I speak with Brad Loewen, host of Beyond the Price, exploring Bitcoin adoption in East Asia.
Brad and I both attended the Bitcoin Asia conference in Hong Kong recently, organised by BTC Inc, the same company behind Bitcoin Miami, Bitcoin Amsterdam, Bitcoin Magazine, along with their investment arm UTXO Management.
Now it was clear that there would be some ordinal-related discussions at the conference which I wanted to verify for myself, however I was not expecting the sheer degree of emphasis on these, as well as the overall VC, compliance & KYC, public mining, and financial services direction of the conference.
As we explore, I have come to question BTC Inc's motivations, their choice of sponsors and programming, and their commitment to Bitcoin as freedom and privacy tech.
Bitcoin is resilient and anti-fragile, but I can’t help but wonder if this conference and the so-called Bitcoin Magazine are not part of a broader attack that uses the affinity of the Bitcoin brand to nullify the ongoing imperative for sound money, self-custody, decentralisation, and self-sovereignty.