A sublime sunset surrounded Biarritz Casino on August. 27, getting France’s largest Bitcoin (BTC) conference to some close. Situated in southwest France and arranged by French Bitcoin exchange Stackin Sitting, Surfin Bitcoin put together a number of Bitcoin OG’s, newbies with no coiners, individuals yet to purchase or earn crypto, inside a setting that will rival any Hollywood film set.
Bitcoiners networked with the hope of being familiar with the Lightning Network, landing jobs at one of the numerous French Bitcoin companies present — from Galoy Money to Découvre Bitcoin — or just rubbing shoulders with fellow Bitcoin believers. In a little bear market irony, because the Bitcoin chips are presently way lower, the big event venue required place in the illustrious Biarritz Casino.
From Bitcoin core maintainers to European royalty to naturally CEOs in the largest French crypto companies, the vibe was clearly French, although having a fizzy worldwide influence.
Bitcoin maximalism was on full display. Panelists and moderators had carte blanche to slamdunk on shitcoiners as hotly anticipated debates compared crypto vc’s to gamblers and boasted the merits and queried the constraints of Bitcoin’s layer-2 Lightning Network. Representatives from Aave as well as other crypto decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) expressed their popularity of Bitcoin but held in keeping with their vision of the multi-gold coin future.
While there have been several official commercial bulletins throughout the event, loudspeakers spontaneously happened across certain revelations. Throughout a panel on mining, Pierre Rochard of Riot Mining announced his intention to relabel mining to “timestamping” to prevent confusion regarding the action of retrieving scarce sources from the physical space. Timestamping will make education simpler, he described, and it is also Satoshi Nakamoto’s method of explaining mining within the white-colored paper.
Similarly, around the Lightning Network panel, Blockstream’s Christian Decker, also referred to as Dr. Bitcoin, described the Lightning Network being an “ant network.” Essentially, he described, the LN behaves as an ant colony. Similar to several ants, the LN seeks out productive regions of activity and congregates in spaces where efficient routes or funnel hops can link together.
It was an initial for me personally, a #LittleHODLer gallery section at @SurfinBitcoin I additionally had the chance to produce a drawing for that conference which was auctioned off for charitable organization. Appreciate everything @Jhersco @Joss_do_it_BTC and team pic.twitter.com/pNgBhaXbpW
— Lina Seiche (@LinaSeiche) August 29, 2022
One of the workshops and Q&A sessions, European Bitcoin artists for example Lina Seiche, the creator from the Little Hodler, displayed their pieces. Konsensus, a Bitcoin book writer, offered French translations of popular Bitcoin books for a few Satoshis — the tiniest denomination of the Bitcoin —in the primary hall. The typical Bitcoin t-shirts and merchandise may be purchased for sats. But, to a lot of Bitcoiners’ chagrin, coffees, beers and refreshments were compensated for with fiat money.
⚡️ Spending Sats at @SurfinBitcoin
Comment achèter united nations livre de Bitcoin en Bitcoin ?
Avec Lightning bien sûr ! ⚡️How can you purchase a Bitcoin book with Bitcoin?
With Lightning obviously! ⚡️@OmniFinn @KonsensusN @edouard_knw #surfinbitcoin22 https://t.co/uKVX1YRwrf pic.twitter.com/OK9Gla46yR— Joe Hall (@JoeNakamoto) August 27, 2022
Daniel Prince, co-location of the U . s . Kingdom’s second greatest Bitcoin podcast, Once Bitten, told Cointelegraph that Bitcoin adoption in the conference and area was poor:
“The casino guys aren’t orange-pilled, they’re only accepting cash or card as payment. Despite the fact that, I simply requested ‘I wanna pay everyone in Bitcoin,’ but no, they’re not setup.Inches
Nevertheless, as the waves crashed round the Bitcoin bubble on Biarritz’s La Grande Plage, the waves of Bitcoin adoption were meager in comparison. From interviews grabbed with street vendors, retailers, churros sellers as well as surfers, Cointelegraph reporters found that the region was “no coiner” territory. Nobody within the area had transacted with Bitcoin nobody could precisely describe the cryptocurrency or perhaps recognize the Bitcoin “B” on the t-shirt or conference emblem.
There is one exception. The 19-year-old driver of Biarritzs’ sightseeing tour train, Le Petit Train, were built with a crypto story to talk about. The train conductor apparently bought Bitcoin as he was 14 — once the cost was around $500 — but sadly, he’d lost use of his seed phrase towards the 2.36 BTC. He joked that is why he was being employed as a train driver within the summer time.
The Stackin Sats team hit a defunct-finish for Bitcoin payments once the mayor from the Biarritz region apparently stopped the conference hall bars from accepting Bitcoin. As a result, Bitcoiners were obliged to hodl their coins and spend their euros rather. That didn’t discourage most of the Bitcoiners — including Prince — from orange-pilling local retailers for example taxi motorists and surf instructors. In the end, Bitcoin is really a grassroots, community-driven movement.
Josselin Tonnellier, a co-founding father of the conference, told Cointelegraph the French crypto scene is covered with blockchain companies, not Bitcoin advocates. Within an exclusive interview, he lamented the French neglect to discern Bitcoin and blockchain. There there’s much more education to become done, he stated, as “pro blockchain narratives” hinder adoption in the home country.
So that they can encourage no coiners, the very first day from the conference was free entry. Outdoors day, known as “Surfin Day,” tempted locals to dip their toes within the balmy Bitcoin waters. There is a Satoshi-inspired treasure search, a surf competition to win Sats along with a screening from the popular French Bitcoin documentary, Le Mystère de Satoshi. Your day promoted exchange and discussion “between participants of the growing Bitcoin community.”
It seems to possess labored. In a surf shop in the street in the conference, local Cécile told Cointelegraph on August. 28 that does not only did she attend the Surfin Day, but she was inspired to understand more about Bitcoin. “Bitcoin isn’t as difficult because it first appeared,” she described in French. Maybe she’ll accept Bitcoin prior to next year’s edition of Surfin Bitcoin.
However, with flagrant reminders that Bitcoin uses more energy than “insert promising small to medium-sized country here” which “unhosted wallets” ought to be banned and confronted with grueling Know Your Customer laws and regulations, it’s no question that Bitcoin adoption in France is slow. The Ecu Union’s stance on Bitcoin is obvious-cut: regulation is originating and Bitcoin is going to be lumped along with almost every other crypto project.
Bitcoin adoption in France will unquestionably remain a ripple because the cost is constantly on the tread water. To create waves, Bitcoin will need a swell of positive public sentiment or perhaps a pro-Bitcoin splash from Macron — France’s anti-crypto leader — or even the Eu, which shows no manifestation of abating its Bitcoin bashing.
Le @satoboatproject qui part au large de Biarritz… joli clap de fin pour #SurfinBitcoin22
A l’année prochaine !!! pic.twitter.com/f8f2gRudfl
— Surfin’Bitcoin (@SurfinBitcoin) August 28, 2022
The Bitcoin Boat, known as Sato Boat, sail around the final day’s the conference. Confronted with a relaxed ocean as well as an extended bear market, the Bitcoin adage, “stay humble, stack sats,” springs in your thoughts. Overall, Surfin Bitcoin is “ze spot to be” for that French Bitcoin believers, but there’s lots of work along with a heck of the journey ahead for that French Bitcoin scene to attain greater amounts of adoption.
Bon voyage.
