Bitcoin is doing cultural diplomacy at a dive bar

Bitcoin culture, by nature, is chaotic and chaotic. He – she He has It should be, given the nature of Bitcoin itself and the people who embraced it: free-market liberals who did everything they could to turn computer code into a form of money separate from central banks, government intervention, and traceability. In short, it’s the exact opposite culture of Washington, D.C., home of the federal government, where everyone agrees that the US dollar exists and is worth X amount because the government says so.

So it was a strange shock to K Street, the heart of corporate lobbying in the nation’s capital, when it was announced that Pubkey, a Bitcoin-themed dive bar from New York City, would be opening its second location in downtown D.C. — a hot spot in the expense-card restaurant district. And this is not to mention the city’s local news sites. “Raise your hand if you plan to never set foot there.” wrote one commenter on PoPvillea popular Washington blog that chronicles local news and had Breaking the news of Pubkey’s opening.

Crypto has a highly controversial reputation in the city, even apart from its general cultural reputation: Biden administration It was aggressive in trying to curb the growth of the industryclaiming that many major companies do not have sufficient protections to combat money laundering. President Donald Trump’s entire tilt is in the opposite direction — leading to the Justice Department’s efforts being shot down Prosecuting crypto crimespardon Many cryptocurrency executives who was convicted to Various financial crimes, He made his own meme coin – Turn the regulation of digital tokens into a deeply partisan issue.

“Our top priority is trying to figure out how to mitigate that (hostility),” Thomas Baccia, founder of Pubkey in New York City, told me. To hear Baccia tell it, Pubkey DC — strategically located in the heart of D.C.’s lobbying district and in close enough proximity to Capitol Hill — will serve as a vessel for the aspirations and political influence of the Bitcoin community. But instead of wasting money on endless lobbying against the interests of larger cryptocurrency giants (not to mention traditional financial institutions), Pubkey was going to do it through soft power. Instead of white papers on politics and government affairs, they would invite people—Republicans and Democrats, important people, unimportant people—into their quirky, very nice, very cold, Bitcoin-filled world who wanted to work with the government rather than evade it at all costs.

First things first: Hiding shaky politics behind bars – literally.

I’ve heard through lobbyists that Pubkey will also share a lease with the Bitcoin Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank that researches the social impact of the currency. I’ve never seen a think tank in Washington that had the entrance to that place Behind the bar. In fact, when I attended Pubkey’s VIP preview in November, I couldn’t have known that this massive bar and event space, filled with vintage Chesterfield sofas and covered in layers of Armenian rugs the size of studio apartments, contained an honest-to-goodness research center, unless I saw the glowing neon sign that said BITCOIN POLICY INSTITUTE at the very back of the place.

Between me and the BPI entrance were more than a hundred VIP guests—elected officials, power players in Washington, and a host of staff. I initially planned to take notes on who was present. I quickly gave up, because there he was Lots of other things to consider.

During the two hours I was at this event, I saw the following:

But the strangest thing of all was the number of people wearing suits in the crowd.

This was it exactly What Bachia envisioned. “There are good dive bars and good hospitality in D.C., for sure,” he told me later, wearing the shirt. Mario Kart The bomber jacket he was wearing in a photo with Secretary Besant. “But the way the city works, it is very transient, dependent on management: people who come and go, policy makers, staff, colleges and universities.” In other words, the people who could eventually write the laws regulating cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

The first part of that plan was to shape lawmakers’ understanding of bitcoin, and for Baccia, that meant bringing a curated version of weird bitcoin culture to D.C.: wildly weird protocol debates set in a fun, affordable bar with a good burger, a secret restaurant, soccer, trivia, and… Mario Kart Championships. But if the employees were young, the broke employees wanted to have a drink after work and no Think about Bitcoin, other than the little tick behind the bar tracking the price of Bitcoin, that was pretty good too. “We wanted to take a really broad view and show people that Bitcoin culture and the Bitcoin community are widely misunderstood. We’re regular people, kind of obsessed, really into this thing. You can come here, and it won’t be a church.”

The advocacy part was certainly there, in the form of a huge event space behind the bar where Pubkey planned to host the evening events that make Washington run: fireside chats, summits, mini-conferences, and happy hours. There was also a large stage that could be used for anything from panel discussions to live music. “D.C. is more event-driven,” Baccia said, noting that the original Pubkey also hosts podcasts, panels and meetups — just in a cramped underground dive bar in Greenwich Village. “We wanted to combine all the different spaces we have in New York, with a lot more space so we can host events.”

Loyal customers have been clamoring for Pubkeys stores in other cities, from San Francisco to Barcelona. Instead, Popke decided to go to a very partisan city where at least half the population lives Hated Cryptocurrency concept. Sure, they had a few allies among Democrats, like Rep. Torres and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), but party majority, Led by Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Biden, they are hostile. It didn’t help that Trump visited a New York Pubkey during his 2024 presidential campaign and paid for his burgers with bitcoin, and Kamala Harris didn’t. (Baccia says he extended invitations to the Biden and Harris campaigns, but never received a response.) Even some Republicans remained hostile: The former restaurant was a popular hangout for Republican staffers and reporters who covered them, and when it closed in April, One can hear people screaming Damn Bitcoin! From the karaoke room downstairs.

Pubkey Concept as Bitcoin Cultural Diplomacy Beyond Partisanship – Cryptocurrency Version of Barack Obama’s Beer Summit – It seems overly idealistic in the capital, where the current political climate has exacerbated people’s tendency to segregate into Republican and Democratic bars. Liberals often gather to protest outside Butterworth’s, a recently opened restaurant whose investors include several prominent MAGA influencers. A recent attempt to open a bipartisan bar, Political Patty, He was widely ridiculed by Republicans and Democrats – So much so that it was closed within 75 days.

But at its core, Pubkey DC is a pro-bitcoin interest group that happens to be located inside a bar that captures those elusive but attainable cozy feelings: a reasonably priced menu, plenty of comfy couches, and enough TVs to stream as many major sporting events as possible. (They’ll probably host a Super Bowl party.) Most importantly, all the elements of culture that would intimidate politicians have been removed – the kind that might lead, for example, to fraudsters pulling off multi-billion-dollar scams while… Living in Bermuda polyculeOr suspicious actors Ordering drugs and assassinations on the Silk Roador Kidnapping the rich They were held hostage by their cryptocurrencies. (At least downtown D.C. is tightly policed.)

The venue already has a few notable fans — including Tami Haddad, founder of Haddad Media, whose name is synonymous with The concept of throwing huge parties and exclusive events filled with the most influential people in Washington.

When I spoke on the phone with Haddad, she had just come from another Pubkey event, Crypto Christmas, where three prominent senators — Cynthia Loomis, Bill Hagerty, and Tim Scott — were in attendance. and Dozens of young staffers on Capitol Hill. “Who would have thought a crypto Christmas would be on 7th Street?” she said Edge In an interview. “Some people might think it would be at the Willard or the Four Seasons, but no.”

Haddad, who is also the founder of the Washington Artificial Intelligence Network, compared Pubkey’s ethos to the grassroots approach to net neutrality to gain political capital. “At the time, it was more false promotion in the states. But that’s true in the downtown community, not (just with) lobbyists, but everyone else they can bring into the party. It’s an interesting idea. I would argue it’s a new kind of coalition building.”

As she saw it, Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies were now in the next stage of their years-long plan to gain legitimacy: Now that they had a handful of powerful political allies in the United States and inside Washington, they needed to play the long game by opening up the discussion about Bitcoin’s future to anyone and everyone they could. no Get an invitation to an exclusive event for policymakers at the Four Seasons Hotel. Most importantly, they needed to show the political world that Bitcoin was not a currency defined solely by its dark and extremely volatile past.

“It’s not like Pubkey is just trying to sell drinks,” she said.