As per reports, thousands of individuals had descended on Miami for a massive two-day bitcoin conference. The bitcoin conference emphatically points towards the US city’s conscious efforts, in the midst of a tech boom, to become the next cryptocurrency hub.
Billionaire entrepreneur, Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter and payments firm Square, stated that “I don’t think there’s anything more important in my lifetime to work on” than bitcoin. The reason he cited for this was the flexibility the bitcoin offers due to its decentralized nature.
The Bitcoin 2021 trade show featured exhibits from crypto mining companies, crypto traders and bitcoin exchange networks. The event hosted 12,000 participants and all speaker sessions were reportedly sold out. Though as per reports, the conference was originally scheduled to take place in Los Angeles, but was moved due to tougher coronavirus restrictions in California
Dorsey was one of the keynote speakers at Bitcoin 2021 and stated that “We don’t need the financial institutions that we have today. We have one that is thriving, that is sound, that is owned by the community, that is driven by the community,”. Consecutively, Dorsey on Friday, tweeted that Square was considering making a hardware wallet for safely storing bitcoin.
Twitter CEO and Co-Founder Jack Dorsey in February had announced that he was giving BTC 500, approximately Rs. 172 crores, along with American rapper Shawn Corey Carter, famously known as Jay-Z . This was done to launch a new endowment called Btrust. It was launched to aim at funding Bitcoin development, with initial focus in Africa and India.
In his own words, Btrust is described as “It’ll be set up as a blind irrevocable trust, taking zero direction from us,”.
Other than Dorsey, two of the other speakers were Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. These are the twin Harvard classmates of Mark Zuckerberg who had sued him over claims that he had stolen the idea for Facebook from them. Though, quite successfully, they now run cryptocurrency exchange Gemini.
Tyler at a panel discussion stated that “We think bitcoin is gold 2.0. When we get to Mars, what is the currency going to be in Mars? Dollars? No. Bitcoin.” According to Tyler currency evolution and cryptocurrency is ‘A movement’.
Gemini’s global head of business development, David Abner maintained that Miami holds a key position in order to become a bitcoin hotspot as it is “centrally located, especially in the Americas, and there’s a lot of political support here.”
Abner added that “I think they’ve spent time to understand it and think about the ramifications of bitcoin. And so they’re very supportive of the economy,”. According to Abner, cryptocurrency could revolutionize remittances sent back to Latin America.
To say that Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who reportedly opened the Bitcoin 2021, has become a kind of celebrity in tech circles would be an understatement. He has attracted immense appreciation for his diligent and conscious efforts to turn the Magic City into a beachfront Silicon Valley.
In February, the Republican mayor had reportedly announced that the city would explore various ways to do some of its financial transactions using cryptocurrency. This included paying salaries to employees in cryptocurrency. Thus, it can be rightfully stated that cryptocurrency can be the future of Miami’s payments. What’s more? The mayor additionally announced the launch of Miami Coin, a Miami-specific cryptocurrency that will allow investors to boost the city’s coffers while making money themselves.
Due to such conscious efforts by Miami, venture capital firm Borderless Capital, earlier this week announced that it was moving its headquarters from Atlanta to Miami. It additionally stated that it was launching a new $25 million fund for local startups using blockchain technology.
“This is not a moment. This is a movement,” Suarez said Friday.
Due to aforementioned measures, Miami has been attracting techies away from Silicon Valley and New York since last year. This is due to various factors, one being Florida’s lack of state taxes and relatively lax coronavirus precautions, along with the city’s multicultural work force and proximity to Latin America.
The signs of such migration can be seen as home prices in Miami are soaring, up nearly 35 percent in just a year, according to the Miami Association of Realtors.
But is everyone in support of the Miami’s latest cryptocurrency endorsement campaign? Apparently, not all. A paper maintained that “Don’t get us wrong. We hope cryptocurrency and the flashing neon welcome mat we’ve set out for the tech industry elevate this city to new prosperity,”.
The paper added that “Just don’t blame us for being a bit wary because Miami has history, folks. We’ve been a smugglers’ paradise, the epicenter of the cocaine trade, a mecca for money laundering, ground zero for mortgage fraud…”
“We worry about going through another boom-and-bust cycle or a wave that crashes and takes us all down with it. If we’re staking the city’s future on this, please, let’s not repeat the past.”