CambrianSV Bootcamp Day 4: Monkey business

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CambrianSV Bootcamp has been all about coding, with some intensive work by participants for a demo day at the end of the week. But the event has also demonstrated some new realities about setting up Bitcoin businesses. In the Bitcoin world, assumptions based on how tech startups have worked in the past may no longer apply.

It was fitting that this was the day which included some time off at the nearby Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary because the outing gave participants a chance to encounter nature in the raw – and to be reminded about how tech startups are supposed to fight each other ‘tooth and claw’, under ‘the law of the jungle’.

The monkeys didn’t hesitate to grab anything they could get their paws on from the startled geeks. Craig Porter of BitPocket lost his cigarettes to a monkey who took them half way up a tree. (The monkey eventually dropped them and Craig was pleased to recover them and lit up as soon as he was allowed to.)

Back at the Bootcamp, participants reflected on the nature of their work and their startups. Alan Borger, cofounder of Agora (‘Your homepage on the Metanet’), says he’s noticed the way in which the BSV projects represented among the group each reflect the people behind them: “you can see very much the founder through the project”. His Agora cofounder Joana Scarpelini is confident that they’re at “the right place at the right time with the right people”. 

For entrepreneur Derek Moore, the challenge for BSV startups like those at the bootcamp is to “prove to the rest of the world, the capabilities here”. Derek says that once BSV projects started by ‘the little guy’ become successful, the “big interests …have a lot of labour force to deploy in competition with us”. That would be the problem of success. Bring it on!

To see all our reports from the Bali Bootcamp, check out this special CoinGeek YouTube playlistwhere we’ll add new videos as they’re released.