Crypto is winning, and Bitcoin diehards are furious about it

On the last day of the conference in Miami Beach, comedian Donnell Rawlings started his routine by mentioning that there were a lot of white people in the audience and then asked if we were involved in storming the Capitol. He's just warming up, and he doesn't know what a Bitcoins is.

He says that he is fucked because he doesn't know how to cash out, and that he can count the number of people.

It is making the crowd restless because of the many words that Rawlings has said. Several people in the crowd start yelling "Bitcoin" after a few more words of the word "crypto". That includes all of the non-Bitcoin token types, from shit coins to the popular ethereum.

We don't want no beef up in here. The crowd is laughing. After the conference is over, I keep thinking about this. The libertarian and anti-state politics associated with it may get shaved off in order to mainstream it.

Welcome to the world of digital currency. The tone at this conference is mostly aggrieved, despite the fact that cryptocurrencies is the most mainstream it has ever been.

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Money is a mass delusion and so people's confidence in it matters. Consumer confidence indices are not necessary for the study of real things. A tree's existence does not depend on confidence.

John Maynard Keynes called finance a "spirits animal", and anyone who transacts in Bitcoins has joined a community of fellow believers. The US government still imposes taxes in dollars, even though the dollar is no longer pegged to gold. The way people feel about it matters.

It feels like being inside a mouth in the heat of Miami Beach, trying to get a sense of the vibes. The heat and the flashes of antisemitism make me uncomfortable. There is a painting for sale in the back of the expo floor that shows a man in a brown shirt making a Sieg Heil salute. A booth sells a T-shirt depicting a group of men sitting at a table with a pile of money in the middle, which is held up by human bodies, and behind them, the pyramid found on the back of the dollar bill, with its Eye of Providence, looms. No one is concerned.

Hats that say things like taxation is theft aren't unusual in the crowd. The leader of the tax department at the accounting firm told me that he was nervous when he saw the hat. He says he has met a lot of people who are curious about how taxation on cryptocurrencies works. He says that this is the most inspiring work in his career.

When people were bored, frightened, and lonely, cryptocurrencies entered mainstream consciousness. The mindset of the so-called Bitcoin maximalist did not enter the mainstream. They don't want to talk about cryptocurrencies. They want to talk about the One True Faith.

It is anti-inflationary that the supply of 21 million Bitcoins is fixed, which is why it is better than other coins. Leaving the gold standard was a mistake by the Federal Reserve. It is leaderless, its founder has vanished, and its governance owes nothing to venture capitalists, which is why it is superior to other coins. The most intense people in the world believe that the only money that will bring about world peace is the only money that will destroy all governments.

Many of the speakers on the stage are from the world of Bitcoins. It doesn't help that high-profile speakers don't show up. The president of El Salvadoran dropped out of his speaking slot at the conference because he may have adopted Bitcoins as a currency. Dave Portnoy, founder of Barstool Sports and self-proclaimed "Baron of Bitcoin", skipped his panel to live-tweet golf. Serena Williams, Odell Beckham Jr., and Rodgers sat on a panel about how they got intocryptocurrencies.

The speaker lineup is heavy on maxis. That doesn't reflect the makeup of the crowd, and it certainly doesn't reflect everyone who went to Miami. NFTs are popular with normal people, and there are planes pulling banners that seem designed to piss off maxis. A plane pulls a purple banner across the sky that says start a DAO. Save the world.

Decentralized organizations are not possible with Bitcoin. Like NFTs, they are on other blockchains. The main concern of the coin is that it was born in response to the financial crisis as a way of disengaging from the traditional financial system. It was a place where fringe ideologies were normal. The rest of the world has arrived in cryptocurrencies, but not in Bitcoin. It's almost like theBitcoiners have been out of the spotlight again.

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The Ukrainian government received donations from both of thecryptocurrencies when Russia invaded the country. This was a test case of claims that non-state money had important uses.

The panel suggests a discussion of these issues. The panel's moderator walks out of the room with a T-shirt that says "Epstein didn't kill himself."

This is my first glimpse of the true theme of the panel. We won't be discussing the use of Bitcoins during the war. We are going to discuss the war on digital currency.

Francis Pouliot, founder of Bull Bitcoin, says he's into the virtual currency to take revenge on the government. He runs an exchange for cryptocurrencies and says he can't wait to go out of business.

The bigger the communities get, the more they get infiltrated with retards, according to a co-founder of Amber. The audience applauds.

When the panel ends, I am no closer to understanding the use of cryptocurrencies in wartime than I was when I entered the room, except that, as far as these men are concerned, the existence of other cryptocurrencies constitutes a war on Bitcoin.

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One of the most-awaited keynote speakers is J ordan Jordan Peterson, a Jungian prophet of manhood. The man in a pinstriped three-piece suit does not seem excited despite getting a standing ovation as he walks out of the stage. During his keynote, he is often staring at the floor while answering questions.

The removal of the gold standard was unpopular with the crowd, as was the broadscale adoption of Bitcoin over the dollar. At the end of his segment, it becomes clear that he is shilling his app, which is meant to help people write. He brushed off an attempt by his interviewer to stop him when he was upset about his grades. The crowd does not stand when he leaves the stage.

The founder of PayPal fares better with the audience. He talks about moving from physical dollars to electronic dollars in a 1999 video, and he thinks the platform for this will be the cell phone. The man in the white polo shirt and jeans is carrying a lot of money. The front rows of the audience are reserved for those who purchased the Whale VIP Pass.

He thinks that if it works, it is more of a high-velocity, fast- moving thing than a gold-like thing. The second photo is of Vitalik Buterin, the recipient of a $100,000 fellowship. The audience loves this because the BTC guy looks like he could eat Buterin.

He says that the potential to replace gold is huge, and that the question is why it hasn't done so.

Companies are quasi-controlled by the government because of inflation and regulation.

An enemies list was thrown to the audience by Thiel. He says that these faceless bureaucrats are against Bitcoin. The number one is Warren Buffet. Jamie Dimon is second on the list. Number three? Larry Fink is the CEO of BlackRock. He is pro-blockchain, which is anti-Bitcoin.

There is a rousing chorus of boos when Thiel brings up environmental, social, and governance investing criteria. ESGs are non-financial standards that some investors use to screen companies to make sure they are eco-friendly, good to employees and customers, and avoid conflicts of interest. According to him, ESG is a hate factory. We should not allow them to do that.

The finance gerontocracy is the problem according to Thiel. The average age of the conference attendees is 54.

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A friend tells me that he passed Tucker Carlson in the hallway talking to Nic Carter, a general partner at Castle Island. Carter argues that criticism of the effects on the environment is overblown, as Carlson listens.

Carter is on a panel called "You are the Carbon They Want to Reduce", moderated by a tech reporter for CNBC.

The panel believes that a sinister media conspiracy is trying to kill the popularity of the coin by pointing out that it uses a lot of power.

The World Economic Forum article is booed by the audience.

I was building a facility and people came up to me and said that I was destroying the planet.

Stephen Barbour asked, what is wrong with energy consumption? Barbour is the owner of Upstream Data, a company that allows natural gas and oil facilities to mine Bitcoins using energy that might otherwise be burned in a flare. Barbour, who is known as Master of Hash, is wearing a T-shirt that says "There will be Bitcoin", a reference to There Will Be Blood. I wonder if he knows about Oil!, a book about how socialism is good and oil barons are bad.

Barbour says that carbon emissions show that humans are being productive. The audience applauds when he says that he shouldn't apologize for using coal.

The head of mining at Galaxy Digital says that judging the energy use of the digital currency is crazy.

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As of now, the enemies of Bitcoin are listed.

• Journalists (Bitcoin Magazine notwithstanding)
• Governments (El Salvador notwithstanding)
• Traditional finance (as represented by Buffett, Dimon, and Fink)
• Environmental, Social, and Governance investing generally (and environmentalists, specifically)
• Popularity
• Fun

Some of the parties are against fun. Paxos is hosting a party at the Versace Mansion. The kind of party where Versace's punk dress would have been a bit risqu would be a formal crowd. Mike Coscetta, the company's chief revenue officer, said that the party is meant to emphasize that Paxos is a classy company.

Several synchronized swimmers are performing in a pool with rainbow-colored lights behind Coscetta. The oyster bar is where Coscetta invites me to serve myself. Paxos labels are on the cigars at the cigar bar.

Traditional finance types look at my notebook and make themselves scarce at the party. A few mention that they are Paxos investors, but then refuse to give their names or talk to me in more detail.

I go to the LIV nightclub later in the week to see a party hosted by Rick Ross. I've only packed sneakers because the dress code says heels are required for women. I get in.

It's too loud to have a conversation. People sneak hits on their electronic cigarettes. The DJ encourages everyone in the club to put their hands up, then spins Will Smith's song "Miami".

There is a parade of women when the bottle service occurs. One holds the bottle over her head, another holds a sign with lettering such as "LIV loves bitcoin." The rest of them wave what look like mini-lightsabers in the air. A delivery to the area involves a coin with a logo on it. The one side of the mockup is torn. Rick Ross hasn't arrived when I leave at 2AM.

I am not the only woman in sneakers at the NFT parties. The crowd is younger, and they seem to be having fun. There are flatscreens on the walls of the contemporary art museum at the eToro NFT party. The performers are in front of a bunch of lights. There is an aerialist, a ballerina, and a string quartet that plays.

Kate Goldman, 23, who works in compliance, says that the party is awesome.

The Friends with Benefits NFT party is at the Sagamore Hotel. A DJ is playing music, and there is a drawing of Surfing Jesus by Rachel Van der Nacht. Dean Palmiter is standing near the screen. He did not buy a pass to the conference. He is thinking about buying another Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT.

A lot of people came to Miami for the party scene, not for the conference. The current interest in NFTs and Web3 highlights the inflexibility of the coin. There was an initial coin offering that ended badly for a lot of people. It is possible that Web3 will crash in the same fashion as the other one.

It wasn't the only thing that made it strange. There was a conflict between those who want mainstream adoption and those who want to overthrow banks.

Jack Mallers, the CEO of Strike, made a big announcement at the conference. He said that the Lightning network would be compatible with retailers. Mallers want to make using the network more accessible and usable. If Mallers succeeds, it will make a lot of people wealthy, but it will also change the online community. The onslaught of normies is not as hostile to tax regulations or traditional finance. It's the fastest way to take Bitcoin mainstream. What is it about the coin that is not about revolution?

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"Who got the most money in here right now?" asked the comedian on the last day of the virtual currency. There are some shouts. Buress asked if Toshi was here right now. Everybody wants to be quiet now that we're in the building. Nobody has money now? There is no whale now.

On the first day of the conference, the price of Bitcoins fell. By the time Burress takes the stage, it has fallen almost 5 percent to $42,662.72 from $44,781.90 just before the conference's welcome remarks.

Someone from the Whale section says he has a billion dollars. Buress says to show me.

A man in a polo shirt and baseball cap is climbing on the stage. He unlocks his phone and gives it to Buress.

Buress says this is $279,000. Buress throws the phone off the stage as if to express his disgust at the amount of money involved.

The reference to Spotify has been removed and replaced with a new one.