Adopting Bitcoin 2021
as the organisers put it
Bringing together the Bitcoin and Lightning Network communities with local actors in El Salvador on November 16-18 to work on the mission to adopt Bitcoin successfully. The conference is not-for-profit and all proceeds will be donated to Lightning Network development.
who it's for
Bitcoin entrepreneurs, Lightning developers, policymakers and regulators, startup founders in fintech, nonprofit leaders and program managers, infrastructure operators and node runners, treasury managers for companies, product designers and UX specialists
topics
Lightning Network scaling; bitcoin legal tender adoption; wallets for Lightning payments; self-custody multisig setups; Lightning service provider APIs; bitcoin remittances and tourism; Lightning liquidity management; bitcoin treasury management; micropayments for local commerce; circular Bitcoin economies (Bitcoin Beach); semi-autonomous jurisdictions with Bitcoin; bitcoin product design and UX
| title | author | length |
|---|---|---|
| Opening Remarks | Chris Hunter | 10m |
Galoy argues that bitcoin is money and a trust machine, positioning BTC as an internet-native settlement layer like Fedwire but open 24/7 with ~30-minute… | ||
| Welcome to El Salvador | Minister of Economy Maria Luisa Hayem Brevé | 12m |
El Salvador announces Bitcoin as legal tender and reports immediate results: previously unbanked merchants gain payments, savings and sales reporting overnight… | ||
| Welcome to El Salvador | Minister of Tourism Morena Ileana Valdez Vigil | 04m |
Morena Ileana Valdez Vigil introduces El Salvador’s tourism initiatives, focusing on the Surf City strategy that promotes the country’s world-class waves and… | ||
| Bootstrapping Bitcoin Adoption | Mike Peterson | 33m |
Describes how a small coastal project bootstraps a circular Bitcoin economy in El Zonte that helps inspire national legal-tender adoption, builds wallets and… | ||
| Paving the Way for Bitcoin Adoption in South America | Jehudi Castro Sierra, Camila Campton, Carlos Miguel Rivas Carillo, Gael Sanchez Smith, Javier Bastardo | 47m |
Panel gives concrete measures: El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender, deploys Chivo wallet with about 4 million users and ~200 ATMs, and reports roughly $400M… | ||
| Bitcoin for Non-Profits | Enrique Berrios, Josh Young | 46m |
Crowdfunding platform bitcoinsmiles.org raises donations from 900 donors (about 93% via Lightning) to fund dental rehabilitation in El Zonte, delivering free… | ||
| Free Private Cities and Bitcoin | Veronika Kuett, Peter Young | 24m |
Proposal argues for semi-autonomous jurisdictions run by a private operating company that sells core state services via a bilateral contract with citizens… | ||
| Architecting a Self-Sovereign Economy with Synonym | John Carvalho | 25m |
A new company called Synonym ships a bitcoin-only stack aimed at a self-sovereign economy: a mobile wallet (shipping Q1 next year), a Block Tank LSP API for… | ||
| The Lightning Network: Scaling Financial Services on Bitcoin | Ryan Gentry | 15m |
Lightning Network software (built since 2015, on mainnet ~3 years) routes satoshis through nodes and channels and uses price signals and markets to solve… | ||
| If it looks better, it works better | Johns Beharry, Anthony Potdevin, John Carvalho | 01h 07m |
Panelists argue that prettier interfaces actually bring users and feedback — citing Thunderhub and Amboss tools — but warn that visual polish alone hides risks… | ||
| Self-Custody Solutions for Salvadoran Companies | Moritz Wietersheim | 12m |
Argues Salvadoran companies should hold Bitcoin as a treasury reserve while using Lightning for payments, citing Bitcoin Beach's setup that keeps ~5% working… | ||
| Taking local commerce off-the-chain | Michael Atwood | 30m |
Argues Lightning makes online payments cheaper than in‑store, reversing “payment processing gravity” and cutting out banks and processors; cites US card fees… | ||
| Closing Remarks | Moritz Wietersheim | 03m |
Conference notes highlight that El Salvador launched Bitcoin a few months ago and banks and companies already deploy payments and custody experiments, with… | ||
| Bitcoin for Institutions | Alex Leishman | 38m |
River Financial is bitcoin-only, ~37–40 people, operating in 46 US states, offering custody, brokerage and mining and dedicating ~20% of engineering to… | ||
| nothing matches | ||