WBD348 Audio Transcription
Bitcoiners Control the World with David Bailey
Interview date: Friday 14th May
Note: the following is a transcription of my interview with David Bailey. I have reviewed the transcription but if you find any mistakes, please feel free to email me. You can listen to the original recording here.
In this interview, I talk to David Bailey, CEO of BTC Media. We discuss the massive Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami, maximalism, hyperbitcoinisation, and the bitcoin revolution.
“He who controls the money controls the world, and Bitcoin is the money now, and bitcoiners control the world, and the rest of the world is waking up to this fact. This is the new Davos...fuck the old world.”
— David Bailey
Interview Transcription
Peter McCormack: David, what we have we got; about a month to go?
David Bailey: A month to go. I think about 28 days --
Peter McCormack: A month to go.
David Bailey: -- to be exact.
Peter McCormack: How're you feeling?
David Bailey: I'm in the trough of disillusionment a little bit right now, in terms of what did I sign up for; and I feel like this event has become like the zeitgeist and the eyes of the world are on this Conference. I mean, every day the intensity and craziness is ratcheting up dramatically. Monday, Logan Paul's people reach out to us; Wednesday, Floyd Mayweather's people reach out to us; you know, Thursday -- I mean every day, the craziness ratchets up and I think that when this event actually happens it's going to be the number one attention sucking thing in the world. Eventbrite told us we're the top three largest in-person event right now on their platform, I think we're the largest in-person event in the country for the month of June; so yeah, it's wild.
Peter McCormack: Are you feeling under a lot of pressure?
David Bailey: No, no. Mostly just under pressure to make sure we create a good product. It's the unknown unknowns, we've got this huge crowd coming and you've got to manage the flow of a lot of people, it's a hard thing to do. So, when you have 12,000 people coming to a venue, there's no one room that can fit 12,000 people, so you've got to make sure that like, okay, we've got enough interesting stuff happening in enough different places that the bodies kind of are spread throughout the venue, etc.
So, I got a couple of things like that that I'm worried about and we're spending a lot of time on, but otherwise it's kind of like no fucks are given anymore and that's kind of freed us to just do exactly what we want to do. We're building kind of David's Willy Wonka's Bitcoin factory and it's just you get what you -- we're building it, you come, it's going to be fun. If you have complaints, send them to our complaint department.
Peter McCormack: And go fuck yourself!
David Bailey: Exactly!
Peter McCormack: How many came in 2019? What was that; like 3,000?
David Bailey: 2,000, 2,200.
Peter McCormack: 2,000? Okay, so you've gone 6X on that?
David Bailey: Yeah, and the craziness is, if we didn't have a maximum capacity, we had to double ticket prices overnight, because we were selling so many tickets that we were pacing for selling, like if we charted it against historical data, 35,000 to 50,000 people. So, this event really took off and honestly, the vision that we have for this event, I think that's going to be grown into a million-person event.
People were like, "Oh we can make the CES", it's like, "No, fuck CES, we want to be mega, and this is like the pilgrimage around the world". Let's do something crazy and weird that's a fusion between the new Davos and the new Burning Man and the new South by and the new Money 20/20 all fused into one. Yeah, I mean I think we can make something weird that showcases Bitcoin culture, counterculture, in a way that nothing else can.
Peter McCormack: I've already claimed Bedford as the Bitcoin mecca. You can't have it, man.
David Bailey: This is where all good religious disputes come from though, so you know, there's that versus the Bitcoin Conference and it's going to be one of those things; it's going to get ugly in time.
Peter McCormack: You can host it in Bedford, we could have it at the Corn Exchange, but I only think that's about 800 people; maybe in the park. Dude, listen, you've crushed it. I'm obviously party to a lot of what's going on in the background because you've invited me to MC again, and I think you guys, especially in this COVID era where everyone's worried and you've just gone balls out and you've done it, I think fair play to you. I think the guest list is pretty incredible, so well done on that. What do Logan Paul and Floyd Mayweather want?
David Bailey: Well, so before I answer, and I don't want to leak any of those specifics --
Peter McCormack: Okay.
David Bailey: In terms of the pandemic, we do not care at all about the pandemic. I mean the Founding Fathers, when they are organising revolution and yellow fever was abound, they didn't say, "Okay pack it up boys; there's yellow fever, we might get sick", it's like, "No, this is a fucking revolution". People die, all right; a lot less people are going to die when Bitcoin takes over the monetary system than the existing world that we are having to live in, so fuck the pandemic; pandemics don't stop revolutions.
Peter McCormack: Fuck the pandemic; so, we don't have to wear masks?
David Bailey: You don't have wear masks, no.
Peter McCormack: Sweet.
David Bailey: We'll have them, they're really more to keep people from accidently doxing themselves, but, yeah, you don't have to.
Peter McCormack: You seem pretty fired up, dude. I've not seen you like -- I remember 2019 and 2019 was brilliant. I'm so gutted 2020 didn't happen because of it, but 2019 was brilliant. It's the premier Bitcoin event and it's not cringey or cheesy and it's good people, good conversations, good parties, good dinners; everything about it was quality. But you were very chilled back then; you seem pretty fired up, dude.
David Bailey: We're unleashed, and I mean we've just realised, what's the point of fuck-you money if you're not going to say "fuck you", you know, so…
Peter McCormack: Hey, dude, did you see my tweet earlier?
David Bailey: No, I'm not on Twitter anymore.
Peter McCormack: Dude, I had to send some Bitcoin to somebody earlier and I had my Ledger with me, and when you approve it, the address splits over multiple screens because they have character limits; and on the last screen there was only two letters, and it was "FU"!
David Bailey: That's nice; that's a sign! Yeah, I mean it's just like once we stopped trying to make money at this company and we almost went bankrupt, I mean 2018 was a really vicious year for us, it was like, "We've lost all this money", and it's like, "Okay, what's the point of all of this; what makes all of this worth it?" Really, I got into Bitcoin for one reason; it's the movement behind Bitcoin, it's the ideas behind Bitcoin, it's hyperbitcoinisation. That's why we're here and so that's the mission. If we lose all of our money doing it, it was worth it.
So, ever since we've taken on that mindset, our decision-making frameworks have been so much more straightforward and so doing a Bitcoin-only conference was straightforward. Then doubling down on all the things make Bitcoin cool is straightforward and it's like Bitcoin didn't need any investment bank, it didn't need any politician, it didn't need anyone to make it what it is; it did it despite all those things. So, we don't need to change who we are to impress the world; the world needs to understand what we're all about, so we've just leaned into it, we're having fun.
Peter McCormack: You're definitely fired up though, dude. How do you take in this last year especially; we all expected a bull run because Bitcoin has bull runs, right? Every four years we expect it now, it's come as a given. It certainly hasn't played out how I thought it would. I didn't see it becoming a year of institutions. I still thought it would be mainly retail driven, some institutions. It suddenly feels like -- it's like this hyperbitcoinisation thing that I know you've been talking about again.
When I first got into Bitcoin, I heard about that I was like, "Yeah, all right, whatever; I get what you're saying". I think I read it on Pierre Rochard's article, maybe it was Pierre, on the Nakamoto Institute. I was like, "Look, I get it, it's a theory, etc, it's not going to happen".
Now, you can see it happening. I was having a conversation yesterday, that conversation, "Does Bitcoin go to zero or to a million?". It goes to a million way easier than zero now; it feels like it's -- how do you take it all in?
David Bailey: The difference between $1 million and $100,000 is the difference between $100,000 and $10,000; it's nothing. I mean, there are two outcomes: it goes to zero or it goes to 121-millionth of all the things; that's the price of a Bitcoin. I mean we are somewhere in this quantum state in between those two possible outcomes and as time goes on, we trend towards one or the other. I'm of the view that as time goes on and confidence in Bitcoin grows, and adoption and infrastructure grows, and usability grows, and functionality grows, that we trend towards infinity. Bitcoin is a black hole; I mean it's just a black hole and it's sucking everything into it.
I read an article yesterday about how banks are rolling out these cryptocurrency and Bitcoin products because they're looking at the data of how many deposits are flowing over to the Bitcoin exchanges and they're just, you know, the data speaks for itself; they have to do it. It's like, "Yeah, no shit; that's hyperbitcoinisation. It's going to suck everyone in". So, in my mind this has already happened; it's just it takes time for it to dawn on people that it's happened.
I mean we're sitting on a $1 trillion asset class; $1 trillion. We've gone through three 80% crashes and recoveries and we're here and like we're sitting on a $1 trillion asset class for I mean, what, it's not like we're just spiking up, we've been sitting here for a couple of months. I mean you're hearing the biggest Fortune 500 companies are putting slugs of money into this thing. This is so far beyond where we were five years.
I mean I don't know, if you just have some perspective on it, it's such a straightforward thing to look at a boulder rolling down a hill, or water flowing down a mountain and be like, "Yeah, it's going to keep flowing down that mountain to the bottom of it". I just feel like that's where we're at, watching the momentum of Bitcoin just accelerate. And then people watch the day-to-day price and are like, "Oh, is it over?" It's not even worth having those conversations anymore.
Peter McCormack: It gets a lot easier when you aren't dictated by the price as well. It's funny, like 2017, you know, look, when the price goes up, obviously holler and celebrate and, "It's awesome, it's cool", but also at the same time --
David Bailey: Hey, by the way did you get your car?
Peter McCormack: Which one?
David Bailey: I think I remember seeing before I quit Twitter that you're wanting to get an Aston Martin or something?
Peter McCormack: Yeah, yeah, I did.
David Bailey: You did? Nice.
Peter McCormack: I did and then I crashed it.
David Bailey: You did? Dope, dude that's very Bitcoin.
Peter McCormack: No, only small, just into the garage. I was just being a dick and I pulled it out and I snapped the carbon fibre on the bonnet, but yeah, I got it. I treated myself like --
David Bailey: Nice.
Peter McCormack: Fucking hard work this last four years, so yeah.
David Bailey: We were talking about doing like a -- we're talking to a sponsor I think Sportsbet.io maybe your --
Peter McCormack: Yeah.
David Bailey: Do they work with you?
Peter McCormack: Yeah, they're one of mine; they're doing the Lambo giveaway.
David Bailey: They wanted to do -- yeah, they're doing a Lambo giveaway at the Conference and my idea was like, "Let's find the car that Peter McCormack likes the most, the one that he wants to buy; let's give that away and let's have Peter McCormack announce the winner of it. That'll be the ultimate trolls. Let's make Peter give away his dream car"!
Peter McCormack: Yeah, no definitely, but I want to. But I turned round to them and said, "I'll only do it if you get me one as well"!
David Bailey: A good negotiator.
Peter McCormack: Yeah, well they agreed to it; the problem is I haven't got the garage space for it. Let's talk a bit more about the event, then we'll cover the hyperbitcoinisation. Okay, a few things to ask. One of the interesting things about this event is that it's had quite a lot of -- it's good that you're not that you're not on Twitter so you may be not aware, but there has been criticism of speakers, specifically Chamath has been criticised. I don't know how much you can talk about it but like --
David Bailey: Well, I can talk about all of it.
Peter McCormack: -- if you don't talk about it, rumours happen.
David Bailey: Let's talk about all; let's dig into it.
Peter McCormack: So, with Chamath, right, I talked about -- I had SurferJim, recorded with him, that's going to be out on Monday; but I talked to him about it and my view on Chamath is that he's been a bit of a dick a couple of times to people. And I, knowing he was on stage, and so I reached out to Brandon --
David Bailey: Someone was a dick in the Bitcoin space? Oh no!
Peter McCormack: I reached out to Brandon and I was like, "Look, can you just put me in touch with him because I want to speak to him". I was going to invite him on the show and just give him the opportunity to deal with that and apologise, because I felt like he could if he wanted to. Then he did the whole BitClout thing which is just like, "Ugh". Then he's now not on the radar. I know he wanted to present remotely; is that why it's not happening?
David Bailey: Yes. So, let's break some news here, because like I quit Twitter in a protest, I'm dying to come back. Every day I want to come back and just rain on someone, but then it's like I can't let responding to something be the reason I come back to Twitter. If I'm going to come back, I've got to do it on my terms.
Peter McCormack: Why did you quit in protest? What was your protest first?
David Bailey: I thought it was total horseshit when Trump was kicked off of Twitter. I hate Republicans, I hate Democrats, I hate the Government. I'm a diehard, hardcore libertarian but, dude, I have a special place in my heart for any person who is a disruptor that infuriates the mainstream. So, I think Trump is hilarious; any time you're pissing off the aristocracy, you're doing something right.
Anyway, I thought it was total horseshit that going down, and it's just like, "Look, I'm not going to make money for Twitter off my tweets; fuck them. If people want to find me, follow me, read Bitcoin Magazine". So, I'm off Twitter, it's given me a lot of my day back which is kind of nice, but all right, what was your question? Chamath.
Peter McCormack: Yeah, so let's talk about Chamath. I think people think he's got kicked off or he quit because he was scared of the reaction, but I know from Brandon that he wanted to present remotely, which is -- look, it's fine if you're Edward Snowden, but that's about it.
David Bailey: Yeah, and I was a little bit upset with my team about how this information was presented, because they didn't really add a context to it, and we have a couple of speakers --
Peter McCormack: It looked almost like a celebration.
David Bailey: There was no tone to our tweet at all, then people interpreted it how they wanted to, and I felt like we should have come back out and been, "Like, hey let's clarify this", but we're going to break some news here, I guess. So, there are a handful of speakers that confirmed to speak at Bitcoin 2020 when we were doing it in LA and they were speaking in person, but it was like the pandemic's going on, they're like, "Hey, you know, I'm down to do this but we have to approach it when we get closer to the date to make sure that I'm not going to have any issues with the pandemic, etc".
Then we move the event to Miami, the other side of the country, which makes it much more logistically challenging, especially for people who have really busy schedules. So, there are three speakers that we have that all confirmed to come in digitally: Cathie Wood, Anthony Scaramucci and Chamath. I made the decision that unless you have a legitimate threat to your life or you're a fugitive from the law, those are the only two scenarios I'm comfortable with someone joining us virtually. So I told Brandon to email all three of them, tell them they either have to come in person, or they can speak next year, but that's the end of it. I think Scaramucci is coming in person now.
Peter McCormack: Nice.
David Bailey: I think Chamath is out, and Cathie Wood is trying to make a decision.
Peter McCormack: Okay, fine.
David Bailey: So that's the reality, that's what happened. I think Chamath is a total badass. I completely disagree with his political views, but I don't frankly what his political views are. I do think what went down with SurferJim was cringe, it was a bad joke from Chamath, and I think SurferJim, I was on a podcast with him; nice guy, very articulate.
Peter McCormack: Yeah.
David Bailey: I was impressed so, you know --
Peter McCormack: Yeah, me too.
David Bailey: We invited SurferJim to speak at the Conference too. He'd said he'd only do it if Chamath was uninvited. Okay, we did not uninvite Chamath so that SurferJim would speak. I do not, what's it; kowtow to the mob. So, we hope Chamath speaks next year, Chamath no hard feelings, I'm sorry you've been cancelled by the Bitcoin scene, but keep holding those Bitcoins; don't sell.
Peter McCormack: Yeah, okay a few things there. Have you given the slot to SurferJim?
David Bailey: Well, so SurferJim -- giving some inside bases here.
Peter McCormack: He wants the slot.
David Bailey: I think SurferJim said in his last message to us like, "Hey, give me a keynote and I'll do it", it's like, "No, we're not doing that". It's a bold move, kudos to SurferJim, but we'd love for him to join discussion on maximalism, but that invite is still sitting out there.
Peter McCormack: Man, personally I think giving him a keynote, giving a pleb a keynote, would be fucking awesome; that would be a boss move. I think you only win, personally, I think you only win; that's my view.
David Bailey: Well, so I would do it if the idea was our idea and we came up with it, but when it's reacting to everyone being like, "Give a pleb a keynote", it's like, "Dude, we're not going to be bossed around about how to make, you know, this is our party. Our party, our rules, all right. If you want to come to the biggest fucking gathering of bitcoiners in the history of humanity, come to our event. If that doesn't sound good to you, and you want to tell us how we need to change event, well then fuck you, I don't really care; don't come to the Conference", boom, there we go.
Peter McCormack: Fair enough, man. Your hard work, your event. I still think it'll be badass though and I also agree; I like Chamath, right. The last few months, he's been doing some things that I don't agree with and I don't care about.
David Bailey: Cringe, yeah.
Peter McCormack: Same on the politics side a little bit with you, like I went into the politics, I dove right in, especially the election stuff; I was, "Fuck Trump, he's an idiot", etc, and then I came out the other end and I just realised I hate it all. And also, seeing what the Biden administration is doing is just more bullshit so I'm kind of with you on that and I don't care about the politics, but I want to get Chamath on the show. I've never spoken to him, not even had any interaction, but I think it would be good for people to hear from him because I think if they actually hear from him talking about Bitcoin, they might realise he is a badass, he is a bitcoiner. I think the BitClout thing though, I don't know, man, that thing smells bad; it smells bad.
David Bailey: I know that's weird.
Peter McCormack: It's fucking gross.
David Bailey: I always hate that when someone does such a good job of articulating the Bitcoin value proposition for so long and then you're like, "Wow this person really gets it", and then out of nowhere they're just like, "But have you heard about Dogecoin?", I mean it's like, wow, wow, disappointing me.
Peter McCormack: Yeah. He's not the only one to get some criticism. I think anyone who's on the list who's got some association with shitcoins at all, whether it's if you're an exchange operator; like my sponsors, Tyler and Cameron have been criticised as speakers. Actually, I've been criticised as an MC. There's a certain list of people that people have been critical about.
My view always on this stuff is because I get criticised having them as sponsors, "Why are you having them as sponsors, they've got shitcoins?" It's like, my show's Bitcoin only, right, but walking that purity line for sponsors is very hard. There's not enough out there and if you're trying to run a business it's just hard, but I guess you face similar kind of dilemmas on this because you are a Bitcoin-only magazine, you're a Bitcoin-only event, but some of the interesting speakers have got shitcoins in their business.
David Bailey: Yeah, so, we're Bitcoin only not Bitcoin maximalist and I'm not saying that that's the vibe of every person who works at this company; I'm saying that that's the intentional vibe of the products we build, how we differentiate. When you're dealing with something that's at scale, and you're not just going off of subjective opinions, you've got to have kind of a framework for determining what's on topic, what's off topic; what's a Bitcoin company, what's not a Bitcoin company; what's Bitcoin relevant, what isn't. So, you know, should Wrapped Bitcoin be at the Conference? I think yes. Should an ERC-20 decentralised exchange that has Wrapped Bitcoin trading peers be at the Conference? I think no.
So, we look at it like if you interact with the Bitcoin mainnet, if you interact with the Bitcoin protocol, we don't care what you're doing, we don't care how you're using it, you're a Bitcoin company, end of discussion; that's just the line we draw. In terms of who are we inviting to the Conference and why, our goal is not Bitcoin purity; our goal is hyperbitcoinisation and we're trying to build a coalition, as George Bush would say, "A coalition of the willing", that is as big and as broad as possible to accelerate hyperbitcoinisation; that's it.
So, I'm not saying that there isn't a place for total Bitcoin purity and maximalism, I think it does great a job of keeping people honest and it's needed; but you can't just burn bridges, someone has to build the bridges you burn first. We're trying to build bridges with people who can align with this coalition to accelerate what's going on and I look at every shitcoiner as an opportunity to realign them with Bitcoin and bring them back to Bitcoin and improve and grow the Bitcoin community.
So, let's talk about the speakers that have gotten some controversy and I responded actually; somebody came into our telegram group last night, and I kind of went off on him. Let's see; off the top of my head, the ones that have been mentioned are first one, Mike Novogratz, right. Mike Novogratz launched I think the first Bitcoin ETF in the world, out of Canada, and he's running a big percentage of the institutional Bitcoin scene in the OTC desk and the structured loan products and the options markets products. I mean his prop desk is big and the Bitcoin mining work that he does; if you think he's not relevant to Bitcoin you just are frankly not moving enough money around to just know the role that he's playing in the ecosystem.
Peter McCormack: Hold on, didn't he just buy BitGo as well?
David Bailey: He did, yeah, exactly.
Peter McCormack: Yeah, $1.2 billion acquisition.
David Bailey: Yeah, so we're super pumped to have Mike Novogratz there and every single speaker we brought on, we are crystal clear with them, they are here to talk about Bitcoin only. In fact, they are not invited if they cannot play by those rules, so if you see them on our agenda, that means that they've agreed they're there to talk about Bitcoin and that's it, so that's Mike.
Peter McCormack: Dude listen, I was just going to say that's like with my sponsors. Everyone that signs up, they get told I will only ever talk about your Bitcoin products. So, when I talk about Gemini it's like, you can buy and sell Bitcoin there. If I talk about Exodus Wallet, it's how I'm using it for Bitcoin. That's the same; operating outside of that is very hard, but I think I'm aligned with you and your strategy for dealing with this.
David Bailey: Yeah, so then the next one is the Winklevoss twins, and I will say they have gone much more Eth heavy since we originally confirmed them for Bitcoin 2020, which makes my life a little bit more complicated.
Peter McCormack: Yeah.
David Bailey: They are old-school hardcore bitcoiners, they did the first venture investment into a Bitcoin company as far as we know in the world, which was BitInstant; they run one of the biggest Bitcoin exchanges; they have done many venture investments into Bitcoin companies. I mean it's very difficult to make the case they're not bitcoiners.
Peter McCormack: Dude, they went balls deep into Bitcoin when a lot of people didn't give a shit and they pumped a lot of money in.
David Bailey: Absolutely.
Peter McCormack: They took a massive risk.
David Bailey: Absolutely. Then you have Charlie Shrem, which was the CEO of the company that the Winklevosses invested into; let's just say that didn't turn out fantastically. Charlie went to jail, for those of you that don't know, for I think two years or a year and a half --
Peter McCormack: He did, he did.
David Bailey: -- for breaking something called the Bank Secrecy Act which honestly, I feel like it's immoral that that's even the name of a bill, but he's been a freedom fighter for Bitcoin from the beginning, hardcore bitcoiner; after getting out of jail, immediately returns to promoting Bitcoin and in 2013, one of the first Bitcoin Conferences I went to, August 2013, Jeffrey Tucker did a conference in Atlanta and Charlie Shrem opens up the conference by telling all the bankers in the room, getting them all to identify themselves, "Fuck the banks", that's how he started out; so Charlie gets it. He's a good guy, loves Bitcoin and we have him moderating a panel, moderating a discussion.
Peter McCormack: Good, I fucking love Charlie.
David Bailey: Then the other one that we got hit hard on is Ghazi from Empire Records. Ghazi is a new to Bitcoin, new to crypto, entrepreneur. He's the CEO of one of the largest recording distribution labels in the world and he's on our panel, Pay Me in Bitcoin, where he's talking about paying some of the most well-known rappers in the world their royalties directly in BTC. I mean if that's not relevant to Bitcoin, fuck you, I mean it is. We're honoured to have him involved in the event.
Now, he's new to the scene, he's making some cringe mistakes, but crypto/Bitcoin it's a journey for people and any of these people, any of these taco plebs that want to say, "Oh well, I mean how dare you speak about anything else", it's like, "Why, because they didn't read the same tweets you read on Twitter?" It's not like these taco plebs, they wrote the book on the intellectual background of Bitcoin maximalism. No, they're just regurgitating what they read elsewhere and it's like, "I'm sorry, that doesn't make you some genius and everyone else who didn't read the same tweets as you, or spends as much time on cryptotwitter as you, evil. It just means that they're on a different part of their journey. We're excited to have Ghazi involved, he's speaking on that panel with Money Man, pretty cool rapper, who's going to be performing, and I think they might even have some news they're going to be breaking. So, we want to get this Pay Me in Bitcoin kind of cultural moment going and I think he's going to be a big part of it.
That's four of the people that people want to have cancelled; I'm not cancelling any of them and frankly, I think that this crowd who wants to be upset are really just upset that the Conference is big, or they're upset that they don't have a ticket and they can't afford to go. I don't know what it is, but I mean every single person participating is participating fairly to talk about Bitcoin.
Peter McCormack: Hell, yeah. No, Dude, look I get it. The purity line is a very, very difficult line to walk and I'm with you. As long as these people are supporting and promoting Bitcoin, they're there helping us all on the same journey. Look, I shitcoined at one point and I got rekt, I went through it. It's an important part of the journey, it's an important learning exercise. I find I don't know how many people there are who literally turned up, discovered Bitcoin and went, "That's it". I think someone like Russ Okung seems to be one of the few who turned up and it's like, "Yeah, Bitcoin; I get it".
David Bailey: Getting rekt is one of the most important steppingstones to becoming a Bitcoin maximalist, like a real Bitcoin maximalist. That's the pain that you need to suffer to understand. So, I mean I don't think there's anything wrong with people getting rekt once or twice. 121-millionth of all the things is a really high price, all right, so if you lose some of your Bitcoin but you end up with just a fraction of what you could have had, you're going to be just fine as long as you eventually figure it out.
The thing that I'm more concerned with is making sure that we have an event that really does put Bitcoin forward and so there's some stuff that we've done that we don't put in the news. For example, we had the CEO of one of the largest investment banks in the world want to speak at the Conference. He didn't have anything to announce, he just wanted to be a thought leader, put his personal brand out there and we told him, "No, you can't". Satoshi would roll over in his grave or their grave or hopefully Satoshi's not dead, but if they are they'd roll over. Unless you're here to do something for Bitcoin, this is not the place for you.
Likewise, we've probably turned away $10 million-plus in sponsorships, which I don't think has ever happened at a conference before. These people are like, "How dare you not take my sponsorship", and it's like, "You don't have a Bitcoin product; go back to the drawing plans, come up with a Bitcoin product, come back, you can sponsor next year".
Peter McCormack: So, we're not going to have Justin Sun on the elevators?
David Bailey: I like Justin, he's a nice guy. Justin, he made a very good pitch to us that he is a hardcore bitcoiner, but, yeah, not this year.
Peter McCormack: But he's also a hardcore shit coiner as well.
David Bailey: Yeah, no, no, I know.
Peter McCormack: He's both.
David Bailey: We had to set another rule, because I mean we've had the most creative pitches to us about why something is a Bitcoin product or why something is Bitcoin relevant. I mean we have people who are rebranding their sites to try to trick us into allowing them to participate in the Conference. If you are actively promoting a top 100 project that is trying to compete with Bitcoin, and when I say "promoting" I don't mean promoting; if you're running a top 100 project that is actively trying to compete with Bitcoin, you cannot participate as a speaker at the Conference. You can attend, but just even if you have a Bitcoin product, you can't speak.
Peter McCormack: $10 million is a lot of money to turn down, dude. I hope you've sold out all the sponsorship anyway, outside of them. I expect you're going to do very well.
David Bailey: I've never really had the experience of -- I mean you're always trying to accommodate a sponsor and so, when you tell a sponsor no, they want it so much more after that.
Peter McCormack: Of course.
David Bailey: So, it's like we've got people that are like, "No, you can't do that", and then they just double what they're willing to pay us; I'm like, "No, you can't do that". So, it's kind of fun you know to do it. I mean, I think it's what's making this event special and making this event not just another consensus and I think again, this event's not about making money, this event is not about trying to have the biggest conference in the world; this event's about hyperbitcoinisation and showcasing the Bitcoin counterculture and that's what we're trying to do and the day that that's not the mission is the day this Conference is going to die.
Peter McCormack: How many tickets are left?
David Bailey: So, I think we have roughly 2,000 tickets left of the 12,000 that we're going to sell. We have about 100 whale passes left out of 1,800, and we have about 200 after party tickets left out of 4,500. Every day has been a battle to try to increase capacity. Every day it's, "Hey, can we pull a yacht up to this venue so that we can get another 30 bodies on the yacht?" or, "Can we buy out this restaurant and this restaurant and this restaurant and then we can put this side thing over there and that will pull 100 people out of event?" We're doing everything we can to increase capacity but it's just that Miami only has probably one other place in the city that could accommodate this size crowd.
Peter McCormack: So, come 7 June the whole thing's done, what is success to you?
David Bailey: Success to me; I'll tell you what success was from Bitcoin 2019: people leaving and being like, "Wow, I made a lot of new friends and I saw a lot of new cool ideas". One of my favourite success stories from Bitcoin 2019 is ZEBEDEE, the Lightning-based gaming company, that kind of emerged out of the Hackathon at Bitcoin 2019 where mandeladuck, I think is his Twitter handle, built some really cool Lightning games that won the Hackathon; who became the ultimate founders of that company I think met through the Conference and then founded this company that's become super successful, has an amazing product and that's awesome, that's the whole fucking point of this thing.
Another one, I was talking to Keagan from Start9 and he said, after attending that Conference he learned how basically approachable Bitcoin Core development was and got involved in Bitcoin Core development. It's like, "Okay, that's what we're trying to achieve", so I hope to do that on steroids 10X. Then I'm hoping to occupy the mindspace of people coming to try to figure out what Bitcoin's all about and they can't forget what they saw at this Conference.
I mean we got sumo wrestlers walking around; we have UFC world champions that are going to be walking around holding up their belts; we got Tony Hawk on a half-pipe; we got Lightning-based arcade eGaming tournament in lounge; everything's Lightning-enabled at the Conference. We have a basketball tournament going on, we're trying to figure out if we can throw money out of a helicopter right now in the city proper.
One of the issues we were trying to deal with yesterday is how much cash do you need, physical cash, to fill up a dumpster, because we have like this selfie booth that the cash is trash selfie dumpster and we're going to stuff it full of Venezuelan fiat and people can just help themselves to whatever they want out of it. It turns out you need a lot of cash to fill a dumpster, so we've been pulling out our high school algebra books to figure out exactly how many pallets of cash we need to make that happen. I mean, we are trying to create a spectacle that is wild and fun and cool and showcases Bitcoin and is just completely unabashed about what Bitcoin is all about; freedom.
Then we have some surprises in this Conference that I cannot talk about on any podcast in advance, the Department of Justice will try to stop it, but we have some special guests that are going to be participating or joining us that I think will melt people's faces off. We're talking about never been done, never been seen before, never been heard from before guests, so I'm so excited to show people what we've been cooking up in the culmination of really two years of work.
Peter McCormack: Fuck man, I'm so pumped. I'm so pumped.
David Bailey: The guys told me yesterday, he's like, "7 June comes and this Conference is over, and my life doesn't have meaning anymore".
Peter McCormack: Mine does.
David Bailey: That's where my team is at right now. They are 100% all fucking in on making the best party in the world. I even want to take it one step back real quick and say, "Of course, it's the Bitcoin community that's treading the fucking path to open the world back up from a totalitarian bullshit pandemic lockdown; and it took the Bitcoin community, who does not give any fucks, showing up in mass and we're literally leading the way. We're hearing from event organisers all over the country.
I heard one of the biggest events in the world is watching our Conference right now and they're like, "Wow, these guys took a different angle. Rather than pretending to care about the health of their attendees" which, newsflash, no conference actually cares about the health of their attendees, they just say that shit; instead of bullshitting their attendees, we took the angle of, "Look, if you're afraid of dying, don't come to this Conference; if you're high risk, don't come to this Conference". And you know what the Bitcoin community again, it's a revolution, so they're going to come no matter what.
I mean there were people that were mad at us when we cancelled in March because they're like, "I already picked out my hazmat suit", so, we are treading the path of freedom for the world; the Bitcoin community is the frontier of freedom.
Peter McCormack: I've had to come out here to El Salvador for two weeks so I can come to the US, right, because they won't allow me to fly direct to the US. I put my application in via the Biden Administration and they turned it down. So, I have to come out here to El Salvador. Well, I have to go somewhere that wasn't on the red list for two weeks to get in --
David Bailey: Are you at the beach, the surfing beach?
Peter McCormack: Yeah, I'm in El Zonte, with Michael and Jack and just chilling, just having a couple of weeks off, yeah. It's cool, but like it's not convenient, I'd rather just fly direct to Miami, but I'm not allowed; even though there's planes going, I'm not allowed; even though I'm vaccinated, I'm not allowed; even though I do a PCR test, I'm not allowed, so I have to go somewhere else.
But I had to fly to Germany to get to Costa Rica to get here, so I've actually, by the time I get to Miami, I'll have done five flights, right, normally it's one; I'll have to do five flights. But on my flight from Germany, there was a dude in a hazmat suit with a mask and a visor.
David Bailey: Just trolling people?
Peter McCormack: He was in my plane. No, no, definitely not trolling. I was like, "What the…?" What?
David Bailey: Dude, what's going to really red pill a lot of people, orange pill people is when they land in Miami and they realise that Miami's 100% open for business. People are not wearing masks, you can do what you want, you can go party what you want; it is like party capital right now and they're going to be like, "Wait, huh?" I'm being told in the UK that if I go outside and exercise for more than a couple of hours, I'm going to kill someone; and then I just hop a plane and go across the ocean and all of a sudden, it's free rein!
If you look at the hospitals in Miami, it's not like people are dropping dead everywhere. I mean, if anything, it's receding by the day. So, yeah, I think it's going to be a little bit shocking to a lot of the international travellers.
Peter McCormack: Dude, it's ridiculous in the UK right now; genuine. I'm looking at options to move to Austin to get away, it's ridiculous. I think we're the kind of place where you have to have a permit to have sex; it's so fucked!
David Bailey: One of my very close friends, long-time bitcoiner, Alex Lawn, I'll say his name, lives in London and he's been kind of walking me through some of the restrictions that are there right now, and there was a moment where it was like, "Hey, I can't get out of the country right now, there's nowhere I can go. I can't fly anywhere, I can't get on a boat, and I'm being told I can't even leave my house, except for like 45-minute increments or something", and it's like that's literally like prison. I mean that's literally like you have no options, you can't exit, we've changed the rules to stop you from exiting the system.
It's like holy shit that is literally totalitarian, authoritarian government action. They flipped it on like a flip of the switch, I mean and didn't you all just pass a law to make like protesting this type of stuff also illegal temporarily?
Peter McCormack: I think we've made a law that everything is illegal; everything you want to do illegal, there's a law for that. We can't do fuck all. I'll tell you the funny thing though, it's like by the time I actually planned -- the planning to get here, was incredible, like incredible and luckily, I had somebody helping me with it. But for example, I had to have a PCR test done, but I had to have it done within 72 hours of getting to El Salvador, but I had to do two fights to Costa Rica, stay over and get there. So, I had to get the test, a same-day test, the day before I flew, and I also had to have a reason, a work reason to travel and I had to have that all prepared.
I get to the airport and I'm like fully expecting some full-on checks, she said, "Do you have your PCR test?" I showed her it and she said, "Yeah, okay"; literally looked and nodded. So, I could have made that on my computer. I could literally have gone on my computer and made that fucking thing. She didn't look at my reason for leaving, which they said I need, and then she said, "Did you have insurance?" and I did. So, our laws are totalitarian, but they're not implementing them particularly well. But yeah, look, the whole thing's ridiculous; the country's gone shit, man.
David Bailey: There's a great quote; I forget, I think it's a Roman person who said it, "The corruption of a state is directly proportionate to the number of laws that a country has. The more laws, the more corrupt" and I mean it's , if only the English had figured out that if they wanted to end the American Revolution, all they needed to do was pass a law saying that the American Revolution's banned; boom, it would have been over. I just don't get it, man.
Peter McCormack: Yeah.
David Bailey: There's no better marketing campaign that you can possibly get for Bitcoin than all of the things that the government is currently doing to try to maintain power. They are accelerating everything so quickly, maybe we should have them speak at the Conference; they're really the hyperbitcoinisation thought leaders.
Peter McCormack: Just on the Bitcoin side of things the UK is a shit show as well. Derivatives have been banned, most of the banks are making it very difficult for you to move money in and out of exchanges, people having their accounts shut down left, right and centre. I had all my accounts shut down, people think it's because I lied about a loan; I had my accounts shut down because when they phoned me up and were asking me what I'm spending my money on, I said, "It's none of your business. It's my money, I'll spend it where I want", so they shut all my accounts down.
I'm getting so many people like so many DMS and emails saying, "Which bank can I use because I've been closed down?" I've got one today; Santander closed their bank down, NatWest has closed their bank down, Lloyds have closed their bank down. They're just pushing it away but like you say, they're actually pushing -- lie it reaffirms your Bitcoin beliefs. It's like, "Fuck you, it's my money I've fucking earnt it. I don't have to fucking tell you what I'm spending it on".
David Bailey: Can you give a little bit of colour --
Peter McCormack: Then, "Fuck you, I've got Bitcoin anyway".
David Bailey: Can you give a little bit of colour to why people think you're lying on a loan? Is that Twitter thinks that?
Peter McCormack: Well, I did lie on a loan, but they think that's the reason I had my account closed. So, I'd already gone 100% Bitcoin, it was when the price dipped to $17,500, and I was just laying in bed and I opened up my laptop, I was like, "Holy shit, I want to buy the dip, but I don't have any money left, like I've literally put everything in".
David Bailey: Nice.
Peter McCormack: So, I was like, "I wonder how much money the bank will give me?" They immediately, in seconds, they will give me £35,000. I said, "That's cool, I can buy 2.55 Bitcoin", right? So they were like, "What's the reason for the loan?" I was like, "A car". I posted my strategy, what I'd done with the loan, and somebody just asked me they said, "What did you tell them the loan was for?" I said, "I can't, I lied", right. Three weeks later I had my accounts closed down by Lloyds, but that process had already started because they'd phoned me up to ask me what I was spending money on and I just said, "It's none of your business". But either way I don't give a fuck, like I've --
David Bailey: I just think it's hilarious that you have a --
Peter McCormack: I've never been overdrawn.
David Bailey: -- a whole army of people online that are like fact-checking your financial documents; that's got to be a joy!
Peter McCormack: Well, this is the thing, I know, but I don't give a fuck about that; most of the time I'm trolling them myself. But the really interesting thing is that people are going, "You've committed fraud, you've lied to banks", it's like, "When you did give a fuck about the banks? Like when did you suddenly start defending banks, why are you following me and why are you even in Bitcoin? Like what the fuck? If you're now defending the banks because I lied to them, let me tell you something I've lied every fucking time the bank have asked me a question".
I had to go in once, I had to get some money out to pay a decorator, and it was like £2,000 or I can't remember the number. They're like, "What's the money for?" I was like, "Cocaine and hookers". She was like, "What?" I said, yes, "Cocaine and hookers". Every fucking time they ask me a question I lie, "Fuck them it's none of your business. It's my money, I earned it, I've never been overdrawn, I've never filed a complaint, I've never missed a loan payment if I've had a loan, every account's in credit".
In some ways I'm the perfect customer. Actually, I'm probably the worst customer because I'm not going overdrawn and I'm not getting penalties, but I've done nothing wrong here and now you're closing my account after 25 years because I won't tell you why. Go fuck yourself! So, anyone online who's like pissed at me for lying to the bank, go fuck yourself, honestly.
David Bailey: Well, you know you've worked hard.
Peter McCormack: I give zero shits about your opinion.
David Bailey: You've worked hard, it should be your money and what people are realising is that it's actually not your money; it's the banks' money.
Peter McCormack: It's an IOU.
David Bailey: They're letting you hold on to it for a little bit, but as soon as you upset them, they're taking it back. Bitcoin is your money; that's the people's money.
Peter McCormack: This is why the CBDC thing's important because the fucking economists are -- listen, if you're listening, I get about three emails a month from people complaining about the swearing, I'm really sorry but I'm a bit fired up and pissed off so… But the economists have just run a thing about CBDCs, and it's bad enough with the banks having our money; CBDCs end everything. They're a surveillance and totalitarian nightmare; you can literally have your money switched off by the government. What?
David Bailey: All these people are like, "Hey, are those going to be competitors to Bitcoin?" It's like they don't understand, it's not the technology that people are buying. The bug is the political system itself, that's the bug; and digital currencies issued by a central bank just are worse. They make that bug, and they take it to the next level, so I mean it's, you know.
Peter McCormack: Dude, CBDCs are Bitcoin antimatter.
David Bailey: Bitcoin antimatter.
Peter McCormack: That's what they are.
David Bailey: What does antimatter do?
Peter McCormack: Bitcoin antimatter, it self-destructs itself.
David Bailey: Yeah, no, I mean, yeah, yes. The only type of stablecoins that I think have any viability are the ones that allow you to avoid paying any taxes that you owe the government, so that you can float between different Bitcoin services without alerting the government; that's the only use case for any of these stablecoins or central bank issued stablecoins that still allow you to flout regulations.
Peter McCormack: Let me ask you something. How close are you to becoming a Bitcoin-only company in terms of your finances, because it's something I've been wrestling with recently and I've struggled with the -- it's all right in a bull market but I'll struggle in a bear market if there was even a 60% drawn down; it has a massive impact. How close are you to considering that?
David Bailey: We're almost all the way there, so I mean we got 90% plus of all of our assets are sitting in Bitcoin; we pay all the bonuses, every quarter, in Bitcoin; one of our quarterly goals this year, for this quarter I'm sorry, is to have every person at the company take at least some percentage of their salary directly in Bitcoin. In terms of the revenue we bring in, I would say right now roughly half of all the income we bring in is in Bitcoin natively and then the other half, we try to flip it into Bitcoin.
Philosophically, when we almost died in this last bear/bull market, we kind of made the view that we never want to make decisions again in pursuit of investors or in pursuit of doing something for someone else to get them to sustain our business. So, our focus is very much on cash flow positivity and so cash flow positivity sounds like a very happy thing, but so our company's profitable right now and we're never going to get back to a scenario where we're burning money. As long as you're profitable, who cares if it's bull market or bear market; you're going to be able to survive.
So, the name of the game is get as many Bitcoins as you can possibly can and live within your means. So, we're a pretty small team, I mean we were right now about 25 full-time employees and another 20 contractors, so about 45 people. We need more people, but we don't want to grow or burn because you're king of your own castle, you're master of your own destiny, as long as you're profitable.
Peter McCormack: Yeah, it's a tricky one, I'm definitely looking at it. I mean depends how this bull market goes, because I've moved so much of the company money into Bitcoin. If the bull market really like accelerates another 2X, 3X, then I've bought myself four years' cash flow anyway.
David Bailey: Right, no I mean --
Peter McCormack: So, I can ride it out.
David Bailey: I will say that like one thing I really think is missing from the ecosystem and if I was a strapping young lad and not already focused on putting together the best Bitcoin party ever, I'd be launching an enterprise product for companies that want to run and operate in Bitcoin native terms. So, I feel like BitPay started that with creating good payment tools for companies, but they stopped there and they should have kept going, like, "How do I set it up so that I can do my budgeting with Bitcoin, I can deploy resources in different teams with Bitcoin, I can very easily figure out all my payroll options through all the same application; how can I do a like a 401(k) equivalent or some sort of a benefits package with Bitcoin; how can I X, Y and Z".
So, I really think there's a lot of unexplored territory if I'm an entrepreneur and I want to set up a business, like why is there not just an application that I can use that operates 100% in Bitcoin and lets me do everything my business needs to do financially? That should be a thing.
Peter McCormack: Yeah, someone's going to listen to this and go, "I'm going to go and build that".
David Bailey: If you do, DM Bitcoin Magazine's Twitter handle, let us know and we'll use it.
Peter McCormack: Yeah, you guys have been crushing it though. The content you produce is excellent. Also a big shout out to CK.
David Bailey: Legend.
Peter McCormack: He's such a great dude, man; yeah, such a great guy.
David Bailey: As soon as we started saying it's about the mission and I mean I'm not going to talk poorly about anyone, but for a while we were trying to go hire veterans from the media industry and people who know what they're doing, etc. It's like, we didn't need people who knew what they were doing, we needed people that were passionate about the mission and will do whatever it takes to figure it out, and CK's one of those people.
He's been hammering for years and finally the message was received like, "We need to only hire bitcoiners", and right now what's happening at our company, man, it's really something special. It's like when you feel like everything's hitting, the mojo's driving with everyone, everyone's working hard, busting ass, business is booming; that's happening right now and we got people coming into our office saying, "Hey, why don't you all raise money? Hey, just throw out a valuation", and it's like, "Fuck you, no. Like, we don't want your money", it's like the energy level in this office is just crazy, it's awesome.
Peter McCormack: Yeah. I think you're crushing it dude.
David Bailey: Thank you.
Peter McCormack: The Magazine's great. Well you said earlier, you know, people are like, "Life will be over 7 June". 8 June you start planning Bitcoin 2022, an event that's going to be like 50,000 or 100,000; it's going to be fucking rock concert in the desert or some crazy shit.
David Bailey: I mean we have all of these musicians that want to be a part of the Conference right now, Diplo and David Guetta and DJ Khaled and I mean you name the kind of culturally relevant artists, they want to be a part. It's like, "Shit, we should have added a two-day music festival onto this thing".
Peter McCormack: Well, Bitcoin's becoming cool right; that's the other thing, it's becoming cool. People want to be associated with it. Like I'm hanging out with Jack over here and look at all the sports people that he's got interested, literally hitting him up on Twitter.
David Bailey: I'm not saying that this is happening, I said I didn't want to leak details, I'm not saying that this is happening, and it's definitely not confirmed, but we are really, really trying to convince Mayweather right now to hop on stage and demand that all his winnings from fight night are paid in Bitcoin and I feel like we are this close.
Peter McCormack: Look, the guy's already a billionaire, right, I met him once.
David Bailey: Did you see the video from yesterday of Logan Paul stealing his hat?
Peter McCormack: I did. I literally want to reach across and steal your hat.
David Bailey: I'm sorry for everyone if you're watching this or you're going to be watching this, for such a bearish hat; I'm getting a new one made right now, which is like 121-millionth over infinity, so I'll get a more appropriate hat. But no, Logan Paul stealing Floyd Mayweather's hat I feel like is just peak YouTube, peak TikTok, just like, "I got your hat!", and how upset Floyd Mayweather was like, "You disrespect me, I'll kill you".
Peter McCormack: I saw another video where he lands a good punch on him.
David Bailey: Yeah, that was a real fight that broke out.
Peter McCormack: Yeah, people like, "Overstage". I'm like they probably agreed to stage some kind of confrontation, but I don't think he planned to go and punch him in the face.
David Bailey: No, I mean he looked messed up, like they were trying to shield his face a little bit from the cameras because it looked like he might be spitting out a tooth or something.
Peter McCormack: Yeah. I think --
David Bailey: Can you imagine being punched in the face by Floyd Mayweather bare-knuckled? That's not a good way to start your day.
Peter McCormack: He wouldn't catch me up! Man, are you going to the fight; it's on Sunday, right?
David Bailey: So, I'm planning on going to the fight, and we're going to be auctioning off at the Conference two ring-side tickets.
Peter McCormack: Nice.
David Bailey: We're going to be offering all of our whale passholders, we're partnering with the organiser of the fight and going to be offering some exclusive seats at the ring for bitcoiners only. So, we got a call from the organiser, they're like, "Yeah, I got to tell you, you've really screwed us because all the hotels, all the nightclubs, all the VIP experiences, they're all bought out by bitcoiners". They've been making phone calls, they're all, "Yes, sorry the Bitcoin whales have already come and eaten everything we've got", so I'll be there.
Peter McCormack: It feels like the event therefore isn't like an accelerant for Bitcoin, because you're going to have the world looking in going, "What's all this shit going on here? Who are these people? They're a tribe, they're an army now".
David Bailey: He who controls the money controls the world, and Bitcoin is the money now, and bitcoiners control the world and the rest of the world is waking up to this fact. But this is the new Davos, this is the new world economic forum and it's like, "Fuck the old world". And you know, I mean it's just like we have a jet company, they're flying in Gulf Streams from cities around the country for the whales flying in. I mean it's sic, it's sic and I mean FTX SBF, how cool is he just like, "Wow, Miami, that's popping off. Let's kick American Airlines off that building and put our logo up there", it's like baller, baller!
Peter McCormack: You're saying I could have got a Gulf Stream in on my expense account with you guys?
David Bailey: If you're in SF, LA, Chicago, New York and we're trying to get Nashville added to the list, I think you will be able to, yes.
Peter McCormack: No, I already booked my flight, I'm coming in from Austin, Texas on American Airlines.
David Bailey: Dude, Austin, have you spent much time there?
Peter McCormack: A lot of time there, yeah, yeah.
David Bailey: You think we should do a conference there?
Peter McCormack: I think, yes, I think they will love you there. I think Austin is an incredible place, full of incredible people, really good bitcoiners. I started going there like every two months pre‑lockdown and I'm thinking of getting a studio there, I've been talking to my engineer about saying, "Look, we need to level up and have a studio and do in-person interviews", so I've been thinking one of getting one in Austin; fly out for two weeks, do four weeks of interviews, fly back, thinking of doing it like that.
I would move there tomorrow, but it's tricky with kids when you're divorced, but I fucking love that place, I love Texas. The people there have always been good to me whenever I've gone; I think you should. I think you should do a conference in the UK.
David Bailey: Well, we would have to find a good partner, so maybe we can have that conversation.
Peter McCormack: We can do that conversation; we should do it in Bedford.
David Bailey: Bedford, I'm down, let's do it, let's bring Bitcoin to Bedford.
Peter McCormack: I tell you; I've always wanted to do the Bedford Bitcoin Conference!
David Bailey: Well, there's no better time than today, you know. So, on Austin, Pete Rizzo is pitching us on, between this Conference and Bitcoin 2022 doing an event we're calling FOMOcon and we're trying to think what city we want to do FOMOcon in; so it's between Austin or Nashville really.
Peter McCormack: I've always wanted to go to Nashville, dude, I've never been. I've never been.
David Bailey: It's a lot like Austin.
Peter McCormack: When are you heading to Miami?
David Bailey: I think most of our team is going to get in on like 1 June, and there's stuff happening all week, I mean literally I think we have maybe 20 satellite events listed on our site, but there's like 100 happening and there's a lot of other projects that are a little bit upset that we wouldn't let them participate in the Conference, and so they're kind of doing their own side events. I think there's an event called Shitcoin 2021 happening, there's like a Monero event happening.
Peter McCormack: That's kind of funny!
David Bailey: There's an Ethereum Conference happening, you know, yeah, so.
Peter McCormack: Do you know what, I might change my flight; I might come to Nashville for a couple of days before. How far's Nashville from Miami?
David Bailey: A two-hour flight.
Peter McCormack: Yeah, I might change my flight, I might go to Nashville for a couple of days.
David Bailey: Come on, man, it's fun.
Peter McCormack: And see it and then, yeah.
David Bailey: And it's open and people are out on the streets partying and you'll have a good time.
Peter McCormack: Safe in the South.
David Bailey: Safe in the South, that's right.
Peter McCormack: Safe in the South. Well listen, dude, I am very excited about this event and thank you so much for allowing me to be part of it again. Honestly, I'm so fucking pumped, I can't wait. I think you've got a great set of speakers, all the shit that you said you're doing on top is going to be incredible. I've had endless invites to dinners and parties every night; dude, it's going to be amazing, I'm looking forward to it. I think you're crushing it and I really appreciate you, dude, and everything you've done and you're doing for Bitcoin. I have a conversation like this and it makes me think I need to be a better bitcoiner, like I need to focus more; so I appreciate you, dude.
David Bailey: Well, thank you for having me on, you know we look forward to seeing everyone in Miami and an idea whose time has come cannot be stopped and let's take it to the fucking front lines, let's push forward freedom and the eyes of the world will be watching the Bitcoin scene; make sure they understand how much fun we have. See you in Miami.
