Rodolfo Andragnes on LaBitConf's role in El Salvador's Bitcoin adoption

0:01i'm ashton addison from block west capital for investmentpitch media and the Crypto Coin Show and today on blockchain interviews we have rodolfo andronis the co the founder of the la bitconf conference in el salvador and also the president of the latin america bitcoin foundation among other things rodolfo welcome to the show and thank you for taking the time to come on

0:24thank you pleased to be here likewise i'd love to kick off our conversation by hearing a little bit about the upcoming la bitconf in el salvador i know this is one of the longest standing conferences in latin america which is an achievement on its own in the bitcoin world and i'd love to hear a little bit more actually it's the longest running conference in

0:46the world not in latin america wow the most yes it's since 2013 is the only bitcoin conference that kept running since then and it's the only one that started at that time and kept the name bitcoin in it yes so these are two two big milestones i guess that are behind the bitcoin and it's the main conference in the region by far in america and it's not

1:12the reason for this is that it's not a conference yes it's a it's a whole experience and what people lives and bikes and when they come down it's like a mix of sensations and stuff and art and sound and music and mood and so it's a it's a mix of things plus plus

1:39top tire speakers yes we will have this year we have big speakers like elizabeth stark max caser james unlock that newberry like cordevs and we will have the ambassador of el salvador in us and finally also the president of the country

2:08so it's a very top tire conference we usually have top tire speakers yes but it's not the thing i like most of the event yes the content is very focus driven i mean we write the content and then we invite people to it but the mood coming down enjoying the bitcoin is like the big part of the conference incredible rodolfo and yeah longest

2:36bitcoin conference in the in the world that's incredible i'm sure over the past seven or eight years as the cryptocurrency industry continues to grow even more so right now with the president of el salvador in the country getting involved this could be one of the most anticipated conferences yet i like every conference i do it's it's yes it's anticipated yes locally there

3:06is a big thing about it oh this year we're doing this together with bitcoin magazine together with thailand land which is the biggest digital events in the region and together with blockchain some in latin i invited them to join and co host

3:35coordinate this event so the guys of bitcoin 2021 yes because we are not for profit yes since 2013 since we started so we know don't compete with people we don't compete with other conferences we don't compete with i share my sponsors i share my speakers i share everything yes and so we created this beacon week which starts with a hackathon yes we have over 700 people

4:03already registered for the hackathon online and offline and then we have then adopting bitcoin which is another conference yes it's occurring on the same week of la vidcon we try to connect somehow that activities tuesday and wednesday but on wednesday we start a very open free community driven content in spanish for the local people yes to with

4:30open meet ask me anything also just to be sure they get the basics information by why bitcoin beyond the chi will be on the law beyond the government beyond the politics beyond their remittances why bitcoin and then we have thursday and friday yes the most bitcoin stretchy not touchy but the bitcoin power content yes quite big kind of revolution between

4:57the governments i mean all these concepts el salvador we have three four talks about it's another opportunity what it meant to go from zero to four million people in the wallet what it means what which is the whole plan for el salvador in strategy which is called strategic a technologist plan for el salvador so grab some other content yes and some discussions about

5:26mining role in society and bitcoin as a universal income distributor but that's thursday and on friday we have more into we're going more into the to the technical aspects yes the road to privacy on bitcoin lighting applications what we need to get legal tenders in other countries and are we ready for such so these kind of discussions yes and

5:53are also on the on the road and finally we end the event with some some of the other activities as i told you outside the camp i lead like 15 different projects yes and some of these are backed by by this initial bitcoin iber american meeting foundation and so we are also showing again that we are launching yes in a panel about nft gaming we are

6:22showing the blockchain for humanity hours which supports social impact projects we are showing la vitto neta which is abandoned travis around latin america talking about bitcoin so we showcase a bit also the ending and the pitching of the hackathon the final pitch of the hackathon of the window and so it's that kind of content plus a huge amount of fun

6:45behind this and beyond this 15th server we will have a music shows during the night with national international singers an nft section and legal clinic so it's a mix of stuff definitely yeah it sounds really fun and congratulations on having so many people involved in the hackathon

7:13not just talking but actually coding laying lines down to build projects in latin america so that's really nice to see i and i feel like this year's edition of the conference could be very special just because of the news from el salvador and creating legal tender for bitcoin i'd love to hear your thoughts if you have an opinion on how that's going in the

7:39country so far okay two things first given that this is happening in the country yes the content is driven towards that yeses but beyond that what is really happening is you have it's very politicized yes the context here it's like you have the people okay and happy because evil is giving

8:07them some some utility many are also doing trading on chiva which is something i don't like that much but it's also like a tool becoming a tool to trade with your fees yes first of all audience but there is a big amount of people using the wallet a big amount of people they place they went into almost five million people here's

8:31already about four point eight point four point something but many of them just took the wallet took the thirty dollars and then they forgot about the wallet but you have five million people already with awareness enough awareness about bitcoin as an option as an opportunity and i want it and they have a wallet for it yes so we that's our starting point yes we

9:01we understand that there are politics in the middle we understand that people might be against they like the 30 dollars but might so we're here to talk beyond that yes to try to drive people to understand that beyond the fact of being imposed beyond the fact that there is a huge opportunity here yes and so that's that's how i think things need to start need to need to start going

9:29from now on they need a big effort to introduce bitcoin to everyone but not to teach them and it's okay yeah place yes how i how am i able to teach five million people about something that they don't even know don't even care about different so now yeah now they're working on these other aspects let's teach let's invite but they didn't divide i came

9:51let's let's pray that this kind of action creates attraction international international attractions let's hope conferences come down let's hope people willing to educate comes down so this is what is happening it's like perhaps the way was not the one that others would have liked it yes but it's a good way anyway and it does have the impact of having five million people

10:15already available to be talked about you're right rodolfo and i completely agree and i think that this conference is the perfect solution to help educate those locals as well who now they got their thirty dollars they've heard about bitcoin they may not be using it for everyday purchases but that opens the door to hey maybe i should learn more and that's

10:41where l.a bitcoin comes in handy for those people that's exactly the cons the concept of the conference and as i say when we are talking about their different conferences yes and in our case that's the focus is for this salvadorian to get another deeper understanding of what's the opportunity here no it's not on the technical side it's not yes we

11:03have a friday technical side but the concept in general has to do with getting a deeper understanding of the bitcoin power of the bitcoin potential of the bitcoin as a social tool for improvement and that's that's what we think we need to be working on and that's as you said that's the focus love it rodolfo and i wanted to talk once more about the hackathon and about

11:30just driving blockchain solutions throughout latin america you know i know that there's a lot of great projects that have been working for years in latin america but i feel like with this introduction into getting more everyday people seeing bitcoin that also gets more tech savvy people interested in potentially developing solutions that could change

11:51the region altogether are you seeing a lot of innovation through latin america through these hackathons and with developers when we started the latin american bitcoin conference in 2013 and the reason why we moved the conference from county to country every year was because we are not harvesters yes we're seeders yes we that we seed content we seed ideas

12:18and eventually they grow yes eventually one two three five ten people yes become entrepreneurs become we are not here to keep making their the well keep making movies we seed yes and we expect that creates value from the different events that we've been doing we've seen several projects starting and growing yes in

12:46base of leviticum and in this case particular the one in a server we this is the first time we do a hackathon the second time we do a hackathon but the one was in buenos aires way back this has an additional intention yes which is not really having these guys winning a price we don't care about the 10 million dollars that's not the dollars prices

13:11we care more about the fact of making them to get in contact with blockchain technology yes blockchain is the one of the most demanding roles in the industries yes it's like the one of the main human resources searches today and one of the most well paid also so we think this is something that we need to also show to the people in this

13:39aurora it's not only about people it's not that big now and the inside and the light yes that's one aspect of this but this might also open you to transparent sisters to efficiency in processes to government applications to click are not yet there with bitcoin also understanding about blockchain understand about programming which understanding about what can be done and

14:04how technology goes into the layer of trust and decentralization to any process that's what we experience with the hacker and eventually people with for coming on appreciate it links to the conference the details in the description and subscribe thank you so much you