I was enjoying myself at a local bitcoin meetup recently. I really treasure the friendships I have made over the past few years hanging around with bitcoiners in real life, as I have said here before.
This meetup was particularly good, because it included my regular group along with another group we were not familiar with. I met all sorts of interesting people.
As I was talking to one person, another guy looked at me and said "Do I know you?" I looked closer and recognized his face, but I couldn't place him. He then asked if I was his customer. It then dawned on me who he was. He has done work for me at my home once or twice a year for the past two years. It turns out he has been a serious bitcoiner for about as long as I have. It was great to discover this. We have had many conversations, and never have either of us mentioned bitcoin. I said to him that I will pay him in bitcoin the next time. Of course he was happy to hear that. Our mutual friends were shocked that we knew each other.
Now, the downside to this is that my privacy took a serious hit. Names and places were blurted out before either of us came to our senses. I must say that he seemed much less worried about privacy than me.
Will this make me stop hanging out with bitcoiners in public? No. I feel like this sort of interaction is inevitable as bitcoin adoption grows. We can't sit alone in our homes if we want to change the world. But it did make me a little nervous.
This is awesome! I had a similar experience (#1073543) at a dinner I hosted when one of the guests turned out to be a hardcore bitcoiner.
Very cool to have these experiences because it feels like we are winning. When you can't help but bump in to Bitcoiners, you know that we're making progress.
Exactly. What really struck me this night was how many serious bitcoiners there are within a hundred miles of my home. And these are just the ones who attend meetups. The whole experience made me very optimistic.
There are currently almost 25 million people in a 100 mile radius around me and I don't know if any single one of them is a Bitcoiner. But the humanitarian in me hopes for them that they are.
Damn. That's a lot of people. If there was a way to find out, you might be pleasantly surprised.
The main barrier to finding out is that I don't speak their language haha
The main reason why orange pilling is important is that when ultimately successful, you don't have to be part of a bitcoiner club. You can be a member of any club and still meet a lot of bitcoiners then. Without having to talk about bitcoin all the damn time (which is anyway boring af)
You are right. The best meetings are in bars. We sometimes break off into smaller groups to talk bitcoin, but mostly we're just a group of good friends drinking and having a good time.
I haven't gone to a conference/meetup in a while now, but my fav thing about these is the hard core group that together bribes the bartenders to stay open after 1am/3am/6am.
The best thing about Long Island is last call is ALWAYS 4 am.
My exposure to NY outside of Manhattan, Albany and Buffalo has been really limited because all my customers were in the cities and I used to live in SF back then.
Sounds like a good deal!
There are good points and bad points. For instance, the bitlicense sucks. NY isn't very welcoming in that respect.
That transition of increasing exposure is tricky.
For now, I only have minor inconveniences because of it but I think I’ll have to figure out how I want to deal with it soon.
I'm pretty much doxed on SN already, for anyone willing to make an effort
Not that I think it'll become an issue any time soon, but I do notice that it's caused me to be more cautious in what I say.
Yeah, I’d prefer to not have to worry about that for now.
Maybe I’ll get to where being fired is a non-issue and then I can have the best of all worlds.
Or be as loud as possible so the whole city is exposed. Safety in numbers.
Depends how much "illegal" stuff you do vs. him. I recently met a guy who initially appeared to be a bitcoiner, but then turned out to be a regular "if I do everything lawfully and my business partners trust me I'll be rich soon" type. He was half my age, hope he will learn eventually about laws and trust.
Eventually it won’t be special to use bitcoin haha
Maybe sooner than we think. It is already starting to feel normal.
"Siggy" isn't your real name?!
unbelievable
There aren't many Italian Americans walking around with the name siggy. Maybe I should be Luigi or Carmine from now on.
But now ... You've got another thing coming...
view on www.youtube.comDo you know which one?
Indeed. As adoption grows many things will change. Privacy is only one tool. We really have to think about security and physical security. Anyone with wealth should take both seriously.
Increíble, tener amantes de Bitcoin tan cerca, 🤣en mi barrio estarían más interesados en tu privacidad que en aprender de Bitcoin 🤣 , cuando le hablas de criptomonedas piensas que eres 😜. Pero mientras ellos están chismeando yo estoy ganando 🤑 que locura 😂
For the next meetup, maybe.
It's a small world. That already happened to me, though not Bitcoin-related. That whole situation really hyped up P2P, and that's exactly how it should be.
(Then never see him again after this)
That's awesome. Is it just me or has the number of serendipitous bitcoin meetings been on the rise lately?
#1310468
#1293049
Huge if true