Bitcoin 2022 Miami: Conference recap and major themes

cointelegraph.com:

Bitcoin (BTC) has come a long way since an obscure and esoteric white paper written by Satoshi Nakamoto was first published 13 years ago. The Bitcoin 2022 conference, sponsored by Cash App, was perhaps the largest single event for the BTC community as 30,000 attendees and exhibitors descended on Miami Beach, according to the Miami Herald. 

Cointelegraph sent a contingency of journalists to experience the bullishness of Bitcoin 2022, a sentiment that was physically represented by a laser-eyed bull statue reminiscent of the Charging Bull on Wall Street in New York City. Along the way, they got to interview billionaires, hedge fund managers, business leaders and analysts about all things Bitcoin. Here were some of the notable themes from the event.

Bitcoin’s role as an inflation hedge is being put to the test as consumer prices continue to rise at the fastest clip in over four decades. But according to Morgan Creek Capital founder Mark Yusko, the problem isn’t inflation per se — it’s currency devaluation.

“This isn’t inflation. This is currency devaluation,” Yusko told Cointelegraph business editor Sam Bourgi in an exclusive interview, referring to the outcome of Federal Reserve policy. Although one BTC will always equal one BTC, its value in dollar terms may become less relevant over time as monetary policy continues to erode consumers’ and investors’ purchasing power.

Noah Perlman, chief operating officer of Gemini, echoed Yusko's sentiment and cited Gemini’s 2022 Global State of Crypto report. Perlman told Cointelegraph that citizens in countries with heavily devalued currencies “need to have crypto,” while in the developed world, it’s often just “nice to have.”

After spending years talking about it, the digital asset