[ad_1]
On behalf of Nelson Mullins, I joined over 12,000 attendees around the world at the 2021 sold-out Bitcoin conference in Miami, a crypto city. Bitcoin luminaries including MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor, Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey, and many others addressed a Crowded conference in Miami’s artsy Wynwood district.
The large number of attendees confirmed the conference’s overall message of the increasing strength and growth of the Bitcoin network. This year’s conference was six times the size of the last Bitcoin conference which hosted 2,000 Bitcoin enthusiasts in 2019. While Bitcoin started out from a small group of cypherpunks just over a decade ago , a growing industry that helps people and institutions acquire, hold, transfer, and trade Bitcoin, as well as other crypto assets, was well represented and spoke volumes about the growing user base. most common of Bitcoin.
Although Bitcoin and its supporters are gradually becoming dominant, the Bitcoin community has not strayed from its anti-authoritarian and pro-civil liberties roots. In this regard, former Rep. Ron Paul and other speakers rallied against central banks, uncontrolled printing of money and attacks on free speech, privacy and property rights. Pro skateboarder Tony Hawk has told his own compelling story of bringing the skateboarding counterculture into the mainstream while staying true to his craft. As the Bitcoin network continues to expand its base, the speakers and the enthusiastic public response to them showed that the Bitcoin community remains firmly committed to its founding values rooted in personal sovereignty and economic freedom.
In keeping with the growth of the Bitcoin network, another theme of the conference was that Bitcoin is for the billions, not just for billionaires. While much of the innovation and adoption in the Bitcoin industry comes from the United States, this crypto asset gives billions of unbanked people in struggling economies around the world the ability to store and to send value anywhere in the world without censorship or exorbitant transfer fees. Indeed, for those in troubled countries that are forced to use fiat currencies degraded by the unpredictable whims of corrupt regimes, the ability to store, send and receive value in an easily transferable digital bearer asset with a fixed offer that can neither be censored nor confiscated can be lifesaving.
Jack Dorsey highlighted this humanitarian case for Bitcoin during his appearance. He has set an ambitious goal for his company Square to make Bitcoin the native currency of the Internet. To help achieve this goal, Dorsey and other panelists, including Paxful CEO Ray Youssef, highlighted their work to encourage the adoption of Bitcoin in Africa and other developing regions of the world. Dorsey also touched on the scrutiny of Bitcoin’s energy use by noting that it actually incentivizes the use of renewable, stranded, or otherwise wasted energy. A protest against censorship during Dorsey’s talk drew a lot of media attention. But the real message from Dorsey’s address was that making Bitcoin easily accessible, especially to unbanked people, is the most important job of her life.
The end of the conference further reinforced the message of the global adoption of Bitcoin, especially in developing countries, when the President of El Salvador announced legislation to make Bitcoin legal tender in his country of 6, 4 million. Under this legislation, El Salvador would also keep Bitcoin on its balance sheet. If this legislation is passed as planned, El Salvador would become the first country on the planet to officially accept Bitcoin in this way. While 2021 has already seen a wave of institutional adoption of Bitcoin, the second half of this year could indeed also see formal adoption by governments. Miami Mayor Suarez also confirmed his continued efforts to have his city accept Bitcoin and offer its employees in-asset payments. With the prospect of imminent government adoption and institutional adoption underway, the Bitcoin network is becoming stronger than ever.
Bitcoin’s energy consumption also sparked a lot of discussion at the conference. Kevin O’Leary, best known for his appearances on CNBC’s Shark Tank, moderated an in-depth session with CEOs of publicly traded Bitcoin miners. O’Leary explained how institutions are reluctant to invest in Bitcoin due to resistance from environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) committees. While O’Leary urged the CEOs of miners to come up with a solution to this problem, there were no simple answers. One idea, which met with loud rejection from the crowd, was to create a separate classification and pricing structure for Bitcoins that have been sustainably mined. However, the majority of the 21 million Bitcoin ever created has already been mined, and one mining CEO was skeptical that companies would actually pay a premium for Bitcoins with sustainability credentials. Like all new technologies, including agriculture, industrialization, and the internet, crypto assets like Bitcoin have increased humanity’s energy consumption. Convincing institutions that Bitcoin’s new technology encourages the use of renewable energy and presents a more energy-efficient financial structure than traditional banks remains a challenge.
Bitcoin micropayments and layer two solutions like the Lightning Network were other conference topics. The Lightning Network promises to securely process Bitcoin transactions in fractions of a second off the main Bitcoin blockchain without the higher miner fees and longer processing times required by the main Bitcoin blockchain. Instead of being denominated in fractions of Bitcoin, micropayments are denominated in Satoshis or “Sats,” which each represent one hundred millionth (.00000001) of an entire Bitcoin. As the Lightning Network matures, micropayments are no longer impossible and can be integrated with a variety of applications, including social media and games. For example, the conference had an E-Sports arena where players competed to earn “Sats” sent over the Lightning Network. The growing incorporation of crypto assets like Bitcoin into electronic games and social media will continue to be a major trend. As this happens and micropayments become more common, expect to learn more about the price of Bitcoin transactions denominated in “Sats”.
You can’t discuss all of the exciting developments in Bitcoin and other crypto assets without addressing regulations and regulators. Appearances by US Senator Cynthia Lummis (Wyoming), Representative Warren Davidson (Ohio), former USFTC President Chris Giancarlo, Mayor Francis Suarez and Miami Dade County Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins , have all addressed this important subject. These panelists expressed support for the idea that Bitcoin and governments can coexist. Because of the speed with which blockchain technology is evolving, it is crucial that lawmakers and regulators are aware of the technology. Importantly, both Senator Lummis and Representative Davidson asserted that the current efforts of lawmakers in Washington to understand and appropriately regulate crypto assets like Bitcoin are bipartisan.
All new technologies pose challenges for mainstream adoption and the Bitcoin blockchain is no exception. Millions and possibly billions of people around the world will embrace Bitcoin as cell phone wallets and asset-friendly payment and custody apps become ubiquitous. Technologically savvy businesses are looking to interact with this asset, but may also need to meet a litany of Know Your Customer (KYC), Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Bank Secrecy Act regulations, ESG issues, securities regulation and tax issues.
[ad_2]
picture credit