Bitcoiners have flocked to Texas because of its pro-crypto policies and ecosystem of developers and miners.AUSTIN — There is a sort of clubhouse for Austin's bitcoin believers on the second floor of the Littlefield Building at the corner of Congress Avenue and Sixth Street.
"If you talk to other builders in the competition, a lot happens here," said Chavarria. "There definitely is a sense of, 'I don't need for others to lose for me to win.' There really is a relationship and a collaboration for bitcoin to succeed." In the last 20 years, Austin has matured into one of the country's leading tech centers, a trend accelerated by the Covid pandemic, which saw industry leaders migrate en masse from California.
At these meetings, topics run the gamut, from detailed discussions about code to concerns that the Microsoft-maintained GitHub may pose a greater existential threat to the bitcoin network since much of the development work and conversations among coders happen on that platform. At one such gathering, the moderator of the two-hour session asked the room who ran a bitcoin node. More than half of the people in attendance raised their hands.
One underrated driver of bitcoin's recent rally is new programming innovations that may allow it to reach technological parity with ethereum. These advancements involve beefing up the bitcoin ecosystem with tools like smart contracts, which are programmable pieces of code that help to eliminate middlemen like banks and lawyers from transactions. That makes it easier for developers to create products and applications for consumers.
Gilliam, who spent a few years commuting from New York to Austin every month for the BitDevs meetup, said that some of the layer two bitcoin investments are more hype than substance, but he's still bullish overall on the deal space. The Boys Club put on its own Austin summit on the sidelines of SXSW with programming on the new internet, crypto, and digital culture."Number go up" is a big mantra among bitcoiners, but as the community evolves, so too does the thinking about the price of the coin.
West Texas miner Jamie McAvity has 60 megawatts at his mining site. It runs on a part of the grid that is 90% powered by a mix of solar and wind power.