attend Bitcoin Nashville Last week’s conference hosted by BTC Inc. was an exercise in managing sensory overload: staying in the moment, going with the flow, and hopefully not losing sanity or common sense.
A few of us at CoinDesk were lucky enough to be there in person, and rather than write a run-of-the-mill conference summary that nobody will read, we thought we’d share a little bit of what our trip was like without a lengthy write-up.
While trying to make sense of it all, we simultaneously had to strategize how to cover former President Donald Trump’s keynote speech, scheduled for Saturday, the final day of the conference. The security of this speech was unparalleled in the history of bitcoin and cryptocurrency conferences. It wasn’t at all clear whether we would be able to bring laptops or high-powered camera equipment into the venue, or whether there would be wireless connectivity to transmit headlines and articles.
Though the conference didn’t start until Thursday, side events and parties were already in full swing on Wednesday. BitGala in Nashville ParthenonA replica of an ancient Greek temple built 127 years ago. The carpet leading to the entrance is orange. Bitcoin Colors And the classical interior was bathed in orange light, illuminating a meticulously reconstructed 42-foot-tall (12.8-meter) statue of the goddess Athena.
To be fair to the party’s hosts, the following images were taken before the party really got going, but here’s what the inside looked like: Later in the evening, there was a 97% confirmed sighting of Heather Morgan, aka “Razulekhan,” a rapper who pleaded guilty alongside her husband in July 2023. Charges Related to $3.5 Billion Bitfinex HackOn Sunday, Jameson Lopp, a contributor to the open source Bitcoin project and now CTO at Casa, tweeted: I met her in Nashville.I also heard from another source that she describes herself as a “Web3 Advisor.”
We don’t shy away from the cliché image of people taking photos in front of a conference sign. Required At these events:
Below is a view of the main Nakamoto Stage, where many celebrities have spoken, and a special room that the U.S. Secret Service will seal off with its own security checks, ahead of appearances later in the week by independent U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Friday and Mr. Trump on Saturday.
We headed to the Bitcoin Builders Conference, sponsored by Stacks, a Bitcoin smart contract layer project, and held upstairs in a giant bar called Acme Feed & Seed. There was an omelette station, and hummus and veggie cups were being served. We talked a bit with David Tse, a Stanford engineering professor who is the co-founder of Babylon, a Bitcoin staking protocol, and then I moderated a panel on Bitcoin DeFi, featuring projects working on stablecoins, swaps, and staking.
We returned to the main conference venue and walked around the exhibition hall, where a variety of solutions were on display.
Bitcoin artists exhibited their work in a bazaar format and as part of a gallery.
We happened to be walking past this seminar being taught by Bitcoin Lightning Protocol engineer Lisa Neigut, who Bitcoin++ At the time, I had no idea what was going on and had to rush off to another appointment, but Neigut later explained in a Telegram message that this was an educational game she invented called “Bitcoin LARP.”
Here are two very different ways to wear a pink suit.
This person chose Dogecoin on the bottom and Bitcoin on the top:
We spoke one-on-one with Adrian Eidelman, co-founder of Rootstock Labs. The team working with Fairgate is Interactively verifying SNARK proofs – A strong type of encryption in many blockchain systems – On the main Bitcoin network.
We ran into Fred Thiel, CEO of Marathon Digital Holdings, and we spoke briefly about the challenges of funding open source Bitcoin developers.
Tron Blockchain hosted a side party at a movie studio-turned-venue called Vue Nashville, where country music singers provided entertainment against a backdrop of wraparound electronic screens projecting red-hued scenes from the movie “Nashville.” Blade RunnerBy the way, I heard from a bartender there that the closing party the night before for “Inscribing Nashville,” a side event focusing on the Ordinals, held at the same venue, was extremely crowded, with all 4,000 or so drinks they had prepared being sold out.
The following panel was perhaps the most technically interesting I saw at the main conference this week, featuring developer Robin Linus’ last-ditch efforts to improve upon his groundbreaking technology. Bit VM Together with OP_CTV creator Jeremy Rubin, Liam Eagan from Alpen Labs, and research partner Weikeng Chen at L2 Iterative, we designed it for practical use.
Off to the side of the open source stage, Andrew Poelstra, director of research at Blockstream, who perhaps understands the inner workings of Bitcoin programming better than anyone, chatted freely with attendees about technical questions.
I met the creator of ordinals and runes Casey Lodermore and his co-host on the Hell Money podcast, The mark of Atlantis CEO Erin Redwing toured the exhibit just minutes before the scheduled panel discussion.
Cathie Wood, CEO of Ark Investment Management, entered through a side entrance of Music City Center, the main convention venue.
This has nothing to do with Bitcoin, but it’s a camo baseball cap from Polymarket. Polymarket is a prediction market built on the Polygon blockchain that suddenly The best places to bet on US election-related scenarios – This was the most modern souvenir we found at the conference.
From the mezzanine balcony, which I would pass on my way to the invitation-only Galaxy Digital Happy Hour, the architectural visuals of Music City Center were stunning.
My CoinDesk colleague Danny Nelson and I had been trying to figure out all week how to best cover Trump’s speech from all angles. We knew there was a special access area reserved for the press, but it was pretty far back in the room. Danny calculated that the best way to cover the event was to stand in line with everyone else and find the best seats possible in the general seating area. We revisited our options multiple times throughout the day.
The doors to the venue didn’t open until 8 a.m., but we managed to get a spot in line around 7:20 a.m. About 20 minutes later, the line snaked all the way around the block.
Once through the internal security checkpoint at the Nakamoto stage, there was no water or food readily available, and while there was an option to exit, anyone leaving the room had to wait at the end of the line, which never moved because the room was already full and they weren’t actually letting anyone in.
So, like everyone else who’d made the journey, we decided to sit and wait for the next six hours for Trump to appear. Danny managed to bring along his laptop and a decent camera.
There was plenty to see, including a panel discussion of pro-Bitcoin Republican candidates. North Carolina Democratic Congressman Wiley Nickel gave a speech titled “A Progressive Vision for Bitcoin,” but was booed heavily after he made the point that Trump had called Bitcoin a “progressive vision.” Tweeted in 2019 Bitcoin “seems like a scam”
A brief moment of amusement came when MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor, who is credited with originating the idea of companies having bitcoin on their balance sheets, walked through the general seating area and was quickly surrounded by people taking selfies with him.
There were swarms of video cameras and photographers waiting for Trump to appear, indicating the high level of mainstream media interest.
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss of cryptocurrency exchange Gemini were spotted walking near the roped-off VIP area at the front. There were rumors that Elon Musk might make a special guest appearance, and the crowd circulated social media posts that appeared to track Musk’s private jet as it flew to Nashville. (Confusion ensued when Musk didn’t show up, and it was never actually explained who this special guest might be.)
Conference officials beamed during an interview with retired U.S. Congressman and former presidential candidate Ron Paul, who said:Ending the Fed“From a temporary news studio set up elsewhere at Music City Center.”
When Trump finally appeared, he stood there without saying a word until the song finished.God Bless AmericaThe song played was also known as “Proud to Be an American” by Lee Greenwood. There was a standing ovation until the song finished.
I wrote about Trump’s speech. here.
The camera angle from where we were sitting was not great, as Trump’s teleprompter blocked our view, but even if the camera angle wasn’t bad, sitting with the general public was a good choice to really get a feel for the atmosphere of the crowd. wonderful.
Below is the view captured through a smartphone camera lens from the seat you could get if you didn’t line up by 7:20am.
