Photo: Melia Robinson for Business InsiderGroups of people united by one idea and living together have always existed. Now, representatives of the blockchain industry and young businessmen, whose activity is related to cryptocurrency, began to unite in such a hostel.
Crypto Castle (Kryptozamok) - a three-story house in San Francisco, where cryptomillionaires live. Most of them are knights without fear, as they believed in the prospects of blockchain technology and Bitcoin, when most considered them financial instruments for dirty work or a bubble.
Castle in Silicon Valley
Externally, this is a typical building typical of the building, but inside you can feel the spirit of cryptorevolution and fraternity. The house, where young businessmen sleep, eat, drink, throw parties and talk about the global financial future and their place in it, is half an hour's drive from Silicon Valley - the concentration of well-known world technology companies.
Many of the inhabitants are related to innovative technologies, since their start-ups are somehow related to cryptocurrency.
Crypto Castle, where fairly well-off people now live, was originally a product of savings. In 2015, Jeremy Gardner, an entrepreneur, investor and organizer of a crypto-hostel, launched his startup Augur. At first, the company did not have enough money to pay for the housing of its employees. For them, Jeremy rented a house, and offered to sell food and rent to be dumped by the whole team.
Jeremy Gardner at Crypto Castle. Photo: Jason Henry for the NY TimesThis is how the space for cryptocurrency workers who believe in the future of the blockchain was organized. Now the tenants of the house are more than ten people. There is a rotation in the hostel - some move out, others move in. "Half a dozen people, maybe more, became millionaires in the time they lived in this house," says Jeremy Gardner.
Brotherhood of young investors
Most guys and girls who sleep in common rooms and even in bunk beds are 20-25 years old. According to Jeremy Gardner, a person cannot stay in a house for more than two hours without becoming a loyal follower of the blockchain's ideas. Gardner’s success began in 2013, when he bought bitcoins for $ 200.
Vivian Ford, vice president of startup company Comma (technology of unmanned vehicles), began to invest in Bitcoin a week after his move to Crypto Castle. She calls it her best investment. Her friends, who had previously been skeptical of such investments, now write her messages asking for advice on how best to make money on cryptocurrency.
Vivian fordHer roommate, Alex Voto, runs a research laboratory at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto. He predicts how Bitcoin can affect the social, economic and political spheres. The best place for analytical research is hard to guess - here is only the most recent insider information.
Not all who can be found in the castle are its residents. For example, Acne Buterin, one of the founders of the Ethereum project, working most of the time in Canada, sometimes visited Crypto Castle.
Hot dog from star
The atmosphere in the house is friendly and relaxed. While walking on it, it becomes clear that the place is special. Anyone who wants to be accepted at home should re-read the Distributed cryptocurrency magazine file, which is piled at the front door. In each instance, by the way, 180 pages.
In the kitchen on the fridge - a lot of magnets with cryptocurrency and bitcoin symbols. Together, they are more like medals for bravery in the field of blockchain. In the kitchen, you can find two types of drinks: Soylent (brand of the drink launched with the help of venture capital. It is positioned as a complete replacement for ordinary food) and alcohol.
A mixture of these drinks has to night conversations, which are usually conducted in the common room - a room with a fireplace, floor-to-ceiling windows and views of the bay. Conversations are usually about finance. For those who want to move away from the topic of finance for a while, there is a bedroom with a pole for striptease.
Conversations, parties and dinner together - this is what the rest of the inhabitants of Kryptozamka looks like. And the rest is needed. According to Vivian Ford, life among so enthusiastic crypto enthusiasts can be exhausting.
In relations with each other - ease and mutual support, the hierarchy between tenants is absent. Bitcoin enthusiast and stock trader Aaron Power-Bearden recalls a case when a hot dog was made by a random guest to one of the inhabitants of the house. Later they learned that it was one of the co-founders of Oculus.
Hacker from the closet
Resident of the castle George Hots - a famous hacker and wunderkind from Silicon Valley, the founder of the startup Comma, ran the company sitting in the basement, and his first unmanned vehicle created in the garage. At Crypto Castle, Hots once lived in a closet. In the house any place where a person can stay is suitable for life. “At that time there was no balance between work and personal life for me,” says George Hots.
Wardrobe in which lived George HotsNow no one lives in the closet, the tenants spread out across the rooms. The usual working picture of a Bitcoin hostel: in one room, on several beds, young people sit with laptops on their knees. There are bookshelves with technical reference books on the walls, half-filled bottles of whiskey and tequila are placed around the room.
Cryptopriton
Not far from Crypto Castle there is another cloister for blockchain enthusiasts - Crypto Crackhouse (Crackhouse is the common name for a brothel where drugs are sold and used). In it live rich people who have managed to put together a fortune, conducting operations with the ether.
One of its inhabitants is Grant Hummer. He leads the San Francisco Ethereum Meetup. “Sometimes I think it would be if a bomb exploded at our meeting,” says Hammer. “It would have thrown civilization back for many years.”
Grant Hammer at Crypto CrackhouseHis room is located at the intersection of Ether Avenue and Bitcoin Boulevard - this is how long corridors are called in the house. “I'm bored with people in the normal world. Here I find a qualitatively different level of consciousness, ”explains the reason for her being in a Hummer hostel.
Somehow, he and his partner allocated $ 40 million of their own cryptocurrency savings to a new hedge fund worth $ 100 million - Chromatic Capital. Hammer recalls that his brain was seething when he watched market volatility. “Sometimes I lost millions a day, and at the same time I felt good,” says the investor. That is why the atmosphere is so important.
The decor in his room is simple: a bed, a futon (Japanese futon), a TV, three keyboard sprays. Hummer’s t-shirt shows a lizard in a suit and a gold chain with a dollar sign. The lizard has a coin labeled “memento mori” - “remember death”. The inscription - "Lizard Wall Street."
The reason why wealthy blockchain enthusiasts decided to live together is the spirit of cryptorevolution and an atmosphere of complete understanding. After all, with someone else to talk about their achievements and dreams, if not with their neighbors with the same burning eyes. They do not need to travel long distances to communicate with like-minded people.
Not a dorm single
You should not think that crypto-enthusiasts who decide to live together are just a group of infantile and spoiled rich people who brighten up their dissolute life with alcohol, sex and nightly conversations at the fireplace. Many of them have reached heights thanks to their innovative original ideas and hard work. For example:
Jeremy Gardner. Acquaintance with Bitcoin began with a friend's offer to buy cryptocurrency for fiat money. Made it out of interest and immediately realized the potential. Launched a startup Augur, which is a prediction market. The company's work is based on Ethereum, it raised $ 5.3 million. In 2014, it was able to organize the Blockchain Education Network, an educational platform using which university students from different countries can explore blockchain technology and cryptocurrency.
George Hotz. An American hacker who first managed to unlock an iPhone. Also hacked the Sony PlayStation 3. In 2015, he launched Comma, starting the development of its own unmanned vehicle based on the Acura ILX. The system consisted of inexpensive parts, such as a camera from a smartphone, its cost was about $ 1 thousand. According to him, this drone will not allow Tesla to relax.
Vivian Ford is not only the vice-president of Comma, she is also engaged in public relations and interacts with the media on the blockchain and cryptocurrency.
Life inside the crypto community
San Francisco is not the only city where blockchain-enthusiasts gather in the same space. A year ago, the blockchain-commune opened in Moscow. This project is Vnesheconombank and the University "MISiS". In an area of 1 thousand square meters, developers can create products based on the blockchain, participate in educational programs and engage in mentoring.
But the commune in Moscow is rather a space for coworking, it does not provide accommodation.
In Prague, there is a unique Paralelni Polis center, created to unite crypto-enthusiasts under one roof. An important place in the center's activity is occupied by the Institute of Cryptoanarchy, where developers and hackers have access to tools and can freely distribute information on the Internet, create alternative decentralized economies and cryptocurrency.
The center in Prague functions more like a club. It has coworking, a meeting and conference area, and Bitcoin Coffee. In this cafe all purchases are made in bitcoins. There is an automatic machine with power engineers for Bitcoins, even the salaries of the waiters are paid in this cryptocurrency.
Most likely, there are still many blockchain communes in the world, but information about most of them is not available to the general public, since not all of their members want publicity.
Members of the blockchain community communicate, conclude contracts and are friends not only in crypto-hostels. They attend meetings and conferences where many well-known industry representatives gather. Two of them -
Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference Kyiv and
Blockchain Conference Moscow promise to be interesting and informative.
References:1. Photo report of Business Insider from Crypto Castle
go2. The New York Times about Crypto Castle, Crypto Crackhouse and parties for crypto enthusiasts in San Francisco
go3. Virtual excursion to Prague Paralelni Polis
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