“Shitcoin Journal,” tweeted Bitcoin educator and creator Knut Svanholm concerning the occasion 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 turning into prime minister. A considerably calmer persona, Vice President JD Vance spoke about “crypto” and thanked Coinbase.
Phrase on the (on-line) avenue 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 adjoining”), although he was there in individual, fortunately signing the Cryptosovereignty e book that Bitcoin Journal Books printed in 2023.
“None of my Bitcoiner associates come right here anymore,” stated Ben, an entrepreneur who runs a Bitcoin enterprise, on the fence about coming again subsequent 12 months.
At any time when I point out that I work for Bitcoin Journal, I often must subject questions on shitcoinery and political shilling (Are you a MAGA dude now?!). Coming to Vegas was inspection time for me — or no less than 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 simple 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 simple for me to easily dismiss the haters by paraphrasing Taylor (“haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate…”).
Whereas sitting down within the whale move 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 primary 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 expertise 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 long run — 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 celebration, or “an elaborate Bitcoin extraction scheme,” a “circus, shitcoin fest,” or stablecoin mania. Plus:
They’re not unsuitable. However truthfully, you don’t must look.
Right here’s an underappreciated order to the identified 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 type of factor — playing, nudity, alcohol, prostitution, and different dopamine-inducing stimulants. I first titled this take What Hookers in Vegas Can Train Us About Politicians at Bitcoin 2025; the straightforward 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 stunning factor ever.
We’re succeeding, rising, and turning into if not respectable then no less than a family identify. The FT and WSJ protecting us really feel someplace between “…then they chuckle at you“ and “…then they battle you” levels.
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 may simply meet folks, simply do issues.
To make an apparent analogy: The web is suffering from porn, playing, and cat movies, and it’s probably the most profitable expertise in a era. You don’t have to look; you may 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 foul thought,” 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 part of us for Bitcoin 2026 and see for your self.