A Very Special Bitcoin Meetup

Our fifth Rootstock Rooftop Meeting in Playa del Carmen was the best attended we’ve ever had – and also the most fun.

Diego Gutiérrez Zaldívar was the most prominent speaker we had at our event so far. He co-founded the Argentinian and Ibero-American Bitcoin Associations, as well as the Latin American Bitcoin Conference (Labitconf) and Rootstock, the smart contract layer on top of Bitcoin. Here is an interview with him.

Diego came with a group of top managers of his company IOV Labs, which has employees in 36 countries. This week they are meeting in Cancún, just an hour away from Playa del Carmen, so the IOV team decided to visit our meetup.

A video shot by my friend Vincenza Sorrentino.

The evening started with a short presentation about the “Bitcoin Car” by Devin Konopa. It was the first car bought for Bitcoin back in 2013. The 1000 Bitcoins someone paid for the used Toyota Prius ten years ago would buy you a garage full of Lamborghinis today. Devin and his crew restored the car and had it signed by many Bitcoin OGs. It will be auctioned off at the Bitcoin 2023 conference in Miami in May. The proceeds will go to a good cause, the Free Ross campaign.

Our second speaker Angelina Aleksandrovich presented the blockchain based metaverse platform RD Land. It’s a platform for radical self-expression and sexual experiments. Angelina is a VR expert and artist and a perfect example for “radical self expression” with her blue hair and even bluer make-up.

Her incredibly sexy outfit took the men’s breath away, and the women in the audience (unlike most Bitcoin meetups we always have many female atendees) loved her smart and sexy presentation, too.

After a short break for socialising, Steph Ferrera invited people to Tulum Crypto Fest which will take place in early May. We also had a short musical interlude by singer / songwriter Sari Serodio from Lisbon.

While we were waiting for Diego and his crew to arrive from Cancún, Tony Sparks (who identifies himself as a Lesbian woman) entertained the audience with some really nasty jokes.

Diego came late as always, but this time he had a good excuse: his company meetings lasted until 6pm and the road from Cancún to Playa del Carmen usually has a lot of traffic. However, his talk on the Internet of Values was definitely worth the wait. The audience did not stop asking him many questions.

The Hyperbitcoinizers

We rounded up the evening with a short gig by our new Bitcoin band, the Hyperbitcoinizers. It consists of Dee Klinger (lead guitar), Horácio Lopez (percussion), Lola Amar & Denise Valois (vocals) and myself (rhythm guitar and vocals).

We played my songs Blockchain Eternity, Who is Satoshi? and I Lost My Wallet, as well as the jazz classic My Love, which we changed to My Love is an NFT, sung by Lola.

This time we had more than 60 participants, and I think they enjoyed the evening as much as I did.

By Aaron Koenig with pictures by Irving Ruiz, Wren Medina and Diego Gutiérrez Zaldívar.