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Technical discussions take center stage at Advancing Bitcoin conference in London

Here’s a look back on the highly technical conference in London, where ordinals, silent payments and the Lightning Network were studied and discussed.

Bitcoin bear market builders convened in London for the Bitcoin-only conference Advancing Bitcoin, which ran from March 2–3.

Common Bitcoin (BTC) conference vernacular like “macro,” “shitcoin” and “debt spiral” was absent from the debate, replaced by computer science terms like “OP_return,” “nonce” and “ordinals” dominating the discussion. The two-day developer conference was technical and thoughtful — a space to get one’s hands dirty writing code.

*Fedi’s Leon Johnson organized and kicked off the conference. Source: Michaelayophotography79*

Leon Johnson, a conference organizer and the head of operations at Bitcoin company Fedi, told Cointelegraph that the conference is entering its fourth year and the profile of attendees has slowly evolved:

“In 2019, we had a lot of what I would call hobbyists, enthusiasts, tinkerers. And those same people have now kind of progressed to work for Bitcoin companies.”

True to its name, the conference has advanced Bitcoin hobbyists to Bitcoin companies. Gaming company Zebedee, for example, spun up from interactions at Advancing Bitcoin, Johnson explained.

Alex Leishman, CEO of River — a U.S.-based Bitcoin accumulation and Lightning Network company — told Cointelegraph that the event is a high-quality arena for builders:

“It’s nice to be in workshops and presentations that really dig into the weeds and the inner workings of the innovations happening in the space — whether it’s ordinals, Lightning Network, protocol upgrades — and what those then mean for user experience and for improving the actual products we’re all trying to build.”

True to form, developers and computer scientists pitter-pattered on their keyboards throughout the conference. Attendees as young as 10 constructed hardware wallets from scratch, spun up code, and interrogated the blockchain and Bitcoin mempool. An entire day was dedicated solely to workshops.

*Cointelegraph’s Joe Hall was conference compère. Source: Michaelayophotography79*

Echoing comments made by other developers and computer scientists, Johnson highlighted that progress is good, but the layer-2 Lightning Network is still in its infancy, and Bitcoin is just a teenager at almost 15 years of existence. So, what does Bitcoin need to mature?

“Bitcoin needs people. We need more than speculators. We need people that care about applications.”

Eric Sirion, co-founder of Fedi and maintainer of the Fedimint protocol, joined in: “Don’t gamble — it’s a bear market, and bear markets are for building.” It’s time to “get out there and inspire people,” he suggested.

Uncle Rockstar (not his real name), the brains behind some of Bitcoin company Strike’s inner workings concluded the first day of talks. Rather than delve deeper into technical specifications, as other talks did, Rockstar chose to chide, reassure and motivate developers, particularly those working on free, open-source software.

*Uncle Rockstar (who chooses to hide his features) gives a talk. Source: Alex Waltz*

Bear markets can burn out the best of us, he explained during his talk. “It’s OK to take a break and pick up a fiat job before returning to building.” Leishman agreed:

“I think Bitcoin is going to become the money of the world and is going to completely change everything. We can speed that up if we’re smart about how we approach it.”

With Bitcoin’s price continuing to wallow in the low $20,000s, the bear market continues to grind on. Advancing Bitcoin recently announced its intention to travel to Málaga, Spain with the concept in autumn. The Spain edition will focus on businesses and institutions and have less of a developer focus.

London emerges as world’s most crypto-ready city for business — research

An examination of eight key data points determined London to sport the highest crypto readiness to entice businesses and start-ups.

Along with pro-crypto regulations, mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies requires a supporting infrastructure that can allow the general public access and exposure to the ecosystem. When considering eight key indicators around taxes, ATMs, jobs and events in crypto, London stands at the top as the most crypto-ready city in the world for businesses and start-ups.

United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s vision to “ensure the U.K. financial services industry is always at the forefront of technology and innovation” is on the right path, research conducted by Recap shows. An examination of eight key data points determined London to sport the highest crypto-readiness to entice businesses and start-ups.

*Top 20 crypto-ready cities in the world. Source: Recap*

As shown above, leading metropolitan cities such as Dubai and New York made it to the top three in the list. However, Hong Kong, which was positioned as the most crypto-ready country in 2022, fell to seventh place in the research.

*Top 50 crypto hubs, city-wise comparison. Source: Recap*

The above list shows the top 50 major cities with an infrastructure ready for the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies.

Some key factors considered in the study include the total number of crypto-specific events, crypto-related jobs, crypto-specific companies and the number of crypto ATMs. Some of the non-crypto considerations include quality of life, research and development spending as a percentage of gross domestic product and capital gains tax rate.

Of the lot, London is home to the most people working in crypto-related jobs — an indication of higher interest among the general public in the crypto ecosystem. However, other cities overshadow London in some metrics, strengthening the case for the global adoption of cryptocurrencies.

Steering forward in the quest to stay at the forefront, the Bank of England and the His Majesty’s Treasury highlighted the need to launch a central bank digital currency by 2030.

Cointelegraph previously reported that sources claim that the “digital pound” roadmap is set to be introduced by mid-February. The U.K. reportedly experienced a 35% drop in cash and coin payments in 2020, indicating a trend toward cashless transacting.

Crypto Stories: How Bitcoin helped a couple start a family

These Bitcoiners from London have “no regrets” about their decision to sell Bitcoin to start a family.

Bitcoin (BTC) gains helped “Noodle,” a London-based Bitcoiner, to afford in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments for his family. Noodle’s story comes to life in the latest edition of Cointelegraph’s Crypto Stories.

IVF treatments can be expensive, with success rates ranging from 4% to 38%, depending on various factors. Fortunately, profits from buying and holding Bitcoin provided the necessary funds for Noodle to start a family.

Noodle, who first heard about Bitcoin in 2012, decided to sell some of his BTC to pay for IVF treatment for his wife. He favored selling BTC over taking out a loan, converting over $70,000 in Bitcoin into fiat currency over a few years to pay for the treatments.

Noodle’s journey with Bitcoin began when he was at the gym. An acquaintance introduced him to the Silk Road, a now-defunct marketplace where users could buy and sell various items using BTC. Noodle was convinced to buy 7 BTC at $57 each and ended up using it to buy cannabis online.

From that point on, Noodle fell down the rabbit holes of finance, education and the world of Bitcoin. He even convinced his wife, whom he had been with since 2008, to invest some of their wedding money into Bitcoin. Little did they know, this investment would eventually fund IVF treatments to help them have children.

Despite the initial stigma around IVF, the Noodle family was able to have two children thanks to the profits from their Bitcoin investment. Noodle told Cointelegraph that he has “no regrets” about his decision to sell BTC to start a family and emphasized the importance of being able to make informed financial decisions.

For many people, the decision between holding Bitcoin or using it for practical purposes can be a difficult one. However, for Noodle, the choice to sell was a clear one, and he is grateful for the opportunity that his Bitcoin investment provided.

British investment managers call for the blockchain-traded funds’ approval

The Investment Association believes the new technology will bring significant cost savings for end investors.

The Investment Association, a trade body representing British investment managers, is speeding up the approval of blockchain-traded funds with digital tokens substituting traditional shares by local government and financial regulators.

As the Financial Times reported on Thursday, the trade body is pushing the government to establish a new class of funds employing blockchain technology and create a new task force to examine how distributed ledger technology could accelerate the creation of new products and services.

The reasons behind such a push, according to the Investment Association, are the possible significant cost savings for end investors and the simplification of the existing procedures of buying and selling mutual funds.

Investment Association chief executive Chris Cummings urged boosting the competitiveness of the national financial services:

“Greater innovation will boost the overall competitiveness of the UK funds industry and improve the cost, efficiency and quality of the investment experience.”

According to FT, blockchain-traded funds could become available by the end of the second quarter of 2023 if the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) gives its regulatory approval. As the newspaper adds, a financial technology group, FundAdminChain, is currently collaborating with the London Stock Exchange and four global asset managers to develop live tokenized funds for the British market.

Brian McNulty, CEO at FundAdminChain, revealed that asset managers have realized the potential to generate market-beating returns via tokenization of funds:

“Tokenised funds can deliver more transparency, instant settlement, improvements in data and analytics, which will contribute to a more efficient system for investors but we need regulatory support to ensure that the UK remains competitive with other jurisdictions.”

The Investment Association also lobbies the FCA to regard the possibility of allowing traditional mutual funds to own cryptocurrencies and other digital assets. But should the FCA get interested in this proposition, it would still require a full consultation to push it through the regulation process.

The first United States-based on-chain mutual fund was launched in April 2021 by Franklin Templeton to process transactions and record share ownership.