The Bitcoin developers
who were not at Google
generally
continued
their
work with no compensation
at all. For Gavin, who had
become the lead programmer
for the Bitcoin protocol, the
work had become a full-time
but unpaid job. He was
working out of the little office
he shared with his wife in
their Massachusetts home.
His desk chair was next to an
old radiator, which rattled in
the winter, and a window air-
conditioning
unit,
which
rattled in the summer.
The passion that Mike
and Gavin had for Bitcoin
had little to do with where the
technology stood in the
summer of 2011. After all, it
was still hard to actually buy
much
with
Bitcoins.
In
August, when someone came
up with a list of brick-and-
mortar
institutions
that
accepted Bitcoin, there were
all of five entries. The
programmers
were
also
acutely aware of flaws in the
Bitcoin software that would
need to be fixed if the system
were to grow.
But none of this distracted
the programmers from their
vision of what the Bitcoin
software could do in the
future. Some programmers
were focused on the idea of
micropayments, tiny online
payments
that
are
not
possible with credit cards
because of the minimum fees
necessary for a credit card
transaction.
Others were interested in
the
idea
of
immigrants
sending
money
across
international borders without
using Western Union. Some
imagined the sorts of smart
contracts that Satoshi had
described, which would allow
people to sell a house without
using expensive mortgage
title companies and escrow
services. Yet others had a
more abstract idea of a future
universal currency, as science
fiction had promised.
IN ADDITION TO the coders,
Bitcoin had kept its hold on
many of the believers who
were more interested in the
ideals behind the virtual
currency than the price. Over
the summer, this crowd got a
showcase on The Bitcoin
Show, the web-only television
show
created
by
Bruce
Wagner,
a
New
Yorker
whose
enthusiasm
compensated for his lack of
experience
producing
television and his lack of
knowledge about computer
programming. Early in the
summer, Wagner had begun
planning for what he was
calling
the
Bitcoin
Conference & World Expo
NYC 2011. He was not shy
about his ambitions for the
event, which he scheduled for
late August:
I know for sure
attendees are flying in
from every continent.
Some on private jets.
This will be
HUGE. No, definitely
not just another
Bitcoin meetup.
Major global press
—tv, magazines, and
newspapers, have
confirmed that they
will be here.
On the forums there were
questions
about
whether
anyone would show up. But
the list of people promising to
attend grew as the date
approached.
Roger Ver flew to New
York from Tokyo for the
conference and shared a hotel
room with Jesse Powell, who
came in from Sacramento.
Jed McCaleb flew up from
Costa Rica. Mark Karpeles,
consistent with his reputation,
decided to stay in Tokyo,
despite the fact that Mt. Gox
was the major sponsor of the
event.
Charlie
Lee,
the
Google engineer who had
purchased $3,000 of Bitcoin
from Mike Hearn, flew in
from
California.
Gavin
Andresen came down to New
York in a MegaBus that left
from a mall near his house in
Massachusetts. Gavin was not
the conference-going type,
but the bus ticket was cheap
and he couldn’t resist the
opportunity to meet all the
people
he
had
been
interacting with online for the
last year.
The conference was a
rather apt representation of
Bitcoin itself, with its odd
mixture of chaos, community,
snake oil, innovation, high-
mindedness, and enthusiasm.
While Wagner had initially
suggested that the whole
event would be held in the
rather run-down OnlyOneTv
studios, he ended up getting
space at the Roosevelt Hotel
in midtown Manhattan. The
room was the smallest one on
offer, a floor above the main
conference center, with low
foam-board
ceilings.
The
handful of exhibitors, who
had paid $130 to attend, were
given card tables to set up
their wares, just inside the
narrow entrance to the room.
Wagner had promised
three days of events, but in
the end there were only three
talks, taking up less than two
hours, and they got started
almost four hours late. Still,
once everyone was in the
room, there were almost a
hundred people, and they
buzzed
with
a
childlike
excitement at seeing these
characters
whom
they’d
known only as online avatars
before. The event began with
all
those
in
the
room
introducing themselves, both
by their screen name and by
their actual name.
The first speaker was
Gavin, who lived up to his
folksy
reputation.
He
recounted how he had learned
about Bitcoin, and explained
why he believed Satoshi had
chosen to put him in charge.
“You can call me an idiot
and yeah, whatever,” he said,
with a grin. “I know I’m not
perfect so I tend not to rush
into things rashly. Because I
screw up quite regularly, my
virtue is that I will listen to
you if you tell me I’m
screwing up.”
He gave a wish list of
things he wanted to work on
—focusing on security and
stability—and expressed his
desire to see Bitcoin become
“really boring” as it became
more useful.
After two other, more
technical speeches, the event
was closed with a brief talk
by Wagner, clad in a striped
black dress shirt and a striped
black sport coat. He seemed
to twitch with eagerness.
“I’m just so so excited
and honored to be here—to
witness this. I love you all.
It’s just so freaking awesome.
Right?” he said.
He had promised in the
run-up to the event that he
would “be making a HUGE
HUGE HUGE announcement
at the Conference. One you’re
all gonna be VERY excited
about . . . when you hear it.”
He built it up by first
announcing that there would
be another Bitcoin conference
in New York in October