Bitcoin Conference 2022 - Suits and Plebs
Opinion: Bitcoin – A currency to the people, an asset to the suits
“You do not sell your Bitcoin!” blared Michael Saylor to the crowd’s roar. Along with Cathie Wood, Saylor presented “The Future is Bright” at Bitcoin 2022, the annual Bitcoin Conference hosted in Miami, Florida. Walking around the Miami Beach Convention Center, it felt like Bitcoin had arrived, and 25,000 plus attendees were there for the coming-out party. Or was it just another victory lap for the king of cryptocurrencies?
The Suits
At one point in the presentation, Michael Saylor referred to Bitcoin as a crypto asset instead of a cryptocurrency. Mr. Saylor has argued in the past that Bitcoin is not a currency and that the whole western world has decided it’s an asset. He is not alone—many of the suits framed Bitcoin as more of an asset than a currency.
On Industry Day, Kevin O’Leary, a.k.a. Mr. Wonderful, dressed in a black suit and tie, started his Keynote proclaiming that “massive pools of capital, trillion-dollar pools,” own no Bitcoin. He blamed the lack of investment on much needed policy and provided an update on different “vectors” that need addressing. He added that with a clear policy, stable coins backed by the dollar would become the “reserve currency of the earth.”
To Mr. O’Leary, Bitcoin is just another asset the industry needs to allocate for and turn a profit. Before wrapping up his speech, Mr. Wonderful added, “If you are an advocate like I am because its software, its property, and maybe it’s a currency, you want regulation.”
The more suits spoke, the more the message was the same. Their focus seemed to be around defining Bitcoin as an asset through some key themes:
Regulation, Policy, Legality – Senator Lummis reaffirmed that Bitcoin is a commodity (another word for an asset) during her Keynote at Bitcoin 2022. Senator Lummis and Senator from New York Kirsten Gillibrand are working on The Responsible Financial Innovation Act to lay down the “rules of the road” in the crypto industry. The bill will include definitions, privacy components, consumer protection components, taxation components, risk parameters, and defines the appropriate oversight government agencies. The goal of the legislation is to allow innovation without roadblocks.
The US Constitution & Bitcoin - Bitcoin 2022
Portfolio Allocation – In the presentation of Billionaire Capital Allocators, Greg Foss asks a panel of billionaires about the 60/40 portfolio allocation and Bitcoin becoming the “Global Reserve Asset.” Bitcoin is just another asset in their collection for these billionaire investors, like gold, Ethereum, or oil and gas. To them, it was all about preserving their wealth and value.
Bitcoin: An Institutional Asset - Bitcoin 2022
BTC vs. ESG – Peter Thiel’s Keynote labeled “the real enemy – ESG” and added that “ESG is just a hate factory, a factory for naming enemies.” His screen read BTC vs. ESG as he said, “When you think ESG, you should think CCP,” a line that got a roar from the crowd. Mr. Thiel believes that the goal of ESG is to give control to Washington and Wall Street around what industries and companies are good, like the way the CCP runs China.
Kevin O'Leary Keynote - Bitcoin 2022
The Plebs
However, the suits weren’t the only ones represented at Bitcoin 2022. Many plebs advocated for Bitcoin as a currency like Satoshi originally intended with a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. To many, Bitcoin has become their only currency option, and the framing of “asset only” or “asset first” is contrary to the actual value and use case these Bitcoiners believe in.
The presentation Bitcoin is Freedom was one of the conference’s highlights, hosted by Alex Gladstein of the Human Rights Foundation. The video, “It’s time to check your financial privilege,” highlights the difference between the west seeing Bitcoin as an asset and the East seeing Bitcoin as survival. The panel then goes into their experiences with people in power and the control of money. Asia, Africa, and the middle east are entirely different parts of the world, but all with the same sad story. The people in power control the movement and value of money. If there is only one presentation you watch from this conference, this is it.
One of the more passionate discussions on currency independence came during the Wartime Bitcoin presentation. Francis Pouliot didn’t mince words when he told the audience he got into Bitcoin to “bring an end to the era of central banking.” He went on to add that “Democracy has failed, and we will not vote our way out of this” and that “Bitcoin is our only option.” To this panel, Bitcoin does not belong to governments and countries, it belongs to the people, and they fear no regulation.
The highlight announcement once again came from Strike CEO Jack Mallers, who last year shocked the world by announcing El Salvador making Bitcoin legal tender. This year Jack’s big announcement was the integration of the Lightning Network as a payment network to current legacy systems.
Payment networks have not innovated in over 50 years; that’s insane! - Jack Mallers.
With this advancement, Jack secured partnerships with Shopify and NCR, the world’s most prominent point of sale supplier. Bitcoin will now be accepted in many major retailers in the United States. Mallers emphasized you could use any wallet over any server to complete transactions, allowing you privacy—another win for the plebs who want control of their money.
Bitcoiners are helping plebs all over the world! Presentations on Rolling Out Bitcoin In El Salvador and Bitcoin In Africa: Fode Diop Keynote highlight how Bitcoin can become a total circular economy. This is only the beginning, as the lightning network is being adopted rapidly worldwide, bringing Bitcoin and nearly free transaction costs along with it.
Control the Narrative
There are clearly different narratives being pushed regarding Bitcoin’s place in the financial world. Is it an asset, a currency, or both? I guess it depends on the perspective. As I left Bitcoin 2022, it was clear that this would be an ongoing theme for years to come.
The suits are hoping for a smooth transition from dollars to Bitcoin. For them, a perfect world consists of a US Dollar stable coin as the reserve currency and Bitcoin as the world’s reserve asset. They would hate for the dollar to become worthless before moving it into Bitcoin. If hyperbitcoinization happens too quickly, suits will be left holding the bag.
For the suits, it is also advantageous to keep dollars as currency to pay wages. Because of inflation, wages can be suppressed lower than the actual value of time and labor. Fred Thiel stated during the conference that the worse is yet to come with inflation, and wages won’t keep up.
Because of this, Bitcoin has become a necessity for the masses. There is no trust or reliance on the institutions the suits look to for guidance, so it’s Bitcoin or bust for the plebs. This group does not believe in asking for permission to transact on a permissionless system. Instead, it is seen as their God-given right, and they will do anything possible to increase adoption at the peer-to-peer level. With Jack Mallers at Square and Jack Dorsey at Block, the plebs have a fighting chance at having worldwide currency adoption.
As for me, I look at it from a worker’s perspective. Bitcoin cannot be inflated away, so I will only accept a salary in Bitcoin for my time and labor. To accomplish this, Bitcoin must be treated as a currency, and I believe there will be a movement to push this forward. Ultimately the will of the people will prevail, and Bitcoin will be a currency. I believe it to be a matter of when not if.
Off to a great start! Haters gonna hate😅 nice write up and enjoyed meeting you at #Bitcoinmiami2022. Keep writing!
We don’t need ur shit writing for Bitcoin to succeed further. It’s already successful. We don’t need weirdos like you thinking u don’t need to work because you can just be a shit writer shitting out garbage waiting for moon