'21 Weekly Newsletter: June 15th
In-person meetups, Bitcoin Miami, Volcano mining, Possible market recovery
Howdy crypto-heads!
Quite a bit to cover this week as I’ll be covering updates starting 5/31 all the way up to 6/20:
In-person DCG meetup on 6/30
Bitcoin Miami takeaways
El Salvador volcano mining
Crypto market possibly recovering
1. June 30th Meetup
I am so excited to be able to see everyone in person again!
The Denver Crypto Group has seen steady growth since we last got together in meatspace and I can’t wait to see both our veteran members and some new faces join us on Wednesday, June 30th at 5:30pm in Meeting Room A for the Smoky Hills Library. Address is 5430 S Biscay Cir, Centennial, CO 80015
This meetup will include a presentation on crypto basics, some Q&A, and then end with snacks and networking. Can’t wait to see you all!
2. The Bitcoin Miami extravaganza
To say that Bitcoin Miami was “a lot” is still an understatement…
I did not attend in person but caught most of the main event streams, heard from friends who attended, and followed conversations on social media. From this perspective I was both disgusted and inspired by what I saw.
Let’s start with the disgusting stuff:
Ludicrous displays of wealth
While not everyone attending was perpetuating these things, I was a bit disappointed to see the Bitcoin (and by proxy, cryptocurrency) community represented this way. While those of us in the space are familiar with this type of behavior, it’s a major turnoff to those outside who just see a lot of rich people acting foolish.
For those who do have “F*** you” Bitcoin wealth I get that it’s fun to flaunt it with a bunch of other people in the same position. However, to someone just getting started in the space or who is entirely unfamiliar, these actions make it a lot easier to dismiss Bitcoin when the media and governments publish FUD designed to keep people away. Over the long run I believe this hurts adoption which is kind of the whole point of this thing…
On the other hand, it was hard to not get excited by Jack Maller’s announcement regarding El Salvador or by Jack Dorsey’s commitment to open source and promoting Bitcoin adoption. While each of these talks come with a big asterisk - *El Salvador’s president isn’t the nicest guy, and citizens of the country are a bit confused by his sudden love for Bitcoin and worry that it won’t help them in a meaningful way and *Jack Dorsey’s company Twitter is very prone to censorship - in the moment though it really felt like Bitcoin had arrived and helped renew my belief that this technology is and will continue to change the world for the better.
3. Mining with a volcano in El Salvador
Related to the announcement from Jack Maller about El Salvador using Bitcoin as a currency, President Nayib Bukele embarked on a (digital) whirlwind promotion tour following Bitcoin Miami. He even showed up in Nic Carter’s twitter hangout (Nic is a popular Bitcoin supporter) and posted a picture of a geothermal well powered by a volcano where the electricity will be used to mine Bitcoin.
My initial takeaway was “Holy cow that’s freaking awesome!!!” but the cynical side of me is wondering how many Bitcoin hashes this well will end up producing and whether this is another publicity stunt with little to no real followup (crypto marketing has really jaded me y’all).
Obviously time will tell, and judging by the reaction to this post on social media a lot of people are really excited about it.
4. Crypto market recovery
Just today I finally saw a little light at the end of the deep, dark bear cave that we’ve been living in for a while now. Bitcoin pushed up over $40k on building volume and so far has been hanging out there. I personally feel that this bull cycle is set to continue, and with the recent uptick I’m hoping that this move is proof of more green candles to come.
Please keep in mind that this is not investment advice and I could very well be wrong, but with a lot of positive announcements lately the fundamentals seem to back up my technical analysis. $50k seems a likely target for Bitcoin in the near future but I’m also accumulating Ethereum and Monero while everything is “on sale”.
Stay safe out there and make sure you’re practicing good cybersecurity!
All love,
~Matt