As much as I love staying humble and stacking sats, I have been to stay humble and remember bitcoin’s true ethos. Bitcoin is peer to peer cash and in order for it to grow organically on a peer-to-peer basis it needs to spread via meetups, hangouts, happy hours, events, and other sneaker nets. If you truly want bitcoin to grow organically and not through the largest corporations on the planet, then you need to find a way to get plugged into your own local bitcoin network. If there isn’t one, maybe it’s time for you to start your own bitcoin meetup.
How To Start Your Own Bitcoin Meetup
Starting your own bitcoin meetup is easy. All you have to do is find a dedicated venue to meet up with other human beings at a specific time on a recurring basis and talk about bitcoin. The question is “how do you actually do that?”
Every single bitcoin meetup I have ever attended has either started or ended at a brewery/pub/taphouse and had food available. I took the necessary steps to find a venue near me, spoke with the owner to schedule the best time to meet there every week, and then I posted all of the details online and started my own bitcoin meetup. It was honestly one of the easiest things I have ever done but let’s go into some of the details on how I made it all happen.
Launching My Meetup With Geyser
When I first thought of starting a meetup, the most obvious thought that I had was to use Meetup.com but after looking closer at their site, I discovered that it costs $59.99 per month to host a meetup group. Yes, that’s $59.99 every single month even if nobody attends your events. I’d rather have $59.99 in sats so that’s not possible for me right now. I am just trying to get off the ground and for the sake of this article, I want to show normal bitcoiners like you how easy it is to start your own bitcoin meetup with $0 at your disposal.
Since Meetup is too expensive, I decided to look for alternatives that have a free plan for bootstrapping events.
All I really need is a place that I can post…
– A Backstory
– Meetup objective
– Code of conduct
– Publish posts for each new event.
– Calendar
I was thinking of getting started on Eventbrite but after a little research and consideration, I decided that the best place to start your own bitcoin meetup is on Geyser. Not only does it provide me with all of the things I’ve mentioned above but it’s a bitcoin-native platform that also enables me to do several other useful things that I hadn’t really given much thought until I was looking for a place to launch and manage a successful bitcoin event.
– I can set targeted goals
– I can sell an array of rewards
– I can collect bitcoin donations from users if they want to pitch-in towards a specific goal.
– I can accept zap payments via lightning directly to my unique lightning address.
– I can network with other meetup groups, plebs, and influencers to market via affiliate links.
Why would I pay $59.99 to Meetup.com when I can create basically the same thing but with $0 in recurring monthly fees and built-in bitcoin donations that grow the circular bitcoin economy. For me, it’s a no brainer. Geyser is one of the absolute most important projects in the entire bitcoin ecosystem and I intend to show just how powerful it is by using it to launch my own bitcoin meetup.
Meetup Objective
In order to have a Meetup, you will probably need an objective or agenda otherwise you’re all just sitting around doing nothing while you maybe talk a little bit about bitcoin. Since my ultimate focus is to get people to achieve the 7 steps to hyperbitcoinization, I shortened those 7 steps into the most succinct sentence I could think of.
We are a bitcoin meetup focused on educating new bitcoiners, running bitcoin nodes, maximizing privacy, growing bitcoin’s circular economy, and orange-pilling new users.
The first 4 steps are the most important for bitcoin to achieve global dominance but the final 3 are still very important for ensuring robust growth within local bitcoin communities.
Code Of Conduct
Something that has frustrated me with bitcoin meetups and events that I have attended is that there’s no clear code of conduct and I have almost been asked to leave a couple meetups because due to some misunderstandings. I want people to have a clear understanding of what is allowed and what isn’t. Controversial opinions are welcome but degrading toxic insults aren’t.
To avoid any problems with my attendees, one of the very first things I did was make a list of bullet points that outline how people should behave at the event. I’ve established a code of conduct that is built around the non-aggression principle, privacy, and mutual self interest. I gave my list of bullet points to ChatGPT and it gave me a complete code of conduct. I tuned some things and then published it on my Geyser page.
If you decide to start your own bitcoin meetup, I strongly encourage you to have a firm understanding of how you expect your attendees to conduct themselves. Here’s a summary of my code of conduct.
– Bitcoin Only
– No Photos Of Attendees Without Deliberate Consent
– Respect The Venue
– Non-Aggression Principle
– Free & Open Discussion
– Respect The Confidentiality Of Discussions and Identities
– Report Any Concerns
– Continual Improvement
I will make any adjustments if necessary but I think most people are pretty calm and collected.
Finding A Venue
Now that I have a clear objective for my meetup, I need to find a place to actually meet. Like I said before, every single bitcoin meetup I have ever attended has either started or ended at a brewery/pub/taphouse and had food available so that’s where I am going to look for a venue.
I did some searching on Google maps and found a number of venues that I think are a good place to meet for a happy hour. As soon as I refined my search a bit, I went and visited one of the venues and asked the owner if he was ok with me hosting a meetup there. He was a little hesitant at first because he thought that means that he needs to provide a PA system, or a TV, or projector, or literally anything.
After I assured him that its just a bunch of bitcoin nerds who want to get together once a week for food, beers, and a place to discuss bitcoin, he was totally fine with it. If we grow, then we may need to find somewhere else but I think a brewery is a great place to get started. If things go well, we will have to pool some funds to rent a venue. I asked which night is the least busy so we are able to get seated without any hassle and Tuesday night it is. Hopefully my meetup can be the weekday boost that he needs in between Monday night football and thirsty Thursdays.
Setting Funding Goals
I don’t have any lofty funding goals for the meetup but I wanted to show that Geyser is a great place to start your own bitcoin meetup. I can accept bitcoin donations from the beginning which can help with any minor startup costs like renting a venue, hiring a guest speaker, or ordering books for a book club.
I set up a couple goals like raise $250 to rent a dedicated meetup venue for a few hours. I used a service called PeerSpace to find some work spaces that can be rented by the hour. I found several good venues but a few really stood out to me. One looks really good for a workshop like building SeedSigners while the other one is better suited for more of a panel discussion or presentation to a medium sized room of about 40 people.
Venue rental is currently the primary goal for the project so all payments default to this goal unless they select a different goal to contribute to. As these funds are used up, we can raise more for larger scale venues for larger events like parties and maybe even a small “conference”.
I want to focus less on just talking about bitcoin and more on people doing things at events like building their own SeedSigner, generating your own seed phrase, learning how to calculate the final checksum word, and reading QR codes with physical devices in people’s hands. I want to have a book club for reading through some of the best bitcoin books as a group. I want to focus on educating new users and getting them to take some of the steps towards hyperbitcoinization.
I also set a goal to raise $200 to buy a Bitcoinize machine to orange pill our first venue by showing them how easy it is to accept bitcoin payments directly to their own wallet with little to no intermediaries. I don’t expect a whole lot of donations for this for a while but I think that over time more people will be interested in a larger selection of goals to donate toward. I kind of wanted to show the value of receiving donations for both a service and a physical product.
Collecting Donations
I am primarily focusing on just having a good time with the locals and growing everyone’s understanding of Bitcoin. I don’t think the Geyser page will ever yield a large sum of revenue but I think it is a good way to get attendees to signal how they would like to see the meetup grow. If someone wants a workshop, then they can put their money where their mouth is and donate towards that targeted goal. If they want to orange pill a local business, then they may want to donate to buying a bitcoinize machine. If they want to contribute to something else, they can suggest that we add a new targeted goal and contribute toward that.
I will start off with some very simple goals and collecting donations but as time goes on, I will develop Geyser into a tool that enables me to manage large events like a party with digital tickets all paid for with bitcoin.
I donated some to my own cause as a test but I have also received some other donations from London’s finest plebs. I have received at least 1 anonymous donation from someone who might not have the ability to prove their national identity or provide a proof of address. That’s an incredibly powerful tool for launching just about any idea or cause. It makes starting your own bitcoin meetup about as easy as it can be.
The First Meetup
As soon as I had everything ready to go, I created this post with the date, time, location and then published it. Now the event is public to the world and when I share events, anyone can contribute some sats to help fund the growth of the meetup.
Once my event was live, I added it to the events page on the Orange Pill App and shared it in a couple of Telegram groups with local bitcoiners. The first event had a total of 4 people attend. Myself plus 3 other bitcoiners from the local Las Vegas Bitcoiners group. It was great to see some familiar faces but my objective is to branch out and bring new people into our meetup so that’s my next objective.
As long as I continually host this event at the same time and place on a consistent basis, the number of attendees should grow but we are going to have to get creative.
Final Thoughts
Starting my own bitcoin meetup has been something that I have wanted to do for a long time. Since I just recently relocated to a new city, I thought it would be a good idea to meet some of the established bitcoin locals, network with them, and help them propel their own bitcoin projects further. So far, I have met a few people who would benefit from using Geyser to launch their own projects/causes and I intend to show them just how powerful Geyser is for bringing an idea into reality.
I am very excited to use Geyser to start my own bitcoin meetup because I see Geyser as the most powerful tool available today for launching an idea and accepting bitcoin payments on day one. I can publish posts, set targeted goals, offer rewards, accept bitcoin payments directly to my own wallet, and even market my project with affiliate links. Geyser is without a doubt one of the most powerful bitcoin tools available today. If you’re trying to start your own bitcoin meetup or any other bitcoin related project, make sure that you’re not ignoring the potential of such an amazing tool and community.
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