It was a recent Tuesday evening in Hong Kong’s business district. The high tables by the entrance were reserved for 20 people under the name "Bitcoin." As it got close to 7 pm, people poured in, and quickly there was only standing room left. Men in suits were handing out as many business cards as they could, while a young guy in a hoodie patiently explained the concept of Cryptokitties to an elderly journalist. By 8 pm, there were around 100 people in the room, asking questions, networking and telling their own stories of what brought them there. It was a lively scene, but bore little resemblance to the tight-knit community gatherings in Bitcoin's early days.

Hong Kong has had a visible Bitcoin community since 2012, making it one of the oldest physical communities on the Meetup.com platform. Hong Kong's community has been exceptionally active and stood united for a long time, but recently has started to slowly dissolve into various sub-groups.

This is part of a larger story. I believe that the overall Blockchain community no longer exists in a meaningful way. There are plenty of people involved, but they often do not know each other and have little interest in working together to create a community. I have found that those with a background in finance sometimes see little value in building a community around their interests, while those raising money for ICOs often see the blockchain community as a cow to milk for attention and money.

It wasn't always that way. Hong Kong's early Bitcoin community was diverse, yet cohesive. Early members tended to be more interested in politics than the technical and commercial aspects of cryptocurrency. While everyone came to meetups to learn more about Bitcoin, in the absence of people who understood its technical details, the conversation would often drift to topics of war, taxes and the theory of voluntary human organization.

Hong Kong is full of peculiarities and contradictions. It is frequently ranked one of the most free markets in the world, but much of its economy is tightly controlled through restrictive licensing regimes and government-linked oligopolies. Hong Kong’s relationship with Bitcoin, too, is not easy to grasp. There still is no specific regulation for Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies, and the existing taxation and financial regulation is highly favorable. Bitcoin businesses do not need to register or worry about their status as financial services operators, and capital gains remain untaxed. Despite this seemingly cushy environment, regulated institutions have consistently refused any kinds of relationships with cryptocurrency companies, and successful Hong Kong Bitcoin companies remain unbanked.

In the early days of Hong Kong's Bitcoin community, it wasn't easy to find people who wanted to discuss Bitcoin. In 2013, Rui Ma, a venture partner at 500 Startups, put out a call for people who wanted to talk about Bitcoin over dinner, but only got a single response. There was little information available about Bitcoin. The press generally did not cover it and dedicated outlets were still rare. Many of the people involved in Bitcoin in Hong Kong today were at those community events in 2013, but not everyone back then made the jump into full-time work on cryptocurrencies. Some only recently came back to it, while others have not shown their face in years. Some, like those who founded and built the Bitfinex exchange, left the city before the party really started, though the company is still frequently referred to as a “Hong Kong exchange.”

In Hong Kong, but also the world, Bitcoin entered the spotlight in December 2013, after the price of one Bitcoin broke $1000 USD for the first time. As you can see in the accompanying chart, Bitcoin meeting attendance often correlated with the rises in Bitcoin prices. As prices rose, events were flooded with new people, journalists and travelers. In the months prior, the move up to $1000 already seemed too fantastical to be true. By early 2014, everything seemed possible.













Bitcoin meetups have always been largely driven by price and speculation. In the period that followed the collapse of the Bitcoin exchange Mt Gox in early 2014, prices kept dropping, and fewer people showed up to Hong Kong meetups. But those who did turn out ended up becoming some of Bitcoin’s strongest believers and most successful entrepreneurs. In those days, BitMEX’s Arthur Hayes, Binance’s Changpeng Zhao and Circle’s Jack C. Liu would all squeeze together at a small table at Bitpoint in Lan Kwai Fong, a tiny German pub (with a coincidental name) that accepted Bitcoin payments and had a dysfunctional Robocoin ATM in the corner.

That period was often dubbed “Bitcoin Winter” in China. Chinese Bitcoiners often recount how the industry, particularly miners, exchanges, forums and publications were drawing close to financial ruin in early 2015, when prices slowly started to recover. Many projects, such as exchanges, payment processors, crowdfunding sites and ATM and mining manufacturers failed. Some people had to sell their entire Bitcoin savings, which was particularly painful for those that couldn’t get their business off the ground.

In 2015 and 2016, slowly rising prices gave people back their self-confidence, and in Hong Kong we saw regular Bitcoin meetups and talks as well as frequent Ethereum meetups. The community was relatively cohesive. With the exception of emerging private blockchain consortiums, there was a visible blockchain community in which everyone knew each other.

This was supported by the unique regulatory landscape in Hong Kong, which to some degree seemed beneficial and favorable, but also impossible to change. Hong Kong’s political system has proven to be highly resilient to change, or in the words of Article 5 of Hong Kong’s constitution, the “way of life shall remain unchanged for 50 years.” Unlike in places like Singapore or Europe, the community wasn’t conflicted and drawn apart by questions on whether regulation would be harmful or helpful. We didn't have any choice in the matter. The few who attempted to court regulators were nicely ignored.

Throughout 2017 the number of new Hong Kong events exploded in size, frequency and diversity. Those who left Bitcoin around 2015 came back around 2017, when high profile ICOs, altcoins and Bitcoin rallied to new highs, stunning observers and bringing in a new wave of participants and users.

The community however has grown past the point of where it could be held together into a single organizational structure. There were some areas that the Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong (which I currently preside over) refused to engage with, such as token sales and private blockchain consortiums.

In other areas, however, we found it challenging to grow. As we learned at the peak of the Bitcoin scaling debate, Bitcoin meetups are also difficult to scale. A Blockchain has limited capacity, and it is not easy to arbitrarily set higher limits without compromising the system’s core security attributes. Similarly, it’s not trivial to grow a community. Few pubs and co-working spaces are able and willing to host more than 100 people without a considerable amount of down payment. Nor is it always easy to find sponsors for legitimate and interesting events.

The Blockchain Association of Hong Kong, the Blockchain Society, the Digital Assets Association, the Blockchain Centre and the Fintech Association all attempted to fill the growing void in community organization with varying success. Physical spaces such as the Genesis Block in the district of Wan Chai have had it easier to build a sizable community around them with frequent events and demos, but ultimately are understandably more interested in running their day-to-day business, which is an OTC exchange of the same name.

The Bitcoin community still exists, but it has become largely hidden, and its values, codes and culture are poorly represented in mainstream media and perceptions. Memes like supercars, yacht parties and bro culture originate from a different part of this ecosystem that would not have been attributed to Bitcoin before 2017.

Some would say that Bitcoin’s anarchistic and cypherpunk roots have been superficially co-opted by the mainstream. But in another interpretation, the niche community had to disappear in order for Bitcoin to make it big. There is no "Internet community" anymore, as the Internet is now ubiquitous in our daily lives. Once everyone is using Bitcoin, Bitcoin will no longer need a community. And that's inherently a good thing.





Leo Weese is president of the Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong.





