Our bitcoiners must find their voice or we will lose the platform for innovative debate
Some of the most exciting developments in Bitcoin and the blockchain are happening in Europe. Venture capital firms are investing heavily in European startups with over $2bn last year alone. Bitcoin is also having an important impact on the war being fought right on the EU’s borders.
Yet Europe’s voice is seldom heard. When the world wants to know what’s hot in Bitcoin, it turns to the United States, or to El Salvador, or Nigeria.
Where, for example, is the French equivalent of Miami mayor Francis Suarez or the British counterpart of New York mayor Eric Adams — high-profile politicians who walk the walk by taking their salaries in Bitcoin? Where is the European Michael Saylor or Jack Dorsey?
That’s the central paradox holding us back from taking our rightful place at the forefront of the financial revolution: Europe has turned into a Bitcoin backwater at the precise time when it should be making the weather for the rest of the world.
Europe is so important for Bitcoin’s development because of its unique narrative around the need and the use cases for Bitcoin. Take the war in Ukraine, where citizens are turning to Bitcoin after losing access to their bank accounts and financial infrastructure. As the Center for Strategic & International Studies points out, “this is the first major conflict with a prominent role for cryptocurrencies”. War has always been a catalyst of innovation and adoption; Europe now finds itself on the front line.
In its institutions too, there are developments taking place that should be at the core of the global Bitcoin ecosystem. The EU Parliament is currently engaged in a range of debates about banning Bitcoin mining to cracking down on self-custody wallets, which enable users to hold their own Bitcoin rather than entrusting it to a third party. Where are the opponents of these policies?
Why this reticence from Europe’s bitcoiners? For an outsider, especially Americans, the answer is obvious. Bitcoin the currency and Bitcoin the community thrives on discussion, dialogue and – often heated – debate.
Yet when the world gathers to talk Bitcoin, it’s to Miami they fly and not to London, Paris or Munich. If Europe wants to shout about its contributions to Bitcoin, it needs to build real-world communities. Europe used to be great at this. In fact, Europe was the leader in the early days of Bitcoin. Some of the world’s first Bitcoin conferences were held in London and Amsterdam way back in 2014. Berlin created the world’s first Bitcoin business district.
Innovation is and has always been the product of cross-border collaboration and competition, of differences and debate. It’s the key reason why Europe has enjoyed half a millennium of global leadership and prosperity.
If Europe’s bitcoiners want to take their place as leaders of the Bitcoin revolution, they need to shift the centre of gravity away from the US and establish their own physical hubs and conferences that promote dialogue.
But that’s only half the story. Bitcoin is not an end in itself: it is the means to preserve the personal freedoms that have been among Europe’s most important contributions to the world. As Alex Gladstein from the Human Rights Foundation points out, Bitcoin is an incredibly powerful tool against oppression. It is a way to fund pro-democracy campaigners in Hong Kong, to support dissidents in Europe’s last dictatorship, Belarus, or to send money to Ukrainian citizens now living under Russian occupation
That’s certainly worth talking about – and Europe should be where the conversation happens.