Day 1 I was on edge immediately as I was told no bears were allowed upon entering. It was also industry day (why do I have an industry badge I don't know just for this extra day I guess)
I soon realized I was in a fever dream of libertarian 4channery when I strolled through the Bitcoin Art gallery and saw the paintings.
The vendors hall was just as feverish. The panties for Bitcoin booth was especially... Revealing. However the busiest booth was the BTC trading cards. And of course the multiple booths dedicated to not paying income tax.
There were also robots making coffee. Of course for each coffee robot was a man standing behind it waiting for it to fuck up and need help.
And of course everyone is very hype that trump is coming... As you can see in the main pic. no time has been wasted by the bitcoiners after the trump attempt.
During registration I realized there are also Whale passes. These things are insanely pricey and get you nothing but "The Deep" a tiny lounge area. And some special seating. Guess the price of these fuckin things... Main passes cost ~$700 industry passes ~$4k...
spoiler
Whale passes ~$20k
Check the map for all the sweet perks being a whale gives ya.
Talks during the day ranged from boring nothing about how great BTC is, to a few interesting technical talks, to having the most ghoulish people imaginable on stage. A black rock exec for instance and minister from Dubai.
This talk was followed by libertarian excellence. "Why is black rock here these people are rent seeking scum" true my friend maybe examine why your perfect coin is so infected with them. Maybe push at your ideology a little. Definitely got the biggest crowd reaction though and most enjoyable personally since they almost said true statements.
Later we went to a podcast live show in a bar. On entrance we were greeted with what the lady at the door said was the most beautiful ice sculpture she'd ever seen. It was no sculpture of lenin I was disappointed to find.
Easily the funniest part of the day. They had a comedian come up and roast the hosts. When his jokes weren't just "you gay" or "who here is a n*****?" he was pretty good at roasting bitcoiners.
There was also a hotdog eating contest. One guest just loved bukele. He had the biggest cowboy hat I ever saw.
Overall day 1: 10% technically interesting, 40% libertarian madness, 50% fever dream. Ready for day 2 let's go.
Those are venue rules, locals would have spent their powder years ago, I remember going to a gun show there with the same rules and felt it was very ironic