Bitcoin Beach North And Bank Building – Bitcoin Magazine
This is an opinion editorial by Heidi Porter, an entrepreneur with 35 years in technology, Ben, a Gen Z Bitcoin evangelist, and Xa Ya Za Za, a business owner, artist and node whisperer.
Have you heard the exciting news? There is a new Bitcoin beach in the world! It’s also the furthest north of any Bitcoin beach enclave, located on 130 acres of private property in central Michigan.
Bitcoin Beach North at Lake Satoshi is located at latitude 42.9272437. Both Bitcoin Beach North and Lake Satoshi can be discovered on Google Maps.
This Bitcoin Beach will even freeze in the winter, turning into an ice fishing hotspot!
The first annual Bitcoin Beach BBQ was held on Saturday, August 20, 2022. Somewhere around 70-85 Bitcoiners and pre-coiners came from all over Michigan to camp, hang out, eat out, and talk and learn about Bitcoin .
It was more than wonderful to just hang out with sand and sun and some hard seltzer – in real life – with Bitcoiners. The conversation went easily. No phone calls and texts, just lots of big and varied Bitcoin topics and chatter.
Mike Smith has owned the property since 1992, originally purchased as a gravel pit to service his excavation company. Recently, the lake was renamed Lake Satoshi and Bitcoin Beach North in March 2021. At the BBQ, Smith gave a presentation about Bitcoin and handed out some bet, shirts and swag to pre-coiners who had come to the event to learn about Bitcoin.
Another Bitcoiner “Ben” worked with the Bitcoiner back to make the first BBQ at the Bitcoin Beach North event inviting and informative for all. He’s been a Bitcoiner since high school, so he started making good money at the young age of 17. Ben now helps out at Bitcoin 101 with marketing and education.
The third member of the Bitcoin 101 trio is PF. Smith and PF worked together through the 90s and reunited through Bitcoin. PF is responsible for maintaining the Bitcoin 101 website, as well as the Michigan Plebeian Mesh Network. More on that, in a subsequent article.
An illustrative sign shows the mileage of important Bitcoin landmarks and companies. A lot of time was spent around the totem sign – discussing the various pointers and meanings, and who else should (or shouldn’t) be added. There was also a clue that wasn’t obvious to most at first, which is a fun quiz to see if you can guess correctly. We all spent time thinking and talking about it and eventually some of us got it. You must visit it to submit your guess!
As fabulous as the event was, it is only a small part of what is happening around Bitcoin Beach North and the Bitcoin education and community in Michigan and the surrounding areas.
Mike Smith runs Bitcoin 101, a Bitcoin education and service office housed in a historic bank building in Ovid, Michigan – about 6 miles from Bitcoin Beach North on Lake Satoshi.
Smith intended to house the Bitcoin service office in an old bank building. However, to his surprise, the first bank he looked at buying wouldn’t sell to him because he was promoting Bitcoin!
Like many roadblocks in life, Smith says the setback was ultimately a blessing in disguise as they found a much better building just 5 minutes away from Bitcoin Beach North. By a stroke of luck, Smith was driving past the bank one day and spotted a for sale sign in the window. This time he was more secretive about his intention to turn it into a Bitcoin education center and it worked!
The current building is a historical treasure and history lesson on fiat banking, with 19th century bank deposit notes and a mechanical bank vault that was manufactured in Hamilton, Ohio. Today, the vault is secured with a hybrid of digital and mechanical locks.
Bitcoin101 Office: Bank Vault Locks.
Bitcoin101 Office: Bank Vault Doors.
Smith and his Bitcoin team set up historical views of past and future money. They also operate various Bitcoin miners that heat up the office in very cold winters in michigan.
Given that Bitcoin 101 and Bitcoin Beach North are not far from the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing, Smith hopes to sit down with local legislators, business owners and residents during their upcoming monthly meetings. The first Mid-Michigan meet will be Wednesday, October 19th. Check the Bitcoin101.io website for details.
Several other Bitcoin meetups are currently taking place across Michigan in the Grand Rapids, Detroit, and Benton Harbor areas (home of the Whirlpool producer, not the CoinJoin implementation).
If you’re ever in Michigan, check out Bitcoin 101 and Bitcoin Beach North – summer or winter!
Bitcoiners in Michigan are coming out strongly for the censorship-resistant, sound money of Bitcoin.
This is a guest post by Heidi Porter. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BTC Inc. or Bitcoin Magazine.
