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At the time of writing these lines Bitcon is trading between 35 and 40 thousand dollars. More than a month ago its value was more than 60 thousand dollars, but if we go further back in time we will find that each bitcoin came to have the value of 10 thousand dollars per unit, or even less than a dollar. In short, in the long journey of the pioneer cryptocurrency, the fluctuation of its price has been a constant, one that is still heading upwards.
However the price of Bitcoin today is not the most important thing, really what proves that the cryptocurrency is unstoppable is the huge community committed to the rise of a completely decentralized and free economic system, and the event held in Miami last weekend more than proved it.
Early Friday morning, after having breakfast and editing a couple of articles, I got in my car and left for the event in Wynwood. The GPS forced me to take alternate routes due to traffic and despite my efforts to arrive early to the largest cryptocurrency event in history, it was totally impossible.
As I approached Wynwood I began to notice a huge line of people congregated on the sidewalks of the city: tall, black, skinny, fat, Asian, people in costumes, punks, executives, teenagers, Latinos, elderly. It was a completely different range of people, from different cities and countries, who had traveled to Miami only for one thing: an event that would unite them all. Or rather, to attend the consolidation of the movement that united them all: Bitcoin.
To be honest, for a moment I thought about leaving, I drove around the convention center for several minutes and to begin with, I could not find where to park, but also, I could not glimpse the beginning, nor the end of the human mass that had come to Miami for the Bitcoin.
After several minutes in this operation I decided to go to the back streets of Wynwood, where some old factories are located and that surely since years ago did not have so many visitors; despite the sun and the heat I left my car parked there and I started to walk, if I could not enter the event at least I had to register the madness that was happening around.
I later realized that I would probably never reach the beginning or the end of this human mass, for a few moments I felt a kind of frustration, but not only for me, but for the hundreds of thousands of people who had paid more than a thousand dollars to enter the event, and yet they were drifting and toasting under the hot Floridian sun.
However, everything quickly changed, when I stopped looking at the long line of men and women, and looked in detail at the face of each of the people there I realized that in the Bitcoin conference there was no room for anxiety or stress, there was a lot of heat, of course, but the body language of everyone present was one of great expectation and excitement for what was about to happen, it was then that I understood the magnitude of what was happening: this was not just another conference to talk about cryptocurrencies, this was -is- without a doubt a movement destined to change the world.
After taking some poor pictures of the crowds outside I decided to continue my tour, I was a bit disappointed since no matter how hard I tried I would never be able to capture an image that would convey everything that was happening at that moment outside Mana Wynwood.
My shirt was completely wet and I decided to fold up my trousers to continue with my journey, then, suddenly, among that sea of people I ran into a security guard of the event who seemed just as out of place as I was, not understanding how so many people had come to Miami to see, hear or talk about Bitcoin.
—Excuse me, is there a particular entrance for the press?— I asked.
—I don’t know, try to turn the corner and cross to the left, there are other colleagues there who can help you better.
And so I did. I started to walk against the current of the line, no matter how many steps I took, the tide of people never ended. Finally, after a lot of sun and sweat, I found the end of the human mass and, surprisingly, those who were there, even knowing that it would take them hours to enter were happy with their Satoshi Nakamoto T-shirts.
There, they told me that there was indeed an entrance for speakers and press and I was finally told how to get there. The press line would have about 40 people at most; at that moment I felt the most privileged person on the planet.
After a few minutes waiting, I managed to enter the event without major complications. The first thing I did was to look for the main hall to protect myself from the sun and to hydrate myself. When I arrived, Mayor Francis Suarez had already spoken and it was former congressman Ron Paul who was on stage. He said, among other things, that he did not fully understand the Bitcoin, but he did understand enough about liberty and predicted that certainly cryptocurrencies would give us all greater individual freedoms.
Paul also spoke about the intrusion of Marxism in the United States, he assured that communists have taken over education in the country and that it is vital to defend ourselves in order to survive. In that sense, he made a deep emphasis on individual freedoms and how Bitcoin can give men and women around the world a great protection over authoritarian governments.
Throughout the entire conference the former congressman spoke little to nothing about blockchain technology or the most fundamental aspects of the crypto world, however he managed to raise applause and cheers for his passionate speech about freedom as the pillar of every society.
After Paul, more speakers took the main stage to motivate attendees to look back on the growth of cryptocurrencies and their future.
Cryptographer Nick Szabo spoke about the history of money and explained how Bitcoin corrected the imperfections of all previous monetary systems, including the last fiat regime. Then appeared the investor Michael Saylor, who was one of those who raised the most applause in the audience and explained the reason why a year ago he abandoned his retirement ideas and returned to the business to invest heavily in Bitcoin; since then he has become one of the biggest promoters of the benefits of cryptocurrency and also one of the people who has invested more capital in it.
Great figures of the crypto world passed through the central stage, and thousands of people conglomerated in the event’s pavilions. Some initial estimates spoke of at least 50,000 people who traveled to Miami from other parts of the country, and even from other nations to attend the event; the official number of attendees could not be precise, but I can confirm that probably not even the Beatles in the 60s aroused as many passions as the Bitcoin in 2021.
At the end of the event, one of the most important announcements for cryptocurrencies was made, El Salvador, a Central-American nation, announced that Bitcoin will become a legal currency in their country, which excites all those who dream of a world that can be governed without the bureaucracy and obstacles emanating from central banks.
The future today
If you asked me today what the price of Bitcoin is, all I’d say is that this is not really the debate, what we must turn our eyes to is the big picture, the whole panorama: Bitcon has come to change the world, it is more than a cryptocurrency, it is a libertarian idea that has penetrated the minds of millions of people and will not be stopped, neither by the regulations that democratic countries like the United States may issue, nor by the attempts of banning that may be executed by tyrannies like the Communist Party in China.
Throughout history, humans have found more efficient value exchange mechanisms to safeguard their investments, possessions and material goods were replaced by the exchange of precious metals, and these created the basis that would later lead to the leap to fiat money. In the same way, cryptocurrencies are now beginning to create the financial ecosystem of the future, leaving behind the imperfections of FIAT.
Whether the Krugmans, the Hankes, the big bankers, economists, and investors who have made fortunes with the fiat regime like it or not, the Bitcoin revolution has arrived to mark a before and after in the history of mankind and the skeptics will only have one option: capitulate before it is too late or die wrong.
Emmanuel Rincón is a lawyer, writer, novelist and essayist. He has won several international literary awards. He is Editor-at-large at El American // Emmanuel Rincón es abogado, escritor, novelista y ensayista. Ganador de diversos premios literarios internacionales. Es editor-at-large en El American