Last week, I attended the Seoul Bitcoin Conference.
It is the first Bitcoin-only conference in South Korea – a country that has first-hand experience with the dangers that lurk in the broader “crypto” ecosystem.
In this week’s issue, I share my takeaways from the conference.
- Why the future for Bitcoin in Asia is bright ✨
- Exciting Layer 2 developments for Bitcoin 🧱
- The responsibility of all Bitcoiners to represent Bitcoin 🤝
(Do you enjoy Bitcoin content on Wealth Potion? Let me know…)
Let’s dive in.
1. Asia has a bright, Bitcoin-native future
Bitcoin adoption varies across Asian countries.
In Southeast Asia, Bitcoin is often advertised not as something you invest in, but as something you “play”. It unfortunately is seen as related to gambling and casinos.
In Northeast Asia, Bitcoin is lumped in with crypto. While the gambling references are not as explicit, the most popular use-case is day trading / swing trading. Because of this, traders gravitate toward higher risk altcoins, and they miss the bigger picture of why Bitcoin is important.
In short, crypto has unfortunately led the way, while Bitcoin has taken a back seat.
However, I still couldn’t help but leave the conference feeling extremely bullish on Bitcoin adoption in Asia.
Why?
Of course, Asia is a constellation of different countries and cultures. But many of these cultures have a shared core value:
Saving.
This deep-rooted preference for saving will outlast every altcoin and every fiat government regime.
Now imagine 4.5 billion people waking up to the reality that fiat destroys their savings…
2. Bitcoin Layer 2 development is thriving
The current debate on Bitcoin Twitter is largely ossification vs. acceleration.
Bitcoin maxis and the Michael Saylor crowd believe that Bitcoin should never change, and should stick to it’s primary use-case as sound money.
The ordinals and Runes crowd want Bitcoin to expand it’s use cases into smart contracts to compete with Ethereum.
I definitely lean toward the former, and I believe that 99% of the “use-cases” in crypto are solutions in search of a problem…
Coincidentally, Consensus 2024 (an Ethereum / altcoin conference) took place at the same time as the Seoul Bitcoin Conference, and we got this gem:
Take a bow, @rodarmor 👑 🤴
— Joe Nakamoto ⚡️ (@JoeNakamoto) June 3, 2024
pic.twitter.com/yJJcYPpq2P
“99.99% of the projects at this (Consensus) Conference are complete and utter bullshit. Their purpose is to print a token and dump it on retail investors.”
– Casey Rodarmor
Well said, Casey!
Crypto aside, I believe that the very fact that this ossification vs. acceleration debate is ongoing is a testament to Bitcoin’s decentralization. No single party controls Bitcoin, and this is a very good thing.
However, I also think this debate misses the bigger picture.
The sheer number of L2s being developed on Bitcoin is extremely exciting. Most of these L2s do not require any forks on the base layer, which should be something both sides of the debate can celebrate.
Which brings me to…
3. Each and every one of us represents Bitcoin
It’s very easy to make an argument for why toxic maximalism is valuable – even necessary.
Without Bitcoin maximalism, more people would’ve fallen for Terra / Luna. More people would’ve left their Bitcoin in the custody of FTX. More people would’ve lost their money in BlockFi and Mt.Gox.
Bitcoin maximalism protects newer Bitcoiners from scams and bad actors.
However, this argument only occurs online for a reason.
In-person, Bitcoiners are friendly, principled, optimistic, and inquisitive.
We all want Bitcoin to win.
And while maximalism has been an effective immune system, we cannot deny the negative effects that occur when the immune system attacks healthy cells.
The reality is that Bitcoin needs continued development!
Not all development is an attack on Bitcoin. There are sometimes trivial bugs, or small improvements that need to be made to the code to ensure Bitcoin’s smooth operation.
And when toxic maximalism goes too far, it mistakenly demonizes the Bitcoin developers that help maintain Bitcoin and ensure it continues to work as intended.
In conclusion:
Meet more Bitcoiners in person. I promise it’ll change how you conduct yourself online.
As an exclusive bonus for newsletter subscribers, here are some more photos from the Conference:
These two panels were particularly interesting to me, as someone who recently moved to Asia.
While every country has a unique culture and regulatory approach to Bitcoin, adoption faces similar challenges across Asia.
Notably, Bitcoin is still seen as part of the broader “crypto” ecosystem.
Here’s a great example of Bitcoin development doing good.
Many Bitcoiners agree that Bitcoin should be more anonymous.
Even Satoshi Nakamoto and Hal Finney were both optimistic about Bitcoin becoming more anonymous over time:
Looking at ways to add more anonymity to bitcoin
— halfin (@halfin) January 21, 2009
Ruben Somsen is one Bitcoin developer who is working on Silent Payments, which would work toward this goal.
Now, to my understanding, the current proposal would require changes on the base layer.
But this is a perfect example of an area where Bitcoin may benefit from an improvement, similar to Taproot or SegWit.
Build in Public Update
Meeting people at an in-person event for the first time since quitting my job to build Wealth Potion was an interesting experience:
- Referring to myself as a “Content Creator” feels most natural to me. I have grand plans for Wealth Potion beyond content creation, but that is arguably what I do.
- Most people I met immediately asked for my YouTube channel. This could be a reflection of the demographics, but I found it interesting that no one was interested in Instagram, TikTok, or even Twitter / X.
- Don’t sleep on in-person events. In-person events aren’t scalable like online events or social media, but they allow you to build deep meaningful connections that social media cannot replicate.
Growth is slow, but I’m enjoying myself, and I know that my growth is sustainable.
I will avoid burnout at all costs.
To your prosperity,
Wealth Potion
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