Bitcoin was created as a counter-design to the fiat system: decentralized, permissionless, bottom-up.
And yet, many Bitcoin conferences end up reproducing exactly the structures Bitcoin was meant to overcome.
This is not a personal attack on organizers or speakers. It is a structural critique.
Because form shapes content — and the form of many conferences is surprisingly fiat-like.
It’s about seeing and being seen. The visual language of many Bitcoin conference flyers now resembles a parade of heroes: Trump, Saylor, the same familiar faces again and again.
“Slay your heroes” gives way to ETF advertising.
“Don’t trust, verify” becomes an empty slogan at these orange-painted sales events.
Bitcoin is not lived there — it is marketed.
1. The Fiat DNA of Large Bitcoin Conferences
Large conferences function like classic corporate events:
- a small group of central organizers
- major sponsors with disproportionate influence
- clear hierarchies (VIPs, speakers, audience)
- attention treated as a tradable commodity
Those who pay get to speak.
Those who speak shape the narrative.
That is exactly the logic of the fiat system:
Capital buys visibility. Visibility creates power.
Bitcoin is staged — not practiced.
2. Pay-to-Play Instead of Proof of Work
Stage time, reach, and influence at conferences rarely arise from competence alone, but from:
- sponsorship
- brand building
- social media reach
The outcome is predictable:
- recycled talking points
- low-risk narratives
- little genuine controversy
Bitcoin, however, is not built on reputation, but on verification.
Not on status, but on proof of work.
3. Conferences Optimize for Growth — Not for Truth
Conferences must grow:
- more tickets
- more sponsors
- more reach
Truth, by contrast, does not scale well.
Technical depth is demanding.
Real criticism is uncomfortable.
So ideas are simplified, smoothed out, and repeated — not out of bad intent, but out of economic logic.
Fiat thinks in terms of scale.
Bitcoin thinks in terms of resilience.
4. Bitcoin Meetups Follow the Logic of the Protocol
Bitcoin meetups are the opposite:
- small
- local
- voluntary
- permissionless
No budget is required to start a meetup.
No one gains status points just for showing up.
What matters:
- asking questions
- sharing knowledge
- admitting mistakes
- learning together
This is Bitcoin on a social level.
5. From Consumer to Participant
At conferences, you are a consumer:
- you listen
- you consume content
- you go home
At meetups, you are a participant:
- you discuss
- you challenge ideas
- you help others with node setups or self-custody
Bitcoin is not a product.
Bitcoin is a practice.
6. Sovereignty Is Built Locally
Bitcoin does not survive because of keynotes or stages.
Bitcoin survives because of people who:
- run nodes
- help others
- pass on knowledge
- take responsibility
Meetups create many small, independent centers of understanding.
Conferences create centralized narratives.
Decentralization is not a marketing term — it is a social structure.
7. Show vs. Signal
Conferences are representation.
Meetups are reproduction.
Conferences show Bitcoin.
Meetups spread Bitcoin — its philosophy, its technology, its economics.
Put differently:
Conferences are fiat painted orange.
Meetups are Bitcoin in operation.
Food for Thought
Bitcoin does not need stages.
Bitcoin needs people who use it, understand it, and pass it on.
Large conferences may generate attention.
But antifragility is built on a small scale — in living rooms, back rooms, cafés, and hackspaces.
If Bitcoin has a future, it will not be because of the biggest stage.
It will be because of the smallest circle.
This article is dedicated to Michael E., who has been organizing one of Germany’s oldest Bitcoin meetups in Munich for over ten years.
No heroic poses. No flyers. No stage.
And yet — or precisely because of that — this work, among others, forms the true bulwark of Bitcoin.
It’s not the loudest voices that secure the network, but those who create spaces, share knowledge, and take responsibility.
It ain’t much, but it’s honest work.
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Michael
