Global Research

Coindesk has the story, noting that the gathering, dubbed the Satoshi Roundtable, will take place this weekend and is a closed door confab for “bitcoin CEOs and luminaries”. Members of the Press and the public will not be invited.

“Organized by Bruce Fenton of the Bitcoin Association and Atlantic Financial, participants in the first annual Satoshi Roundtable include top executives from companies such as Blockchain, BitGo, BitPesa, Chain, ChangeTip, Coinapult and MegaBigPower, as well as noted VCs in the space such as Erik Voorhees and Roger Ver.” the report reads.

An official website for the gathering verifies the secrecy of the meeting, noting “Even if you are a great person with many accomplishments in bitcoin and lots of passion we just won’t likely be able to invite you.”

Mr Fenton told Coindesk that the group does not wish to act too secretly, but that the meeting has been organized to ensure “the right balance of transparency and privacy.”

“Many CEOs will not criticize regulators in a public event because they fear reprisals from the regulators.” Fenton said, attempting to justify the secrecy of the gathering. “Another example is that some CEOs fear to attack known scams in public because they don’t want attacks from scammers or to be associated with them (even as a critic) in the newspaper,” he added.

“Attendees will have the option to have comments from speeches or interaction be publicly available. I personally plan to release everything I say and anyone else can do the same, I’ll also work to protect the privacy of those who want it,” Fenton said.

The meeting is thought to be taking place in Punta Cana, in the Dominican Republic. The area is a popular tourist destination and is comprised mainly of resorts and luxury hotels. A photo (displayed above) on the official GitHub page for the event has been identified as the Club Med Punta Cana resort, although it is not clear whether the photo was just used as a stock image or not.

“The event is designed to foster relationships, interaction, tech development, deal making and provide a fun and relaxed but intensive environment to dive deeply into the technology and issues surrounding it,” Fenton added, without going into detail about what will be discussed.

“The primary goal is to support a successful event, not profit from it.” he added. “The funds are used to cover logistics, every attendee has all meals, drinks, snacks and entertainment included as well as other activities and some event costs as well as the logistics work my team does to make the event work,” Fenton stated.

The Bitcoin Crypto-currency has, over the past year, become a more established fixture. However, it’s inception remains somewhat of a mystery. In March the alleged founder of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, after whom the inaugural gathering is named, was traced and revealed to the world by Newsweek.

It was discovered that Nakamoto had previously undertaken classified work for the U.S. military, as well as major global corporations such as Raytheon and L-3 Communications, a fact that stirred controversy and sat uncomfortably with many Bitcoin proponents.

Speaking of Bitcoin, Nakamoto told Newsweek “I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it. It’s been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection.”

However, after a scrum of journalists later descended on Nakamoto, he immediately backpedaled, telling the Associated Press, “It sounded like I was involved before with Bitcoin and looked like I’m not involved now. That’s not what I meant. I want to clarify that.”

Nakamoto’s background in working on classified projects for the military-industrial complex has driven conspiracy theories among those who believe Bitcoin is some kind of trojan horse for a global one world currency. Bitcoin has subsequently been linked to everything from the National Security Agency to the International Monetary Fund.

Last August, a report emerged courtesy of a whistleblower who was employed as a briefing researcher at the Federal Reserve that stated the Fed is “highly alarmed” by a major internal report which revealed that Bitcoin would likely supercede the dollar system within the next 12 years.

Steve Watson is a London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.com, and Prisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham, and a Bachelor Of Arts Degree in Literature and Creative Writing from Nottingham Trent University.