Bitcoin Forum

I've just come home from a day at the Bitcoin Expo in London and the first thing I had to do, was vent...

Enjoy...

http://vincesamios.com/bitcoins/ashamed-to-be-a-bitcoiner-bitcoin-expo-london

well, I don't know you. I wasn't there. But as you tell the story, the biggest part of the picture is yep you judge people by their appearances. If you think in the bunch of well shaved, perfumed and dressed in a suit men there are not unpolite ones, all of them has a good will in their hearts, or those well dressed and good smelly guys don't do drugs or not make business with it.
Hell yeah you are judging people by their appearance you are aware of it and don't even try to be some how objective.

Do you think in the traditional financial and economic fiat business there is not retards like that?? I'm sure you don't have any problem on havng your money in the bank, using their money and products like credit cards, deposits with interests, loans and long etc...

I'm defending that of a 1000 of silk roads, or the anarchist libertarian speech as you call it I agree that is not the place to make that propaganda, but i wouldn't be the place for other kind of politic speeches.

But if you think that affects you and because of that conference and being a bitcoiner you are going to be seen as a dirty bad smelly hippie drug addict. I'm gonna tell you something, don't use fiat because those hippies use that money too!!

yeah, i don't really get what OP is going at.. sounds a bit elitist. so what if they are hippies? bitcoin is supposed to be the birth of a new generation, and it includes bum-looking people.

if they do drugs, so what? that's their choice.. they don't have to be "tidy looking" and professional. while i am against anarchism, if that's what bitcoin supporters believe, then why not just leave it be? bitcoin is money, for certain, but as far as i know, anarchists are not against trade or currency.. they are just against big government.

just remember that those bums could be looking at you as if you are just another person who is part of the establishment.

I've received a lot of support and agreement on the article... One of the event sponsors even said the london bitcoin culture was far more "grimy and underground" than in the US. I do judge people based on their appearance (everyone does) and I definitely judge people based on their attitudes, and I have to admit on both counts I was not impressed. My experience of the event was that a certain spectrum (not all, probably about 1/3rd to half) of the attendees fit what I described. Example, I said "Excuse me, can I squeeze past" - the response I received? "No, I'm standing here"... :o

You do understand that those boarderliner homeless people as you called them might be multimillionaires right  :D

Yes indeed... hence the concerns of addicts with money. But also more to the point, there's no excuse to be an arsehole, homeless, rich or both.

well what can I say, congrats to you for the support on your article. Should that make me change my mind? Yeah we all do judgements based on appearences andfirst impressions, for that someone has to be aware of that and try to look beyond.
Did the one of the event sponsors said that... so.... what's the point? should that make me change my mind?
but again i'll try to explain better, that situation that you describe:

"Excuse me, can I squeeze past" - the response I received? "No, I'm standing here"...

or even worst has happened to me with that kind of people that you think won't do that, my point is retarded arseholes there are everywhere. So I don't really see your point. Next time go to USA conf not to london's. Is like I don't like the people in the bar of the corner, so next time you won't go right?

Next weekend is the latinamerican bitconf here in buenos aires where i live. I'd like to go really, but it is quite expensive. I can afford it, but honestly for that price I know the kind of people that is going to be there, and nop I'm not interested.

This is a pity because:

Bitcoin != Libertarianism
Bitcoin != Anarchism
Bitcoin == Bitcoin

If you're looking for a more well polished crowd whether politically or fashionably correct maybe go to downtown London the capital of financial corruption.  Bitcoin was created by most of these people who you look down on, who gave bitcoin a good look early on and saw the value, you're a pompous politically correct douche

Which has nth to do with the Bitcoin. That has to do, with the people how they are here and i know it, because i also live here.
In all other aspects, i'm completely with you.

It really is too bad that such an amazing invention as Bitcoin has to be usable for those who want to enslave fellow human beings via institutional violence too.

Yep totally agree that's nothing to do with bitcoin.

Actually I think that conferences should be an open and accesible space for everyone who wants to get involve, and let know and inform all the people. But actually the people who is doing that conf are looking for an specific kind of people wearing a suit, well shaved and business looking...


what the fuck are you saying, bitcoin is money. And money is used for that exactly end that you are saying for the ages of it's creation.

OP; I have to ask.. wtf are you talking about?

People being rude by not allowing people to pass.. genuine gripe.  A speaker disregarding the other speakers whose slot he is infringing upon, genuine gripe.

People cheering 1000 silk roads.. that is not a genuine gripe.  If you are excited about bitcoin for no reason other than it has, and will continue to, make you fat fiat profits.. then you are in the minority among the true believers; and history will be the judge of your convictions.

People embrace bitcoin not just because it is "sound money" *per se*; but because of the ramifications of sound money.  Those stinky neckbeards you love to hate, they see something you have apparently missed: many aspects of the state are evil (including, quite loudly, the so called 'war on drugs').

Not because I think it is the most important example, but because you specifically bring it up and it is just oh-so-easy to destroy, the inevitable '1000 silk roads' is a direct result of a combination of lobbies and facist, religiously-inspired legislation that does nothing but harm to everyone other than the government agencies which are granted power to enforce such legislation; as well as profit for the check-writers for said lobbyists.

Is heroin itself bad?  Maybe.. Is heroin addiction bad?  Clearly.  What about marijuana, should that be illegal too, Mr. Nostink? Has elevinty billion dollars and some of the most powerful government agencies in the world done a single iota to stop heroin addiction, or heroin distribution?  No.  

They have done one thing: consolidated the absolutely inevitable suppliers for this free market demand into cartels.  They have increased risk to drug addicts by an order of magnitude since they get neither government nor legal free-market oversight to verify the purity of their drugs; and they source them from dangerous situations.  They have increased prices by an orders of magnitude, leaving addicts not only high, but desperately broke.. unable to get themselves out of a hole which surely only further triggers the underlying neurosis that is leading them to addiction in the first place.

i was with you, for a minute; a bunch of stinky neck-beards being geeky and self-important. It's annoying, I can see.  It doesn't rub me personally, but I can see how a stick-in-the-butt but otherwise genuine figure could be turned off by it.  

But getting pissed off that people are bringing up anarchism at a fucking bitcoin conference?  You have to be out of your mind.  Anarcho-capitalism?  Heard of that?  Any non-gutter-punk pseudo intellectual or better that even feigns to promote 'anarchism' is fundamentally assuming that commerce will continue to happen among a bunch of self-interested actors.  Are you so completely removed?

We need a revolution.  We need a revolution for the exact reason that we need bitcoin.  Wealth continues to be concentrated in the hands of the few that are closest to the fountain-of-cash known as central banks; while the middle class shrinks and billions continue to live in poverty.  "Capitalism" is simply freedom.  Freedom to transact and trade capital for one's best interest.  God forbid people recognize the blindingly-obvious fact that power is currently almost entirely in the hands of those that go beyond their own freedom to transact, but shape society and law to restrict others from doing so.

You've received a lot of support and agreement, well of course.  Probably half from anti-bitcoin circle jerkers; as well as other short-sighted fools like yourself.  Look here, in this thread, up until this post and past it; look at your article submitted to /r/bitcoin.  Read the comments.  Go on pretending that the bitcoin community agrees with you; if you can handle the mental dissonance--you seem upto the task.

Viva la resitance!

OP reminds me of this poem I  read somewhere, must have been a long time ago ::)....

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Are you kidding me?

I was at the conference too. I don't share the OPs issues with the guests attending I was expecting a good mix of different kind of people. I was actually suprised that there were quite a few people above the age of 40.

What was disappointing for me was the organization of the conference. Just a few points:

- The two venues were not well choosen. These two places in Brick Lane are great places if you want to entertain yourself but not great if you want to listen to speakers, check out some product and service suppliers and do general networking.

- The sound quality was rather poor I really had lots of issues to understand what speakers said because first the microphones were crap and second there were always people chatting in the back because the stands were in the same room.

- Lots of the speakers were not well prepared I thought. If I would have to pay a lot of money to be able to pitch my new product to an interested audience I would prepare much better.

Going forward I hope that the organizers choose a better location next time and that the quality of speakers improve. All in all it was still great to get an idea of whats coming and meet lots of like minded people.

Thank you OP for making the case for statism appear less attractive  :-*

This isn't about statism as much as it isn't about anarchism. This is about bitcoin and shouldn't be coat hangered by politics.

I also thought it was really interesting and I saw a lot of "father & son" pairs around. I thought that was really sweet.

As for the dress sense of the people there, it was fine. And female to male ratio was surprisingly high for a tech conference. The ladies were also participating, with a girl behind me asking Richard Stallman a pretty decent question, and another lady filming the whole thing from the floor at the front and cheering whenever pro-Libertarian sentiments were expressed by the panel. In fact probably one of the best female/male participation ratios I've seen at a technical expo / conference.


Yeah, and the venue was terribly lit, which did make everyone look a bit more dingy. However, some would argue that Richard Stallman (definitely a keynote speaker) was one of the ones that "looked like a hobo", so the OP should hardly have gone there expecting to have everyone clean-shaven and in suits!


The speakers pitching products earlier in the day might not have been well-prepared, but I thought the ideas and arguments in the panel were great - check out the (very dark) video of the panel discussion below. It's a real shame the OP couldn't see past the presentation and enjoy the content.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm6rF7lVeog

scotjam

OP

everyone in the UK uses the pound coin there are people that wear suits, there are people that are homeless. there are intellectuals, there are idiots.
there are logical thinkers, there are tinfoil conspiracy theorists. this is what i call a community.

i am sorry if you prefer to only hang around with oxford scholars. but that is your failings. welcome to the real world of an expanding currency.. everyone is welcome. whether we like it or not.

i personally was in your boat too but i learned to embrase the openness of bitcoin, and not think of it as 'for snobby members only club'. after all snobs usually have bank accounts and offshore accounts in europe. with 'faster payment' services so what bitcoin would bring to the UK is not fast funds transfer, but access to banking for the unbankable and ways for the unemployed to find work outside of establishment.

And who will do that? The already wealthy people buying bitcoins right now or the early adopters that only spend their coins on new mining equipment?

hear hear my friend,I had a similar story to tell at bilderberg in Watford this year,but all press were shit scared to film it,fear of a spanking that's coming i feel,for those inside the grove this year,long time coming,bitcoin could be inert deflection,worlds mad,lets not change it to much,its interesting?

there are somethings on silk road whcih are unacceptable, like child porn.  so people need to use force, to stop pedophiles from using force on helpless kids.

i support the OP.  looks like there are a lot of butt hurt people who want to support dick behavior.

Silk Road never sold or dealt with child porn. In fact, it was against their rules.

OP, it is only commonsense that many hardcore bitcoiners were there at the beginning and are mostly mega-geeks who don't bathe and still live with their parents. Don't worry as time goes on this will change as more and more main-streamers want a piece of the pie. I accept all people and was probably someone in between the two extremes. Never saw the logic of wearing a retarded tie that chokes you, but taking a bath is a daily routine for sure.

I am confused.  Is it the anarchists or the libertarians that should oppose capitalism (i.e. money), or just the libertarian-anarchists?


In fact, at a gathering about THIS kind of money it is exactly the point.

Wait till you see what I'm wearing during the Inside Bitcoins (West) conference in Las Vegas.

~TMIBTCITW

This is really stupid and short minded.

We'll never get mass adoption with people like you.

Everyone is there for Bitcoin. You are the one judging and trying to exclude people.

I agree I'd much rather have everyone clean and sharp; but if you're "ashamed to be a bitcoiner" because of your own prejudice, you should probably sell your BTC and never look back, otherwise you're also a hypocrite.

Same as CCC in Atlanta?

Comparing to the amount of actual addicts with millions in fiat money (not just "somebody is unpleasant must be a drug addict"), this is nothing. You don't like certain people, understandable, they probably didn't like you either, and could vent the exact same way about "some mildly aftershaved douche in expensive clothes trying to squeeze past everybody as if he is somehow more important".

And the way you fail to understand what bitcoin is all about, I say they were right.

I could not ever be ashamed of Bitcoin just those who misuse it.  I'm liking the discussion about the community as a whole by the community.  I don't have much of an opinion on the matter I think it is what it is really.  Some people just have better manners in some ways what can you do but voice your opinion and move on.

I was present - I also found the (quite small) "smash the system! fuck the government!" crowd cheering Cody Whatshisname childish and embarrassing. I was amused that CW was disappointed that he hadn't been stopped from entering the country. He hoped they'd get him on the way out. ;)

To balance him, there was the sensible guy on the panel at the end (sorry, can't remember the name) who spoke for bitcoin users who don't want to be law-breakers.

On the whole I would say the sensible speakers outnumbered the nutters about 5:1.

Re scruffyness: I was glad. Actual hackers (in the good sense) and not just suits were present. Reminded me of internet things in the '90s. As someone upthread says, RMS was among the scruffy group.

I was amused that Stallman didn't want to conduct the auction in bitcoin.

I was also amused that the organisers couldn't quite manage the logistics of paying me the 0.15 BTC that came with the entrance ticket - obviously Bitcoin usability does have some way to go still!

On the whole I found it an interesting and useful event. Kudos and thanks to the organisers.

Anarchists and libertarians on a Bitcoin Expo, really? :o
Who would have thought  :D

I also don't really get this:

You know a libertarian is an anarcho-capitalist right?
The words should be pretty self explaining.

Everyone? So, you know how 7+ billion people think? That's a pretty great gift.

I think you would be pretty surprised how many of the suit wearing guys were actually the drug addicts. I'm one of the people that wants 1000 Silkroads and I hardly use drugs. I smoke +-4 joints a year, from time to time a dram whiskey or glass whine and I vape low nicotine liquids. But imo nobody has the right to say others what they can or can't use as long as they harm nobody else.

How I look is probably in between and I take a bath or shower daily. But I'm not embarrassed if someone with different opinions and looks, uses the same money as I'm using.  :-\

Misleading title and blanket statements. Truly one of the worst articles I've read in a long time.

What can I say. I recommend that OP drops some acid. But seriously, that was not a good post.

There are not very many people who are that much into Bitcoin that they would come to a meetup, that don't hold some ideals that can be described as anarchist. It's not about breaking stuff or getting respect from your friends by going to demonstrations and eating vegan food from a dumpster. You will find that many of the leading scientist and thinkers on this planet could be described or describe themselves as anarchists.

Perhaps I should clarify, what I meant by recommending you to drop acid was that you should really broaden your horizons.
All in all, it's cool that RMS was present, and I'm glad there were enthusiastic people working towards a more interesting (maybe even better) world; who cares if they wore perfectly fitting suits or oversized GNU T-shirts.

Op is ashamed of himself and for not having the confidence that even uglier people have

There's a strong political motivation underpinning the way the whole system was designed. It's not like a bunch of punks just suddenly crawled out of the woodworks to make things hard for the normal, upstanding Bitcoin users. See the discussions from a few years back, I think you'll find the folks with more mainstream sensibilities such as yourself are the newcomers.

Now, part of the politics of the design is not restricting who can use Bitcoin. That means the suit-and-ties crowd will have to either deal with the idea that for many, Bitcoin is an expression of political radicalism just the same as the Amir Taakis out there will have to deal with the fact they have to share the system with the most conservative of capitalists out there.

Take an honest look at the implications of Bitcoin. Silk Road is one. If you can't accept that, draw your own conclusions.

Most of us here aren't crazy, the crazy ones found us.

bitpop freaks me out sometimes, but I like him/her/it.

~TMIBTCITW

It might be because I am both dead and alive at the same time. If/since I'm a spirit, expressing myself via forum is very convenient.