067 - Building a Bitcoin Hub in Silicon Valley: The Presidio Bitcoin Story

In this episode, the hosts Lynne Bairstow and Israel Muñoz welcome the Presidio Bitcoin team, Haley and Alex, to discuss their innovative co-working and event space in San Francisco. They explore the mission behind Presidio Bitcoin, the significance of its location, and the community they are building.

The conversation delves into the challenges and opportunities of creating a Bitcoin hub in Silicon Valley, the importance of bridging the gap between Bitcoin and investors, and the need for more builders in the Bitcoin space. They also highlight the success of their recent hackathon, upcoming events, and their efforts to engage with universities and students.

⏤ ⏤ ⏤
⚡  Get personalized onboarding at River for Bitcoin-only financial services: https://partner.river.com/buildwithbitcoin
⏤ ⏤ ⏤

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Presidio Bitcoin
07:57 Exploring the Space and Community
09:42 Creating a Bitcoin Hub in Silicon Valley
15:03 Bridging the Gap Between Bitcoin and Investors
20:28 Fostering Builders and Innovation
22:56 The Success of the Hackathon
26:16 Starting Local: Grassroots Approaches to Bitcoin Hubs
31:01 Fostering Technical Knowledge: BitDevs and LitDevs
34:16 Upcoming Events and Opportunities
36:58 Connecting with Universities: Engaging the Next Generation
41:37 Supporting the Movement: How to Get Involved

References
https://Presidiobitcoin.org
https://x.com/PresidioBitcoin
https://www.youtube.com/ ⁨@PresidioBitcoin⁩ 

https://pbquantum.com/

 https://www.pbhackathon.com/

https://www.buildwithbitcoin.xyz/
https://x.com/BuildwBitcoin
⏤ ⏤ ⏤ 

❗ DISCLAIMER: This show is for entertainment purposes only. Before making any decisions, consult a professional.

Transcript

Alex: 0:00

We view ourselves as sort of part of the tapestry of the Bay Area scene, really, or the big Bitcoin scene. There was already a really strong, historic set of meetups that existed both bits as, let's as et cetera, that we didn't want to disrupt. We wanted, we wanted to be a part of that. So we post all of our public events on those existing channels that have existed before Presidio Bitcoin, just because, you know, we want to be part of that community. We want to support that community, and not, you know, be anything else, but other than being a part of it,

Israel: 0:36

Ever wonder what it takes to build a thriving Bitcoin community in the heart of Silicon Valley. In this episode, we dive into Presidio Bitcoin with founders, Haley and Alex, we uncover their mission, the vibrant coworking space in San Francisco, and how they're bridging Bitcoin with investors and builders to spark innovation. We hope you enjoy and as a reminder, this podcast is for educational purposes. If you enjoy our work, please remember to share, comment or subscribe to our channel, as This all helps us grow. Lynne and I are partners at base layer advisors, where we use our network of Venture Capital Partners and startup founders to connect investors with unique opportunities within the Bitcoin innovation space. Alongside this, we help startup founders with their growth and fundraising. Visit our website's advisory section to learn more. Welcome to build with Bitcoin. I'm co host Israel. Munoz joined with co host Lynne Bairstow. Today, we welcome the Presidio Bitcoin team, Haley and Alex welcome. Unfortunately, Steve couldn't join us, but we're happy to have you both on Yeah. Really excited to be here. Thank you so Presidio Bitcoin for the listeners to get some context, in case some might not know exactly what you guys are up to. Is a fantastic co working and event space in the San Francisco and Silicon Valley area. And before we get into Presidio Bitcoin, some of your mission, what you guys are are doing over there, we'd love to first get to know a little bit about the Presidio Bitcoin team, so maybe we can start there. You wanna start? Sure? I'll start. So my full time day job is I work on the spiral team, which is a Bitcoin Open Source Initiative that's part of block. Inc, I do marketing. I've been on spiral for about four years, and about a year ago, this idea of Presidio Bitcoin came about from a group of Bay Area Bitcoiners who wanted to get together, and we're really craving some sort of Bitcoin hub.

Haley: 2:30

And ideas started flowing. People were and then all of a sudden, we kind of came up with this idea to start this Bitcoin coworking event space, which is now Presidio Bitcoin. So me and Steve Lee, who is also on the spiral team, we both work out of Presidio Bitcoin now, but we really helped start the initiative. So we kind of helped fund or build the space from the beginning. So we came up, kind of like with the general idea. Mark Casey, who is one of the funders, found this beautiful location in the Presidio. I helped kind of build it from the beginning, getting all the desks, the layout, furniture, stuff like that. And then we found Alex as the lead back in November last year. So now I just sit back as a board member for Presidio Bitcoin, and get to go back to my normal day job at spiral and work out of here, but also help with the events. So I helped

Alex: 3:27

moderate one of the meetups that we have here. So still very much involved, but Alex is the one who kind of leads the charge with the running the business. Now there's no sitting back and relaxing at all if you're involved here. Yeah, I touched on a lot there. Haley, that's exactly right. I have the distinct privilege, privilege of leading pursuit of Bitcoin. And basically that means is, I do everything you know, unloading the dishwasher, setting up great events, dealing with, you know, whatever it might be to run the business, getting new members, etc. We we have, fortunately, an incredible folks that are members here, meaning that they really help out, whether it's putting out events, helping keep the space operating, whatever it might be, it's really been a fantastic sort of seven months since I've been here. We officially launched in March of this year. But yeah, I came from, you know, kind of normal world. I was a consultant for a long time. Went to business school, and then kind of got in the crypto web three space in 2021 and eventually just kind of, you know, went closer and closer to the to the nucleus, which is Bitcoin in sort of a, you know, circling way. But yeah, eventually, thought this was a fantastic and really cool opportunity to take a place like Presidio Bitcoin from zero to one, right? This was a blank canvas. It was an idea. And obviously we had, you know, two fantastic donors that made it all possible. But it was just so fun to be able to paint with a with a brush and see what it's, you know, become today in such short amount of time, honestly, but really the, you know, the plans that we have for the future and where it's going to be and where it could put. What it can become.

Haley: 5:01

And also, who is on the screen that I forgot to introduce is itty bitty. He is part of the here comes Bitcoin initiative, which is one of the things that I work work on as part of spiral. So he's also joining the interview with us, and we have watching

Alex: 5:14

the full size one in a conference room in for city of Bitcoin, which is like something that can go inside of it, right? Well, not, not just anyone,

Haley: 5:24

but it's that's how big? Oh, take a picture with it. There is a human that normally goes inside of it. But yes, we do have the full puppet at Presidio, Bitcoin, and then itty bitty, who is his miniature, is joining us on the podcast today.

Lynne Bairstow: 5:37

I can't wait to dive into a little bit more about Presidio and what you offer. But I want to talk about the name Presidio Bitcoin, if you're at all in the Bay Area, you know exactly what it is. I'm based in Mexico City, and we have a big LATAM following of who we work with. And when the name came out, they're like Presidio because it means penitentiary or fortress in Spanish. And so there was a lot of confusion about it. But can you explain exactly what the Presidio is and and just talk a little bit about the name? Yeah,

Alex: 6:06

in San Francisco, the Presidio, and we've heard that feedback, too, and we came up with the name, but it is. It's a national park, like we are technically in the United States, federal land Park Service, but it used to be an old military base. The actually, the oldest building in San Francisco is just up the road from us, and it was the original sort of military installation. So where we're located is, you know, you can see the Golden Gate Bridge. It's a very strategic location to the whole San Francisco Bay area. But that's, that's the name, right? It's sort of this, this historic blending of, you know, old military ground mixed with the Spanish roots that California, you know, ultimately has, and that's what this whole area is called, right? So we kind of didn't, weren't very creative with the name, because we kind of just took the name Presidio and added Bitcoin to it. But, you know, our branding was extremely fun to go about, you know, kind of creating the brand, you know, around Presidio Bitcoin. Because, as mentioned, this was an old military base, I think in 1994 it was decommissioned. Now, as you mentioned, it's like the Walt Disney Museum is here. There's a bunch of restaurants. People live here. People obviously work here. There's office space, you know, it's a wonderful park and place to hike. So we really had this really fun experience of like, Okay, what does this now mean from a branding opportunity of being in a national park in a former military base with sweeping views of the Golden Gate and representing Bitcoin in Silicon Valley. And what did that? What does that mean? So, yeah, it's a very to your point, right? If you know the Presidio in San Francisco, it's very obvious, and everything fits and makes a lot of sense. But, yeah, we do know that the word Presidio might, may not, you know, go well with the nomenclature of, you know, different

Lynne Bairstow: 7:48

language, but it's gorgeous. I mean, it has parks hiking. I mean a lot of walking meetings you can take in the trails right behind the Presidio historic buildings. I mean, it is such a spectacular space and parking, which in San Francisco, is something that's a little bit hard to find, so I loved the location since I heard about it, but maybe that's a good way for you to just talk about exactly what is the space. What do you offer? What are, what are, you know, who can come and just talk a little bit about the community that you're building there.

Haley: 8:20

So this is a Bitcoin focus coworking and event space. It's not that large. We have 24 workstations with dual monitors, so we have people that are working here daily, using it as our workspace. And then the other aspect is the space is it's an event space. So there's many meetups and events that were happening kind of other places, and now they're all happening at Presidio Bitcoin, which, as you mentioned, is really nice because there's parking, and we have kind of like a specific, curated area on one side of the office that we can easily host events. And then, yes, we also have a recording studio that's part of the space as well, which Alex and I are in. And so we kind of have this almost like media component of Presidio Bitcoin as well, where a couple of us run podcasts. So we have PB and J Presidio and Bitcoin jam. And then that is Steve Lee, DK and Max Webster. They do kind of a weekly show about Bitcoin what's happening. Kind of discussing different topics that are interesting. And the goal for that is to appeal to both Bitcoiners and then also folks in Silicon Valley, because that's one of our main goals, is to kind of bridge the gap between the two. And then there's also 21 and 21 which is the podcast I host, and we kind of are bringing guests that stop by just ask I ask them questions. It's 21 minutes long. We try to get through 21 questions. The point of that is to kind of show all the cool people that are visiting the space, because we get tons of visitors, and then also to give those people a platform to talk about what they're doing. So that's kind of really we're a hub for, for Bitcoiners and. And we get visitors from out of town, and then people can work out of the space and have a full time membership. You

Israel: 10:05

guys do quite a bit, Haley and Alex and you, you mentioned something just now, Haley, that I want to, you know, get a little more of your both your thoughts on you mentioned that one of the goals, or perhaps the main goal, you know, maybe that's something, you know, I'll let you guys expand on is, is really the creating this hub for for Bitcoin in Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley, of course, being such an important epicenter of tech, and past 234, decades of really the global economy. And then you now, you have this Bitcoin movement. And what we saw was Austin, Nashville, you know, some other cities start to create this hub, right? And I think before the efforts that you're doing at Presidio, you know, a lot of us probably did wonder, what's what's that going on over there in San Francisco? Where did Silicon Valley stand prior to Presidio? I mean, was it a little more lost in the web three, in general crypto area. I mean, where was it and where is it now, with what Presidio is doing?

Haley: 11:10

Well, there definitely have always been Bitcoiners in San Francisco and in the Bay Area, but yes, before Presidio, Bitcoin, there wasn't as much as of a hub. So that was kind of one of the goals of the funders was to create a hub, because we've seen success from places like Bitcoin park that have really pulled in people to create a community. So that's been kind of the one of the more interesting things. So Steve Lee and I, before we we actually did work out of an office at block. It's kind of optional to go in, but we just like to go in to collaborate with each other and other people. So the two of us would meet in the office all the time in San Francisco, at a block office, but people would never really reach out to us when they were in town. There was so many people that we didn't really know about that existed. Even the meetups like bit devs and let devs like definitely existed. So you would meet people. But now having a space where it's known that there is a physical space in San Francisco, it's been really interesting. So many people have now reached out to us who are like, either they already live here and we didn't know about them, like Alex, or people coming to visit who I'm sure were visiting all the time, and they just didn't know who they were supposed to reach out to, where they were supposed to reach out to, what have, where the events were happening. So there was less of that. So there was kind of less of a community feel. I would say maybe there was maybe more with the developers, just because bit devs and let devs already kind of had an existing audience. So that's been really interesting to see that. I mean, I think that the Bitcoin, there's been a lot of Bitcoiners here already, so now kind of we're all pulling together a bit more. The momentum just feels a lot stronger.

Alex: 12:52

Yeah, and I think, you know, as Haley mentioned, right Silicon Valley had a pretty strong Bitcoin community when cryptography and what underpins Bitcoin was new, right? Then this kind of industry kind of took that concept or that technology platform and kind of flourished, right? And, but if you look back to I'd say maybe pre pandemic, pre 2020 maybe pre 2018 kind of that cycle, like a lot of the Bitcoin companies kind of were here, right? A lot of leading cryptographers are doing research here. A lot of those early companies were based here, even, even pre Bitcoin, a lot of that research was here, right? A lot of those people that were, you know, helped Bitcoin become what it is. Started. Was started here. And I think, to your point, right? Like, what, what happened? Right? Well, you know, Silicon Valley is a little bit of a, you know, move fast and break things type of model, right? That's just how kind of VC is, in some sense. And that really got kind of web three ish at the same time the pandemic happened, and a lot of people that kind of left California because it didn't need to be here physically. And it's very, you know, it's one of the more expensive places to live, so you kind of had a multitude of of sort of tailwinds, kind of taking the industry out of California and out of Silicon Valley. And I think that's ultimately like what Presidio Bitcoin wants to be a part of in bringing that back. Is to your point, looking Valley has been this historic engine that is produced so much, you know, technological innovation. You know, incredible companies, incredible. You know, prosperity, if you will, around producing new things. And you know we feel, and certainly I feel, and while I was excited about pursuit of Bitcoin, we know one element of that was okay, how can we bring what I think is the future, which is going to be Bitcoin, you know, the network, the asset, the technology, the whatever, and in park that right next to Silicon Valley, and try to pull those best things out of Silicon Valley and actually bring that to Bitcoin, to help it out, to help accelerate it, to help, you know, build companies that are working into it, or integrating Bitcoin into Silicon Valley, going the other direct direction. So we're hopefully part of that positive change to bring that those two i. I guess forces, if you will, together in a positive way. But you're right. It was sort of this, you know, up and down cycle that Silicon Valley has had. And, you know, that's sort of one person's take. I'm not a California, you know, or Silicon Valley native, but that's certainly my read on it. And I think the sense that you can get, and I think part of the motivation of, you know, creating this, you know, kind of flag in the ground, so to speak, is all right, these are two of the best things that we think that's going to happen. And what can we do if you put them together? And well, all right, let's physically put them together and see what happens. And let's start there.

Israel: 15:31

Build with Bitcoin. Is a proud affiliate partner of river. River is a financial services company that allows you to purchase, sell and transfer your Bitcoin, all through a great suite of products high security standards, and as of recent, even allowing you to earn a Bitcoin yield on your US dollar cash deposits for a personalized onboarding experience. Go to partner.river.com/build

Lynne Bairstow: 15:51

with Bitcoin. Well, there's so much I want to drill down on that, but one of the things that you know, just talking about this, or pulling on this thread, about the web three and just the evolution, you know, I think part of the reason that Silicon Valley, especially in the last 20 years, has been such a hub, is the investment that goes and supports the tech companies. And it just has really become the place that everybody goes if they want to raise funding and build a team and go through the accelerator programs. And so, you know, it's that's that's been part of it. And I think the model of caching, you know, of being able to exit or have a successful investment in blockchain and related technologies has been through tokenization. That was kind of flipped the VC model, instead of long term, you know, investment in a company. It was being able to kind of move that investment or turn it around quickly. And in, you know, when Israel and I first started this podcast, we were really curious. I mean, former VC, former startup and former accelerator manager, and so we were like, how do you make money on Bitcoin companies? And that was a question that we had. And then we looked at the funding mismatch between web three and crypto companies and Bitcoin companies, which was just like off the charts. Now I think we're starting to see, I mean, we have a handful of fantastic VCs. That's what I love seeing max on the and I'm a huge fan of the PBJ podcast. I listen to it all the time, but his insights on funding and how profitable technologies can come out of the Bitcoin protocol, I think is super important message for the investors in the area. So this is a really long way of saying I know that you guys, and I want to drill down into some of the things you're doing with the development community and the builder community, but are you also reaching out to the investor community and educating them on the opportunities for profitable companies coming out of this

Alex: 17:46

space. Yeah, I'll touch on the VC side, and then I'll pass over to Haley to speak around, kind of the builder side. Some of the work we're doing there, we're aiming to kind of tackle these types of questions because of just the way that we're positioned. We're not a company per se, but kind of an event space and a community space. So, you know, the first thing we're doing is discussing quantum because that's such a hot topic, right? So how can we get a real pulse on what that means and answer those questions so we can either calm people's concerns or say, Oh, we actually start need to be in concern. What are the solutions? What do we do? You know, we're trying to do that roughly like a 90 to 120 day, sort of clip of, okay, what are these huge pressing issues in the Bitcoin space? And how can we help move the needle along? By bringing people together have pragmatic discussions and to come to realistic conclusions. Lynne, you mentioned, you know, the VC and capital space, and kind of touching on our last conversation around, you know, being in Silicon Valley is, that's, I think our next summit is going to be around, you know, two days, roughly structured as, okay, investing in Bitcoin. So there's a lot of, you know, Bitcoin only VCs out there. One of them just raised, you know, announced today they raised $100 million fund. How can we make that broader? Or, how can we get the Bitcoin person that's at a big fund, you know, not be the crazy person anymore, right? Like they are the partner, that's the Bitcoin partner at these generalist funds, and that's a that's a realistic job that exists at every single fund in Silicon Valley. Like we want to do that, and we want to be a part of that. But there's very real questions around the disconnect between, you know, why Silicon Valley went so web three prior, and the way that, you know Bitcoin sort of is this more slow and steady, more sort of platform, more, you know, whatever it is. So we hope to answer that we're going to target kind of October, November, you know, one day is discussing around investing in Bitcoin from, you know, a VC side. So, you know, VCs talking to VCs. I know that's a running joke, but really, you know why? How, what it looks like? You know, the risks, et cetera. And then day two is going to be basically, here's a bunch of reasons or ways to do it right, AKA a pitch day, aka, okay, I want to invest in this space. Here's a bunch of examples. So we have five companies that are working out of Presidio Bitcoin, that are. All you know, kind of at that seed stage, or pre seed. So I think we have a decent pulse on it. And then, as mentioned, you know, Max is a VC here that works here, and many other friends and VCs have been through the space that, to your point, we agree that it's a challenging sort of question to answer, and maybe not all the incentives are aligned, but I think they could align. So, yeah, we're going to try and pull people together to, you know, help that engine, or help that, that, I don't know, connection take place. Because, yeah, we're, it's a great time to do it, and it feels like there's a right amount of development and products that are being created, whether it's Bitcoin or Bitcoin adjacent, or Noster, or things that are related to, you know, many of the people, or the ethos that people have in Bitcoin, most, you know, decentralization or freedom tech, or what have you. You know, those are very real things that we want to, you know, be a part of. But I'll let Haley talk to, kind of the builder side of of Silicon Valley, not just the VC side, yeah,

Haley: 20:57

because there is kind of, like a two part thing. It's like, you need money coming in, but you also need builders, and it's like chicken or the egg, like, what do you need more of? So definitely, we need more funding, but we also need more builders. And something that we've seen a lot of in the Bay Area is there is just general more excitement for web three with university students and younger builders. I don't know if that's because of maybe a marketing push. I recently, just earlier today, I went kind of down a rabbit hole of shit, coin marketing. It's a bit depressing how much money has been poured into certain things. There just has, generally has been a large amount of marketing done around web three. I mean, there's a web three co working space across the street that existed first. And so something that I think is happening, and that we're working on is getting builders more excited about Bitcoin and kind of the potential to build with Bitcoin. I mean, vibe coding and AI is just a huge one. And we hosted a hackathon. And as a less technical person, it was really exciting to see these projects being presented that were much more digestible and exciting. We can see, you know, a prototype, a physical example, something that people were building that you know weren't long time developers. So I think there's going to be a huge new wave of builders, which will be really good for Bitcoin, especially another, yeah, it is. It is hard to make money off of building a Bitcoin project. It's something I asked too. It's like, how does, how does this company make money? But there are actually a lot of ways that you can make money building with Bitcoin, and there are a lot of kind of but it kind of takes maybe that entrepreneurial mindset too, which there is a lot of in Silicon Valley, where maybe you can be more creative with the way that you kind of add features or kind of subscriptions or different things like that you can add to products. So I think we're going to be seeing a lot more building in these types of ways that we're introducing builders to investors will propel a lot of that forward.

Lynne Bairstow: 22:52

Yeah, Haley, we talked a little bit. We connected in Vegas, and you had just completed the hackathon at that time. Can you tell us a little bit about because I think that's a great idea, and I think it's a great idea to showcase people what exactly, how the technology, how flexible the technology is. I think sometimes part of the web three bias is, is this story that's been told that Bitcoin is slow and can't, you know, you can't really build on it, but it has had so many kind of iterations or evolutions in the protocol that there's, there's so much that you can do in Bitcoin on a very stable and secure foundation that you that it kind of takes out that excuse out of the window. But talk to us about the hackathon and how that idea came about. How many people did you have come what were some of the outcomes of it? Love to hear about the results of that first hackathon that you had.

Haley: 23:48

Alex might have insight into how the hackathon came about. And I actually don't even remember at this point, things are moving so quickly.

Alex: 23:55

Yeah, you know, I don't remember how it came about either. I think it was just an idea that someone had, like, let's do it, and then we did it, yeah, probably, it probably was just some Yeah, pontification at a lunch table. And off we went. I know we were chatting, you know, kind of off camera, if you will. But you this idea the hackathon, like we it was extremely successful for first and foremost, which means we want to do it again. But, you know, we were chatting earlier in the conversation that, you know, there's all these physical spaces around the globe. Now, you know that there's like, six or seven United States, you know, there's one in Tokyo that was launched, I want to say in, like, March, you know, I just talked to someone that's launching one in in London, Mexico City, that we want to and I ran this idea past, I want to say, like, three or four, I guess, of the other sort of space leaders. This is in part of making awesome sort of outcomes of the hackathon, meaning like real companies and get real engineers. But I think it's also a very good like marketing for Bitcoin, meaning that people that are just technically interested. Will pay attention, and that is just to do a global hackathon with all of the spaces. So if we're sitting here in Presidio Bitcoin, we're having a hackathon, and we have 10 teams, and there's people in Denver and there's people in Austin, and there's people in Nashville, and there's people in New York, and there's a team in Switzerland, there's a team in Tokyo, and it becomes this global phenomenon where that is, where all of the talent that is technically inclined is spending their time for a weekend, three days. We figured out that Logistics is really just an idea, kind of in my head that we've been chatting around with various people for since, since our hackathon in May, really. But I think, you know, we can have an incredible pool, prize pool with that sort of, you know, depth, I think it would make insane headlines. It'll bring, I think, attention to the space in a very positive way, and really get a global sort of interest going where, you know, it Bitcoin becomes real. I think the other part of like these physical spaces that's so exciting is, you know, it's not just sitting in your basement, like I have to go leave my job and talk to no one and just do this stuff and post on GitHub by myself and never see anyone again. Like, one of the fantastic things about these physical spaces like Presidio bitcoin is it's less scary to then say I work on Bitcoin, or I am building on Bitcoin, or I'm doing something with Bitcoin, because you can surround yourself with people that are doing the exact same thing. So I think this global Hackathon is like, not only a great way to bring together the physical spaces in a very sort of productive way, but I think it's gonna be a fantastic bit of marketing, if you will, to the world. And it's gonna get rid of the narratives of, oh, Bitcoins for XYZ, or Bitcoin some nefarious thing or whatever, and it really bring this sort of technology, first innovation, first for forward, anyway, idea and kind of put it, put that at the forefront of people's minds. The stuff that's on CNBC is really, you know, kind of the next Treasury company, or digital gold, right? Or the or the asset or the price chart, which is good and fine, but I do think that there is a segment that it would be interested in getting back to the technology part of it. And this just felt like so many wins and that, again, that's just being kind of one of them.

Israel: 27:13

Love this idea that you're throwing out there, Alex, of getting a few of these hubs to, you know, cooperate in some sort of global hackathon, because the I mean, there's no shortage of talent out there, and I think you're spot on that there. There is some magic to the physical location. I'm extremely excited with what you guys are doing, especially because of the significance and just leadership role that Silicon Valley has, like it or not. I mean, I think it's super important. So, I mean, it's, it's exciting to hear every everything that you guys are working on over there. And, you know, to to that point of the importance of these hubs, by the way, Alex and Haley, I want to ask, you know, so for other people who might be listening, and you know, perhaps in your city, you want to get it a little more involved, and this is one way to certainly, you know, build community, but it can sometimes be hard. I mean, how do you guys? I mean, whether it's from a philanthropical approach or from a business model approach. I mean, what recommendation would you have for people who might want to get something like this going in their respective communities. You know, how do you measure success? How did you guys at Presidio think about this when you were just kind of brainstorming

Haley: 28:31

this? It's definitely not an easy thing to start, you know, a coworking and event space like we've done, especially in San Francisco. It does involve, you know, funding and effort, but it's doable, and it depends where you live, too. I mean, San Francisco is expensive, but there's lots of cities that are lower cost to live, where it's a bit easier on the grassroots level to kind of start more of a hacker space type environment. ATL bit Labs is one of them. I just visited there a few weeks ago, and they have a really cool kind of smaller space that, I don't know, maybe like 10 desk or so, but they have a large enough area to host a meetup. And so that's great, because it gives like, the repetition at the same place where people can go every week, every month or whatever, for a meetup, and they know it's where they can meet people. Steven Delorme is the one who started that space, and yeah, he did it all kind of grassroots. Denver kind of had an interesting model, too, where they had, I think people were kind of contributing funding to an amount to kind of raise money together before the space even started. So there's ways to kind of start a space that's maybe not like Presidio Bitcoin, with this like, kind of fancy recording studio, where we kind of maybe have a different mission and approach. There's the way of, kind of giving a physical location for community. Can can start small, and that's definitely more attainable.

Alex: 29:53

Yeah, there's stories too. Of you know, people that hosted meetups in the back of a pizza shop, and then the pizza shop guy became a. You know, bitcoiner, and then they hosted it there every week. And then it kind of became a couple desks in the back too, you know, PUBKEY, right? It's a bar, right? Like there, there are ways to, you know, that level of informal, it's a formal can be very different based on, you know, what are you trying to do? Is it the social thing? Are you trying to host events? Is it a meetup, is it XYZ? So I think it really depends. But yeah, I agree with everything Haley said. There's, there's, there's certainly no end to creativity other than, you know, I don't think that there's any regret from anyone that's been a part of doing this, if anything. And just speaking, from my own experience at pursuit of Bitcoin, like it's gonna be fun, it's gonna be a lot of work, it's gonna be fun. So yeah, I encourage everyone to take a bite at the apple. Because, yeah, I do think there's gonna be more of these popping up too. Just gonna be, what level of formality are they gonna be? Are they gonna be in? And

Haley: 30:52

also, this is kind of general advice I give to people who are in open source world, but like, it's really good to just like, write and promote your work generally, like you never know who's reading or who's listening creating content. Can feel like you're just shouting into the void. I know you probably feel this as a podcaster too. There's like, so many podcasts out there. So you're like, do we really need another Bitcoin podcast? It's like, we really need another, like, Bitcoin blog post or project popping up, but we do. It's really important. So even just like starting a sub stack or medium and kind of like writing ideas. You're in a local city and you want something. I mean, there's someone else could read it who's thinking the same thing. There's also creative ways you can get involved. I mean, we had all, pretty much 90% of the furniture here donated by block in San Francisco and Bay area. There's lots of offices that you know have kind of closed down, and there's ways to get, you know, use furniture donations. So there's kind of like creative ways you can do it, but the only way that you know people can know that you want to do something is if you write it down or speak about it and someone else can hear it. Yeah,

Lynne Bairstow: 31:55

I love that. And and complimenting that was something that you said, Alice, is that, you know, there's so much news right now about Bitcoin Treasury companies and Bitcoin is the financialization, or I love what Marty bent says, The bitcoinization of finance instead of the financialization of Bitcoin. But you know, the building side of it is so I find it incredibly exciting when I look at forward, at what types of technologies the Bitcoin protocol can involve, and remaking financial services entirely. And that's and the integration of AI and Bitcoin, which I know is something that you guys focus on a lot, and Max Webster is, is really, I think, one of the leading minds in that space and thinking about it. And so I'd like you to talk a little bit, for those who may not be familiar with what bit devs is, or lit devs is, and you guys have started a whole new program called builders. Can you talk about those monthly meetups and how these programs support kind of bringing together people who are more curious about the technology and the creativity inside of the technology than necessarily the price of Bitcoin. I can

Haley: 33:08

talk a little bit about bit devs, I mean, and let dev So, yeah, there's different meetups that exist for Bitcoiners. Some of the kind of the ones that have existed for a while that we do have happening in San Francisco, but not specific to San Francisco. Are bit devs that actually started in New York, so there and now, but devs occurs in many cities around the world, and it their monthly meetups and their Socratic seminar style, which that means that there's moderators who lead the discussion, but it's really up to the participants to kind of submit topics that they want to learn more about. It's a way to kind of gather technical minds together, to kind of facilitate discussions. And the rules are, you can't take pictures, you can't post on social media who said what, but you can talk about something that was discussed. So it really is a safe space to kind of have discussions, especially for developers. It's important because a lot of Bitcoiners and developers especially, are very protective of their identity. You know, people are synonymous. They don't go by the real name. They don't want to appear on like podcasts and things like that. So having the safe space is nice for them, compared to something like a conference bit devs is is quite technical. Basically, we kind of go over things that are happening in the news, and then people submit different discussion topics, such as PRs, that they want to review. And it's kind of in the weeds with, you know, Bitcoin development subjects lit devs is more specifically related to lightning. So those are both monthly meetups, and then we just started a new one in San Francisco, which we're encouraging other cities to adopt as well, following the bit devs and what devs model is builder. So the target audience for that is more product managers, designers, marketers, you know, people who are playing around with Vibe coding. I mean, really, anyone? Can be a builder, and that is also Socratic seminar style. So Steve Lee and I moderated the last one. We looked at a bunch of different topics in the news that we found interesting, or people submitted to us. And then it's really, we really encourage audience participation for that too. So we want to see demo. So it's just kind of a way to have discussions in a in a space,

Israel: 35:22

well, plenty of ways to get involved. Any any upcoming events that you'd like to highlight?

Alex: 35:29

Yeah, sure, we're, we had our quantum event. There's a live stream, sort of online, of some of the, some of the events, or some of the topics, rather, I should say. And again, we kind of try to cater a little bit to everyone you know, back to, like, if you're trying to start a space, or you're trying to do whatever, like, there's, there's, there's a segment group for literally everyone that has Bitcoin. Is for everyone's kind of cheeky, but, like, it's very, very true. You know, Bitcoins for Wall Street, Bitcoins for builders, as Haley mentioned, Bitcoins for, you know, developers. Bit does. We're doing a design week in September where we're bringing, you know, designers from the design community, right? We're talking UI, UX, graphics, right? How do products look, how to touch and feel. So Bitcoin, I think, is going to permeate deeper and deeper into various places. So, you know, there's a, there's, there's no shortage of of opportunities for us to have events, because I think the aperture is just growing exponentially. So, yeah, as mentioned, you know, the qualm event. We're having a careers in Bitcoin. So we're, we're kind of working on that of which is basically, hey, All right, great. Really cool. I went to the bit devs. I went to the lit devs, or I went to the builder event, or I went to the Design Week. I went to whatever, whatever hook got into me around Bitcoin. Okay, great. I want I'm ready to make the jump. How do I do it? You know? So we're trying to facilitate those conversations. Introduce HR, people from the different Bitcoin companies, with students with talent, whatever. So we're trying to do that, you know, sort of in that capacity, as we cater to the various interest groups, right? So I think, like, Nick Bhatia is coming in August to do, like a fireside chat. We're going like, bowling. We're doing like, we're running a boat for, like, the Bay Area people just to meet and chat. We've had, you know, someone that owns a matcha business, who's a bitcoiner who, you know, came to the office, donated US a matcha and was like, Hey, he's gonna come serve, you know, he served matcha at our quantum event. I just ordered wine from a turkovich winery in Winters, California. He's, you know, the only Bitcoin winery, so to speak, in the country. Or I kind of forget what exactly what the claim is, but you know, there's so many avenues in and we're just trying to touch on all the fun ones that we can and the ones that make sense. Because, you know, there's so many different ways to get into Bitcoin and certainly stay into Bitcoin. So yeah, it's really, really fun on our end, because we get to host really fun and exciting different types of events for various people. But you know, ultimately, you know, being where we are and kind of the mission that we have, you know, that's kind of first and foremost, but it's been, yeah, so exciting. It's to see do all the fun things that we've been able to do with this space.

Lynne Bairstow: 38:08

You know, one of the other touch points that this brings me back to something Haley that you said earlier about university students and getting them more involved in the marketing teams that are on the ground in universities from web three and crypto companies. And I know Ella Huff talks about this too, and as she had tried to really, really, was very successful in getting her Bitcoin community together in Cornell and getting that initiative and this and the Bitcoin student initiative. But are you guys working? I mean, you know, the Bay Area has some of the best, brightest Tech students in the universe around and so how are you guys interacting with the universities in your area? If you are,

Alex: 38:48

yeah, well, for the hackathon, we went down to Stanford. We went over to Berkeley and went to the, you know, I think it's blockchain at Berkeley. Is what that one's called. I forget the Stanford, you know, student organization name, but that's kind of where we saw how real this was, like, who their sponsors were. You know, there is no Bitcoin sponsor. I think the best you could get is, you know, maybe an exchange, or maybe an asset manager that, you know has an ETF or something, you know, is, that's, I think that to your point is, like, there is no marketing budget for Bitcoin, but we've been trying to engage with them is, you know, trying to find those tangible inroads. Like the Hackathon was a very real thing. That's a thing that college students do. I never did one, but apparently, apparently, people finding these things fun. I don't know why. So we tried to make those connections. And then same with the sort of careers in Bitcoin. I've been in touch with the, you know, the UC system career office, so there's gonna be undergrads, graduate students as part of that, you know, it's not just sort of, you know, throwing it out there, like where we are, we are reaching into those, I guess, talent pools, you could call them, to try and, you know, not necessarily compete, but say, hey, look like, you know, these are the things that are available. You know, if you. Believe in in Bitcoin, whatever it might be, however, that hook kind of came into your mouth, so to speak, like, here's a bunch of options, and we're trying to grow this space by, you know, facilitating what we can. So, yeah, I know you've done sort of various activities to try and, you know, get in there in a meaningful way, if that's a good way to describe it. But yeah, it's, it's, I wouldn't say it's easy, but, you know, could we be doing more sure? But yeah, there's things on what

Haley: 40:23

we're doing, on the spiral side too, that we're thinking a lot about kind of Bitcoin marketing, the Bitcoin brand, and how it's perceived. I mean, something like the plushie might seem kind of silly, but these things just make the overall brand feel more fun, feel more relatable. Or here comes Bitcoin project has a whole library of open source creative assets, which are all these, like Bitcoin characters and different forms. They're different and they're they're free to use, which is huge, and especially, which I've been discovering with AI, because you can kind of put them into tools and use them as animations. You can put them into products that you're building, and you don't have to ask permission, which is, like, massive, because if you want to use, generally, any other, you know, kind of asset that requires, like, permission, it's like, you don't have to. So that's been kind of fun to seeing that, and just We're also just generally thinking about ways that we can spread the message of Bitcoin is money, I think, you know, with the crypto casino web three, just like kind of shit coins in general, a lot of people have been burned, or people kind of have this certain impression of crypto, and we do want Bitcoin to kind of stand apart. So just reinforcing that message that that Bitcoin is money, it should be used like money, how it can be used in different ways, that it's not just digital gold. So kind of thinking some through some fun branding ways that hope specifically appeal to younger audiences too. We have some ideas in Japan actually, to kind of relate to kind of the younger audiences there, since they love the mascots so much. So just, I think I was just looking up kind of existing brand billboards for Bitcoin, and they suck, so we're trying to do some better stuff. So hopefully that helps.

Israel: 42:07

Everything you guys are doing is just, I think, essential, to help move this forward and to bring that kind of awareness right to the curious minded. So you know, absolutely love all the efforts that you, you guys are working on, we need to think through continuing to collaborate in any way we can build with Bitcoin. Lynne, any, I don't know, any final comments or questions on

Lynne Bairstow: 42:28

your end? Yeah, I did just kind of continuing on what you're asking Israel is, is, how can people support you? Do you guys have corporate sponsorships available? Or are there individual ways that people can support the efforts that you're that you're putting out there. I mean, what? How can the community support your community?

Alex: 42:47

Yeah, we've, we've done these summits, right? These sort of larger events that we've we've taken some sponsorship for just because they've got, they've actually grown kind of beyond what I budgeted initially. So it's a good problem to have. But, yeah, that's one way. And then block has actually done it sort of first. But we've had, you know, the benefit of being able to offer free memberships to open source contributors, so it's been a really fun thing for me, but me to be able to hand out. And we've had, you know, people kind of come from around the globe, just to be here, whether it's, you know, one month to five months. And it's really been helpful to say, hey, look, you know, you can be part of this community via the sponsorship, you know, from block. And it's really helped us be able to attract a really good sort of open source, you know, developers to come and work out of the space. So, you know, those are kind of the only two ways that have historically been to date. But we're certainly open to working with anyone, as long as it's going to, you know, help advance the space or advance the mission of Presidio Bitcoin.

Lynne Bairstow: 43:50

And then for people in the Bay Area, how do they sign up to to be part of bit devs? I mean, is there a form or a website? I mean, we'll, we'll include the websites that we have on our show notes for them. But what is the best way to get involved with you guys as a person in tech in the Bay Area who wants to learn more about Bitcoin?

Alex: 44:10

Yeah, yeah. Easiest answer is follow along our social accounts, so on X, YouTube, etc. But you know, we, we view ourselves as sort of part of the tapestry of the Bay Area scene, really, or the big Bitcoin scene. There was already a really strong, historic meet set of meetups that existed, both, you know, bit devs, let's etc, that, you know, we didn't want to disrupt. We wanted, we wanted to be a part of that. So we post all of our public events on those existing channels that have existed, you know, before Presidio Bitcoin, just because, you know, we want to be part of that community. We want to support that community, and not, you know, be anything else, but other than being a part of it, so all of our public events are posted on meetup.com called Bay Area Bitcoiners. That's, you know, bit devs, lit devs, builders. You know, anything else that will be public if you are building in Bitcoin or in the. Space or advancing in any way, and you are interested in becoming a member, you know, please reach out to myself or Haley, you know, come, come swing by the space. Shoot me a note before so please. But yeah, we'd love to have you, you know, be a part of our community where I forget what a number exactly where we're at, but, you know, we're hoping to kind of fill out towards the end of the year. But we've really, fortunately, taken a very measured and methodical addition to that. So we didn't really necessarily rush to fill up the space, but have, you know, added the right people at the right time that can, you know, sort of advance the community and help build it and strengthen it and be a part of it. So if that sounds like a great, great thing for you, or a great fit, we'd love to have you, but please do so relatively soon, I think towards the end of the year, we'll probably quote, unquote, fill

Lynne Bairstow: 45:44

up anything else that we haven't asked that you'd like to highlight or share.

Haley: 45:49

Thank you. Got pretty much all of it.

Alex: 45:51

No, I think that's it, other than you both have a standing invite anytime you're in town. Please do. Please do come by. We love visitors. Haley's had many of them on her show. You know, it's wonderful to have a space that we have, and how many people were able to meet and kind of come through and visit us. So we'd love to see you both in person.

Haley: 46:12

Yes, definitely. And we're really excited to see kind of what you all are building, too. Yes, it's definitely collaborating,

Lynne Bairstow: 46:17

absolutely well. Congratulations on all you've done in such a short amount of time, we think it's a super important bridge to all the tech talent that's in Silicon Valley, and to open the eyes up to how much innovation can occur on Bitcoin. And congratulations and thanks so much for being part of this. We really appreciate you taking the time to be with us today, of course,

Alex: 46:37

thank you. Appreciate your time as well. You thanks

Lynne Bairstow: 46:48

for listening to the build with Bitcoin podcast. If you found benefit in what you heard in this episode, we'd truly appreciate it if you would like share or leave a comment on whichever platform you're listening as this helps others find us, which is especially important for a new podcast. And as a reminder, our content is intended for educational and entertainment purposes only, and is not to be considered investment advice or recommendation to invest in any company or asset mentioned in the podcast. Build with Bitcoin is a proud affiliate partner of river, a full service 100% reserve custody Bitcoin only financial services company for your next Bitcoin purchase, use our exclusive link partner.river.com/build, with Bitcoin. Thank you sincerely for being a part of the build with Bitcoin community.