Luc Smits van Oyen
Highlights of the 2021 Bitcoin conference in Miami
On Friday, June 4, one of the biggest Bitcoin event of the year, Bitcoin 2021, was held in Miami. The event drew about 12,000 people to Miami and thousands more watched the event online. It was also the first major in-person business conference since the pandemic took over the world.
High-profile public speakers, crypto experts, industry leaders and Internet celebrities, including professional boxer Floyd Mayweather, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, all attended this tech gathering.
Initially, some 50,000 people were expected to attend, spread over 2 days in Los Angeles from April 30 to May 1, but the event was rescheduled and moved to Miami on June 4 and 5 due to concerns about California's strict Covid-19 policy.
Still, even with a lot fewer people, the event proved to be a huge success with a line nearly a mile long outside the Mana Convention Center, a hub for technology, innovation and the arts. Also, staggering amounts of $400 to as much as $1,500 were put down for this 2-day event. So expectations were very high.
Here are the most notable moments from the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami:
In a video broadcast to Bitcoin Miami, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said that he plans to make the country the first in the world to use Bitcoin as a legal tender, together with the payment platform Strike, the financial infrastructure will be built using Bitcoin technology.
El Salvador will be the first country in the world to make this choice and the question is how long it will take for others to follow!
In this article you can read all the details about this.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez spoke at Bitcoin 2021. He has gained notoriety in the crypto community for his pro-Bitcoin stance and incentives to encourage the adoption of digital assets in the city.
Suarez said he wants to make Miami the bitcoin, blockchain and mining capital of the world. "We are taking the Miami Movement to 'the moon,'" Suarez told attendees. In February, Suarez said Miami city employees could be paid their salaries in Bitcoin instead of USD if they wanted. He also said he was considering funding his re-election campaign in BTC.
"The crypto market is still too immature Elon proves it, this guy confirms it," tweeted Tim Brooks
Saylor is the man who persuaded Elon Musk to invest billions of Tesla's dollars in Bitcoin and invested more than $2.24 billion in Bitcoin himself with his company. MicroStrategy, a Nasdaq-listed business intelligence company, owns more than 92,000 Bitcoin at an average price of about $24,000 per coin. Saylor has remained bullish on Bitcoin even as it showed signs of peaking and slowing. He asked investors to sell all their earthly possessions and buy Bitcoin.
"We say Bitcoin is hope," Saylor said at Bitcoin Miami 2021. "Bitcoin solves everything...that was certainly the case with our stock.... it has breathed life into the company...morale got a dramatic boost. We just had the best first quarter in a decade."
"The people I spoke with were keen on the fact that Black America has missed previous technology booms and told me they are here to make sure it doesn't happen again," Peck said. "There were occasional nods to higher goals like banking people without banks, which is a huge problem for black Americans. But I think most people see a moment of rapid redistribution of wealth and, of course, they want their ticket before prices go up. That's how most people end up in this crazy place".
High-profile public speakers, crypto experts, industry leaders and Internet celebrities, including professional boxer Floyd Mayweather, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, all attended this tech gathering.
Initially, some 50,000 people were expected to attend, spread over 2 days in Los Angeles from April 30 to May 1, but the event was rescheduled and moved to Miami on June 4 and 5 due to concerns about California's strict Covid-19 policy.
Still, even with a lot fewer people, the event proved to be a huge success with a line nearly a mile long outside the Mana Convention Center, a hub for technology, innovation and the arts. Also, staggering amounts of $400 to as much as $1,500 were put down for this 2-day event. So expectations were very high.
Here are the most notable moments from the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami:
President of El Salvador has plans to make Bitcoin a legal tender
To kick off right away with perhaps the biggest news coming from this event:In a video broadcast to Bitcoin Miami, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said that he plans to make the country the first in the world to use Bitcoin as a legal tender, together with the payment platform Strike, the financial infrastructure will be built using Bitcoin technology.
El Salvador will be the first country in the world to make this choice and the question is how long it will take for others to follow!
In this article you can read all the details about this.
Miami mayor tries to attract crypto crowd and make Miami a hub for tech and crypto
Miami ranks #1 in the US for startup density, according to a Kauffman Foundation report. Blockchain.com is the latest tech company to move its headquarters to South Florida. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez made the announcement at a news conference on Thursday prior to the 2021 Bitcoin Conference, NBCMiami reported.Miami Mayor Francis Suarez spoke at Bitcoin 2021. He has gained notoriety in the crypto community for his pro-Bitcoin stance and incentives to encourage the adoption of digital assets in the city.
Suarez said he wants to make Miami the bitcoin, blockchain and mining capital of the world. "We are taking the Miami Movement to 'the moon,'" Suarez told attendees. In February, Suarez said Miami city employees could be paid their salaries in Bitcoin instead of USD if they wanted. He also said he was considering funding his re-election campaign in BTC.
A Dogecoin investor disrupts the conference and shouts 'Dogecoin to the moon'
Whether it was a highlight, or more something regrettable, or just laughable we'll leave it to you, but on the second day of the conference a man jumped on stage at Bitcoin Miami 2021 and ripped open his suit to reveal a giant Shiba Inu head on a T-shirt - the logo for Dogecoin. "Dogecoin to the moon," he shouted before being escorted off the stage. Decrypt cited the incident as one of the five weirdest moments at the Bitcoin Miami conference."The crypto market is still too immature Elon proves it, this guy confirms it," tweeted Tim Brooks
Michael Saylor claimed that "Bitcoin solves everything"
Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy, discussed why he is so positive about Bitcoin, how he got into the business and his thoughts on the environment, society and governance.Saylor is the man who persuaded Elon Musk to invest billions of Tesla's dollars in Bitcoin and invested more than $2.24 billion in Bitcoin himself with his company. MicroStrategy, a Nasdaq-listed business intelligence company, owns more than 92,000 Bitcoin at an average price of about $24,000 per coin. Saylor has remained bullish on Bitcoin even as it showed signs of peaking and slowing. He asked investors to sell all their earthly possessions and buy Bitcoin.
"We say Bitcoin is hope," Saylor said at Bitcoin Miami 2021. "Bitcoin solves everything...that was certainly the case with our stock.... it has breathed life into the company...morale got a dramatic boost. We just had the best first quarter in a decade."
Varied attendance is "a huge change" from previous Bitcoin conferences
Morgen Peck, a technology journalist who wrote some of the first articles on Bitcoin, told The Moguldom Nation that the amount of "black" representation at Bitcoin Miami 2021 was "a huge change" from previous conferences she has attended in the U.S."The people I spoke with were keen on the fact that Black America has missed previous technology booms and told me they are here to make sure it doesn't happen again," Peck said. "There were occasional nods to higher goals like banking people without banks, which is a huge problem for black Americans. But I think most people see a moment of rapid redistribution of wealth and, of course, they want their ticket before prices go up. That's how most people end up in this crazy place".