Over 25,000 of the Bitcoin faithful poured into Miami Beach past week for the biggest crypto asset's astir extravagant league yet. They came to party, swap trading strategies, perceive astir tech developments and hob-nob with the "orange pilled" from astir the world. CoinDesk's Danny Nelson came to photograph it all.
Attendees record past a invited motion successful Miami Beach (Danny Nelson/CoinDesk)
Miami Beach's sprawling Convention Center was a country of perpetual question during the four-day conference. Ticket-holders shuffled betwixt the jam-packed expo hallway and 4 outer stages, each with its ain flair and theme. Needing to get rapidly from 1 far-flung determination to the adjacent could spell occupation for those successful a clip crunch.
Stopping for immoderate pics beside Miami's 1.5 ton tech bull (Danny Nelson/CoinDesk)
In a not-so-subtle jab astatine Wall Street's celebrated bovine, metropolis of Miami Mayor Francis X. Suarez unveiled a 3,000 lb charging bull statue connected league time one. He said it's meant to seizure the tone of a tech hub connected the rise. Left unsaid: Miami Beach isn't his city; Mayor Dan Gelber really runs these parts. Still, Suarez's self-styled crypto booster persona made him a fastener for the ribbon-cutting, a section bull aboriginal said.
Dan Held's crypto kicks (Danny Nelson/CoinDesk)
Bitcoin's astir fervent maximalists dainty the plus much similar a religion than an investment. In this church, the faithful deterioration their allegiance connected their sleeve – oregon their feet. Kraken Head of Growth Dan Held's "Hodl" kicks (pictured right) was 1 portion of bitcoin regalia among many.
Tucker Carlson wasn't wearing socks astatine BTC 22 (Danny Nelson/CoinDesk)
Don't mistake organizers' Bitcoin-not-shitcoin sermon demands for closed-mindedness. The league attracted viewpoints from crossed the governmental spectrum, with libertarian Jo Jorgensen, centrist Andrew Yang and right-winger Tucker Carlson (pictured center) filtering through. Their speech didn't ever enactment connected integer assets, though. In this scene, Carlson, a Fox News commentator, revealed to the assemblage helium hasn't worn socks successful implicit 2 years.
Two disciples of Satoshi preach to the crypto assemblage (Danny Nelson/CoinDesk)
Bitcoin A-listers were a communal show astatine the conference's main stage. Here, MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor and ARK Investments Chief Cathie Wood (pictured left) fed the assemblage a steady watercourse of pro-bitcoin commentary. They're well-placed to pontificate: tech-centric Wood is among the biggest bitcoin boosters connected Wall Street, and Saylor's billion-dollar bags talk for themselves.
Ross Ulbricht's jailhouse artwork capped an eclectic assemblage (Danny Nelson/CoinDesk)
It wasn't each parties successful South Beach. Lyn Ulbricht, parent of imprisoned Silk Road developer Ross Ulbricht, was connected manus to rally for her son's release. He faces aggregate beingness sentences for moving the once-popular darknet cause marketplace, an aboriginal hub for bitcoin transactions. Supporters presumption him arsenic a unfortunate of the almighty state. Pictured present is Ross' jailhouse coating "Human Blockchain," one of the galore pieces connected show successful the conference's eclectic creation gallery.
Solana developers were successful physique mode backmost connected the mainland (Danny Nelson/CoinDesk)
Bitcoiners' gag bid connected shitcoins did not span the causeway. Back connected the Miami mainland, a miniature service of Solana developers were hard astatine enactment gathering their parallel crypto beingness They each knew of the large league adjacent doorway – a fistful adjacent went – but astir had travel to Wynwood's "Hacker House" with coding connected their mind.
The festivities ended with a euphony festival (Danny Nelson/CoinDesk)
A "bitcoin euphony festival" capped days of conferencing. The rapper Logic (pictured here) performed for the archetypal clip successful 3 years, portion DJ Steve Aoki and rapper Killer Mike besides had acts. Some tossed the assemblage a speedy bitcoin shout-out, but overmuch of the "meta" sermon came from the festival's comedians. Jay Pharaoh and Jimmy O. Yang laughed disconnected boos erstwhile they mentioned "cryptocurrencies" and "non-fungible tokens" to the bitcoin-only crowd. But anchor enactment Hannibal Buress wasn't arsenic speedy thinking. He rapidly mislaid the assemblage erstwhile his riffs connected scams and meme coins bombed.
It's each so... tiresome (Danny Nelson/CoinDesk)
Four days of crypto league boozing and schmoozing took its predictable toll connected everyone, and Michael Saylor was nary exception.
The Festival for the Decentralized World
Thursday - Sunday, June 9-12, 2022
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