Over the weekend Miami, Florida saw an influx of crypto currency nvestors and enthusiasts come into town for the “Bitcoin 2021” conference. Its the largest of its kind and worthy of a visit if you are crypto enthusiast. It took place from June 4-5. The event did not take place last year due to the pandemic but, now the worst is over and people are starting to get back to normal life. Because of this, people were even more joyful and happy to take part of this event.

Jack Dorsey – CEO of Twitter and Square
Source: CNBC

Influential Conference Guests

The conference featured guests like Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, renowned athlete Floyd Mayweather, former congressman Ron Paul, legendary skateboarder Tony Hawk and the list goes on. It was really something worth visiting and its an insight on how much crypto is growing and becoming widely accepted into society. Even though the market is currently down there is still a lot optimism in the bounce back.

Ledger Nano X Crypto Wallet
Source: Ledger

Jack Dorsey who is the CEO of Twitter and also founder and CEO of Square Payments was a big hit at the conference and also drew massive attention. He took time to talk up Bitcoin and preach that he is a firm believer and that it is the way of the future. Dorsey also hinted that Square may be getting into making hardware wallets for Crypto. He is also known for his NFT tweet that he sold for $1 Million USD.

Dumpster full of obsolete Venezuelan Bolivares
Source: @Lukewearechange / Twitter

Bolivares Make a Surprise Appearance

There was 1 art piece if you want to call it that, which stood out at the conference, especially to us because we deal in banknotes. There was a large industrial sized trash bin that was filled with Venezuelan Bolivares. That’s right you heard it correct, banknotes in a trash can, on display. To be more specific it was the 50 Bolivares Fuerte. These banknotes were in every day use before hyperinflation hit the country. These banknotes originally ranged from 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 Bolivares. Eventually they released versions that went from 500 all the way up to 100,000 Bolivares.

Venezuela 50 Bolivar Fuerte | 2015 | P-92 |
Source: Banknote World

As some people at conference explained, Venezuela used to be one of the richest nations in Latin America due to its prosperous oil industry and its vast oil reserves which are the largest in the world even to this day. However due to corruption, squandering of the money, price drop of oil and international sanctions, today the country is in an economic crisis. As you can probably make out, their money isn’t worth anything and millions of its citizens are fleeing the country to avoid starving to death.

Venezeula Bolivare Fuertes & Soberanos
Source: Banknote World

These large denomination banknotes were eventually phased out. As a result the country removed a few zeros and rolled out a new currency called the Soberano. It originally ranged from 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 Soberanos. This was the country’s desperate attempt at trying to manage hyperinflation. They circulated for about a year before inflation went up. Eventually 10,000 – 20,000 – 50,000 Soberanos were printed. This did not stop. Earlier this year there were 200,000 – 500,000 – 1,000,000 Soberano banknotes printed. These 1 Million Bolivares banknotes would really have been something to see at the conference.

Venezuela 500,000 Bolivar Soberano | 2020 | P-113 |
Source: Banknote World

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