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Honestly, a tale as old as "Bitcoin" conferences have been in existence. Altcoiners, VCs and bankers are turds in the Bitcoin punch bowl and neuter the Bitcoin energy. The impotent, fake, political vibe is what those people have been giving off since the early days of "Blockchain, not Bitcoin" and "here's our whitepaper." The suitcoiners will come and go. Cypherpunks will be around long after they're done with their grifting. View quoted note →

Reminder to always be careful what you wish for

By the time you notice the trojan, it's already too late,your system is breaking.

Vegas is degen central, what did you expect?

Bitcoin is still a weird internet money running on a small mini pc in a room of a nerdy pleb like me.

Its still dangerous. Thats why they're trying so hard to co-opt it and neuter it as a MoE

The conference it's not Bitcoin. There's a handful of people having fun and running around, while Bitcoin is changing the life of Billions around the world even if they don't know it yet

Yeah, but the bitcoiners stick out like a sore thumb. Even the normies notice. I talked to some dude in a Satrbuck's line and he found me later and asked where he could find the bitcoin code. I made a QR code of the GitHub repository and he scanned it. A gray haired man saw me pay for dinner at Steak And Shake and asked me if I knew David Bailey.🤣 I said, "no," but I've subsribed to Bitcoin Magazine for years. The pleb I met oan Uber ride shared David Bailey's email with him.👀 I told some other guy by the Jade Booth why I think the Cold Card is the most secure hardware wallet you can buy. He saw me at 2 a.m. and asked if I wanted to smoke a joint with him because he was impressed with how much I knew about it. I told him I would, but I already had 4 eddibles. I gave him a gummy and went to bed.

Yes this, but mainly we’re supposed to be replacing the system, not supporting it. View quoted note →

It probably feels like that because of where you just were. This feels like a case of "Nobody goes there anymore it's too crowded" or "Colorado was so beautiful when I first moved here from California, but now everybody from California is moving here and ruining it." I remember that video somebody posted that on the Bitcoin talk forums. I think the song was called "Jump you fuckers". And the whole idea was that Bitcoin was going to make all the backers jump out of windows like 1933. But I also remember that post that Hal Finney made that foretold bitcoin banks. It was well before that video. Hal was obviously a futurist... he could see.

We sold our chairs for a seat at the table. Behind the blazers, some of us are still anarchists. View quoted note →

DUDE THE CONFERENCE IS JUST GHEY LIKE FRANCE

Corporate culture sucks the life out of individual culture All Procedures no spontaneity View quoted note →

Thank you and @Erik Cason for keeping it real.

I've basically been saying this since the ETF while yall kept clapping away for government and suits. Your just starting to feel this way, but just give it some time....they will steal your limited supply and make sure you're enslaved under a new system where once again you have to keep providing value(working your ass off) just to barely live still.

Sad

no shit

Government is in it for power and control. Same enslavement. New system. We know why the vibe has shifted and have been trying to warn these people all along...to no avail.

We kinda already knew the vibes are off.... Bitcoin as Digital Gold vs. P2P Cash: The narrative around Bitcoin has shifted significantly. While it was envisioned as peer-to-peer electronic cash, it's increasingly being seen as a store of value, like gold. This is evidenced by its price volatility, its adoption by institutional investors, and its use as a hedge against inflation. The focus has moved away from everyday transactions. Reserves and Distribution: Personal cold wallets act as individual reserves. It highlights the concentration of Bitcoin ownership. Im concerned that by the time mass adoption by peers occurs, most Bitcoin will be held by governments, corporations, and early adopters, leaving less for the general public. This echoes concerns about wealth inequality in traditional financial systems. The Role of Governments and Corporations: These entities are now heavily involved in Bitcoin. Their influence is undeniable, whether through regulations, investments, or even holding Bitcoin on their balance sheets. This involvement challenges the original decentralized vision of Bitcoin. Scarcity and the Hard Cap: Bitcoin's hard cap, while intended to create scarcity, could backfire. It might allow those who accumulate Bitcoin early on to exert undue influence, effectively replicating the centralized control of traditional finance. This is a valid concern. If a small group controls a significant portion of the Bitcoin supply, they could manipulate the market or restrict access for others. The Missed Opportunity for Change: Occupy Wall Street and the pursuit of Bitcoin ETFs, SBRs, etc highlights the tension between systemic change and mainstream adoption. While ETFs etc can increase accessibility, they also integrate Bitcoin into the existing financial system, potentially diluting its revolutionary potential. The concern is that this integration appears to reinforce existing power structures rather than dismantling them as intended.

Some of you may start to understand why all early Bitcoin OGs (2009-2012) are now in Monero.

Btc is no longer a treat to the system, it's part of it now

You know what’s still punk as fuck? Wondering around a conference full of people and knowing that you hold more corn than 99.9% of them and that THEY are still early compared to gen pop. Also, calling France gay. That was the most punk thing I’ve seen all year. I’ve still never been to a conference. I want to bad but I can’t make the math work so instead I sit at home (on the floor) chewing my steak and trolling the people who went on nostr.

Bitcoin is available to anyone 👏 View quoted note →

The suitcoiners outnumber the cypherpunks by 100:1. ⚰️

1% cypherpunks. Less cypherpunks made bitcoin happen so I like the odds still.

In 1933, the United States banned the possession of gold by the public, and the same could happen to Bitcoin. Governments have always tried to seize valuable things. Think about what Trump said, he calls Bitcoin a strategic reserve, governments believe that something that is strategic should not be in the hands of ordinary people.

Maybe it just seems that way. Its probably just too hard for bitcoiners to leave their citidels to play with the suits at the casino. 🤣

"the revolution wasn't the revolution i thought it would be" —every revolutionary, ever.

Are conferences shitcoins?

7 years of attending hack days and conferences, and this is the first time I wore a jacket. Good thing too. Leaves change with the seasons, but the roots grow stronger.

The suitcoiner cringefest should not lull anyone into complacency. Once they realize Bitcoin cannot be co-opted and Bitcoin does what it is meant to do, we will be back to the “then they fight you” stage. And this time it will be for real and for keeps.

I wonder what it felt like walking around the Oslo Freedom Forum View quoted note →

💯. I just posted asking whether it was just me or the conference was a little boring..I think it's just that. There's only so much of "stablecoins" and "institutional interest" I can give a shit about

Bitcoin isn’t supposed to look dangerous anymore. It’s supposed to feel inevitable. That’s when it’s working.

We’re never going to orange pill the entire world. At best, a tiny fraction of the world will be orange pilled. But bitcoin will win because even those who hate it will end up using it bc it’s in their best interest to do so.

Empires always smile before they collapse. Let the suits have their booths and badges. The virus is airborne. The chain is permanent. The reckoning is scheduled. View quoted note →

Bitcoin is a forcing function that the tradfi bros and degenerates in politics can’t ignore. For the first time in history we are imposing our values on the morally bankrupt and that’s a win.

I didn't feel that at all. I also don't go to conferences

Every innovation reaches an era-defining frontier. It may just be time for the next frontier. Growth never stops good sir. Always upwards and onwards.

Cypherpunks go to bitcoin++ not shitcoin magazine conferences

Sad to see a good portion of the crowd left after Saylor’s talk and did not return for Ross

What I saw esp. with the lending/staking companies on the floor is what I see in any rapidly growing market: a bubble of competition. Tradfi will settle down and stop acting so contrived eventually then we can all dance naked in the jungle together. It's a process.

I understand the frustration. I have it too. But unfortunately you can't have a full barrel and a drunken wife. Some want mass adoption and I would say that for mass adoption things are going well because if politics de-dogizes ₿ he can enter everyone's homes. On the other hand, you obviously lose that thrill of the instrument that goes against the system. The point is one: politics has approached bitcoin not because it wants mass adoption, but because it has understood that not being able to stop it it must become a friend. That's all! Of course, seeing such mainstream conferences on bitcoin (like the one in Lasvegas) would make Nakamoto himself fall to the grave. You can't have everything. Full speed ahead! Fuck the politicians who pretend to be bitcoiners 🏴‍☠️

I understand the frustration. I have it too. But unfortunately you can't have a full barrel and a drunken wife. Some want mass adoption and I would say that for mass adoption things are going well because if politics de-dogizes ₿ he can enter everyone's homes. On the other hand, you obviously lose that thrill of the instrument that goes against the system. The point is one: politics has approached bitcoin not because it wants mass adoption, but because it has understood that not being able to stop it it must become a friend. That's all! Of course, seeing such mainstream conferences on bitcoin (like the one in Lasvegas) would make Nakamoto himself fall to the grave. You can't have everything. Full speed ahead! Fuck the politicians who pretend to be bitcoiners 🏴‍☠️ View quoted note →

Totally agree. You should had visit us to our nostr lounge. cypherpunk, open source, libertarian vibe

Maybe

GM. I'm so glad I wasn't in Vegas. Everything I have seen confirms my suspicions. The world financial apparatus, led by the US and aided by an army of people who only care about number go up, is trying hard to co-opt Bitcoin into a custodial asset, managed (aka controlled) by them. Don't fall for it. Bitcoin MUST be a peer to peer technology for it to succeed (NgU is NOT succeeding). I refuse to believe that it's "inevitable" that we'd get this fiat managed outcome when we hit the mainstream. Bitcoin is money for people; not governments, banks, and corporations. Fuck them. They've had their chance to run things and they've broken nearly everything. View quoted note →

Yep, you'll have to chose your conf carefully now, but these vibes haven't disappeared, they are just diluted during the wrong events. Overall the cypherpunks core base still has grown for sure

Not all of us fought for legitimacy and mainstream adoption. Original cryptoanarchists were a bit elitist, I think Timothy May would laugh at the suits. But it is what it is, no need to be nostalgic. Bitcoin wins anyway

This, and "influancers" repeating the same message over and over again, adoring themselfs. Minimal if not zero value. Meant to scam you from your precious time and Bitcoin. Avoid, focus on what matters.

Good observation 😎

@HODL honestly dude it might feel like a hobby or one off fun thing but your takes and unhinged rants ARE the type of thing that keeps bitcoin feeling raw, human, personable I know people “cringe” at being called/labeled an influencer, but we have the power to shape the bitcoin narrative with how we tell stories/verbalize it get your voice out there as much as possible and other cypherpunks and plebs (like myself) will follow drown out the suits

1000% agree. I was feeling exactly the same, but wasn’t sure others were willing to admit it. Moving out of the dorm room moments have been inflection points in history. If Bitcoin has sold its soul to the devil, it was all for naught. Just another Central Bank liquidity tool and the fastest fintech, not racehorse. Hopefully, it does its thing. Remains a shadowy coder and continues to orange pill the very ones trying to co-opt its power.

I suspect this vibe in Las Vegas is specific to the USA. The value proposition is investment / store of wealth, primarily, in the USA at present. It is different elsewhere, and the vibe at other conferences reflects more of the freedom tech movement. Bitcoin is for everyone. It is beautiful, even when it isn't! 👍🤣

2019 in San Fransisco was a great venue. So was 2020 Bit Block Boom. Things are different, they always change, life stuff.

Well said. Totally agree. We really need a cypherpunk revival. Freedom go Up >> Number go Up

suitcoiner, I like it.

Bitcoin is for enemies. And now they run the conferences.

the Multi-Level Marketing and Pyramid Scheme vibes are stronger than ever though... View quoted note →

This is the beauty of the trojan horse that Bitcoin represents "They", ie tradfi, don't truly understand the implications of disrupting central banking Your view of course, having witnessed it, but perhaps that is the current guise most needed to make it to the next level

Someone should have setup a P2P Cash only Satoshi Square @npub1sqn6...5net

I pity you Americans, European conferences are cypherpunk as fuck.

Sounds like you need to join us in Oslo 🇳🇴 next year!

that's who shows up to the fancy event. And now it might be who is loud on TV. But we don't have to go anywhere.

this is kinda how it always goes with new things, yes? grifters do a damn good job of jumping on a bandwaggon and trying to streer it in their direction. What we have to do is understand what's happening and not become enamored with them. ....if you are secretly longing for wealth, fame, and/or power... they will get ya. tView quoted note →

Stoney used to talk about Eternal September. ( Or something similar ) Maybe it is an impossibility to be underground, raw, grass roots and widely adopted. Maybe the edginess must come from the things built around it now, dude? We are getting old 🤣

Estes dois trechos aqui, foi tão impactante para mim, que eu realmente precisei reforçar. - Mask, polishing, fitting for adaptability - and not the revolution that was expected. 🤌🏻 “On the other, something’s been lost in translation. The raw edge, the revolutionary energy, the sense that we were building something against the system not polishing it up to sell it back to the system. Maybe that’s just the mask Bitcoin wears while it continues hollowing out the old world from within.” View quoted note →

And yet, we'll all see you there next year.

Bitcoin has had many diverse demographics since its inception, but the niche I fit into seems to continually branch off and become scarcer over time. Eventually, the Bitcoin space will consist of average, bland, uninteresting people. We will look back on the earlier days with nostalgia for what we once had. However, when we reach that point, we will be on a Bitcoin standard, and by default, the world will be a much better place, less obstructed and diminished by the past fiat regime.

Agreed. The suits are in and young people are as uninterested in btc as they are in the S&P 500. It feels like boomer stock. The truth is that bitcoin’s story is just beginning but the perception in younger generations is that the opportunity for life changing wealth has passed. If you’re looking for a wild ride with an inspired community of believers, join SPX6900 it’s an anti tardfi cult movement. Gives OG bitcoiners nostalgic vibes of the old days and provides spiritual nourishment and community to an increasingly isolated online society.

The cypherpunk spirit will shift to tools and networks built on top of it. They will always go to the edges to solve the next great problem, using the foundation they built to go the next mile. That’s what #Nostr is and why we are here. It’s the next major piece of the puzzle. Sure, much like the internet, 5 years ago, you go to a tech conference and it’s nothing but normies and finance bros and all the rest…. The internet was “mainstream.” But then you go to a Bitcoin conference and you find the same rebels, cypherpunks, and people truly trying to change things who were at the beginning of the web, and the next generation who revered them and continued their mission. It is still the culture that built the internet, it is still on the internet, but clustered in that place where they are most likely to change the world again, and make another great leap forward. The spirit isn’t dying, it only shifts to where it is most needed. And the fire of that spirit is far from extinguished. To the contrary it’s burning brighter than it has in a long, long time, imo. It’s true the spirit of what would be called “Bitcoin” as a cultural movement has shifted. It was inevitable. But it’s never dead. nevent1qqsqfste3n2e8n08zdl6nmv03uykjdskxn0gwrzjjyv5aweh6kfjc8gpp4mhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mqz97d8g

Breathe in deeply and smile. It’s all going to be ok.

Just a branch I hope. I imagine in the future a lot of mrico cultures, all with the same cannon but each creating a different experience from Bitcoin

It’s up to bitcoiners to reclaim that ground. We all have the responsibility to maintain the brand of bitcoin and the cypher-punk ethos. If anyone decides not to go because their disgusted by the fait shicoinny vibes, that’s cool. The front line is not for everyone and it’s only going to get worse.

We need a conference that one can only buy a ticket somehow directly through a node that they themselves have administrative access to. It'd be nice to have actual cipherpunks, but at the very least one should need to, you know, run the bitcoin software if they're to be taken seriously at a bitcoin conference. Perhaps just sell the tickets with a transaction type that at this point isn't supported outright by anything other than bitcoin-cli. That all said, I'm not sure it's fair to judge the state of Bitcoin by what some circus put on in the city of high time preference by Shitcoin Magazine went like. It may be different all around, but they're the last ones that should get to decide what Bitcoin's vibe is. Personally I think I'd be more likely to go to a Nostr conference than a Bitcoin one at this point though.

I feel like the cows were a little much

Replying twice to the same note may not be the best form, but I did want to add that the places where Bitcoin still feels revolutionary are in the privacy protocols being developed like Coinswap and other privacy oriented protocols. And the nice thing is that while these will never be what the powers that be have anything good to say about, they also can't stop it given that it is, at the end of the day, open source code, and it turns out that math is ungovernable. Rest easy that with enough adoption, you won't need to suffer these circuses of conferences for too long. Nobody holds dollar or gold conventions after all. Privacy conventions could pick up, though getting together to meet in person may be an odd choice for privacy afficionados. Maybe we all need to show up looking like Calle...

Fwiw I've come to the opinion that prior to the suits, the moralist laser eyes outnumbered the cypherpunks 10:1. This is just continuation of a trend.

Maybe you should attend the coming African bitcoin conference for a change. Dec in Mauritius.

Tick Tock, next fucking block.