With its rich history and recent evolution, Belgrade is now the place to work and present the latest Bitcoin.
This is an opinion editorial by Plumski, a native of Serbia and the founder of Belgrade Bitcoin Hub.
“What we want now is closer contact and better understanding between individuals and communities throughout the world, and the elimination of egoism and pride which always tends to plunge the world into barbarism and strife…”
– Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla.
As the adoption of Bitcoin grows at an unprecedented rate for the new technology, Bitcoiners set up physical locations around the world where addicts can work and play in a group atmosphere.
For those of us involved in this Bitcoin “Renaissance” period, it has been a great joy to watch the success story of the Bitcoin Beach in El Salvador that could lead to the adoption of bitcoin throughout the country as legal tender. Since the project is growing in Africa, Central and South America, Bitcoiners living in Eastern Europe have been watching the development with intrigue. And added to that is the fact that Eastern Europe is less developed economically compared to its Western European counterparts.
Inspired by what we see in other parts of the world, a small group of Bitcoiners centered in the capital of Serbia from Belgrade recently opened a Bitcoin hub where we want to welcome visitors from all over the world.
A New Chapter for a Historic City
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Belgrade is a city located at the confluence of two great European rivers, Danube and Sava, whose peak is marked by the great Kalemegdan Castle. This defensive fortress has stood the test of time for more than 15 centuries, bearing witness to countless battles. The history of Belgrade and the Serbian people as a whole has been a turbulent one.
Having the (mis) fortune of being located in the middle of the geopolitically important Balkan Peninsula, often on the border of two competing Eurasian empires, they have struggled for independence from foreign influence throughout their history. Although it is difficult to estimate, history suggests that Belgrade was destroyed and rebuilt over 40 times during its 17th century. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, Belgrade has always been the economic and artistic center of the region, as well as a home for people of all races, religions and denominations.
Today, Belgrade is once again experiencing an important historical transition period. During the 1990s, civil wars took place in Croatia and Bosnia, the former Yugoslav republics, culminating in the NATO bombing of Serbia and its capital in 1999 and approximately 15 years of economic isolation from the western world.
Although the transformation is not yet complete, Belgrade is re-emerging as a vibrant cultural center in the region. Like the mosaic of architectural styles seen in the city’s buildings, ranging from Communist-style, soulless piles of gray concrete mixed with beautiful Secessionist buildings adorned with decorative facades, the street is a collage of mom-and-pop-owned, humble . business clashes with modern boutiques and glass-clad office buildings. Gone are the days when the food choices in city restaurants are limited to traditional Balkan cuisine. Today, poke, sushi, Chinese and Indian food, burgers and American-style restaurants are all on the menu for city dwellers.
Contributing to the metamorphosis of the city’s cultural fabric is also the real change in the citizens who make up the population. Maybe because of the relatively low cost of living compared to other world capitals, or the prevailing pandemic restrictions in Serbia, or the political uncertainty that seems to have gripped the western world lately, I have noticed that the city has migrated a lot . welcoming back a large part of the old population and a large inpouring of digital nomads who now call this place home.
Bitcoin’s Resilience, Despite Obstacles
In Serbian, the term “inat,” a historical characteristic of the people, can be loosely translated as “resilience.” This thought has grown in the population that, time and time again, build their homes on the heels of the disastrous season for the glory of the past, to the dismay of the invasion of the army, invaders and detractors, because: inat.
As a result of years of broken promises from regional politicians, the people of the Balkans are hard to convince of the long-term benefits that can be realized by using Bitcoin in their lives. The preferred way of life for most of the people in this region is associated with disappointment and lower living standards which has happened many times before.
Promises of quick riches (especially those that claim no risk involved) are more appealing to many and, thus, the power of the shitcoin narrative has weakened in this area due to “cryptocurrency” and “blockchain” marketing schemes. the world at large. For those of us who grew up in this world, this is a dark comedy, for example, the bankruptcy of Celsius also affects our country. Like the exaggerated irony of Emir Kusturica’s film, when the dust surrounding the company’s financial collapse finally settled, legal documents revealed that several entities associated with the Serbian government are listed as creditors to this infamous Ponzi scheme.
In general, Bitcoin-only companies and projects are hard to find here, but the growing community of Balkan Bitcoiners envisions a world of financial freedom different from their peers.
And, like Belgrade many times before, my personal life went through a period of restructuring. In my journey through the Bitcoin rabbit hole, I have met many people who are redesigning their lives around the discovery of this paradigm-shifting technology. With the recent move from Canada to the city where I grew up, when I look around, it is easy to draw many parallels between the architecture of the Bitcoin network and the rather chaotic organization of Belgrade that only somehow seems to work – moving tock, next blocks.
Introducing Twenty One
Our group of Bitcoiners from former Yugoslavia countries started organizing regular meetups about a year ago. Our group, called DvadesetJedan, is a branch of the German Einundzwanzig initiative that started to bring plebs together in the meat room so that fans can socialize, share ideas and formulate business ventures together in an informal atmosphere.
The idea behind Einundzwanzig is that a geographically distributed independent Bitcoin community can be formed around the world and eventually collaborate on ongoing projects and offer Bitcoiners a ride home, wherever they are. In the Balkans, DvadesetJedan records a weekly podcast in Serbian/Croatian to cover Bitcoin news, philosophy and technical architecture of the network. We are very proud to be the first Bitcoin-only podcast in the region and a great way for people who are too far from the city center, where our meetings take place, to receive high-signal Bitcoin content on a regular basis. . This podcast also comes with an active Telegram channel and while our core group is made up of die-hard shitcoin minimalists, a portion of the same size group is made up of noobs. We get special joy in guiding them to understand Bitcoin.
Since four of the six republics of Yugoslavia that are now independent states speak the same language, our initiative is multinational. We cooperate with members from Slovenia, Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro and our group has continued to grow over the past year. We have a mix of Bitcoin makers, content creators, developers and Bitcoin enthusiasts in the group who all get together regularly for bar hopping, barbecues and trips to Bitcoin events in the area.
While trendy breweries and coffee shops for our meetings abound in Belgrade, Bitcoin-specific venues do not exist here or in the wider Balkan peninsula. Our small group decided to undertake the mission of finding and equipping a place where more serious discussions and presentations could take place.
Since Bitcoin professionals here are somewhat isolated compared to more established regions such as Germany and the US, we also want the space to be a collaborative environment for locals to raise ideas from other experts in the field. While we plan to collaborate with local developers to build a Bitcoin-focused business, this office space will also serve as a physical location for new startups to work with their teams.
Meetup in Belgrade: R0ckstarDev and Johns Beharry present Bitko Yinowski’s famous Bitcoin jam made from Serbian apricots.
The hunt is on and we are exploring Belgrade in search of a suitable location. We focused our search on the city center so that future visitors can not only work in a comfortable place but also have access to museums, galleries, music venues, bars and restaurants that create a lively social scene in Belgrade. In the end, we found a duplex on the top floor of an old mixed building next to the philosophy faculty of the University of Belgrade and it might be fitting that the Kalemegdan fortress is within two minutes of the new Belgrade Bitcoin Hub.
Welcome to Bitcoin Hub Belgrade
Elevator control board to the top floor of the building where the hub is located. Source: Author.
The hub features a large, communal work/presentation room, where most of the action will take place, with two additional rooms that will serve as recording studios and more private office spaces.
At our disposal for visitors, we have a variety of hardware wallets, point-of-sale units supported by BTCPay Server, Bitcoin nodes and Antminer S9 to experiment with the latest software developed by space tenants. For educational purposes, or to get extra inspiration, the hub has a small collection of Bitcoin literature for visitors to read.
During the initial days of activity at the hub, it was populated by drop-in visitors who preferred to work in a group setting. As we grow, we will develop the hub into a venue for cultural events, art exhibitions/auctions, hackathons, as well as a small-scale presentation center for Bitcoiners. While advanced users will get used to the hub, newcomers will benefit from presentations and hands-on demonstrations that will take place in the evenings and weekends. Inspired by many efforts around the world with the same goal, we are proud to make this hub a reality using our own funds to finance these initial steps.
In one of the first public presentations at the hub, Pavlenex described the history of the BTCPay Server project along with a live demo to the audience. Source: Author.
We want this place to be the permanent home of Bitcoin in Belgrade and we hope that the organizers of the event will allow the place to finance itself for many years to come. While citizens will be able to buy an annual membership, we also have a structure in place so that Bitcoiners who do not live in Belgrade can come and work from the hub during their visit to Serbia. We are especially excited to welcome foreigners to Belgrade Bitcoin Hub to build and help us build, however, space will be limited.
Indeed, matching Bitcoiners from all over the world with the great talent that exists in Serbia is one of our top priorities. After all, all the small groups of believers that have been done so far have ended up in the genesis block of the Belgrade Hub.
This is a guest post by Plumski. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.