From November 30th to December 2nd, NFTS.WTF will have a booth in collaboration with Rarible in the Social Good Section of DCentral Miami 2021 coinciding with Art Basel 2021.
Purchase tickets to DCentral Miami here
While we have already provided quite a lot of coverage from this year’s Miami series of crypto extravaganzas – we want those of you who were not able to attend, such as myself, to get a little glimpse of the magic that you missed! While the original target audience of the Bitcoin Conference Miami 2021 was Bitcoin Maximalists – due to several event series happening in tandem, including NFTS.tips Private Events Series and Shitcoin 2021, Miami quickly became packed with a diverse group of crypto-heads of all shapes and sizes. The NFTs.tips community, as seen in the video above, made a huge splash this year. On top of major strategic partnerships including Try Showtime, Moonwolf, and of course NFTS.WTF; the tips community brought out leading NFT artists in the space including Sabet, Gabe Weis, and WARHODL, as well as over 100 other exhibited NFT creators.
One major highlight we can’t forget to mention is The Goodtime Hotel and all of its splendor. Between massive star-studded pool parties, Beeple in the elevator, and the J.lo Music video being filmed on site as a nice cherry on top – this place is definitely a gem. They also housed 125 rooms filled with the NFTs.tips entourage and threw the biggest NFT pool party to date featuring live music by Cedric Gervais and saucy go-go dancers providing the perfect eye-candy. Around every corner you’d find artists, collectors, press, and bystanders all collaborating and learning about NFTs. Many new partnerships were formed in the creative and stimulating space that Pharrell and his first-class team provided. The rooms were stylish yet quaint, enticing visitors to venture out into community spaces and explore. With talks of NFT displays and exhibits, this looks to be just the beginning of The Goodtimes’ NFT journey like so many others.
The small businesses in the area are in on the profits as well since they were utilized by so many of the crypto/NFT fan bases for events. The city was teeming with food truck and venue activations, catering, and I’m sure Lyft and Uber caught a nice surge throughout the week of lux black-car rides.
The owners of the cabaret “Eleven”, where Paris Hilton DJ’d during the week, had the right idea by allowing their entertainers to take payment in cryptocurrency and displaying NFTs on their big screens.
Whether you understand crypto or not, it’s becoming more and more likely that it has impacted you or your surroundings. It is only a matter of time until crypto is as mainstream as a debit card, with global opportunities for all.
While you may be feeling the FOMO, this event is just the tip of the iceberg, as we come out of this pandemic era, it seems as if the world of crypto is replacing the influencer space as the “cool kids club” of conferences. There are already a ton of preparations in the works for upcoming events in New York, Paris, Dubai, and dozens of other cities around the world. While you may have missed this one, it is fairly certain that there will be an equally exciting crypto event coming soon to a city near you!
Featured video by Alexander Mazzei
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[addtoany]Miami Florida, a vacation spot for some, or the up and coming cryptocurrency capital of the world for crypto-heads. June 2021 was a month full of festivities, from community meet-ups to the largest Bitcoin conference in history! There were dozens of events to choose from, however one stands out in particular, charmingly named Shitcoin 2021- and that’s no typo! On June 3rd and 4th, Shitcoin 2021 was held in the heart of Wynwood, conveniently located down the street from Bitcoin 2021. The real question is; why did this happen? Kenn Bosak had a bright idea when some of his friends were turned away from sponsoring the largest crypto event the world has seen… so “we’re gonna do our own conference, and we’re gonna call it shitcoin- because everything that is not Bitcoin to a maxi is a shitcoin”.
One month later, Shitcoin was manifested. Shitcoin 2021 was created to highlight inclusivity within the crypto space. Ironically, there were even some Bitcoin maximalists speaking at the event. Some notable mentions included: Tone Vays, Bitcoin Vegan, and Paul Sztorc. Bitcoin maximalism has it’s reputation, to some it’s a form of supreme sound money, to others it can be seen as harsh and toxic. The truth is there’s absolutely nothing wrong with Bitcoin maximalism, what’s wrong is the exclusive environment that certain individuals create that discredits hard-working and valid projects in the space.
The event that started off as an inside-joke that became a reality thanks to an enormous amount of community effort. Featuring over 50 speakers; from the NFT The Movie panel with Jeff Crane, Kenn Bosak, Miggy Crypto, Jack Storm, and Nathan Love- to A very intense law panel with Bitcoin Khaleesi, Jason Seibert, and defendant Nathan Hulk . 25+ sponsors and contributors participated from companies like Matter FI, Vy FInance, IllMind, and Shiba Inu. The venue was packed with passionate community members. Other notable mentions include the Haha for Hire comedy show with Mike Salvi’s entourage, Featuring Sam Tripoli; Flote Token Public Sale Taco Party; and Meow DAO Pizza Happy Hour (this event was very much worth attending).
The best part of all, the entire event was donation based: General Admission, Sponsorships, and Booths! All funds were generated through donation prior to June 1st. Attendees were able to purchase tickets for as little as a dollar, and can donate as much as they want to support the cause. Shitcoin 2021 brings back the grassroots movement within the crypto industry. The event was a place for a community to come together and become friends, even family; where ideas and cultures mixed, collided, and created a synergy that is so needed in this crypto/NFT space. Our goal was to not only highlight the variety of great alt-coin projects backed by great people who are looking to make a change in the world, but also to provide a safe and loving space that any one would be free to be themselves and connect with others on a very personal level to speak life… not just cryptocurrency. What was accomplished at Shitcoin 2021 will soon come to light in a big way that will prove to the world what the REAL crypto-community is about. Wherever a Bitcoin Conference is, you can be rest assured Shitcoin won’t be far behind. Until next year!
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[addtoany]Miami is always filled with energy, but this past week, frequencies were even higher than usual. That’s because approximately 50,000 people descended on the coastal city for the 2021 Bitcoin conference.
What made this year so special was the broad range of parallel events that were running alongside the conference. From the Shitcoin conference at Wynwood Factory to a host of unofficial NFT events (including NFT Basel and six events produced by NFTs.tips), it was clear that despite the state of the market – the enthusiasm around crypto right now is magnetic.
People from all sides of the emerging NFT sector were in Miami, showcasing digital and crypto art and relatively new use cases for the technology. This included proof-of-attendance protocol (POAP) tokens used by the Lottery NFT (which minted on crypto.com) to unlock prizes for event attendees. Experiences gifted to POAP holders included tickets to the Mayweather vs. Paul fight, a merch bundle, and more.
While many conversations were had about NFTs in conference rooms, poolside, and on the dancefloor- it was evident throughout the week that many people are still in the process of fully understanding NFT technology and how it can apply to their brand vision or personal investment strategy.
One phrase that seemed to be floating around quite a bit is “NFT art.” Because NFTs are essentially digital tokens that prove ownership, uniqueness, and authenticity; the question stands -isn’t it still just digital or crypto art utilizing NFT technology?
A great application of Digi/Physi (digital artwork with a physical component) was Warhodl’s presentation during the Bitcoin Conference. Warhodl is a breakout artist in the NFT space and the only official art presentation at Bitcoin Miami 2021. “The Soup Factory” was the artist’s first IRL pop-up and included digital NFTs with physical components. Warhodl had a record-breaking weekend, selling almost 100 pieces over two days, including thirteen pieces to one single collector.
As potential collectors and members of the traditional fine art world scrutinize the value of digital art, the inclusion of a physical collectible appears to be a means to build a bridge over to this seemingly inevitable future.
Even with the NFT buzz, Bitcoin was, and still remains the star of the show. With news coming in post-conference announcing that El Salvador would become the first country to use the cryptocurrency as legal tender. The IMF has raised concerns over this deal, but it appears Bitcoin may have deals in the works with other countries as well.
Beyond the Bitcoin standard, new tokens and startups were on display at alt-venues in Little Havana, Miami Beach, Brickell and the design district. From “crypto for veterans” platform Military.Finance to Tezos minting platform Kalamint, Miami was filled with unique value propositions and solutions to aid in the growing crypto market.
It’s clear that the roadmaps for the NFT space are just beginning to be drawn. The opportunity to blueprint how NFT technology will be utilized on a large scale creates immense excitement but also presents unsolved challenges. For one, the scalability of digital display frames could be prohibitive to mass adoption by the general public. Other challenges include the need for more education on the collector side, as new collectors are learning what it means to be responsible for assigning financial value to art.
However, for every one challenge, there are at least ten ideas of how this technology can transform the creative economy, protect the supply chain, and do social good. If anything, Miami solidified the notion that blockchain has arrived, cryptocurrency is the future, and NFTs are just getting started.
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[addtoany]The Shitcoin conference was just held in Miami on June 3rd and 4th, just down the road from this year’s largest crypto event, the Bitcoin conference. According to the Shitcoin conference website, “Shitcoin 2021 is dedicated to all the companies that got turned away from participating in one of the largest crypto events.” the event slogan is “because F*ck Maximalism,” and I agree!
The event was masterminded by Kenn Bosak, a Bitcoiner since 2015. Bosak has traveled around the world attending over 200 Blockchain conferences, also happens to be one of the most well known NFT creators and influencers in the Wax blockchain ecosystem. Kenn is great at creating an engaged and loyal community. I have seen first hand his generosity and commitment to his community and in helping others get into the NFT space. He was actually one of the influencers who made me fall in love with what I saw going on in the Wax NFT community.
One of the key takeaways I received from Kenn was that there is a shift taking place right now. Especially within the creative spaces wherein NFT creators and companies need to transition from acquiring customers to creating communities. This is all made more possible via the use of non-fungible tokens.
The wild, free and open vibe of the Shitcoin conference was evident as soon as you walked in the door. While I did not attend the Bitcoin conference for several reasons, the main one being that I am not a maximalist and personally believe that attitude to be completely anti-innovation, I did run into some incredible characters that I connected with who did attend the Bitcoin conference. One of them goes by the name @hyperspek who had this to say about the Bitcoin conference:
“The Bitcoin maxis really seemed to have blinders to the future of blockchain innovation. Understandable for some who still have PTSD from getting rekt last cycle. As they try to adapt an “old” technology not really designed for these applications, they will get left for dead by what is happening on ETH and other platforms.”
Hyperspek is an investor and NFT collector who also happens to be a virtual gallery builder. He showed me his gallery in Crypto Voxels and it was amazing, he likes to make art with other art and is quite good at doing so! His attention to details and his creativity was impressive. You can check out his awesome collection and gallery here
To me personally, being a Bitcoin maximalist is like saying “I like airplanes and what they allow, but not helicopters, planes without props or jet engines.
This kind of thinking is nonsensical and will not pass muster in the grand scheme of technological innovation. There will be many protocols, many will fail, but innovation and experimentation will dictate what survives.
The stark contrast of the Shitcoin conference and crowd was much more open to new ideas, fun, and was largely centered around NFTS. The atmosphere was younger, less refined, more tolerant, and brimming with excitement for the future of NFTs and blockchain technology. It seems quite evident that there will be another event next year because the demand from the community is definitely there. Next year’s event will almost certainly be a few blocks away from the next Bitcoin conference as a statement against the very term “Shitcoin.” Meant to encompass everything that is not Bitcoin, to include non-fungible tokens, and create something which the community can embrace and own.
The lineup of speakers at this year’s Shitcoin conference can be seen here, and I am sure next year’s event will improve on this. Some interesting concepts that were discussed while I attended were: the fractionalized ownership of assets by blockcities, regenerative farming, and how blockchain can play a role during the Blockchain for Impact panel. In this particular talk, Irina Litchfield, founder of Blockchain -Cubed, a blockchain technology consulting firm and adviser for Prochain Capital, discussed some innovative solutions.
From Crypto hedge fund managers to NFT artists, defi protocol developers to musicians, comedians to filmmakers. The diversity represented within this year’s Shitcoin conference is more reflective in my opinion of what the future of NFTs and blockchain looks like. In all fairness, I do believe that an overwhelming majority of the crypto community are not in the cult of Bitcoin maximalist and do support innovation and advancement within this space.
