More than 25,000 believers from across the world descended on Miami Beach last week for what was billed as a 'four-day pilgrimage'.
Yet the sweltering U.S.
city, with its neon lights and palm trees, was not hosting a typical religious gathering, but a celebration for the church of cryptocurrency.
The most famous digital money, bitcoin, as I found out, is all about belief.




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Our man in Miami: Ben Wilkinson joined some 25,000 cryptocurrency fans at the Bitcoin 2022 conference


Meeting the crypto faithful 
Believers start arriving en masse on Thursday morning.

It's 32c outside and many are wearing T-shirts displaying their loyalty to the bitcoin cause. 
One reads 'Fix money, fix the world', there's 'buy the dip, sell the tip' and another is a more brazen 'commit tax fraud'.
A man holds a home-made brown cardboard sign with the words 'money is the root of all evil' scrawled in black marker pen.
The main stage is in a huge 15,000-capacity arena complete with show lighting, thumping music and a smoke machine.
A man with a microphone, striding across the stage, tells the excited crowd that they are what gives their currency value.

He says: 'Bitcoin doesn't exist without you. These are your people.'
Bitcoin is today being sold as the answer to rocketing inflation which has hit a 40-year high in the U.S. at 8.5 per cent.
David Bailey, the chief executive of the firm behind the Bitcoin 2022 conference, tells his eager audience they are at 'the biggest party on the planet'.
Dressed in a Hawaiian shirt, he declares: 'Bitcoin is money for the people, money for all people.' This crowd is hungry for a soundbite or statement that they can applaud.





Glamorous girls promote the auction of a Ford 'Bitcoin Bronco' SUV.

Some 200 cryptocurrency companies set up stalls at the conference dishing out free T-shirts and hats


A boutique bash with 200 crypto companies
A gigantic exhibition centre hosts 200 cryptocurrency companies that are dishing out free T-shirts and hats.
At one stand there's even a bar.
Glamorous girls are promoting the auction of a Ford 'Bitcoin Bronco' SUV, and there's a mechanical bull competition with the person who can hold on the longest promised a bitcoin prize.
I watch as a series of macho-men cling on for dear life before they are tossed to the ground, humiliated in what might well be a fitting metaphor for a bet on bitcoin.
There's also a market where you can buy merchandise and paintings using only the digital money.

You can even get tattooed with the iconic bitcoin logo.
Alongside the fun and games, there are serious companies offering you the chance to 'retire with crypto', get a mortgage using cryptocurrency and sort out your tax affairs.
It's become big business. 
Later that day I am invited to an exclusive party at the beachfront Versace mansion where the Italian fashion designer was shot dead 25 years ago.
Today, it's a boutique hotel and events venue.

And tonight, the poolside bar is free and there are elegant ladies dressed in gold performing a swimming routine as bitcoiners slurp seafood and knock back the drinks.

Celebrity crypto fans join the party
Tennis superstar Serena Williams was among the first to speak at the conference where some tickets cost more than $1,000.
To whoops and applause, she tells the congregation: 'It is obviously the future.'
She says: 'You can start investing little by little, you can build yourself up to where you want to be financially.'
The worrying word for me was 'invest'.

Bitcoin peaked at more than $64,000 a coin last April, but hasn't been close since.
Last night it was trading at around $40,000.
American football star Odell Beckham Jr tells the conference: 'It's going to continue to grow so you might as well go with it or get left behind.' 
If Bitcoin is a religion, then cult figure Michael Saylor is the preacher.

He's dressed all in black and lacks only the white collar.
Greeted by rapturous applause, he tells the crowd what they want to hear: 'I am more bullish than ever with bitcoin.'
He's talking to investment manager Cathie Wood, who says her firm believes each bitcoin will be worth $1 million by 2030.
Billionaire Saylor owns more than 17,000 bitcoins (worth more than $750 million) so stands to gain or lose substantially if the price surges or falls to nothing.
'If you don't support bitcoin you don't support sound economics or integrity', he says.
The software entrepreneur was once accused of accounting fraud and paid a $350,000 fine to settle without accepting guilt.
I can't help but feel Saylor is preaching to the converted.
Before he goes, he stands up and shakes his fingers at the crowd: 'You do not sell your bitcoin.' Later that day, bitcoiners are delighted to hear they can now use their currency to pay for shopping in a new partnership with the payments firm Shopify.
But who would spend bitcoin today when it could be worth so much more tomorrow?
And who would accept payment for it, when it could be worth so much less?







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