It has officially been two months since I have arrived Philadelphia. What really surprises me is how much an individual can acquire in such a small amount of time. Knowledge, experience, and responsibility doesn't even come close to how much I have gained in this two month period. I am blessed and would like to thank everybody who has helped get me to where I am today. You know who you are.
Now onto the Story
I entered Philadelphia with a desire of seeking similar individuals who were interested in establishing bitcoin and bitcoin like projects in the area. After moving into my space in West Philadelphia I immediately started looking for answers. I found a bitcoinPHL group on Facebook and added myself to the list. I recall being at work and talking with my co-worker Ken, a fan of bitcoin as well, being agitated that the group was not as active as I had hoped for. After two and a half weeks, I was added to the team and started to engage with the community I had found on there. Every couple of days I would try to start conversations in the group, getting a few to reply back. Being a little impatient I pushed for a meetup a week after the monthly meetup had been settled. We ended up having a turnout of roughly seven people with many different backgrounds. It was magical to say the least.
A couple days after establishing names with faces at our meetup, I started to ask about the availability people had for the month of December. Since this month had holidays I tried to keep it closer to the beginning of the month. Within no time we had a set date for the next meetup. On my day off I threw together a couple flyers and uploaded them to the group page. One of the attendants named Kenneth Bosak, who writes for thebitcoinpodcast.com, was able to work his magic in having them sponsor our group meetings by providing food and drinks. As things started to move forward I could sense that there was something more than just a small group of like-minded people. Something that could possibly grow larger than we could image. With that sort of determination I made sure to save some extra money from my tips that I made with my day job. I went to the local print shop by my house and started to canvas flyers around the Penn University area hitting all of the small businesses and light posts I could find. Below are the images of the flyers:
Our more eye grabbing flyer for our December Meetup
Our business friendly flyer for our December Meetup
Penn Crypto Party
Last week I decided to establish my Twitter account to help further promote my weekly posts here on Steemit. I saw a tweet by Electronic Frontier Foundation that a Cryptoparty was going to take place at Penn University. I immediately jumped to social media to further promote the event. Attending that party I got to meet many undergraduates who were very interested in digital privacy as well as crypto-currency. Their level of enthusiasm ran parallel with mine making a solid friendship instantly. There were about seven tables with different topics you could learn about such as: VPNs and Tor, setting up PGP, the importance of bots, and even making tin foil hats. After exchanging information with some of the organizers and attendees I decided to call it a night and say goodbye to my new friends.
A picture taken during the Cryptoparty last Saturday
Since this event, I have taken steps towards solidifying a video editor to help our team. We try our best to film our meetups for the people who cannot attend. It brings peace of mind and a level of professionalism to the group when they can get a rundown of what went on while they were away. We will also be addressing many key components this week that I think are vital to expand our outreach (ex: communication channels, solutions for funding, and systems for adoption).
In The End
My reason for writing this piece is to simply show this lovely community how passionate we are in Philadelphia. The engagement I have experienced so far with the people I have met are full of excitement and passion when they speak. We may be small, but we pack a mighty punch. My personal goal is to continue to reach out to as many individuals and businesses as I possibly can. Knowledge is power and with our level of determination I feel we can have a huge impact on the residents of Philadelphia.
If you are interested in helping us out you can follow us on our NEW Steemit page. As I mentioned above, we currently haven't settled any sort of agreement on setting up a group Multi-Sig address, but that is on my To-Do list for this week's meetup.
Below is our contact info and links for anyone interested in getting in touch or following our progress.
Email: bitcoinPHL@protonmail.com
BitcoinPHL Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BitcoinPHL/
BitcoinPHL Steemit Page: https://steemit.com/@bitcoinphl