Bitcoin 2021 convention: Focusing on adoption, not the price

Photo by peterschreiber.media/iStock via Getty Images Old-timers like Dan Held remember the first Bitcoin "convention" in San Francisco in 2013 - about 12 folks showed up. Speaking this morning at Bitcoin 2021 in Miami, Held - now with cryptocurrency exchange Kraken - addressed more than 12 thousand. Early speakers - which included influential players like Held, Saifedean Ammous, Parker Lewis, Nick Szabo, and Microstrategy's (MSTR) Michael Saylor - barely acknowledged bitcoin's (BTC-USD) recent price struggles, or Elon Musk's off-and-on relationship with the crypto (off again as of last night). They instead focused on Bitcoin's growing adoption and what a world with billions on the Bitcoin Standard might like look like. "If I were not at Square (SQ) or Twitter (TWTR), I would be working on Bitcoin," says Jack Dorsey, who is just now wrapping his remarks at the conference. "Whatever I can do, whatever my companies can do to make