Tootfinder

A panel on bitcoin treasury companies.
Because investment law makes it hard for institutions to buy bitcoin in their funds. You can't own BTC in you tax free ISA. So some companies that do hold bitcoin, notably microstrategy, became proxy investments. If you can't hold BTC you could maybe own a company that owns BTC instead.
Microstrategy started because it's ceo realized it's dollar treasury was being debased by dollar printing. So tried buying BTC instead, with fantastic success.
Copycat companies proliferated. They boomed and then busted. One panelist calls that a grift. A way to memeticly pump share price.
A line can be drawn between profitable companies just storing their profit in bitcoin Vs those raising debt to buy without having a profitable business.
Imagine a world transiting from using seashells for money to using gold coins. A company gathers seashells from investors to buy gold coins, which will do better than sea shells. Trouble is the next step where the company pays back it's investors with... More seashells.
If you own shares in the company, you do not own bitcoin. You'll just get more old fashioned bank money.
Still. It's worked as marketing, more people being convinced BTC has value.
If you do buy a treasury company, check it's bitcoin not "digital assets" including shitcoins.
#bitfest #bitcoin #bitcoinTreasuryCompanies

Prem ghinde thinks that Alan is killing bitcoin.
Alan is paid in government money, and saves in bitcoin. He's an imaginary straw man.
Alan doesn't plan to spend his bitcoin though. Just stack it until he sells it. And this doesn't build the bitcoin network.
Without transitions, when the block rewards run out, there will be no money for miners. Miners will need fees, which means transactions.
Since he's paying in bank money, he's funding bankers instead of miners. He's encouraging retail to accept bank money instead of miners and lightning liquidity providers.
Unlike Alan, Prem lives on the bitcoin standard. All in. Spending sats because he has no bank money to spend. It can be done, he insists. Today. Mostly by using gift vouchers bought with bitcoin.
He's sad that people here are buying drinks from the hotel with bank cards instead of lightning.
Stop watching the price, he says, it's only a measure of government money's collapse. Change your yardstick. Account in bitcoin. Dollars aren't even money, they are currency. If you must measure, do it against gold.
Since moving to el Salvador he had learned Spanish, until he even dreams in Spanish. Try to dream in bitcoin.
Every transaction is a vote, so stop voting for bank money.
I think the main trouble with this is that tax event in every purchase, and the fact my employer won't set a wage in bitcoin even if they would convert to bitcoin to pay me.
#bitcoin #bitfest

Rob Gaskell of Sundial is presenting on a layer two protocol designed to enable bitcoin to generate yield.
Most bitcoin is still, in long term hodl. Not helping anyone.
Sure, you could lend your bitcoin for interest but that would count as a tax event and also involve losing custody.
What if a programmable sidechain to help with scaling, allow borrowing and lending and products retail and institutions like?
His solution is called Sundial and doesn't need new protocol changes or forks.
Hard to say what it actually does though? Presumably something like liquidity in sidechains? Didn't really seem to get what he actually is building. 🤷
#bitfest #bitcoin

The conference also has a cinema room, showing bitcoin based films. Not mine, but I'm here for "finding home" by avi burra. Who did q&a after.
A short Travelog about a visit a cypherpunk in Prague for BTC Prague. Which was a much bigger bitcoin conference.
Lots of shots of a beautiful European city, and brief interviews with the people there. Many at restaurants where meals are paid for with bitcoin.
I guess they have a circular economy there of some sort.
Conclusion seems to be that fixing the money is important but building community is even more importanter.
#bitfest #film #bitcoin

Finally, Martin from BTC Prague wonders how to empower bitcoiners in the UK.
He's inspired by many UK scientists and artists and creators.
But he thinks it's declining. Socialism and regulation reducing freedom.
His home country had a peaceful velvet revolution, ending communism in the 80s.
And it now has a law that there is no capital gains tax on long term held bitcoin!
The UK, he thinks, needs to build new strong bitcoin based money to have it's own peaceful revolution.
#bitfest #bitcoin #uk