Will the Miami Bitcoin conference herald a cryptocurrency tsunami?

The most eagerly anticipated Bitcoin conference since the advent of the number one cryptocurrency ended yesterday. Some earth-shattering statements, such as that of the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, promising to introduce legislation to make Bitcoin a legal form of payment in his country, made this a landmark conference for the advancement of cryptocurrency. 

A year in the making, the Bitcoin 2021 Conference, held in Miami, could be said to be a resounding success. The conference began during a period of fairly extreme negativity for the number one cryptocurrency. A two month slide in the Bitcoin price, from its high in April, led to a halving in its value by mid-May. 

China, Elon Musk and other factors, had led to the major price plummet. However, some commentators had speculated that the bull trend which began in March of 2020, had risen too much, and far too quickly. 

Francis Suarez, the Mayor of Miami, kicked off the conference by declaring that he wanted his city to embrace crypto and become a city that focuses on technological advances. 

Ron Paul, congressman, ex-presidential candidate, and renowned libertarian, spoke on the principles of liberty and monetary freedom. He explained the difference between freedom and “free money”, alluding to the hand-outs of “fake” money by his government. 

“There’s a lot of free money circulating out there these days, and it’s all fake, and it’s all political corruption that goes in, and the free money means they either print it or steal it. It doesn’t work, and it makes the country poorer” 

Michael Saylor and Max Kaiser took to the stage for a “fireside chat”. Saylor admitted to being a “newbie” given that he had only bought his first bitcoin a year previously. However, he had some major quotes on Bitcoin for the audience, including: 

"Bitcoin links together 8 billion people, links together a hundred million companies, it synchronizes the world across political jurisdictions, and it returns rationality to the entire financial system, and it returns freedom and property rights to the entire human race." 

Jack Dorsey appeared later and talked about how, if he wasn’t already the CEO of both Square and Twitter, he would be working on Bitcoin. He even went as far as saying that if Bitcoin need more help, then he would leave his companies for the number one cryptocurrency.  

He talked about building “a native currency for the internet”, and that he, and his companies would be working towards that end. 

"That realization that we finally have a currency that can be traded at any single point on the planet is pretty incredible and what that enables going forward is pretty mind-blowing and I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that that happens." 

However, probably the biggest news, and one that will certainly cause tremors to be felt across governments and the global finance sector, is that of the announcement, in a video broadcast to the conference, by El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele, that he will introduce legislation that will make Bitcoin a form of legal tender alongside the dollar in the Central American country. 

The legislation will need to be passed by the El Salvadorean Legislative Assembly, but given that this body is controlled by Bukele’s New Ideas party, the bill is likely to be passed. 

The idea of how this proposed new system will work is that El Salvador has gathered a team of “Bitcoin leaders”, who will help to build the new financial system using Bitcoin as the “base layer”. A partnership with the digital wallet company Strike will be part of this infrastructure building effort. 

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.