc. or Bitcoin Magazine.

Filed Under: Bitcoin 2022, Bitcoin Magazine, community, English, Industry Events, Opinion

The Future Looks Bright For Bitcoin

04/05/2022 by Idelto Editor

Bitcoin adoption around the world is taking shape. Some examples from Bitcoin 2022 offer a window into how Bitcoin is helping people in emerging markets.

It was an honor to take part in this year’s Bitcoin 2022 Conference in Miami. The inspiring conversations that took place at the convention center are what fuels the work we do. The discussions that really spoke to me were those centered around education and global Bitcoin adoption. I emphasized this point during the panel on “Building Lightning-Focused Companies:” Everything we do has to be focused on global adoption and it’s imperative that we shift our focus to build products for real people and products that have real use cases. Several panels during the conference echoed this same sentiment. A few of my favorite moments:

 The First Africa Bitcoin Conference In Ghana

  • Fodé Diop announced on the Nakamoto Stage that the first Africa Bitcoin Conference will take place in Ghana in December 2022.
  • Diop also spoke on creating a “United States of Africa.” Currently, there are several challenges that prevent individuals from trading and doing business with other countries within Africa, from high transaction fees to transfer delays — Bitcoin can solve this.

Francis Ngannou On How Bitcoin Can Save Africa

  • Francis Ngannou is a mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter originally from Cameroon. He spoke about the financial obstacles and complexities within Africa, discussing how Bitcoin can allow for financial freedom in a country where the French have financial control over the CFA franc.
  • Ngannou also shared that 70% of people don’t have a bank account in Africa. There are too many barriers that exist, so the 70% gets left behind — again, Bitcoin can solve this.

Activists Share How Bitcoin Can Provide Financial Freedom

  • Alex Gladstein’s session, “Bitcoin Is Freedom,” shined a light on three human rights activists, Yeonmi Park, Farida Nabourema and Fadi Elsalameen, who spoke about the intersection of money and human rights in North Korea, Togo, and Palestine and how Bitcoin can lead to a brighter future.
  • Each ended the session by sharing the need for these countries to combat limitations on remittance and government control — Bitcoin can solve this, too.

There is a lot happening in the emerging markets, and countries like Nigeria and El Salvador have already begun to show the world Bitcoin’s true use cases. A few examples include the panel “Building Bitcoin Communities,” where several changemakers took the stage to share how they are on the ground, in places like Bitcoin Beach and beyond, putting Bitcoin to work for the people. Off-stage at the Renaissance Art Gallery, a Bitcoin NFT project, Built With NFT, showcased how Bitcoin can be used for social good. It’s these initiatives that help show the world Bitcoin’s true power.

Bitcoin has real value that can drive financial freedom for 100% of people. While the Bitcoin Conference is evidence that the Bitcoin community is growing, there is still a lot of work to be done. We need to move faster to get Bitcoin to the streets — specifically to the communities that need it most. Education about Bitcoin is what will get us there. I hope that next year there can be even more content around how Bitcoin is making an impact around the world. We are just beginning to scratch the surface — Bitcoin will change the world, and I’m honored to be witness to this movement.

This is a guest post by Ray Youssef. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc. or Bitcoin Magazine.

Filed Under: Africa, Bitcoin 2022, Bitcoin Magazine, community, culture, English, freedom, futurist, Opinion

Thousands At Bitcoin 2022 Call For Separation Of Money From State

18/04/2022 by Idelto Editor

The Declaration of Monetary Independence was on display at the largest gathering of Bitcoiners in the world.

As Bitcoin 2022 got underway, at the largest gathering of Bitcoiners in the world there stood an impressive 9 foot by 12 foot document that was the first and largest printed version of the Declaration of Monetary Independence (DoMI). For those of you who would like to read it and sign it electronically you may go here. It stood just outside the Nakamoto Stage where the foot traffic from attendees who arrived each morning walked right past it. By the close of the event on Saturday, it is estimated that there were thousands of signatures and it resembled street art more than a replica of the original Declaration of Independence.

What Does The Declaration Of Monetary Independence Say?

The first half of the document, written in Colonial-style font in the physical version, lists 27 reasons why fiat money is an unfair — and broken — monetary system controlled by governments which favors the wealthiest and most privileged. Ironically, many people when informed there were 27 reasons why fiat didn’t work would quip, “Only 27?” The second half of the document lists 29 reasons why Bitcoin is the fairest most egalitarian monetary system the human mind has ever conceived and implemented. This document was “published” electronically on October 31, 2021 and the same day Bitcoin Magazine published an article authored by Mike Hobart announcing the declaration. There were 55 original signatories to the online declaration.

Why Was DoMI Written?

Bitcoiners familiar with history know that October 31 was a significant day in Bitcoin’s origins. It was no coincidence that on that day in 2008, during the heart of the financial meltdown now known as the Great Recession, that Satoshi Nakamoto published his white paper. One of the authors of DoMI, when asked why he wrote it, said that he, like many, believes Bitcoin is American ideals and values embedded in code. The authors knew that every government in history has abused their monopoly power over money creation and we needed to be given a choice. Humanity has reached a point in the history of humanity where we needed to separate money from the state and Bitcoin technology makes that possible. And since bitcoin itself is code, very few can read it and only engineers, cypherpunks and geeks are actually able to understand its technical aspects.

While the white paper explains what Satoshi had been coding up, the authors took a stab at creating a 21st century version of the Declaration of Independence with the benefit of hindsight on knowing how our monetary system turned out. Given the above, the authors felt they needed something that the plebs could relate to and what emerged from the collaboration of the three Bitcoin Magazine writers was DoMI. They believe that their collective proof of work — DoMI — is a historically significant document that expresses in words, not code, American ideals on what a fair monetary system needs to include. In effect, they were channeling the plebs’ declaration of monetary independence.

The actual signing got off to a slow start. On the first day of the conference there were hundreds of Bitcoiners stopping by to read it and take pictures of it but no signatures were added to it. By lunchtime on the first day of the conference, the document stood there unsigned. At that point, one of the original authors of the document took out his purple pen and signed it.

After he signed it, he made it clear to all those who stopped to take pictures of it that they were welcome to sign it. The reactions to his invitation were enthusiastic and they embraced signing this historic document proposing the separation of money from state with gusto! Many asked co-author Mark Maraia for a synopsis of what it says at which point he explained the 27 things wrong with fiat and the 29 things that bitcoin fixes. He explained that the preamble clearly states that we are not asking to do away with fiat, but that he believes we are most definitely in favor of and need a form of money that the state can’t mess up!

Lo and behold by the end of the first day of the conference there were probably 50-60 signatures making this peaceful call for separating money from the state. Little did we know what was to transpire over the remaining three days of Bitcoin 2022 — an amazing amount of signatories would be added. The co-authors were interviewed by several news outlets and various podcasters as the signings continued.

The following day was the first day of the general admission where 25,000 people eventually converged at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Since the footpath from where people were allowed to enter the convention center took you right past DoMI it was seen and noticed by most of those entering. The author who got things started on the first day was there first thing in the morning on Thursday with two Sharpies and began asking people if they wanted to sign. The enthusiasm by which they embraced that invitation was nothing short of shocking. They didn’t just sign it and quietly walk away. Some signed with an orange sharpie. They signed with gusto and often wanted their picture taken while they were signing. Or they’d zoom out from their signature to the entire 9 foot by 12 foot document.

Even though DoMI had existed and was available for signing online since October 31, 2021, there are no words to describe the level of excitement and enthusiasm that began bubbling out of people after they put their signature to the document. In addition, one of the authors had collaborated with another writer for Bitcoin Magazine to purchase more than a thousand orange silicone bracelets that said “separate money from state” with the Bitcoin logo and “#DoMI” on them.

As people would sign, those handing out bracelets would retrieve the Sharpie for the next person and give the person who just signed a bracelet as “proof of signature.”

By the end of the day Friday, the plebs were looking for chairs to stand on so they could find a

blank space for their signature. The co-author who had started things rolling left on Saturday morning but reports and pictures of DoMI kept trickling in from the other conference attendees. By the end of the day Saturday (Sound Money Fest) the Declaration of Monetary Independence stood there in all its glory with thousands of signatures on what had become presumably the world’s largest analog multisig. In what one person described as the most important gathering of people since 1776, the Bitcoin Conference attendees were able to register their vote for freedom of money from state control.

So where will the DoMI end up? Right now the current thinking is this document will find a home inside Bitcoin Magazine’s office. For those of you who didn’t get to sign it during the conference, don’t despair, as there will be another one for the Bitcoin 2023 Conference. Based on the reports from the many people who signed this year, this will be an experience you won’t want to miss.

Special shoutout to Mark Maraia, Mike Hobart and Ulric Pattillo, co-authors of DoMI and the sources for this article. 

Bitcoin 2022 is part of the Bitcoin Event Series hosted by BTC Inc, the parent company of Bitcoin Magazine.

Filed Under: Bitcoin 2022, Bitcoin Magazine, community, culture, English, Opinion

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 10
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Archives

Recents articles

  • Was Aristotle a Bitcoiner?
  • Netherlands-Based Coinbase Customers Required to Submit KYC Data When Transferring Crypto off the Platform
  • Binance Launches New Platform for VIP and Institutional Crypto Investors
  • Bitcoin Can Fund High-Quality, Equitable, Healthcare For Everyone
  • British MP Calls for ‘Liberal’ Crypto Regulation — Says ‘No Country Can Stop This Revolution’
  • Bank of Russia Accelerates Schedule for Digital Ruble Project
  • Hardware Worth $1.9 Million Stolen in Russia’s Crypto Mining Capital
  • Report: Goldman Sachs Looks to Buy Distressed Assets From Celsius, Crypto Lender Seeks Restructuring Advice

© 2022 · Idelto · Site design ONVA ONLINE

Posting....