Hello, my name is Travis Uhrig. I am the lead organizer for the San Francisco Bitcoin Social meetup group, the second largest bitcoin meetup group in the world (http://bitcoin.meetup.com). Here is a picture of me.
A lot happens to pull an event off, which wouldn’t be possible without my co-organizers Thomas (you probably know him as Madbitcoins https://steemit.com/@madbitcoins), Damian, and of course Isabelle. The meetup group is as amazing as it is thanks entirely to Paige and Isabelle, the previous lead organizers who ran it for years. Our community definitely owes them a great debt of gratitude. Here is an awesome photo of them I found
That’s a great photo, the world is a better place because of it. There is even a puppy.
You can see more picture like this one, and check out planned events, on our meetup and/or facebook pages
http://www.meetup.com/San-Francisco-Bitcoin-Social/
https://www.facebook.com/SanFranciscoBitcoin/
I think bitcoin is awesome, and my involvement has extended in the past to moderating the The BitPanel several times as well, a monthly panel discussion with big names in the blockchain space covering a wide range of topics. Here is another picture, also about the thing I am just now talking about
I had a beard then. #noregrets #thisphotoneedspuppies
When I’m not thinking about bitcoin or working on an event, I like to spend time at my job working at an environmental foundation. I’ve noticed they also really like it when I show up, so it’s a good thing I really enjoy the work we do there.
Why am I here, writing this introduction? Great question Timmy; it’s because I have a question for you, the users of Steemit:
Do you think this community includes a fair number of people who are new to this whole ‘digital money’ thing, having been introduced to it through Steem first? Are you curious about the larger world of digital currency, like bitcoin, or any of the other things you can do with the blockchain?
In my role with the bitcoin community I always enjoy meeting new people in this space, endlessly fascinated by all the various different ways they stumble across it. And since one of the main things that I originally liked about the bitcoin world was how friendly everyone was, I'd like to continue that here. To everyone here who stumbled on this deep rabbit hole of technical jargon and new ideas, welcome to the cryptocurrency community. We have beer and offer emotional counseling whenever the price drops. It can get wild, so buckle up. Thankfully the simple truth is you don’t need to know how complicated things like mining work, or who the CEO of Bitcoin is, to get started (Hint: It’s me. No seriously.)
The community is also everywhere. Not only is this is a global technology, groups like ours generally live stream the events. For everyone who does happen to live in the SF Bay area, let me show you around a bit. Here is a photo from a recent party we had celebrating an event in bitcoin known as “The Halvening”
Gosh, what a fun looking group of people. Buncha weirdos.
This was the second time The Halvening has occurred, and it’s something that happens in bitcoin only once every 4 years. Wow. The Halvening is when the amount of bitcoin awarded to people who help secure transactions (this is a part of that bitcoin mining thing I mentioned) is cut in half. Why? Because bitcoin is designed to have a limited total supply one day, which means it has to taper off over time. It’s also a great excuse to wear party hats and have a drink with friends.
We have 2-3 events like this a month. Here is the breakdown:
- On the second Thursday of each month we all go to a bar called El Rio in San Francisco and just hang out. There is no agenda or speaker list, just a bar tab paid by our sponsor (shout out to coinbase!) that usually lasts long enough for everyone to get a few drinks for free. El Rio is a fantastic place, and it’s where the photo above was taken. It has lots of room out back for when we draw a crowd, and sometimes they also have a grill going. For the times that they don’t have it fired up, just remember that El Rio located on Mission street. Mmmm, Mission burritos. This is a great event for:
- Making friends
- Drinking. First few beers are free, till the bar tab runs out.
- Asking people complicated bitcoin questions or discussing crazy hypotheticals
- Buying or selling bitcoin peer-to-peer with people who show up
- Burritos
- Towards the end of the month we host our main big speaker event. We try our best to aim for the last Tuesday of the month, but this date is subject to speaker and location scheduling and can move. We will always have the exact date announced on our meetup and facebook page a few week before the event, to give people time to figure out their schedules. This is a great event for:
- People who don’t live in the San Francisco bay area: We live stream the event! Check out the description on the events meetup page when it happens for a link to the video.
- Hearing a really cool speaker talk about their project
- Learning a bunch of new things
- Giving a Lightning Talk. Anyone who wants gets 1 minute to talk about anything they like. Ideally it’s digital currency related, but that is not a rule and historically these have gone far off subject before. The only real restriction is the amount of time you have.
- Free beer
- Free food. We switch between pizza or catering with something like mexican or vietnamese, depending on if Mercury is in retrograded and my mood.
- The best mingling in all of bitcoin. After the event people stick around and chat about everything going on.
- The third monthly event is something new we are doing called the BitMob, or bitcoin flashmob. The idea is we pick a local merchant who accepts bitcoin and all show up the same day to spend and try it out. We aim for sometime in the middle of the month for this one. This event is great event for:
- Members who are new to bitcoin. You can see hands-on how point of sale spending is like, and we help set up phone wallets, etc.
- Free money: we give out some bitcoin as prizes during the event for people to spend
- Local merchants who are curious about accepting bitcoin. Best way to try it out is with a group of people who are very understanding about any awkward first time learning curve issues
- Depending on the venue, getting dinner or drinks with some knew friends
Now that you know who we are, and who I am, I will pause my introduction here. As an unabashed self proclaimed bitcoin expert (ie. I’m obsessed), my hope is to see what the interest is like here after this post. If there is a good response, I would like to follow this up with resources like Q&A sessions or anything else that people think might be helpful. The goal will be things more interactive and useful for answering questions than yet another cookie cutter guide. What about this new space confuses you the most? What are people curious to learn about, and what personally attracts you to this technology?
One thing that is definitely happening is I’ll be posting from Outsidelands with my friend @madbitcoins this weekend. I’m looking forward to see what happens here next!
Typical unverified stuff here. Where is your picture holding steemit's name? OR you can give us your official Facebook or twitter page and tweet there that you joined steemit? I'm sorry but after seeing some recent fake introductions, I feel that you should give your confirmed image. You can edit your post with new verified picture OR comment here. No problem with that.
Sure, it simply just didn't occur to me at the time :) Here is me and Madbitcoins at Outsidelands yesterday with the Steemit logo :D Is there a time limit on editing posts?
Thanks @btctravis . Now it looks verified. Once your post is paid (12h) then edit option disappears (as far as I know).
would be great to be able to edit the post even after the payout. i see no reason to forbid editing it. Isnt the hole idea about discussion in the comments to have some inspiration how the post could be made better?
thx for posting your a sign. Even better would be to link from a know social media account under your control to this post :)
I upvote U
is there somewhere a verification of the identity, or missed i something?
It is a common practice to hold your name from steemit on a picture of yourself in order to verify that is you and you are not making stuff up. That is the only verification we got now. Lets hope something better, especially social media verification is introduced soon :)
sorry, for fagging this post, but without verification i cannot support this claim.
I will remove it if there is evidence of the identity.
There is an update look above :)
lol yea. Even better would be some verification with a social media post, in the past many images have been faked...
But ok, I will remove my flagg, the problem is now, there seems to be a bug so i can neither remove it, nor upvote the post, because it says there was already a payout. If someone knows how to do please help. Yea we are still in the very early buggy days here :)
Hey Travis this is Jun! I just missed this post. Welcome and glad you could make it on here!
Hi Jun! Yea I posted this on a whim, since I'll be with Tom/Madbitcoins at Outsidelands all weekend. If there is one thing I can do it's talk about our meetup group :)
Everyone, Jun was our speaker at our event 2 months ago!
Awesome! Have fun this weekend! Lol. You can definitely talk about a lot more than just the meetup so look forward to reading many more thoughts about everything Bitcoin/blockchain!
I'm always happy when I enter steemit.com and a value-post is on top and not a selfie-taking bunny with boobs.
Well done!
hello @btctravis and welcome to steemit! 8]
Hello, Travis. Welcome to Steemit!
Great to have you join us, mate.
And to answer your question: YES, plenty of crypto newbies here. I think that's one of the beautiful things about this site - accessibility and its power to introduce more to crypto simply.
Welcome to the steemboat... ;-)
As a general rule the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information
Welcome Travis, great post and i'm looking forward to see what you have in store with @madbitcoins
Great read and insight into your organization; thanks for sharing!
Welcome! It was original, I'm going to upvote this.
Welsome. Have to ask... thisphotoneedspuppies? lol
Every photo always needs more puppies
Welcome
👍welcome to steemit @btctravis
WELCOME ON STEEMIT :)
Welcome to the community! I love San Fran. Those sour dough clam chowder bread bowls are winners.
Hello @btctravis welcome to steemit. @arcurus is right, a simple link to other social sites such as fb would do to verify your identity.
Ohhh, right. Verification didn't even occur to me when I was writing this :)
Awesome post, welcome to join us.
And i think you really need to show them this post to let them understand steem quickly.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@facer/a-guide-to-steem-world
OMG. Cool
Great info on bitcoin. This is going to replace world currencies. Thanks for informing fellow members.
Well I have to admit I have no idea what I'm doing... I dont understand crypto currency or how to use it but I'm curious enough about it to invest the time and effort to learn.
What you are doing looks like it will be a big help to dunderheads like myself...
Welcome to Steem.
I just joined and am trying to figure it all out.
The Windstalker aka Stan Norred...
Hi, Travis. Welcome to Steemit! I just joined yesterday :)
Hellow .. this is the first post i read after joining n steemit. Excellent story.. Keep it up..
👏👍
cool
Welcome here @btctravis - it's a good feeling of having an experienced BTC guy here at steemit !
We will be in San Francisco from Seattle in August
Hope we can join one of your events
Awesome!
That's amazing to be a part of the second largest bitcoin meet up group in the world. It surely would have been an amazing feel itself.
Will be joining one of your events soon - see you there!
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