Introducing the Cryptocurrency Travel Diary 'Extra' Series

Over the next twelve months I will travel to twelve cities for a Cryptocurrency Travel Diary. The goal will be to find out who is using which cryptocurrencies; why they are using them; and what is influencing their uses (e.g. macroeconomic conditions, government policies, location-specific needs, etc).

The genesis of the idea

Late last year saw an explosion of interest in the crypto space. I noticed around November that the signal-to-noise ratio of coverage on social media plummeted. Being someone who has tracked this space for a long time – and who genuinely wishes to understand what’s going on in the world – it was frustrating to read hot takes like “Is bitcoin a bubble?” (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/29/opinion/bitcoin-bubble-fraud.html) or “Bitcoin helps alt-right extremists” (https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/bitcoins-boom-is-a-boon-for-extremist-groups/2017/12/26/9ca9c124-e59b-11e7-833f-155031558ff4_story.html).

Being based in Washington DC last year, I had the opportunity and pleasure to get to know Jerry and Peter at Coin Center. We were looking for ways to collaborate and, with my prior work in DC ending, we sat down to brainstorm some ideas. I had already committed to visit 12 countries in 12 months - it was just a question of finding a way to do something of value related to cryptocurrencies, tokens and blockchain. The end product was this travel diary series. The series was announced a few weeks ago at the Coin Center website (https://coincenter.org/entry/coin-center-travel-series-how-cryptocurrency-is-being-used-around-the-world).

What to expect over the next year?

Each month an article will appear on the Coin Center website (http://coincenter.org). The article will summarize what I've learned in each city from the many people who I will meet in the crypto community. Every day or two I am posting photos on Twitter of people who I meet or interesting things that I see.

It's already become apparent to me that I'm receiving too much information to include it all in each monthly article. Moreover, it isn't possible to explain the important information for each picture within Twitter's character limit. I also suspect that Twitter is now shadow-banning and/or throttling anything that includes the word 'crypto'.

Why an extra series on Steem?

As a result, I've decided to begin posting pictures with extended commentary on Steem. I've watched this platform grow over the past year. In my opinion, this is the future of online content - one where people pay one another for information that they find valuable. It is a major step forward from the data-hungry social media platforms that have emerged during the past 10 years. What better way in which to test one value proposition/use case of crypto-currencies during the travel diary than by using a platform like Steem?

Please get in touch!

I hope that the community here will provide me with feedback based on this 'inside look' on the travel diary. Already the reception via Twitter has been great with offers to meet-up and to visit even more cities. If you live-in or know anyone in the crypto-community who lives in one of the cities on the itinerary, please reach out either here, on twitter @benjamindean or via email at [email protected]

The cities on the itinerary are:

Cape Town, South Africa - April 2018
Lisbon, Portugal - May 2018
Valencia, Spain - June 2018
Sofia, Bulgaria - July 2018
Hanoi, Vietnam - August 2018
Chiang Mai, Thailand - September 2018
Kyoto, Japan - October 2018
Lima, Peru - November 2018
Medellin, Colombia - December 2018
Bogota, Colombia - January 2019
Mexico City, Mexico - February 2019

The month in Cape Town has already come and gone [I hope you enjoy the photo from atop Lion's Head at the top of this post]. I will try and bring everyone on Steem up to speed over the next week with some additional posts. Then I'll start posting on the current month in Lisbon, Portugal. With thanks for following - please do share - and more from me soon!