The CounterParty Convention, held in Miami, was meant to be a deep dive into the historical past and way forward for tokens on Bitcoin—a gathering of OGs, protocol builders, and the diehards who’ve weathered the ecosystem’s many fractures. However for me, the occasion took an sudden flip after I was SIM-swapped on Day 2, forcing me to overlook my very own panel on the block dimension debate, censorship, and the coordinated efforts to silence huge blockers.
It was a second that felt eerily acquainted—one other chapter in Bitcoin’s long-running battle over management, narratives, and what’s thought of “acceptable” historical past. In a method, I joined the ranks of Mike Hearn, pressured off the stage not by argument however by assault.
However earlier than my cellphone was hijacked, I did get to expertise a few of the convention—and there was loads to soak up.
What’s CounterParty?
For the uninitiated, CounterParty is a protocol constructed on BTC that permits the issuance of tokens—consider it as an early try at bringing sensible contracts and digital property to BTC lengthy earlier than Ethereum. Born in 2014, it allowed customers to create and commerce digital property, execute sensible contracts, and even problem decentralized monetary devices on BTC’s blockchain.
It was an early experiment in tokenization, predating immediately’s explosion of Ordinals, BRC-20s, and Runes by almost a decade. It was used for the whole lot from uncommon digital artwork (Pepe the Frog memes) to gaming property to early non-fungible token (NFT)-like experiments earlier than “NFT” was even a time period.
But, regardless of its progressive nature, CounterParty bumped into the identical resistance that many disruptive tasks face in Bitcoin: Core builders and small blockers deemed it “spam” and labored to restrict its performance—a recurring theme for any try and scale or increase Bitcoin past their tightly managed imaginative and prescient.
With that historical past in thoughts, CounterParty’s place in immediately’s Bitcoin panorama is fascinating. Whereas it as soon as appeared like a relic of a previous period, the fashionable resurgence of tokenization—by way of Ordinals, Inscriptions, and different implementations—has introduced it again into the dialog. The ghosts of CounterParty stay on in immediately’s tokenized asset growth, and CounterParty tokens look to be making a comeback quickly.
Day 1: A venue change and a robust begin
The convention acquired off to a rocky however well-handled begin with a last-minute venue change. As an alternative of the initially deliberate location, we pivoted to Bitcoin Citadel in Little Haiti, an intimate house that labored properly for a gathering of this nature. Tatiana Moroz, one of many earliest figures to tokenize her music again in 2015, managed the transition professionally.
The primary presentation I caught was a deep dive into Web privateness and key administration—a becoming and well timed topic contemplating what would occur to me the subsequent day. Safety in Bitcoin isn’t nearly storing personal keys anymore; it’s about defending identification, entry, and private sovereignty in a world the place assaults are extra refined than ever. This comes on the heels of the kidnapping of a co-founder of Ledger and his spouse in an extortion scheme because the house will get wilder by the second.
Subsequent was Adam Krellenstein, co-founder of CounterParty, on the historical past and way forward for the protocol. His take? The period of Bitcoin Core’s dominance is waning. “The tradition has determined Core devs aren’t in cost anymore,” he claimed.
I stay skeptical. The affect of Core devs—particularly figures like Luke Dashjr—nonetheless looms massive, and historical past has proven that management over Bitcoin’s protocol doesn’t relaxation with customers a lot as with the gatekeepers who form its guidelines by way of social management and sybil assaults.
Nonetheless, Krellenstein’s presentation was participating, and it was cool to listen to insights about Bitcoin’s nice token alternative that’s nonetheless principally unexplored even immediately.
I took a break exterior to mingle after this speak, and met just a few attention-grabbing folks earlier than going again in for an additional speak by Kristan Harris, the citizen journalist whose footage turned key proof within the Kyle Rittenhouse trial. Harris’s transhumanism speak was a shocking spotlight, notably the dialogue on the ability of recent media and its relation to issues like direct-to-brain info streaming.
We stay in a time when corporate-controlled narratives dominate conventional finance, tech, and even Bitcoin itself. The rise of other media and citizen journalism is among the few methods to interrupt by way of curated narratives—one thing Bitcoiners, of all folks, ought to admire, and his speak made me extra critically think about carrying a tin foil hat.
Then got here my favourite speak of the day: Dave Stoker’s presentation on the historical past of Bitcoin tokens. He laid out the evolution of CounterParty, Bitcoin-based tokens, and the way Pepe tradition, digital asset experimentation, and early makes an attempt at decentralized finance (DeFi) all began right here. He even produced a documentary about it.
Day 2: The assault and the missed stage
Day 2 was imagined to be my second to dig into the true historical past of the block dimension debate, censorship, and even the acts of terrorism used to silence huge blockers. My dialogue with Gabe Higgins, a outstanding Floridian small blocker, was set to discover how the conflict over Bitcoin’s future wasn’t simply fought in code however in coordinated campaigns of deplatforming, propaganda, and direct assaults on folks’s livelihoods.
However then, I acquired SIM-swapped.
My cellphone was hijacked, my entry to key accounts was compromised, and as a substitute of being on stage, I used to be spending my time locking down my life. Was I focused particularly to maintain me off of the stage? Perhaps, possibly not, however the timing appears too coincidental.
If that sounds paranoid, think about this: It is a well-worn tactic used towards those that problem Bitcoin’s small-block orthodoxy.
One of many subjects of my dialogue was to be on Mike Hearn. Hearn, considered one of Bitcoin’s earliest builders, was pushed out of the house by way of character assaults, doxxing, harassment, and chronic cyber assaults. Others, like Hearn, have been systematically deplatformed, labeled heretics, or had their tasks crippled by way of deliberate Core growth selections. The purpose has all the time been the identical: Management the narrative. Eradicate dissent.
I had deliberate to speak in regards to the Hijacking of Bitcoin—how Bitcoin’s small-block faction took over by way of censorship, political maneuvering, and backdoor offers that killed the unique imaginative and prescient of Bitcoin as world, peer-to-peer digital money.
As an alternative, my absence from that stage turned a real-world illustration of the very forces I used to be going to reveal.
Remaining ideas
The CounterParty Convention was a reminder of Bitcoin’s broader historical past—of experiments, censorship, and the continued battle over what Bitcoin is allowed to be.
It was additionally a reminder that the combat isn’t over.
CounterParty’s resurgence within the wake of the Ordinals motion and the demand for tokenized property on Bitcoin reveals that the will to construct on Bitcoin has by no means gone away. The censorship, assaults, and suppression techniques haven’t snuffed it out. If something, they’ve created a brand new technology of builders and advocates pushing again towards the small-block established order.
I want I might have been on that stage, however the assault solely strengthened what I already knew: The battle for Bitcoin’s future continues to be raging. And I’m not going anyplace.
Bitcoin Lives!
Watch: Reviving the true worth of blockchain—utility
title=”YouTube video participant” frameborder=”0″ permit=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” allowfullscreen=””>