We received word of a crypto event on the beach one night. @boeltermc invited us to this event and put our squad on the guest list. Bybit is a crypto exchange who invited Boelter to the event as a crypto influencer since he recently spoke at the Hive event in Brazil about a week ago. You might have heard some recent buzz about Bybit mostly because they underwent a cyber attack where a North Korean hacker stole 1.5 Billion dollars worth of crypto from them. Highlander explained to me how the hacker did it. he infected one of the Bybit employees computers, and ... well, i kind of forgot what he explained, but the exchange approved a mysterious transaction that ethereum sometimes causes, and it gave access of the whole exchange to north korea for about an hour where they were able to extract 1.5 billion dollars lol.
Anyways, that didnt stop us from enjoying an evening on Bybit of free food and drinks.
I have known Boelter whos first name is Vitor for some time now through skatehive and discord. it was cool to meet him in real life for the first time.
The outdoor sushi restaurant was filled with crypto enthusiasts. To be honest i really don't know what to talk about to crypto people. "hey ya know any good shit coins to invest in?" is about as deep as i could really go. Pretty much no-one has heard of hive and since thats my favorite crypto, i find myself not knowing how to connect with anyone. So i just drank a shitload of free beer.
With beer, i eventually started some conversations with people who spoke english.
One dude told me i should climb to the top of a mountain. he showed me pictures, and then he showed me his custom google map of the dangerous parts of the rio.
The restaurant had a view of the beach at night and the waves were huge. it started to rain so we all had to huddle under the shelter.
The food that was brought out also consisted of waves, but unlike the waves of the ocean, these waves of food were made of various brazilian deep fried appetizers. After eating a ton of them, and beginning to feel like shit, the main course arrived, which was cheese ravioli lol.
Now i know you can add soy sauce to italian food to make it taste better. I'm learning so much in Brazil.
Bybits promotional budget must have gotten cut, since this was a sushi restaurant and we were being served ravioli. But hey, at least they didn't cut the budget of their merch!
It was a pleasure to meet @boeltermc's girlfriend, Emanuele. The english version of her name is Emma. (@emanueledornelas) She works in the crypto space and is an english teacher. I think she might teach other languages too but i can't remember... and speaks very good english. she told me i need to paint again. she said i should paint in brazil to help me feel at home. this might be true since skating isnt really doing it for me right now. i got my heart broken by a dumb girl and have been feeling lonely.
She explained to me a bit of the culture of rio too. She said I need to be confident. People in Rio work hard for not much pay, so they compensate by playing hard, that is sort of what informs the party culture which manifests in full form during carnival.
Anyways, we got these Hive debit cards to use in brazil. I don't know how they work or anything. I don't know if they work in countries that do not use the brazilian Real or not.
I will read this post now i guess.
Update: ok so I realize how they work now. All they do is transfer Hive from one account (which you make for the debit card) to another hive account. You cant go into any store and purchase stuff with hive like i thought. This means i gotta find a merchant that accepts Hive to use it. Basic NFC functionality but still fun. Probably useful if you live in Venezuela where people actually accept hive all over.