Bitcoin Cash is not lost in translation. Voltaire X Hong Kong
It started with a blog post I wrote in an East London coffee shop. We knew what we wanted to do, and Jamahl (Voltaire’s Head of Biz Dev) suggested I summarise our thoughts and plans on paper. It was an ace idea, because the post led to a lot of good things. For one reason or another, we’ve had several eureka moments in coffee shops. I haven’t quite worked out why, yet.
I also think some credit should be given to Jake from Bitcoin.com. Jake called me after finding the post and started a conversation about investment. 3 months later, he’d landed me a speaking slot at the Scaling for Consensus conference in Hong Kong, to speak about Voltaire.
I was far more excited to dwell deeper into the BCH community and meet its members, rather than marketing our product.
TLDR: Wow. Hong Kong is a crazy city. I met some incredible people. The Bitcoin Cash community is far larger than I ever imagined. The talent, passion and vision I observed over these three sleepless days has shifted my perception of the industry entirely. The wrong slides came up for my speaking slot, so I had to improvise but it worked out great.
20 hours without sleep
I left London for Hong Kong (via Moscow) on Tuesday morning. My flight came in at around 10 AM HK time, which was a little after the conference started. My friend Lorenzo met me at the airport. The first thing I noticed was how ridiculously fast the trains were. After riding on the London Underground for 20 years one can really appreciate Asian Infrastructure. We got to a giant shopping mall, and eventually the Ritz Carlton. Definitely the priciest joint in the city.
We went through security and met Jake, who welcomed us and took us through to the conference room. I was surprised to be sitting next to Craig, Jimmy, Roger and the other panellists. Jihan was on stage, which was pretty cool. I really like Jihan, I think he’s done a lot for cryptocurrency. He was talking about Bitcoin Cash (which was not surprising — it was a BCH conference).
What struck me were the live translators. I’d never seen that before at a Bitcoin conference (or any conference). It was at that point that I realised that this was no ordinary meetup.
I was a tad confused when I heard ‘flash’ network. Turns out it was just a translation blunder and Jihan was saying lightning network. Definitely the conference highlight.
24 hours without sleep
Next up was the panel titled Scaling boundary— the main event. The questions were basic, but the responses, amazing.
Jimmy (nChain), Haipo (CoinEx, lol!) Jihan (who am I kidding?), Roger (Bitcoin.com), Zhuoer (BTC.top) and David (SBI) were on stage.
More so than the content, I was fascinated by the bilingual nature of the panel and the conversations created as a result. The energy in the air was electric.
Roger and Jimmy were persistent, as usual. I’ve noticed that the best speakers have few key points which they repeat.
One thing I learnt? Everyone values economic freedom.
26 hours without sleep
Unfortunately, I missed Craig’s talk.
Instead, I was invited to join fellow BCHers for lunch, hosted by a very nice man from Hong Kong. I thought it was pretty crazy — sitting at a table with a bunch of people I knew by name but had never met. The nice man paid for our food. We really appreciated it, because the meal was excellent and we did eat on the 100 and something floor of the Ritz Carlton.
28 hours without sleep
At this point I started to crash. Enzo (Lorenzo) was feeling a lot better, as he is located a lot closer and flew in from The Phillippines, which was nice, for him.
David Jerry, COO of SBI (crypto division) came on stage and gave a concise summary of the year for BCH. I thought it was good, however some conclusions lacked detail.
Specifically, David’s claims about the power usage of the global financial system and Bitcoin didn’t consider the value transfer of both systems relative to their power consumption. Sometimes things need perspective.
Wormhole
Six project releases followed suit. My two favourites were a promise application built for Facebook messenger and a wallet for Wormhole. All of them were in Mandarin and were very technical: whether it was the translators getting tired or the unique and highly specific vocabulary used, I struggled to understand their content.
One thing the majority had in common was the mention of Wormhole. The audience seemed extremely excited by the new Wormhole tokens on Bitcoin Cash, and the potential they had to power new and complex use cases.
The promise application I mentioned above essentially locks in promises one makes to a friend (in a Facebook chat) on the BCH blockchain using OP_RETURN. The outcome of the promise was then decided on by a mediator. If the promise was upheld by the promiser, there was some fund transfer:
Imagine I promise to marry someone. If I don’t marry them, I loose my BCH. What a bummer.
30 hours without sleep
It was my turn to speak. I jumped on stage, and the wrong slides came up. I wrote a presentation on the hurdles of mass adoption for Bitcoin Cash. Unfortunately, our company pitch deck was on the screen. I paused for six seconds, realised what happened and tired to deliver.
The cake
After my talk, the conference organisers BCH.club (huge thank you by the way) spoke for a bit. There was a giveaway, and then Roger came on stage with Jihan wielding a giant Bitcoin Cash cake. Everyone left to eat cake.
50? 55? hours without sleep
We had had great fun. It was time to go home. I was sad to be leaving, but also relieved to have the opportunity to sleep.
A brief summary
Hong Kong is a crazy city. The Bitcoin Cash community is far larger than I ever imagined. The talent, passion and vision I observed over these three sleepless days has shifted my perception of the industry entirely. I was honoured to have a chance to meet everyone out there and get on stage. I learnt a lot as a founder, and we learnt a lot as a company. Make sure to say hi if you ever see the Voltaire team about.
We’re really excited for Voltaire to launch in 3 weeks. This trip made us realise just how lucky we are to be part of such a nascent and innovative community.
Thank you to the amazing people, the conference organisers, Bitcoin.com and the City of Hong Kong. We can’t wait to come back.
Enzo and Me
“No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.” — Voltaire, 1731
