Highlights from Bitcoin 2021, the largest bitcoin event in history
Our Founder and CEO, Adam O’Brien, shares his top four moments from Bitcoin 2021
Earlier this month, some of our teammates flew to Miami to attend Bitcoin 2021, the largest bitcoin event ever. From the speakers to the special events, it was an incredible conference. And let’s be honest, after more than a year of social distancing, it was amazing to see so many humans in person!
We asked our founder and CEO, Adam O’Brien, to share his top four moments from Bitcoin 2021. In his words, here they are:
1. The ATM Operator dinner
At Bitcoin Well, we’re passionate about using bitcoin ATMs to make cryptocurrency accessible to everyone, so having 60 percent of the world’s bitcoin ATM operators in the same room for the first time in history was a definite highlight. We ate at Chica Miami and, aside from enjoying the great food, our team loved meeting other people in our niche of the industry and discussing growth plans, including acquisitions and mergers.
As the oldest standing bitcoin ATM company in Canada, we wanted to do something special for everyone there. Surprising them with a RISE gift card did the trick and was a fun moment we won’t forget.
2. The Saifedean Carnivore Dinner
The Saifedean Carnivore Dinner more than delivered. Not only was the steak at Smith & Wollesnky phenomenal, but we received advance copies of Saifedean Ammous’s newest book, The Fiat Standard. In a room full of more than one hundred bitcoiners, we had the pleasure of sitting with two other publicly traded companies, Netcoins and BitFarms. And with the mayor of Miami in attendance, we’re bullish on the city’s prospects!
3. The Jack Mallers Announcement
We were all excited to hear Jack Mallers, founder of Lightning Network payments platform Strike, speak about countries and bitcoin — and for good reason. Mallers, along with the president of El Salvador, announced that El Salvador was about to become the first country in the world to recognize bitcoin as legal tender.
“Over 70% of the active population of El Salvador doesn’t have a bank account. They’re not in the financial system,” said Mallers. “They asked me to help write a plan and that they viewed bitcoin as a world-class currency and that we needed to put together a Bitcoin plan to help these people.”
Since the conference, El Salvador has passed the bill to recognize bitcoin as legal tender and the country is adding bitcoin to their balance sheet reserves.
Needless to say, I’m thrilled. This is El Salvador’s first step to becoming a sovereign nation. It also shows the rest of the world that bitcoin isn’t scary and, when it’s accepted as the monetary juggernaut that it is, it will change the world.
4. Jack Dorsey’s talk: Banking the Unbanked
I couldn’t wait to hear Jack Dorsey, the CEO of both Twitter and Square, discuss how important bitcoin is for everybody. Dorsey has been a role model in my professional life for many years, so to see him take the stage and share ideas that align closely with what I believe bitcoin should be will always be a standout moment.
Dorsey believes so strongly in bitcoin that, if it needed more help than Square or Twitter, he said he’d leave his companies to work on bitcoin. All that said, I thought the most amazing quote to come out of his mouth was, “We don’t need the banks anymore.”
I agree — and to hear him say it was awesome.
5. Surprise 5th favourite moment
We had a good laugh when Floyd Mayweather, Jr. was booed for touting scamcoins during his fireside chat. (You can see it at the 5:45 mark in this video of the talk.)
Thanks for sharing your highlights, Adam!
Watch the video below for some highlights from the Bitcoin Well team at the Bitcoin 2021 Conference in Miami, Florida.
Interested in attending Bitcoin 2022? They’re already planning for a Q1 2022 event and have early-bird pricing for the first 2,000 tickets. Hope to see you there!
