Cointelegraph covers Bitcoin Miami 2021, where 50,000 people gathered to hear Jack Dorsey, Ron Paul, and Mayor Francis Suarez speak. The conference featured vendor booths, NFT art displays, and debates over bitcoin mining's energy use and open-source projects like Blue Sky.
Hey all, it's good to be here. I'm Jackson and Welcome to the Cointelegraph YouTube channel. We're about to give you an inside look at the Bitcoin Miami 2021 conference. We were planning on live streaming from inside the event but unfortunately terrible on site Internet connection foiled our plans. But we couldn't just leave you hanging. So instead we've put together some great moments from today's speakers. We with exclusive, exclusive footage from our on the ground team. Thanks for being here and enjoy.
People are looking for the best and we were first because in this city we truly understand what it means to be the capital of capital. It means to be the capital of bitcoin.
My goal in my life in this moment is to remove as much as I can the corporateness of our companies and find better intersections with the open source community. Certainly bitcoin has taught me that with Square and we're doing everything in our power, we're doing everything in our power to do that. And we're trying to do the same thing with Twitter by creating a new platform, a new open source standard called Blue Sky. We're just starting it and it will have none of the restrictions that you see on Twitter.
You know, we're born with natural rights. They're ours. We own our lives, we own our bodies. And a couple rules though is you're not allowed to commit aggression. You can't rob, steal or kill. And that's been known for thousands of years. Those principles.
Hello, Jackson and Cointelegraph. Is your boy Benton here at the Miami Bitcoin conference. I am sweating hot grease today. It is a steamy hot day here in Miami and we're here at the entrance of the Bitcoin conference. As you can see is absolute packed. There is expected to be 50,000 folks here. Not a big concern with the mask here for the the Miami Bitcoin Conference. We're going to go inside, as you can see outside, tons of stages all over the place. We just got done with the Jack Dorsey talk, talking about bitcoin mining and what's going on with the ecosystem in regards to where we can head next. We're going to jump into the entrance here for the conference. As you can see, just people are just flooded into this place today. It's absolutely bananas. I cannot believe how many people have actually turned out for this thing. It packed to the brim. Fire security have been clearing people out from all the exits and keeping things safe for us here at the conference. But it is just a bonanza so we're walking into the conference here. As you can see, this is the area where we have all of the vendors. We're going to kind of sneak over here to where the main stage is, where Jack just got done. I believe that we kicked off the day with Mayor Francis Suarez. We have tons of other speakers this morning so far. We had Tim Draper and we had Michael Saylor. We had Jack, Jack Dorsey. The list just goes on and on and on. As you see, we're gonna try to sneak ourselves in here. And so we're here at the main stage, and we're gonna cruise right in here. This, you can see, is kind of emptied out since Jack was speaking earlier, but the aisles were just absolutely packed with people sitting. People sitting on the edges. This is just absolutely bananas. I can't believe, like, how many people have actually showed up to this thing. But it's great to see such an awesome turnout. Super exciting stuff. So we're gonna sneak back there and we're gonna walk into the exhib, have a lot of the. A lot of the vendors here for the turnout. As you can see, just vendor bonanza all over the place. The excitement is in, a buzz. I think this is one of the biggest events we've seen since COVID Just a huge, huge turnout. This is one of the things that I think the whole bitcoin community, crypto community, everybody is looking forward to. And it has just been an awesome celebration. Everyone's walking around with a smile. You can feel it. You can feel it in your bones. Everybody is glad to be here. I don't think I've seen a sad face all. All afternoon. As you can see, this is kind of the cooler area where people are grabbing drinks, walking around, interacting with vendors, checking things out. It is just an absolutely exciting moment, I think, for bitcoin and crypto. We're going to keep walking around, and we're going to keep taking you to the art exhibit that's going to be in the back here, where they have physical NFTs. As you can see, we have tons of different art exhibits all over the place. People are just kind of cruising through this little area. And in the back here, we have visual arts. We have digital art going to get in the shot. And then we have everything from paintings, murals, sculptures, anything. Over here we have a giant silver platter with bitcoin on it. Absolutely huge stuff. And just. We're going to take you all the way back to our VIP lounge where all the media is, where some of the VIP guests, CEOs founders, you name it, they've all been coming through. We've had a chance to talk to some of them earlier, like Dan Help. I saw John Rice speaking with him. We had Adrian Gradier, the actor who was back here earlier. Tons of other folks. Let's see if we can find anybody. So we're here with Lynn Alden and we're at the Miami bitcoin conference and we're super excited to be here. So how long. When did you get in? And like, what have you been most excited about since you got here?
Two days ago. But yeah, mostly I'm just here for the conference. And it's great seeing all the presentations. I think Jack. Jack Dorsey's recent talk was really interesting. I like that kind of human rights angle the best.
Yeah, definitely. Now, who are you looking forward to seeing? Talk more about bitcoin and kind of the development of where the ecosystem's heading.
I actually want to. I'm looking forward to my talk with Elizabeth Stark. You know, I'm really. Because like most people, like, I basically have all the talkers, like the speakers there. I think she's, you know, she's doing some of the most interesting work because she's kind of the underlying foundation, her company of a lot of these lightning development and the type of things that Jack was talking about. And so I actually want to. Basically, I'm going to ask her some questions on stage.
Excellent. Now, the talk recently has been elon talking about how mining is an issue. Where do you kind of see that evolving and how can that improve in the days, months, weeks ahead for bitcoin?
I think that's something that education over time, I think it's natural for people to push back on things that are, say, false or address things that are true. The way I view it, I don't view the ESG issue as a big concern for them, bitcoin, but I do think that the narrative is a big concern. So I do think it's. It's good to, you know, kind of write about that. And I plan on having an article in the months ahead that kind of talks about energy. I had like a. A brief section on it in an article on it, but I want to have like a full article on that because it seems like it's one of the major topics that you have to write about.
Exactly. It definitely needs more explanation. I think if we can wrangle that narrative, it would make a huge difference for bitcoin. Are you getting into anything fun while you're down here in Miami?
I was at a little party last night, but mostly I'm just. I'm just trying to keep it normal. Yeah, not. Not mostly here on business kind of.
Exactly. Business trips for a lot of folks. But no, I appreciate you taking a few minutes to chat with us. Always good to talk to you.
You too. Thank you.
We look forward to our coverage over the weekend. Stay tuned on all our social media channels and make sure you give us those thumbs ups and retweets. We'll talk to you guys soon.
