I'm so glad I wasn't in Vegas. Everything I have seen confirms my suspicions. The world financial apparatus, led by the US and aided by an army of people who only care about number go up, is trying hard to co-opt Bitcoin into a custodial asset, managed (aka controlled) by them.
Don't fall for it. Bitcoin MUST be a peer to peer technology for it to succeed (NgU is NOT succeeding). I refuse to believe that it's "inevitable" that we'd get this fiat managed outcome when we hit the mainstream.
Bitcoin is money for people; not governments, banks, and corporations. Fuck them. They've had their chance to run things and they've broken nearly everything.
quotingIt feels like Bitcoin has finally crossed the Rubicon into the mainstream both a triumph and a tragedy.
nevent1q…vayr
Walking around the conference this year, you could easily mistake it for a fintech summit or SaaS expo in Vegas. Same blazers, same VC pitch decks, same awkward networking energy. The suitcoiners outnumber the cypherpunks by 100:1.
On one hand, this is what we fought for: global legitimacy, serious capital, institutional attention.
On the other, something’s been lost in translation. The raw edge, the revolutionary energy, the sense that we were building something against the system not polishing it up to sell it back to the system.
Bitcoin doesn’t feel quite as dangerous anymore.
It feels… professional. Predictable. “Respectable,” even.
Maybe that’s just the mask Bitcoin wears while it continues hollowing out the old world from within.
Either way, the vibe has shifted.