“Shitcoin Journal,” tweeted Bitcoin educator and writer Knut Svanholm about the event that BTC Inc, the mother or father firm of Bitcoin Journal, organized in Las Vegas final week. Dancing cows dashed throughout my feed. “It’s a political conference now,” I overheard two attendees saying as they exited the Nakamoto stage, heads shaking. Nigel Farage, the inflammatory British politician and chief of Reform UK, was shouting on stage about changing into prime minister. A considerably calmer persona, Vice President JD Vance spoke about “crypto” and thanked Coinbase.
Phrase on the (on-line) road is that Bitcoin 2025 was captured by political and shitcoin-y pursuits. Our personal technical editor, Shinobi, opted out of mass surveillance and bailed for freer pastures on the Oslo Freedom Discussion board. Erik Cason was uncharacteristically well mannered (“shitcoin adjacent”), although he was there in individual, fortunately signing the Cryptosovereignty book that Bitcoin Magazine Books revealed in 2023.
“None of my Bitcoiner buddies come right here anymore,” stated Ben, an entrepreneur who runs a Bitcoin enterprise, on the fence about coming again subsequent yr.
Every time I point out that I work for Bitcoin Journal, I often must discipline questions on shitcoinery and political shilling (Are you a MAGA dude now?!). Coming to Vegas was inspection time for me — or a minimum of an opportunity to see what it’s that troubles so many individuals.
With the glamor of the Strip itself and its sensory overload, it’d be straightforward to be dazzled — plus, it was the primary time I had left Fort Europa for the land of the free in years, first time in Vegas, and first time at an American Bitcoin occasion. It’d be straightforward for me to easily dismiss the haters by paraphrasing Taylor (“haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate…”).
Whereas sitting down within the whale cross space the Deep, a hipster-looking gentleman began speaking to me about how Bitcoin is basically damaged and that I ought to examine his energy-based shitcoin as a substitute. Ready for Vance’s speech in the principle corridor, I used to be launched to 3 younger dudes dressed as much as perfection and barely out of faculty, on the convention “to land a job within the trade” — i.e., grifters. A mid-60s know-how dude interjected himself into the dialog, bragged about how he labored on tech for Microsoft within the ’90s, and defined how blockchain (not Bitcoin) is the longer term — solely to have us scan the NFC card he had implanted in his left hand. Ugh.
Thus, it wasn’t tough to see the issues all these folks on-line had objected to: Our convention was a party, or “an elaborate Bitcoin extraction scheme,” a “circus, shitcoin fest,” or stablecoin mania. Plus:
They’re not unsuitable. However actually, you don’t must look.
Right here’s an underappreciated order to the recognized universe: To every profitable motion or phenomenon, parasites and fraudsters are drawn. It’s why the shitcoin guys are round Bitcoin occasions and why the politicians are pandering to our trigger. Vegas itself is the middle of gravity for that kind of factor — playing, nudity, alcohol, prostitution, and different dopamine-inducing stimulants. I first titled this take What Hookers in Vegas Can Educate Us About Politicians at Bitcoin 2025; the easy commentary is that fraudsters, grifters, and scammers go to the place the worth is. Parasites feed off wholesome, rising, flourishing organisms.
“Scammers flooding in,” as Tomer Strolight post-conference tweeted, is thus the least shocking factor ever.
We’re succeeding, rising, and changing into if not respectable then a minimum of a family identify. The FT and WSJ masking us really feel someplace between “…then they snigger at you“ and “…then they battle you” stages.
Working round assembly folks — hardcore Bitcoiners I’ve solely ever met on-line, authors and writers and editors I’ve labored with (they had been all in Vegas, since that was the place to be…) — and attending the sum complete of three shows, I felt what Wayne Vaughan of Bitcoin First described:
You’ll be able to simply meet folks, simply do issues.
To make an apparent analogy: The web is affected by porn, playing, and cat movies, and it’s probably the most profitable know-how in a technology. You don’t have to look; you possibly can simply work and supply worth as a substitute of losing away your life speaking to shitcoiners or being irritated at politicians and different fraudsters doing their issues.
“Cozying as much as any authorities is a nasty concept,” concluded the WSJ piece, citing a “wing” of purist Bitcoin that all of us really feel. Sure, agreed. However the puritism that its reverse requires condemns us to irrelevancy — belittles and betrays the broader mission.
So yeah: the grifters, the parasites, the politicians, and the monetary engineers are right here. Good for them. That they’re right here is an indication of victory.
Knock me over with a feather, haters.
Come be a part of us for Bitcoin 2026 and see for your self.
