I've just returned from my first Satoshi Roundtable. It was much better than I had expected. Having been to a thousand and one bitcoin conferences, I wasn't expecting to learn much . . . instead my mind was so overwhelmed with amazing debate, conversation and information that I had to take a long nap every afternoon to even deal with it.
The conference was actually an 'unconference' and, if you've never done one, you should try! This format allowed for a far more engaging experience (see comment about exhaustion above). Instead of sitting passively in the audience listening to an expert speak for half an hour or so, all participated in whatever the session's topic was and thus, of course, multiplying the knowledge thanks to the high level guests involved.
Some are against the 'elitist' nature of the event but I have to disagree that this is a bad thing. As I said above, those who have been around in the bitcoin space for a long time must also refresh our knowledge base and have our opinions challenged, our ideas tested. There is a tendency for the brain to atrophy in the face of the same old speech at a typical bitcoin conference where most of the audience will be new to the industry and so asking the same questions over and over at every event. Not that this also isn't an important part of building community, but Satoshi Roundtable serves a similar purpose to the bitcoin space that a medical conference might serve to a brain surgeon where he or she can hear new ideas and innovations happening from fellow experts in the field, or better yet, people even smarter. Always be learning. Like from this guy, Jimmy Song! One of the best 'educators' in the space.
One villain did appear, however . . . lol. Everyone loved posing with Jamie Dimon:
It was also nice to attend an event where the price of bitcoin was never discussed. That doesn't happen often at events with many new entrants to the sector.
Back to the topics discussed at the Roundtable. Or at least some of them.
SECURITIES TOKENS: One of the bigger topics of the event due to the fact that both the SEC chairman, Jay Clayton, and the CFTC chairman, Christopher Giancarlo, gave very favorable testimony to the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs on the very day the event began. Bitcoin prices, of course, had fallen to the $5,000s the night before their testimony, some say, on fear of a more negative testimony; alas, that did not happen. Giancarlo, in fact, was so positive that he's attracted a huge crypto following on Twitter.
The session on Securities Tokens was led by Simon Dixon of BnkToTheFuture.com while Clayton and Giancarlo were giving their testimony referenced above; a lawyer who had watched the testimony, however, came into the session midway through to give an assessment: All positive but the SEC had put the gatekeepers (ie lawyers, accountants, etc) on notice. The general consensus at the Roundtable was that ICOs, as we knew them, are dead and that there will almost certainly be some SEC enforcement actions taken soon, including against some exchanges and also those ICO promoters who had offered discounts to certain investors thus, technically, making two separate offerings. ICOs from here on out will all be securities offerings and regulated as such and will, therefore, also have equity (for the most part) and not just be 'investors' making generous donations to a project without expectation of anything in return.
LIGHTNING NETWORK: While I didn't attend any sessions relating to Lightning, basically all sessions were about it and all eyes were on the developers working on deploying it. The pressure is on them to deliver!
WOMEN: Coming on the heels of TNABC in Miami where women pretty much just played the role of stripper entertainment, it was amazing to quickly discover that the smartest people at the Roundtable all happened to be women, IMO. One note is that the US certainly has a whole lot more women participating in the sector compared to Europe where we seldom met any other women at a conference there.
MINING: This was my favourite discussion. More coming soon.
TETHER: The session about Tether was, by far, the best attended. So well-attended that all other sessions were cancelled so that all could attend. Full disclosure, we are an investor in Bitfinex, so do your own research (see Giancarlo's tweet above); but I didn't really need to even hear the guys from Bitfinex speak at the event for the markets already told me all I needed to hear: Tether is legit. If it weren't, it wouldn't be trading at a buck. There is also the fact that the CFTC subpoenaed them two months ago and they are still walking around freely and some of them living in NYC. Maybe I'm wrong but we weren't wrong about MtGox which we called weeks before it happened simply because of what the market was telling us. Same here, I think the market is telling us that Tether is what they say it is.
On our last evening at the venue, we had dinner with Tuur Demeester. This is a good summary of our discussion:
Can't wait to return next year! In the end, it's all about doing what you love with whom you love.
[Signed, Stacy]
Have you come to see the light yet Max? (BCH)
Each one teach one
Thanks for a very interesting report. Sounds like you had a great time.
I have been along time fan of your show on RT it was your show that got me into bitcoin in 2012. The crypto space is very exciting. Trying to keep up with new developments is like having a full time job.
Please could you interview Reggie Middleton creator of Veritaseum?
I first heard about bitcoin from Max Keiser in 2011 unfortunatley I didn't invest because I didn't know how. I assumed it would be complicated. Now I've started investing. I must say I'm grateful thanks Max. I should have invested earlier but better late than never.
its Interesting how European women don’t seem to be as visible in the Block chain space as American women ..
Man how do you manage to write so much? @keiserreport
That's so little when one considers that it is a week of mind-blowing knowledge transfer I've tried to capture!
thanks for sharing your special moments and special post... i waiting for your next post...
Good story dear
Great post Stacy :)
if bitcoin was a religion Satoshi would be the messiah and people like Max would be the prophets.
I hope to see y'all at Anarchopulco.
We can't make it this year! But we will definitely do it next year. :D
Great! In 2019 our family will be joining the Anarchopulco Settlers Community by staying for good after the conference. I hope to shake y'alls hands there. Good things to y'all.
Did you just compare yourselves to brain surgeons?
Actually, I'm okay with that.
Thanks for attending and reporting back to us plebes!
Thank you for the extensive review of the roundtable. Its wonderful that you still get excited about your work and are not jaded at all! Loving what you do with the one you love... Happy Valentine's Day!
It's hard to get jaded when there are SO many smart people in the space, smarter and smarter every day!
@keiserreport do you agree that the model EOS.io has chosen will be the future of "ICO's" ?
As they have VC funding, new projects will not need to do a traditional ICO, they will be funded by VC's and then airdrop to EOS holders.
They still get the network, the block chain and the funding with zero SEC risk.
I can see a very large move to the eos.io network in 2018.
Your thoughts?
P.S. - Thanks for your hard work Stacey, you and Max have given me countless hours of entertainment and education over the last 10 years :-)
Nice to see you clear up some of the FUD surrounding tether. I have been saying this for ages Tether is still performing as intended although now is not the time to be holding tether, as BTC looks like it has finished correcting
How did I miss this post?
You didn't!
good read
STACY!!!!!Stacy y Max kaiser los admiro al punto de darlos a conocer a las comunidades virtuales que aun no saben mucho de bitcoin y ponerlos como referente .Aca en Colombia es mucha la gente que los sigue en el que considero el mejor informativo del acontecer economico Kaiser report!!!! Estan cordialmente invitados a Colombia tienen que venir a conocer ...un abrazo i love you
Interesting article! Checkout @cryptobroye for more bitcoin info and analysis. Im sure there's a lot we can learn from each other!