3 Min Read When Tony Bennet sang “I left my heart in San Francisco”, we wonder if he would have left his bitcoins there as well…? The Airbitz team left some coins in the city on their way to the O’Reilly Conference, hiding a couple thousand millibits in various locations throughout the city. Congratulations to all those that claimed the hidden bitcoin! Be sure to follow @airbitz on Twitter for future giveaways in other cities.
O’Reilly Bitcoin & The Blockchain Conference
Damian, Tim, William, Paul and Scott visited the Fort Mason Center to attend the O’Reilly Bitcoin & the Blockchain conference. The conference was hosted by O’Reilly’s namesake creator, Tim O’Reilly, and was structured as a one day gathering of bitcoin luminaries and bitcoin enthusiasts. Andreas Antonopoulos delivered a speech and shared his new book Mastering Bitcoin, which was published by O’Reilly.
Conference topics included bitcoin security from Mike Belshe of BitGo, and a regulation panel that stirred up some murmuring when Bill Janeway of Warburg Pincus LLC stated that bitcoiners had better face the music as he recommended bitcoin be regulated, whether the audience liked it or not! I spoke to Mr. O’Reilly after the session who commented that Mr. Janeway felt he was trying to preach truth to a bunch of overhyped zealots. We both laughed; I guess the old and new worlds are colliding!
Later in the day Alan Ludwin of Chain shared 10 stories in 10 minutes, which included a story about being in an Italian cafe and observing someone quickly using the bitcoin teller machine, only to zip off again a minute or two later on the scooter he left running outside the store.
The takeaway from the day’s sessions: bitcoin is quickly become ubiquitous.
The conference was a great success, and the proverbial “icing on the cake” happened when Damian noticed one particular attendee, skateboard hero Rodney Mullen, whom we had the pleasure of meeting.
"It's great to meet my childhood hero Rodney Mullen @mullenrodney at #BitcoinSummit @aantonop pic.twitter.com/NtvEMoAtL7
— Edge (@EdgeWallet) February 5, 2015
San Francisco Bitcoin Meetup
The team made it to the San Francisco Bitcoin Meetup after the conference, which was held at the Internet Archive. If you have not done so already, you must visit this institution. The three story marvel is housed in a former Church of Scientology building, and was transformed into the kundalini (great observation Damian) of internet knowledge, hosting the Way Back Machine among other sites. Our tour took us through each level. The basement is composed of numerous desks and work areas in a single very large room, where voluntaries help amass the troves of human knowledge transformed to eternal 0s and 1s. The second floor, where the Meetup is held, is the street entrance. From this level one needs to climb the Stairway to Heaven to reach the third and top level filled with pews, altar and effigies of voluntaries who have committed, yes you guessed it, at least three years of service.
The night ended when our host, and founder of the Internet Archive, Brewster Kahle, invited us to have sushi at the Sake Zone. Even though they were closing, including their payment terminals, they graciously invited us in and gladly accepted bitcoin. We were joined by other sushi fans that spilled over from the Meetup including Breadwallet creator Aaron Voisine. As we said our goodnights to each other, each of us could feel the solidarity of the protocol we are helping to co-create. Thanks again Mr. Nokomoto for your gift!
