Last Sunday, August 25, we held our second annual Bitcoin Block Party in Vancouver, BC. Like any other Block Party, we want to bring the community together for a fun afternoon, get to know each other and welcome new members. Unlike a Bitcoin conference, the talks and workshops are not the center of the event: Experiencing Bitcoin is.
Every vendor at the event must accept Bitcoin over the Lightning Network, but guests don't have to use it for payments. And it turned out to be a massive success:
About 200 people came. Most stayed there for multiple hours, listened to at least a talk, had some food and drinks and bought something from one of the vendors. Each vendor gets to decide and set up their own point of sale, and every single vendor also accepts Bitcoin outside of the event. There's a good mix of point of sale solutions: IBEX, Blink, BTCPay, CoinOS, LNbits and Wallet of Satoshi are what I encountered.
All vendors reported they saw over 50% of their sales through Bitcoin. For one it was 100%, another 90%, for most about 2/3rds.
The bar saw over 50 lightning transactions totalling ~611k satoshi plus ~98k satoshi in tips. The bar tender remarked how their Lightning point of sale turned out to be more reliable that day than the Square terminal.
The Lightning demo desk handed out 50 "Laisee" envelopes containing 210 sat each, of which 19 were redeemed during the event. The rest are valid for another month, so if you got one, don't leave it lying around!
The candy dispenser (21 sat for some jelly beans) was used 45 times!
Five people got a tattoo at the event, all paid with sats!
There was a coffee shop, a coffee roaster, a dessert shop, a food truck, a shop selling 3D printed and hand painted figurines, Aqua wallet had a booth, an onchain ATM from Bitcoin Well, a Lightning ATM, a vineyard/cidery, a streetware shop, a barber shop, a tattoo artist, a book store and the Lightning demo desk!
Hope to see you next year! Maybe this kind of format catches on elsewhere, it sure is a lot of fun!
475 sats \ 2 replies \ @leo OP 27 Aug
Master Chef food truck:
Lightning Sparx, Bitcoin education for kids:
The tattoo artist and a client:
Roger and his book store almost sold out
Privato Vineyard and Woodward Cidery:
Sexy Boys and Girls street ware:
The Lightning demo booth:
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Was a stellar day. Good description!
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And from Lightning Sparx...
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Wow super cool! Vancouver may be one of the Bitcoin Capitals of Canada in the future. I know it is an open minded and pretty friendly towards businesses.
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173 sats \ 5 replies \ @leo OP 28 Aug
It's the only city in North America where you can expect to find a few merchants that take sats, but I hope that changes quickly!
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In Miami there were a handful of vendors that took sats, but it was rare and only around the bitcoin conference from my understanding.
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31 sats \ 1 reply \ @leo OP 29 Aug
Yeah they're almost all gone now in Miami. There's some traction in Tampa, but the number two city is probably Austin, TX
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Yeah they're building some bitcoinization in Tampa.
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There is a few vendors right now accepting Bitcoin around Fort Lauderdale to Miami area! We onboarded a few of them. You can find the locations here: Coinos.io/map
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The East Coast too! In Ontario, there's a handful of Bitcoin merchants between Niagara & Toronto
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Great to see these movements ! Good job guys!
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Cheers! We are trying!
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108 sats \ 1 reply \ @anon 27 Aug
Amazing day in Vancouver. I had a blast. Can’t wait until next year. The Banana Bread and granola from Trails Coffee Anmore is delicious. Funk Coffee tins with the bitcoin art are so cool and the coffee is delicious too. Great talks and awesome vibe!!
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Glad you liked it!
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This sounds fantastic. I'm a fan of block parties and street fairs to begin with, but using it as a way to promote BTC is awesome!
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Yeah join the meetup group meetup.com/btcvancity for future events if you like it!
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Coinos.io had a booth set up too. Doing lightning demos and selling Bitcoin clothing & shoes.
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8 sats \ 2 replies \ @art 28 Aug
I had a ton of fun hanging out with the Vancouverites (sorry Calgary)!
A few things stood out to me
  • I met virtually no one who didn't already have some interest in bitcoin - so no "walk ins"
  • People loved conversational ice breakers like this
  • It really helped to have 3 different "stages" - for talks, hangs, and dancing/ chilling
  • It's vitally important to have people educate on setting up a wallet + help newcomers break in and using the tech
  • I thought the "up and down" stickers to indicate if people are interested in buying/ selling bitcoin was compelling
Overall, agree with Leo. Experiencing bitcoin is the point.
Bitcoin is a human solution to human problems.
PS Shameless plug for the Calgary Sat Market happening early Dec! Follow for news here.
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Dave & Ben invited me to the Sat Market and I heard it was a really fun time! Hopefully see you there!
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25 sats \ 0 replies \ @art 31 Aug
Will see you there!
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