After going to BTCPrague and Baltic Honeybadger, the bitcoiners I met there had a sort of relaxed attitude towards life.
Maybe it’s the financial independence, maybe it’s the remote work, digital nomad lifestyle many of them have, but there’s a general feeling of hippie attitude in life.
Many smoked marijuana too. It’s legal now in most countries in the world so it’s hardly the symbol of counter-culture that it used to be, but still.
I personally don’t like drugs, I believe they dull the mind and it’s suspicious that they legalized marijuana lately. I see it all as a part of bread and circuses aiming to keep you docile and obedient.
Anyway, what I see is this:
I predict a new wave of bitcoin hippies emerging pretty soon. A bunch of millionaires travelling around the world in places like Costa Rica, taking psychedelic drugs, working remotely, having a sort of decentralized memetic governance.
The bitcoiners I talked to spoke about Costa Rica with the Nostrica event, a non-conference and what an amazing experience it was. Or Bitcoin Jungle:
https://x.com/BitcoinJungleCR/status/1689651917314719744?s=20
Yet another non-conference meant to cater to the spiritual side of life.
In direct contrast to the organized, corporate feel of BTCPrague, these two events look exactly like a hippie movement, updated for the modern times.
Add to that the El Salvador Halving Party, which inspired me to create the Santorini Halving Party. A festival, not a conference.
This feels like a new cycle in bitcoin’s life. Bitcoin and low time-preference have a way of turning nerds into jocks, of turning pessimists into family men, turning wage slaves into entrepreneurs.
Bitcoin is leveling the playing field in exactly the same way the early internet did, which we all know spawned a ton of new nerdy millionaires and billionaires, plus of course the dot com bubble. It’s all playing out the same way, we still haven’t seen the big crypto bubble yet, and more nerdy billionaires are going to show up with massive businesses that they’re running from their phone in Costa Rica, hanging out with plebs and Jack Dorsey.
What will that memetic decentralized culture look like? Will it run on nostr, coordinating events and experiences through new, decentralized, uncensorable protocols? Will it dominate exotic locations, orange-pilling the local mayors and merchants every time it lands like a whale? Which people will become its cultural leaders, influencing flock movements around the world, excluding pariahs who don’t follow the accepted values put forth?
It’s going to be weird to experience, that’s for sure.
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