The People—OK, the Men—Who Still Love Bitcoin

The Venetian Resort, at the heart of the Las Vegas Strip, is already a surreal place—the interior includes an indoor St. Mark’s Square with chlorine-blue canals, old-timey lampposts, and a painted blue sky. This spring, however, the casino offered an even stranger spectacle when a Bitcoin convention filled the expo hall. It was odd enough that most people in the crowd were wearing fluorescent orange, but stranger still was this rarity: the sight of a group of diverse men full of hope.

In fact, hope was the official policy of the event. A sign at check-in offered a brief list of what was not permitted inside. That list included firearms, cigarettes, outside food and drink, and bears. Yes, bears: crypto slang for people who think the price of Bitcoin is going to fall or who have in some other way succumbed to crypto pessimism.

Inside, over the course of my three days at the convention, I met no bears within the predominantly male crowd. Instead, I found confidence and joy in Bitcoin. Everything about the event seemed designed to make alternative finance feel fun. Look one way and there was a Bitcoin-themed art gallery featuring a 6-foot skull made of motherboards; look the other, and there was a massive inflatable monkey wearing an orange crown. At the center of the hall, a series of DJs oversaw a dance floor and kept the mood relentlessly upbeat.