Looking at Bitcoin Art Through a Protest Lens | Bitcoin 2026

Hi, thank you for being here. Uh, my name is Dennis Cook. I'm the director of BMAG. Um, BMAG is the Bitcoin Museum and Art Gallery. We handle the art exhibition that occurs every year at the conference as well as a physical space in Nashville. Um, you know, our main focus is supporting Bitcoin artists in the space. These are people that are choosing to price their artwork in Bitcoin. Ultimately, we think that this is a a benefit to um the individuals as a means of getting correct value for their artwork um in an industry much like the former panel here related to music that can sometimes be extremely challenging. Um this particular panel is focused on art and protest. Um we have uh three different people here. We have Alex Schaefer, Colin Burgess, Mir One. Um, all three have uh had long art careers or uh existed in this protest environment whether they thought they were planning to or not. Um, and uh have responded at the razor's edge of these times that put creative people into interesting positions. Um, uh, to get started here, um, just really wanted to throw this out to you three. Um, all three of your work is in, uh, on view in the art gallery. is a part of an exhibition called Relics of a Revolution. Um, this includes uh Collins Mount Gox signs from his protest uh uh dur Tokyo. Uh he'll get into this in a little bit, but he flew to Tokyo in response to his Bitcoin being lost in the Mount Gox uh exchange u uh um how would you describe that as a crisis or a uh um >> uh catastrophe, I would say. >> Yeah. Yeah. Well, um, and then Alex Schaefer is a Los Angeles artist known for his Burning Banks series. Uh, this has put him in the spotlight a number of times whether he intended to or not. And then, uh, Mir One has lived, uh, 20 years of street art. Um, has responded in real time to the first Gulf War as well as Occupy Wall Street movement. um and a number of uh precursors to Bitcoin that uh now leads us to current times that there is almost a cyclical element here that we can get into as well. Um but yeah, I really wanted to respond to you guys uh real quickly. um you know h did you envision this um did you ever have a a realization of uh the as these things were unfolding like did you think that this was um monumental in the moment or were you just responding um how did you contextualize some of your early responses to what was going on? Uh but for me, I guess it it I got this kind of feeling inside like I I needed to rob a bank, you know, because of everything that was going on in with the with the bailouts. And I am like uh I'm like the mind control child of Max Kaiser. Like I started watching Max Kaiser and uh I was doing a lot of plane air painting at the time and I just I get these feelings like I got to do something and I did it and who I had no idea that the what what the outcome was going to be but it was the energy of the time that had to come out. So >> yeah, I'd say for me it was for me it was um fairly similar to that. I knew that I had to uh go to Tokyo to to try and do something. Um but I had no idea that the protest was going to turn anything into anything really big. Um when it started, it was just uh standing there in the snow. And I was actually really shocked that so many of the the media were really that interested in it. Um but it did feel like something uh special was happening. like it was hard to explain, but yeah, it felt uh like Yeah. >> Yeah. I' I I've always felt um akin to protest work. Uh I being a graffiti writer, uh you we we were breaking the rules and the laws, climbing on freeways and buildings and tagging everywhere and breaking the law anyways. And so when when post 911 when all of this stuff started to transform, it it seems very um just perfect subject matter to just dive into as an artist if if if your goal was to create change. Well, Colin, I want to bring this back to you as we're going to start to look at a few images that sort of ground this uh history um in, you know, real real life moments for you. Um I mean, this first one What is it like for you to think about this too? I don't I mean I guess there's some depth that we could even get into related to this particular event, but um yeah, what do you what do you think of when you you dial back to that time where you hopped a plane and you went to uh Tokyo? Uh it is an immediate physical response to it. >> All right. Well, so basically, uh, my bots um had, um, stock withdrawals, uh, in February of 2014, and, uh, they were giving, uh, excuses that weren't very believable. Um, they were doing this for a couple of weeks that somebody from Australia went to protest um, for there. He was there for 3 days and then uh, I realized he left again. So, I decided that um, I should go there and uh, try and get my money as well. So in this picture um this was day one of the protest and I had been to uh the manbox office and tried to speak to somebody there but they wouldn't let me speak to anyone. So I realized that I then had to confront someone in the street. So that was why I ended up writing out that the protest sign and uh basically laid and wait for the CEO as he came into work. And um I had uh CoinDesk and the Wall Street Journal uh with me as well to record it. Um yeah, and then when the confrontation happened uh I asked for my bitcoins. I got uh just excuses. Um and then he wouldn't say whether they had actually lost all the bitcoins or not. Um so the video uh went uh viral that day and then uh the story just kind of blew up immediately and uh by the end of the day we had like major media companies coming to to cover the protest. Um as a reference to everybody um this um this show Relics of Revolution is a part of a four-part series that also was also written interviews on bitcoinagazine.com. So, in the corner of this is an actual link to the article if you'd like to hear more directly from what Colin um has said about this in the past. Um Colin, I'm going to switch it here to the next image, but like you know, okay, so we've gone through a couple different cycles now where people have conceived Bitcoin through a couple different lenses like um we've even, you know, perhaps more had more political or you know, bank banking uh um I wouldn't necessarily say capture, but maybe attempts and such. Um what was your thought? What was what was your view of Bitcoin at that time? has it changed much or um you know how has your thought process about Bitcoin evolved from those early years? I mean, uh, I know you were quite early involved in Bitcoin, but, uh, yeah. >> Um, so you mean just how how's my feeling about Bitcoin changed over? >> Yeah. I mean, part of this we're seeing these images where you're much younger. Um, like do you take us back to like how you viewed Bitcoin in those moments? >> Um, yeah. So, in those days, um, to be honest, my view of Bitcoin hasn't really changed. So I always saw it as uh as something that was revolutionary and uh worth worth holding on to and uh in those days I just wanted to hold as many bitcoins as I could and that hasn't changed. Uh bitcoin itself has changed the industry has changed over that time but uh bitcoin hasn't changed and I haven't changed how I feel about it. >> I believe that about you actually. Um well, hey, I I put up this second image that shows you and another individual here protesting. Um uh and also um say a little bit about the signs that are that have been on on view in the gallery, but um who else did you meet up with? And uh yeah, ex dive into this image here for a second. Uh okay, so so this was the uh second day of the protest. Um I had met my co-processor Aaron uh two days before at a Bitcoin meet up and said he was coming to join the protest. Um so the for the first two days we kind of stood around holding these signs. Um and then after after this day someone had donated us seats. So we ended up sitting on the road uh in the freezing cold but with laptops. So uh we were actually spent all our time most of our time sit on laptops contacting the media uh and and talking to other Bitcoiners uh informing of the situation and we were actually we're only actually standing up uh when more media came and they would come and they come and photograph us and uh do interviews or signs. Um, but most of our time we are actually >> Welcome to predict. The world is a market. Everything is a market. >> Get a 100% cash back up to $100 on your first predict bet if it loses. Predict, where everything is a market. It was an extremely different era in social media like uh local how was lo how did local media approach this or how did you c I mean you were emailing I would suppose but like uh yeah >> yeah so I mean bitcoin was the bitcoin community was mostly using uh reddit at that time. So in terms of the the Bitcoin people then you Reddit was the thing that we were talking on. Um but also we used a bit of Twitter. Um but to talk to the journalists directly it was just a combination of things like I would ask um some people would give me help as to how who contacts and all that kind of thing. It was just a lot of guess work and research and that kind of stuff. But to be honest most of the media were coming anyway. like they heard the story themselves and uh they were going to cover it and most of the people that came they said this was like their top story like you know they were it was quite amazing actually that they were treating it as such such an important thing. Yeah, I mean I think this this image really kind of tells an incredible story given how many people are around you in this like uh you know as we wind this down in terms of your part like uh what what I mean I guess there's almost been a roller coaster over time like even you know there was an immediate response it was quite viral that for the for its time period the actual local media had a great deal of response but then ultimately these signs you know maybe they had a um they lasted for another year, but time passes. And uh um you even said at one point that these were in a suitcase for a period of time. Like uh what's it like to see these back out in space and see others respond to them and uh and connect to this history part element? >> Uh it's pretty amazing seeing your own work um up on a in a in a gallery. >> Did you ever think of it as art or did I mean h how did you conceive it? Yeah. No, I mean I mean obviously when I created it, it was uh simply a tool for the protest, but uh since then a lot of things uh changed as soon as the media started photographing it. Then uh it kind of changed. People started memeing it as soon as it went on the internet. Um yeah, I mean Bitcoin has ran parallel to meme culture. So it seems like that I could see how these things would propel forward, but ultimately 10 year, you know, time flies. Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah. I mean, for those 10 years, I never even really thought I thought one day this uh might be worth something or might be worth bringing out or whatever. But yeah, I I was not expecting that one day I would ever put up in a gallery for that. >> Yeah. Well, well, thank you so much. I'm I'm Next up here, I've added uh some early uh uh protest images. Mirror, you this probably takes you back a little bit, but um can you dive in and explain the context of this? And uh again, you know, you were right there in the middle of of some interesting times. >> Yeah, I feel like I had like my uh my banana clip to my artistic machine gun already filled up and loaded. I just was waiting for something to happen where I could like unleash all these ideas and uh Occupy LA uh started up. And actually before Occupy started up in LA, I was up on the freeway protesting it previous for what was going on on Wall Street in New York cuz it was it was speaking to me. Um when it came to LA, you know, went down there and I tried to apply myself in all these different ways. It's like right here. I think I turned a flashlight on and turned it off and I was riding in abstract space while my friend kept his camera like open, you know, on low light. So, it just like kind of received all of whatever I was mimicking in the air. And uh we were just experimenting with it. But um you know, I was there the last night, too, when the cops came in and tore everything down and hauled all these people off to prison. Um my my role in all this was constantly to physically draw on the sidewalk with spray paint or like this here doing something very abstract and esoteric or something to trans you know bring >> well and and this took various forms correct I I think this was on additional wheat paste pieces it's actually quite a I love this as a slogan um >> yeah yeah I mean it's um uh George Garland said a very similar thing earlier, but uh this was just kind of like the just rolled off my mouth as what seemed obvious to me and what was kind of a a bit of a let down growing up and coming of age to realize that, you know, there there's there may not be a future in the form that I was anticipating. >> Yeah. I mean, as you transition to adulthood, that that that American dream or even the idea that like government may have your direct may be the caretaker. It all it all starts a road. Yeah. As someone who lived in LA for a long time, it's a city that really teaches you that. I kind I kind of think um first of all, it's has very segregated portions, but also it's just it's clear that it's not in control. like it's it's a little bit out of control in in on some levels or perception of control is is you know mess you know but yeah actually if you could take a second to speak to that what what is it about LA that leads towards these sorts of moments because uh Alex can speak to that as well. Yeah, I I I always looked at it like LA was the furthest point for the westward movement of the American society. So, this was the old Wild West. And there's still some of that wild west there. You can see it in the graffiti, in the gangs, in the police department, in the I'll sue you. It's everything. People fight over parking space. But, I mean, you find that in Brooklyn, too. But it's just like there's um there's also in LA there is a there's a a bit of a beauty and a a tragedy that that share the same place and you're you're immersed in it. Now um we're looking at a a a series of three images here. One includes your false prophet series that has been a part of our gallery in numerous times, but and the top one is also on view in the gallery currently. Um, yeah. I mean, were these fun times to you? And like, uh, uh, what what do you what do you think about when you see some of these images again? >> Uh, this was the best of times right here because, you know, CO really destroyed all of the art scene in Los Angeles as well as around the world. A lot of things have changed back in these moments right here. I all my friends I grew up with, we were all vandals. We were all adults now. We had different forms of doing our vandalism and our art form. And we came together and we would go out on these bands of like 20 deep all night long postering up the city, tagging up the walls, um, writing messages, hoping to wake people up to, you know, how, you know, corrupt we all recognize it is now. It took a long time for everyone to catch up to this moment right now, but, uh, there was a lot of us that kind of saw it back then. you know, uh, also to remind people, Mi Mir is currently making a live painting that he he's started work on, uh, at the beginning of the conference. Please take a moment to go over there and look at it, uh, as it's, um, indicative of some of what you're seeing right here. Mirror, I'm going to move it to the next image. Um, and now again, this this is uh, a piece that has taken various forms. Obviously, this is a large form mural. Um, first of all, speak to the history of mural making in Los Angeles or other areas. You've been a part of several really large exhibitions that have been traveling museum exhibitions, uh, documenting some of these like really powerful street art images. Um, again, this has taken many forms. Can you walk us through this a little bit? >> Yeah, you know, Los Angeles has always been a big mural city. We've got some really famous Chuco artists and some really famous just different pedigrees of artists that have, you know, painted this city for for a very long time from like the early 1930s with um uh he's slipping my name right now, but uh Diego Rivero, thank you. Incredible works that were painted back then and to this day now. And uh you know, Los Angeles was very famous for big sides of buildings with giant parking lots. And so these walls needed art and um that's what got me into wanting to spread my work everywhere. I was on the way to London and um I wanted to take some of that LA energy out there. I I had a live art gig out there and I figured I'd paint a mural wall on there and I was just trying to come up with what could I do to create the most controversy and really tick some people off, you know, halfway around the world. So I thought of this piece of these bankers playing monopoly on the backs of the working class and the industry that these bankers had created which is nuclear coal just nefarious uh consumerism reality chemtrails in the sky very apocalyptic vision being offered up and then of course the human race just finding themselves in this position of subjugation by the system and it's all stemming from that original dollar bill logo money ideology, fiat, you know, and I I wanted to to point that out to downtown London Financial District, and it got me in a lot of trouble. >> Wow. I didn't I didn't know that that was a a London uh I didn't know that element of a story. That's amazing. Well, speaking of causing a little bit of controversy, we are going to talk about Alex Schaffer's work as well. Um, Alex, uh, this probably >> I'm more of an impressionist painter and Mir is kind of like like a bgal, you know, if if you're going to describe our temperaments. Um, you know, there's this whole concept with with the idea of of spreading a viral idea and creating a spectacle, you know, and even back in the day, like Edward Bernay wrote in a book propaganda about creating a spectacle and spreading it in the media. I recently saw this video that was reposted on X that was a computer simulation in a circle of a ball bouncing and then every time it hits one other ball then another ball forms and now there's three balls and then there was a certain point when it just went boom it went viral literally and there were so many balls and it took a long time to get to that point and I was also in LA when Mir was there and that energy was coursing through the city or something And um because I did this this happened like 2 months and then 2 months later occupy broke out. So this was like right before that happened. Um you know as an artist it was a it was a great way for me to combine what I was already doing which was setting up you know it's a different kind of street art I guess. You know there's graffiti and then there's setting up an easel and doing sort of an impressionist plain air painting. >> Yeah. For those that don't know, uh, plain air painting, you were literally painting on this uh, uh, in front of these right across. Yeah. Like >> what did people on the sidewalk say to you as you depicted the banks on fire, >> you know, and it's the same to this day? Most of them just are like, I love it, man. And then just going to share a story about uh how someone got screwed out of a out of a house from from a shifty bank or whatever. So, we can all relate. And I've always focused on these, you know, the big ones, the primary dealers, the the the Federal Reserve system. Um, and the Yeah. So yeah, that was, you know, in Hollywood and there's there's already this feeling like um am I of being nervous when you're doing a plane air painting cuz you're in the street and you're on the sidewalk and um but I'd gotten used to it by this point and I was so worked up from 2008 and the bailouts and again getting educated, the protest spirit, the just it came out in the art and but nowadays it's going to be through like an education. You know, there's ways that people are talking about protesting, it's always re it's always it's always reassuring for me to hear people talk about 2008 because having having lived through that myself in in Los Angeles, like it really felt like we were on the edge of serious breakdown. like I I I I I remember being very stressed out for my family at that stage. But like um but yeah, this seemed like a really incredible way to channel some of that. I I don't want to necessarily want to make this an art history conversation, but this does have a lot of similarity to Edche's burning um burning museum image. I mean, I got that I got that comparison with Ed. >> We're again different types of painters, but we're both in LA. and fire. And there was a uh there was a a a an energy that that he was feeling like I would being left out by by the modern institutions of culture. >> And but then the irony was like the year he did that, the Federal Reserve system was created a couple years later and they just blew up the New York art world and all these guys just >> Yeah. odd odd outcome for that. You can't till effect flooded into the auction houses in New York. >> Yeah. Again, kind of an uncontained market that really >> But I love Bitcoin art collectors. You know, there's this whole idea about Bitcoin art and you know, oh, you know, you you like some of your friends be like, ah, put a B in my stuff, you know, and but at the same time, the there's it's that there are people with Bitcoin who appreciate art, you know, and then there's also Bitcoin art where that is the theme, you know, but at the same time, it's kind of like the art collectors that were buying deep into uh the work in like the teens and the 20s and really holding on to some of these amazing pieces of art. I I I really appreciate that there is some there's a degree of support between in the Bitcoin community for you know artists that value pricing their artwork in Bitcoin or or relating to um you know interesting technical elements. I mean uh uh Anik is an interesting case like his if if if you go to the gallery he has a very um unique observation about that he from studying Bitcoin that led to a piece of artwork. Um but you know and Alex I'd love for you to dive in a little bit to the pixelated dollar bill pieces that you have in the gallery right now. Um that's a little different than your Bernie series. Yeah, I mean again like dividing art between or painters temperaments. On one side you have the the appalonian and on the other side you have the Dianician, you know, you like a Da Vinci versus Rembrandt or something like that. And uh I just um I love throwing paint around, but then at the same time uh I kind of like working with systems and things. And I was a video game artist back in the 90s before I was, you know, making money with easel paintings. And so the the pixelated dollars are sort of a hats off to making art in 16bit for Sega Genesis games and things like that. And I also like the concept that it is like devalued. You got to squint at the Let's put it on. >> Oh, you know, I actually don't have it. >> Okay. uh you got to you got to squint at it cuz it's like reduced to a bunch of squares and so it's almost like the less you're seeing the more you're seeing it. And um and it it's a series that I've done for a while and so I applied it towards the dollar bill. If you see me on X my avatar it's like a pixelated painting of the Mona Lisa. Um oh we're at -21 right now. We're we're going to make the red >> we're going to make everybody uh go to the go to the gallery to see that anyway. So, okay, as we as we start to uh conclude here, uh again, really want to thank Alex, Colin, and Mir all for being a part of the relics of a revolution show. Um Colin um you know, the mount signs uh anchor bit a anchor bitcoin create creative space in a really important part of history. Uh thank you very much. Um uh you know obviously the Satoshi Times is a is a very influential image that's also in space next to you. Um yeah I mean uh I I guess do you as we take this out um where where do you see the role of creatives in the in the Bitcoin space going forward? I don't I don't think this is solely a crazy a space dictated by technical people and in fact uh often times creatives can have insight into things that uh materialize in advance of some sort of technical structure. Uh Mer you may want to speak to the magician painting as I think that speaks to that tone a little bit. Um, but yeah. Uh, yeah. Anybody have any last words or any last thoughts about not only this? Uh, um, yeah. >> Uh, yeah. Online I'm paint with Alex. All one word, paint. >> Yeah. Where can where can we find you guys? Yeah. >> So, that's my that's my Instagram and my X. And if you put.com after it, that's my website. And, uh, I'm like an octopus. I just I I try to put my fingers in all kinds of ways to to stay afloat and thrive. So there you go. >> Uh Mirror, where can we find you? >> Uh I have a website, mir1.com. M A R O N E.com. I'm on all social medias and all that, too. You can find me in LA hanging off a billboard or something. >> Colin, besides this art exhibition, where where's the easiest way for people to follow you? I know you also have a website, too, correct? Um, so we I have just a legacy website, mgosprotest.com, but that's just uh that's just holds the history and stuff. Um, I'm not actually I don't actually do anything on social media or public. I like to stay away from that. So, there's nowhere to follow me really. >> Understood. Well, anyways, thank you everybody for being a part of this. Um, thanks everybody. Thank you. Every year this community comes together to celebrate, to debate, to build what comes next. And every year the stage gets bigger. Sound money center stage. So, where do you go to celebrate the next chapter in Bitcoin history? You come home. Nashville, July 2027.