[EN] Bitcoin Munich Stammtisch October 2016 Review

Yesterday we, the Bitcoin community in Munich, had our monthly Stammtisch again.

https://www.meetup.com/Bitcoin-Munich/events/233412434/

As usual, we met at the Wirtshaus Zum Straubinger at 18:00. It's a nice traditional, but somewhat higher-class Bavarian tavern. We can't use bitcoins with them (yet), but its location is quite central, while it still has its own biergarten, so we can sit outside whenever the weather allows it.

Besides our usual core members we had many newcomers showing up, so we were about 20 people, which is quite a lot for our Stammtisch format (where we don't offer free pizza and beer after all).

It's quite impossible to track all the chats and discussions that were going on, but a lot was about the basics again of course. We showed some guests how to install a wallet on their phones. We learned that some of them run businesses that deliver goods to far away countries, and who want to learn if and how bitcoin can help to run their payment processes in smoother way.

As it is traditional, we headed over to the Niederlassung bar at 20:00. We used to be able to use bitcoins there, but alas, not currently, due to them switching their cash systems, but we still keep believing in them. ;)

Some of the newcomers brought up Onecoin. We'd always thought it is not even worth mentioning and discussing it, the obvious scam that it is. But if we continue to see confusion and a great need for information about this topic, then we might consider a strategy of how to best educate people. In this case, luckily, the newcomers were asking the right questions themselves that it seems dubious. Isn't it true that a blockchain ought to be decentralized, while Onecoin claim they run their own centralized blockchain? This was of course the right question to ask, and no, it doesn't make sense, exactly.

Discussions among the „pros” went on to the topic of blockchains in the corporate context, and how it is seen at places like Siemens. While there might have been some stray initiatives by enthusiast project leaders in such corporations before, things have changed since blockchains were discussed at the last World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos. Money in the billions now flows into departments to investigate the topic, and which in turn hire and finance startups.

Of course it wasn't far to the by now almost clichéd discussion of private/permissioned (aka simple databases) vs public blockchains. We also swept a bit into a Bitcoin vs Ethereum discussion, but as there weren't Ethereum enthusiasts present (anymore), we might have been a bit biased. ;)

All in all, a great and fun evening, like every time. Lots of people, lots of new faces, lots of discussions, lots of drinks, lots of fun.