Nashville Energy & Mining Summit 2023: Introduction

So my name is Rod for those that don't know me.

Thank you so much for the folks that traveled,

locally,

that traveled from afar, that drove here, that flew here, that means the world to us.

This is our first summit, and, we're trying to figure it out. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, especially with all the FAA craziness that happened this week. So we we do appreciate everyone who made it out. Yeah. Absolutely. So

Matt and I are the cofounders of Bitcoin Park. This is the craziest project I've ever done in my life, probably the 5th craziest project you've ever done. No. It's definitely the craziest project.

And, it couldn't be, supported without the members that are in the audience today as well as the folks, like, every single one of you that are here and Raise your hand if you're a member of the park.

Awesome. Appreciate you guys. Give them a round of applause.

So I'm gonna get off here in 2 minutes.

Less than that. Matt's like hates hearing me talk, but,

we got an action packed 2 days. We have approximately a 150 attendees.

Thank you for being punctual and checking in. We got, like, like, 50 other people that are waiting to check-in,

over the next couple hours. We have approximately 40 amazing speakers,

12 panels that are gonna be jam packed. Show of hands. Who came to the meetup last night?

Alright. What'd you guys think?

Alright.

So that was just a taste of what we're gonna be doing today because we have 12 panels like that.

A lot of people put a lot of effort and time and,

to do that. So just quick guidelines for those that were not at the meetup last night that didn't hear me. We have 5 quick guidelines to enhance everyone's experience. 1, we have a no photo policy, so please don't take photos and share it on social media.

Or particularly of the guests. Like, don't take photos of people.

That's a great point. If the park you wanna take pictures of the park with the We have, like, crypto graffitis, great artwork over here. If you wanna take picture of artwork, that's fine. Just don't take pictures of guests.

Totally. 2nd, we talk mainly about Bitcoin, the capital b, the monetary network, lowercase b, Bitcoin, the asset. This is not a crypto altcoin, NFT, LFT, block chain altcoin,

summit.

There may be different ones for those.

Yeah. So what Rob was saying with the photos

at the park that this the idea of the park is, you know, let's have a physical

space where big corners can meet,

where you can work, we can hang out, we can collaborate,

like, kind of like a social club mixed with a coworking space, mixed with an event space and a bunch of podcasting studios.

We

have, a topical event every month. That topic will be the same every year.

So, you know, this is mining. Next January would be mining. We'd love to have you back.

Next month is free open source software.

Combined with that, we're also doing these invite only summits

that go the 2 days following whatever that topical meetup is. So we had we had the meetup open to the public yesterday, and then today, we're fortunate enough to have you all join us, for the summit over the next 2 days. We want these summits to be very intimate experiences, high signal.

We want you all to get a lot out of them.

And as part of that, everything is included. It's we're not trying to,

you know, nickel and dime on all these little things. So you have breakfast. You have lunch on both days. We're gonna have dinner here today. And then after dinner, we're all gonna get bused down to Broadway,

to this what's the bar, Acme Feed and Seed? Correct. And we have a private area in that bar.

So that should be fun.

All of our content,

is is focused on trying to have discussions that don't normally happen.

So as a result,

what that means is twofold. First of all, we take a lot of care in who we choose as our moderators. Strong moderators are very important.

All of our conversations are structured as a 30 minute panel plus a 15 minute q and a because q and a is extremely helpful, we've we've noticed.

And then a lot of that content will get posted to our podcast feed, the Bitcoin Park podcast feed if you search Bitcoin Park in your podcast app, but some of it will not. So all of our attendees, any of our participants,

whether before their panel or whether after their panel, they have the option to choose not to have that broadcast out,

so they can have conversations that they, you know, wouldn't want to have publicly.

Also, those conversations never have the q and a. So if you wanna be here for the real thing, you gotta you gotta come in and and show some proof of work. Yeah. And if anyone's walked around this place, I mean, the sound treatment and the soundproofing in each of these rooms is unbelievable.

The only room that does not have that is this room. So if you're having any side conversations, let's keep those to absolutely 0. And then another thing I just wanted to mention real quick is is Rod mentioned this earlier. This is a member supported initiative.

We had some great members in the house today. That that concept is,

that we're working with is a 100 in state members, a 100 out of state members. And then once we hit both those caps, then it goes to wait list. And then we also have,

corporate members, company supporters that help us make this dream happen. So,

if you're interested in supporting the park, if you're interested in joining as a member, definitely reach out to one of us or Josh, our operations manager, who's not in here right now because he's

killing it. Absolutely.

And, you know, we'd love to have you. And then if, you know, if you just wanna support the park, you can also go to Bitcoin park.co, and there's a donation page. And it it really does go a long way. There's a bear market in a recession. And

at the end of every month,

if we if we don't cover our costs, it just comes out of me and Rod's pockets. And that's when we get in a fight.

We start with your fingers. Up and down. Yeah. And by the way, on the company supporters, we're maxing out at 10 as well Correct. On those.

And It's Bitcoin, so everything is just

scarcity. Right? But and I will say, like, if you look at

this slide up here,

Matt and I are extremely proud to curate the 10 supporters here. So Standard Bitcoin, MicroBT,

Riot, Grid,

Foreman,

Hashfunction,

Brains, River Financial, NFP, and Upstream Data. Can you guys give them a huge round of applause?

And I just wanna be absolutely clear.

You know, we take, who we work with and who we have at the park very seriously. These companies all are very high integrity,

and, they believed in us when we had pretty much nothing to show for ourselves. We were just like, good. Have a little faith. We're gonna we're gonna make this thing really special and do it every year.

And they they really stood up. One other thing I wanted to mention is we have 2 posters

in the other building,

that are on tables.

We would love if you each sign both those posters. They're gonna be hung up around the park. And the dream is, you know, in 10 years, we'll look back, and you'll see all the different events. You'll see all the different participants and supporters, and they'll all be labeled with block height.

And it's just a really nice, intimate

kind of

example of our supporters and and who is there, and we'll all look back hopefully and start bragging about which events we're at and which events we weren't. Totally.

Truly the last comment. I promise.

Any of these guys that are wearing these hoodies here, there's about 15 of us.

Any questions? Where are restrooms?

What the heck's going on with the park? You know, should I buy Bitcoin? That's a joke.

You should.

By the way, we ripped to 18 k last night. Somebody told me that. Okay. Good. Did we dump yet? Yeah. Probably. We we started the panel right now.

Any questions you may have, grab one of them. They will ask may possibly just have your lanyard on you just so that we know, you know, you guys are part of us and not a spook. And they're all volunteers

as well, so just,

give them a hug when all's said and done. Yeah. Absolutely.

And a lot of them are Vanderbilt,

students as well. Yeah. Young college kids.

Again, thank you all so much.

Really, round of applause for these people that made the effort to come our way in. Thank you all.