LaBitConf: Interviewing Satoshi and Getting a Face Paint

The organisers of LaBitConf asked to me to interview Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, which was quite a challenge. Dorian is usually a very private person and was not amused about Newsweek making him "famous" with their silly cover story in 2014. So I was quite surprised how open he was to my suggestion to play a little game. 

We started the interview with me pretending to be a mainstream journalist who asks him questions like "Mr. Nakamoto, how did you get the idea to invent Bitcoin?" or "What will you do with all the coins you have mined?", and he would pretend to be the real Satoshi. He even built himself "Bitcoin glasses" like the ones that were shown on that Newsweek cover.

After that funny beginning, we switched to reality mode and the interview became very emotional. He talked about the personal problems he had when Newsweek intruded his life and his desire to keep his life private. It was a very touching moment for me and I think for the audience, too.

A long queue to take a selfie with Satoshi Nakamoto

Dorian was definitely the "star" of the conference, and despite his wish to be a private person, he would accept any wish to take a selfie with him, and he would sing and dance with us to Colombian music. A very nice man!

Going once, going twice, sold for 0.45 Bitcoins

The conference ended with another classic: an auction for a good cause. We auctioned off three paintings: one was enhanced by Satoshi's hand-made "Newsweek glasses", the other one came in a package with a "Satoshi Nakamoto" sculpture hand-signed by Dorian, the third one was made for the benefit of Ross Ulbricht, the founder of SilkRoad, a Bitcoin based free market platform, who is in jail although he committed no crime.

These three pieces yielded a total of 1.65 Bitcoins - around 28,000 US dollars at today's Bitcoin price. 1.2 were donated to the BitGive foundation, 0.45 to the "Free Ross" campaign.

The conference was closed by a suprise performance of the Colombian percussion ensemble AAINJAA which plays Brazilian Samba Reggae in the style of Olodum or Ilê Aiyê. An amazing ending for this conference, which made everyone in the audience dance. The team even distributed funny Colombian hats to everyone in the audience.

This was the end of the conference, but not the end of the "LaBitConf experience". After the closing ceremony, speakers, sponsors and team members were transported by a party bus to the venue of  a final dinner.

Despacito en la chiva

The closing dinner took place in a cool restaurant which had many floors, the top floor was reserved for us. The main attraction was Kelsea Rae from Los Angeles who would paint everyone's faces with interesting patterns, Bitcoin and Rootstock logos. Here are some impressions:

Adriana Fuentes and Kelsea Rae

Adriana Fuentes, start-up founder

Paula Alza, Bitcoin trader

With Kelsea Rae

Yours truly, Adriana and Gabriel Kurman (RSK Labs)

Steve Beauregard and Rodolfo Andragnes

During the days of the conference, the Bitcoin course skyrocketed from 10,000 US dollars to over 15,000 US dollar. The picture that was taken on Tuesday night with Rodolfo sporting a 12 K on his chest became obsolete the next day, as this picture shows.

This was the closing dinner of the conference, but the LaBitConf experience was not over yet, as you will see in my next post.

More posts:

LaBitConf's First Evening
LaBitConf's First Day
Excursion to the Salt Cathedral