LA Bitcoin Meetup #2 – “More Beers & Bitcoins… Polish Santa Monica Style” was another great success. It was organized on meetup.com by Josh Jones. This month’s meetup changed locations from Downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica. The venue was Warzawa which is great bar/restaurant with an excellent covered courtyard. Warzawa has excellent food along with a full bar. The courtyard also has a lot more space, with cushy seating that promotes conversation. The only downside with this location is that Santa Monica can be hard to reach at 6:30pm. Many people did not start showing till about 7pm, but the turnout was great with about 25 Bitcoin enthusiasts through the night. About half were the same faces that we had seen at the previous meetup as well as the Satoshi Square event last month. The other half were new people that also want to learn and share about Bitcoins. The conversations were broad across the Bitcoin spectrum. Popular topics have been funny things you can buy with Bitcoin or scams that have been seen. There was also a lot of talk about mining and different techniques for that. One exciting new guest was Travis from CoinMKT, who is setting an exchange up in Los Angeles. It’s set to launch July 30 at NY’s “Inside Bitcoins” convention. Rob also showed off his classy new keychain designs from bkeychain.com. We also saw a concept for a debit card that could be used at places that accept Bitcoin or USD. One of the things that amazes me about this community is how open and accepting everyone is. Ideas flow freely and the passion for bitcoin runs high. If you are at all curious about Bitcoins or the Bitcoin community I encourage you to attend a Bitcoin meetup. The next event is tomorrow in Venice Beach with RC Hall. If you are looking to trade Bitcoin in person, then attending the next Los Angeles Satoshi Square is the place to be.
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