Exciting 1st Bitcoin Meetup!!! NZ Entrepreneurs lead the way. You can buy Bitcoin in a pub but not a bank!? NZ banks "where the **#! are you?" Only Bitcoin ATM is in a pub named after a male dog's gentials! Shame!
Hi All!
It's official. My social life is tragic. When you say to your husband "Hey hon don't do me dinner. I'm going to a bitcoin meeting. I'll eat at the pub", you are in a sad state.
THE MEETING WAS FANTASTIC!!!
I have to share my experience of my first bitcoin Meetup meeting last night, 16 Jan. I was so pumped after I drafted this blog in bed that night, sitting in the dark next to said sleeping (and patient) husband.
It was held at The Dogs Bollix, Newton, Auckland, New Zealand. (I know...the name!! www.dogsbollix.co.nz). There I met the founder of the Meetup group which has been going for years. What rock have I been under?
Check out Auckland Bitcoin Meetup http://meetu.ps/c/Wpr8/DxZx2/d
Next meetings 23 and 30 Jan
They had the entire pub booked. About 60 people from all walks of life.
Over a $9.50 wine and $8 narchos I talked Bitcoin (BTC) and Blockchain for 3.5 hours!! I was pumped! All sizes, ages, ethnicity, tall, short, fat, skinny, gen X, gen Y, baby boomers, millennials, mums, dads, professionals, students, male, female. Great to see so many women there.
Some had none
Some had some
Some had heaps
Some were newbies
Some were not so newbies
Some were oldies
Not being in a room of suits was a new experience for a chick from the corporate world. These were THE everyday people on the ground. The real deal. The coal face of the revolution of money and business.
We shared knowledge, websites, Amazon books, Youtube channels we followed and our stories about how we found out about BTC. Newbies asked Oldies about how to store BTC. You could buy a hard wallet (gadget to put crypto on). You could learn. You could buy BTC!
I learnt what HODL meant....it was a typo. Now it's a new financial term!
I listened to stories.
One guy bought 1 million DASH for NZD$100 and sold it for NZD$5000. Those coins are now worth NZD$1.1b...b is correct. Not m. Ouchies.
Others had been buying BTC for a long time. For me it's not about the money. It's about the amazing things that the blockchain technology behind BTC can achieve and how it will change the world on a massive scale. It's about changing the form of money to a fairer system for all.
BITCOIN ATMs - NZ has 2 & only one works.
At this meeting there was a Bitcoin ATM machine!!!
WOW! This was only 1 of 2 Bitcoin ATMs in New Zealand. The only one in Auckland. New Zealand's largest city with a massive interest in BTC and it was in an Irish pub named after a male dog's gentials! lol! The guy bought it 5 years ago. That's forward thinking. Like Eric Clapton, it was unplugged...:-(
The other is in Dunedin. And it works. Shame on you Auckland!
One guy I spoke to called all the banks about installing BTC ATMs in NZ. His call went round in circles. No one could give him an answer.
"ah...what...bitcoin?..um speak to Bob".
Bob "um...crypto what? um speak to Risk".
Risk "currency? speak to the trading floor".
20 something currency trader "bitcoin? haven't heard of it".
What rock are the banks under? No forward thinking there.
It is seriously worrying that the NZ banks are so far behind adopting this new currency and the Blockchain technology to advance the banking system, when the world's biggest banks and financial institutions have embraced Blockchain technology and are even issuing their own cryptocurrency.
I thought we were a progressive country. Early adopters. We took to eftpos and internet banking like ants to a sticky lolly. Fleas to a cat. Flies to.....
ASB led the way with online banking. Where are ASB's BTC ATM's? Why are the banks standing still like a possum in the headlights? Motionless. Clueless. Yeah ANZ and Westpac did a white paper on a guarantee to a lease. Big deal. Who does that help? The man on the street? No. It helps the bank. Another channel to get the security of your personal guarantee over all your assets so they can sell your house, make you bankrupt and you can only own a $5000 car and the clothes you stand in when you hit a tricky spot. Selfish. That's why the banking system fails in the first place.
BTC is just another currency. Why can I buy BTC in a pub, but not in a bank? Ludicrous! Why isn't my bank offering me fast and cheap transactions on a blockchain? Instead they charge me fees for everything they can think of. "Oh, we 'let' your credit card draw over the limit....ching! $20"
In Europe and Australia there are BTC ATM's everywhere. www.coinatmradar.com shows there are 23 BTC ATM's in Australia.
You can buy BTC at these ATMs. So easy! buying BTC in NZ is so difficult! The world has easy access to buying BTC except NZ. Are we really that backwards? Are the banks and Government wearing wool lined blinkers?
PwC sees the enormous potential for Blockchain.
https://www.pwc.com/us/en/industries/financial-services/fintech/blockchain.html
The world's top banks are adopting cryptocurrency and Blockchain:
https://www.ft.com/content/20c10d58-8d9c-11e7-a352-e46f43c5825d
Luthuania Bank:
https://www.coindesk.com/lithuanias-central-bank-unveils-blockchain-startup-sandbox/
NZ COMPANIES & ENTREPRENEURS LEAD THE WAY
I googled and found that NZ companies and entrepreneurs are leading the Blockchain way in NZ. Fonterra are partnering with Alibaba to build a food safety platform. Centrality are creating a central hub for apps. Predator Free NZ are protecting our environment. NZ Data Commons are enabling data sharing across organisations - your medical professionals will have their records stored in one decentralised place so you get the best medical care - instead of info stored at individual offices in a centralised system with no knowledge of something important stored another office's centralised system, and resulting medical incidents.
AirNZ are looking to use blockchain to manage luggage - no lost luggage nightmares! I'm sure I'll be buying tickets with AirNZ crypto one day!
BUYING BTC IN NZ
A group of NZ software developers launched this month Cryptosaver to make it easy for NZer's to buy BTC. You can buy $10, $50 per week, what ever your budget, to steadily buy BTC. The other option is localbitcoin.co.nz, which is expensive. I've used both. Cryptosaver is easier and cheaper and....I've known one of the founders for many years so I trusted them. They were very helpful and patient as I learnt.
(Sorry ASB/BNZ/ANZ/Westpac/Kiwibank, you were beaten to it by a bunch of software geeks wearing chinos and chucks)
I'll talk about the challenges of buying BTC in another blog. I'm not a financial advisor - so your buying is based on your own decisions.
NZ is embracing Blockchain despite bottle necks:
https://i.stuff.co.nz/technology/gadgets/97678244/kiwis-embrace-blockchain-despite-bitcoin-bottleneck
Blockchain is going to revolutionise the banking industry and NZ banks are hiding behind their mother's skirts in fear of losing their power over the financial industry. There is nothing to fear. There are only new opportunities. Adapt or die. The revolution will not be televised, it will be on a decentralised distributed immutable ledger.
BLOCKCHAIN GLOBAL ADVANCES
Other countries are moving power grids to Blockchain platforms. India is trialing a Blockchain platform for the economic benefits to the country of reliable, clean, green, secure power.
http://coinherald.co/india-trials-blockchain-based-power-grid/
This street is Brooklyn has its own peer to peer Blockchain platform microgrid for power:
Other countries are putting their land titles system on blockchain, like Russia.
https://www.coindesk.com/russias-government-test-blockchain-land-registry-system/
It is NZ entrepreneurs who are doing the great work. It is NZ entrepreneurs embracing this new technology.
Not the banks.
Not the housing sector.
Not the power sector.
Not the health sector.
Not the legal sector
Not the Government.
Blockchain.co.nz held a fantastic May 2017 Blockchain Conference .....but meh. It's a closed group for professionals. To join you apply and if accepted pay a sizeable fee. To their benefit they bought two Blockchain heavy weight greats over. But didn't advertise widely or was it members only?....(maybe not advertised to my rock...yeah peeved I missed it.)
A DECADE FROM NOW...
A decade from now, when Bitcoin is everyday and boring; when Blockchain is just another payment method; when I'm signing documents with my digital signature and identifying myself with my digital ID for KYC & AML from my European holiday spot;
A decade from now when I'm in an electric self drive car which I don't own as the car is its own corporation on a Blockchain; my house is on a Blockchain and on the Internet of Things - like my fridge which will be shopping online with a crypto wallet; my power supply will be on a microgrid power supply with Blockchain sourcing, buying, paying and distributing power;
A decade from now we will look back and say:
"In the early days people met at pubs to trade BTC and talk about BTC via that old Meetup app. Nerd meetings! haha! Those nerds were right. They were switched on. Which I had listened, not laughed or hid."
A decade from now we'll look back and say, " In the early days banks didn't know anything about BTC and hung up on people who asked can we have BTC ATMs or can I buy BTC please?";
A decade from now the banks will be providing full crypto services with their own legacy systems moved to Blockchain platforms;
A decade from now I will tell the story how I had to go to a pub called The Dogs Bollix to see my first Bitcoin ATM in NZ...and it wasn't plugged in.
Hey New Zealand....where the bloody hell are you? This is a load of bollix. Get plugged in.
(to coin a phrase from that terrible Australian marketing promo with Lara Bingle the swim wear model who allegedly flushed a $200,000 engagement ring down the toilet.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/So_where_the_bloody_hell_are_you%3F)
BE CURIOUS - SEARCH LEARN GROW
Kiwicrypto