The Largest Event in Crypto History: Bitcoin Miami 2021 — The Finale

Welcome to Bitcoin Miami Day 2. If you want to talk about lightning in a bottle, it is here today. Welcome to day two of Miami Bitcoin Conference. I'm your boy Benton with Cointelegraph. As you can see behind, we have one of the many, many viewing stages here at the conference with a little skate ramp in the back. So who knows may see Tony Hawk doing some tricks today. We have tons of other. There's other recording booths where you can watch and view some of the. Some of the speakers on stage here today. And behind me here is a sacking SATS stage, and we have other stages here on the campus, as you can see. Let's take a look. This is where all the other side shows happened. There's been a couple other people and speakers talking on the stage today, but this is a quick tour so you can see what's going on here on the campus. Mr. Tim Draper here for Cointelegraph. How is everything going so far?

Oh, it's going great. What an amazing conference. I love being in the free country of Miami.

Absolutely love it.

Places just hopping. 60,000 people came, all these bitcoiners, and they're. They're kind of going, yeah, we're. This is the beginning of a major, major wave.

You guys are here at the bitcoin conference. You got tickets for today's event. How much did you guys pay for tickets today?

Well, I have the whale pass, and my investor paid it for me, so I heard it ranges from about 1400 to 14K.

Wow, that's pretty lofty price for a ticket. Was it worth it for the whale Pass, though?

I'll be honest. Probably not, but really, it's kind of like a status symbol here. People kind of know who they want to talk to so that their target is more clear.

What kind of pass did you get for the conference itself?

What kind of pass? I got the regular pass.

The regular pass. Was it worth it for that?

Oh, yeah. I was telling him I cashed out Ethereum at all time high, and I bought this.

Where are you coming from?

Wisconsin.

All right. What do you love about bitcoin? So much Freedom. Who are you most excited about seeing Speak this weekend?

Saw Ron Paul a little bit ago. That was special.

Really? What was so special about it?

Well, I think he's the reason a lot of people got bitcoin in the first place. You know, like, got it right. Ron Paul is like an early microdose of bitcoin. It's an early microdose dose of the orange pill.

What do you guys love about bitcoin.

That it's not controlled, freedom, decentralized and anti inflation?

What are you guys going to get into while you guys are down here?

Oh, the after party.

Where are you guys going?

The bitcoin one.

We're going to the bitcoin one.

We need to find another party though.

I don't know.

We're still. We just flew in from Philadelphia.

We got at like 2 in the.

Morning, so we're just getting going. We're ready to get the party started and go bitcoin.

What was your biggest takeaway from today?

Really just knowing that there's so many other people here that are kind of like minded, you know what I mean? And people that are way larger galaxy brain even than I could ever think about being here. It's just cool to kind of, you know, feed off of their energy and just see what's possible, man.

All right, so day two, inside the conference. I'm here in the vendors area. Not as crowded as day one, I have to say. Day two, a little less packed, a lot of walking space, but you can see tons of deals are being made with the vendors. People are stopping by, they're interacting and looks like everyone's still having a great time even though it's not as busy. I think there's going to be a lot of people inside the stage rooms listening in on more of the talks today. Day one, there was definitely a lot more traffic here in the vendors alley. It's just not as busy. But I don't think that's a problem because a lot of these vendors I've talked to today said they're making deals left and right. A lot of people are interested and this is a great place to do business if you're loving bitcoin and you're in the crypto industry.

Hey, everyone, it's Rachel here at Bitcoin 2021. Today I've got a very special guest with me, Isaiah Jackson. He is the author of Bitcoin and Black America. Hey, Isaiah, how's it going?

Going great. Glad to be here. So much energy in the space, so love to.

Right. What do you think of the conference so far?

I love the energy. I love the speakers. Ron Paul was awesome. Got to catch him. Of course, you know, it was a line outside, so it's whatever. But it just shows you how far bitcoin has come. I mean, it's amazing to see this many people and how much impact it's having.

And you wrote Bitcoin in Black America. Can you tell us a little bit about that book. What it, you know, if people haven't read it already, what it discusses, what your goal was there.

Yes. So Bitcoin in Black America, a book written in 2019. It basically discusses the synergy between the black community and bitcoin as far as economically having group economics, being able to work together to build a better money system. And I just point out what's currently wrong with our financial system and give an alternative. And I think our community needs to hear it. Every community does. And I think by doing that it was able to bring, I think this is the most black people at any bitcoin conference ever. And I think that helped with that, with the book and with some of the stuff we've done. And we need it to be because if it's going to be mainstream, we all need to know about it.

Right.

So that's where the book came from. I'm glad it's getting good reception and helping people change their life.

Do you have any thoughts on the market? I mean some people are freaking out. I'm a hodler, so I'm not freaking out. But some people probably are. What is your advice and what are your, what are your thoughts on the market right now?

So holding of course is my advice. But don't freak out for a 12 year old market. I mean we've only been here 12 years and in my opinion because of bitcoin scarcity, it only has to go up and most cryptocurrencies will follow as well. So holding not being scared out of the market because if you look every time there's a big sell off, who's buying big money people, they understand where we're headed. So not being scared, staying, having diamond hands, holding long term. I've been holding since 2013 through all the bear markets. Doesn't matter. Hold it long term because it's a scarce asset and you want to have some.

Welcome to the esports arena here at the Miami bitcoin conference. We have a lot of stuff going on here. There's been gaming tournaments. You can step in, you can do some free racing, you can even take a nap. Over here they have arcade games, pinball machines. Let's take a look at what they got. Over here they have a VR nap pod.

Look at that.

That looks quite relaxing. You've been walking around all day. Guess what? Now you can take a nap inside the esports arena.

I know all the answers and you.

See all the arcade games right over here. This is the esports arena where it's all going down at the Bitcoin Conference 2021.

Hi, I'm Andrew Thurman. I'm the weekend editor at Cointelegraph. Talking here with Sam Bankman Fry, better known as FBS illustrious shitposter, also happens to own a couple companies. First off, congrats on the TSM ftx.

Thanks. It's been super exciting working with them.

Yeah, I love the. Love the jersey. The new swag is cool.

Oh, yeah. No, that even has the logo or my name on the back.

Yeah, yeah. I guess they're probably not going to be calling you up to participate in any matches anytime soon.

I hope not. Yeah. If so, I think we got to choose a new team because they will fall on. On pretty dire straits, right?

The.

The bench is deep enough. They don't need you.

I think that's right.

Crypto has a very interesting story. Where does FTX fit into that story? How are you considering telling the story of crypto and getting people captivated?

Yeah, I mean, I think in terms of, like, our story within crypto, you know, we were the latest player to the game of the major exchange. We were not early. And that's credit to the people who were who, you know, who were there. I mean, I was, you know, back when. When, you know, Brian and Sisi and others were starting crypto exchanges. I was playing League of Legends in college, and so I, you know, I could have started a crypto exchange then and dicked around and said. And so, you know, on the flip side, I think we've built a great product and I think that we were leading the space in terms of innovation and in terms of being able to think about what things should look like.

All right, so I'm here at the bar, and guess what? You can even buy your drinks here at the conference with Bitcoin. Do you guys know how do we pay with bitcoin? How can you pay? How can we pay with bitcoin? Here you can pay with bitcoin.

We have a terminal that pays with the crypto.

How does that work, though? Are we. Is it with a wallet when we're paying with bitcoin? What does that look like?

So what it is, is we have a tablet. We go inside to the tablet, pull it up, it's a URL code.

Okay.

And then the people who are doing have a choice between either on CH lightning and then they hold it over. Transaction complete, Move on.

Excellent. Well, that's great to hear. Bitcoin's being accepted here. Thank you for your time. That's right. Excellent. Thank you, guys. All right, folks, we had an awesome day two here. We've been able to talk to so many people. We want to thank all of our viewers for tuning in for day two at the Miami Bitcoin Conference. It has been an absolute blast and we appreciate you tuning in. Make sure you tune in for also all of our videos that we're going to be dropping for for post release after the conference gets done. Thanks a lot.