Bitcoin May 2013: The Future of Payments. San Jose Convention Center

San Jose Convention Center

This last weekend I went to Bitcoin 2013 San Jose.  I've been very excited about bitcoin for 2 years now and was bummed that I couldn't attend their previous conferences in Europe.  Honestly didn't know what to expect, but I knew I ready to finally meet some real live bitcoiners.

I was a little lost trying to check in.  But this guy let me know I was in the right place..

I got to the event a bit early and started wandering around while the booths were still being set up.

This guys are working on a meshnet.  It doesn't really have
anything to do with bitcoin, but its still cool

These guys run a bitcoin investment fund that helps newbs with
too much money get themselves a piece of the coin

These guys created the Glyph app which allows private texting
as well as bitcoin transfer.  It's super nifty. I downloaded it and you
should too.

I'd never heard of these guys before, but apparently they are
 developing a bitcoin wallet that will work on older model phones
and help give accessto all those without bank accouts

I don't know who these guys are or what they do, but they made
it into my camera somehow

These guys help people send fiat money around the world,
which can help people buy bitcoin

I kept my eyes peeled for the bitcoin bigwigs, like Erik Voorhees, and Jared Kenna, and Roger Ver and Charlie Shrem etc.. but I was a bit disadvantaged by the fact that I had just started on some new meds and the conference was catered with a full bar..  Needless to say, my first night was a bit hazy...

These are the famous Winklevos from the social network.  Apparently they own 1% of all the bitcoin in existance 

I have no idea what is happening here, nor do I understand why I'm sitting in the corning taking this picture

This is the VIP party thrown by Tradehill.  I vaguely remember Jared giving me his card and inviting me.  I'm sure he regrets it.

He seems cool

I don't know these guys, but they graciously let me share their table

This guy this a CEO of something, I can't remember what.  I don't know why he's green, I didn't do that.

Super friendly guy and his wife from Chile, I think.

Don't know these guys, but I wish I did

Ok, I'll be honest, I don't remember taking any of these pictures, apparently I appointed my self the even photographer.

I must have really liked this guy because I have a lot of photoes of him.  He looks annoyed in every one.

except this one

Apparently I did some exploring..?  I'm guessing this is the Hilton kitchen

The guy who looks creeped out is Stephan Thomas, he's kinda a big deal in the bitcoin world. I might have been staring.

The cutie smiling at me is Adrianne Jeffries.  She is the infamous journalist that first outed the Silk Road.  I must have been creeping on her because she is in my camera a lot.  Apparently though, She interviewed me for the article she posted on the conference.  It can be read here:  http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/21/4348064/why-wont-bitcoin-die
(I'm Jack Alderson in the article)  It turns out I'm a compulsive liar when I'm drunk :/

:

I must have been annoying people.  I have a lot of pictures of palms :/

These guys look important

I must have loved this guy because I have a hundred photos of him

Such a compliant modal

Here is the lovely Adrienne again with a super hot Asian chick.  I won't even say how many times these girls ended up in my camera

Here they are with their douchy friend who probably came over to stop me from harassing them. Tool

I know neither who these gentlemen are, nor why I'm shoot from this angle..

I woke up the next day in the parking garage, with 43 business cards. 

This is some boring panel talk about regulation

This is the after party from the second night.  It was super lame.

They had video games though

Somewhere in between all the excitement I went and tried to take some artsy pictures.. Enjoy:

So stoked when I woke up and found 5 of these pictures on my phone. (It's Erik Voorehees, idiots)

Last day of the conference I interrupted his really important dev meeting for this photo

Yea, so that's it.  Basically I got really drunk, made a fool of myself and have the pictures to prove it.

Oh, and there was this really cute blogger chick who was totally into me until I exhibited my golf-ball-sized spider bite than has been oozing puss for the last 8 days.. No I'm not giving you a photo of that.  I'm going to the doctor on Tuesday