Last week, Bitcoin Lightning developer Jordi Montes disrupted the US presidential campaign trail and the largest Bitcoin gathering in the world by trying to hide his cigarette lighter inside a conference hall.
Bitcoin 2024 organizers scheduled Donald Trump to speak on Saturday, July 27 at 2:00pm and as the majority of the conference’s 20,000 attendees queued to enter Nashville’s Music City Center main stage — some of whom had paid $60,000 for a selfie or $844,600 for roundtable seating — secret Service agents made everyone wait an extra hour.
Montes, however, was allowed to enter the main stage area via exit doors, bypassing security scanners and pat-downs. Unsurprisingly, cameras caught his trespass and within seconds, he had been identified via facial recognition.
But this wasn’t the only suspicious behavior caught on camera. To avoid giving up his cigarette lighter at one of the venue’s security checkpoints, Montes had found a place to stash it in another wing of the conference center.
Soon, Secret Service agents would dig it up to verify he had not hidden any larger explosives.
Fast forward a few minutes and the venue’s the PA system was demanding his surrender. In the crowd, no one quite knew how to spell his name. Posts to X searched for variations like ‘Jordy Montez’ and others. The CEO of the conference company asked for crowdsourced assistance.
Read more: Bitfinex hacker Razzlekhan was job hunting at Bitcoin 2024
His name was Jordi Montes
When he was eventually identified, Secret Service agents thoroughly questioned Montes, escorting him back to his room to comb through his belongings. Agents were concerned he only had a single travel bag and large amounts of cash but ultimately cleared him of any violent wrongdoing.
After the delay, Trump spoke without any further security incidents, and Montes and his friend Jonathan (who had let him into the venue) were immediately catapulted to the level of local celebrities.
Satirists hilariously blogged Montes’s 15 minutes of fame. Someone etched a Rune onto Bitcoin’s blockchain to memorialize the public address (PA) announcement that resounded throughout the conference center: JORDI•MONTEZ•TO•NEAREST•EXIT.
They dubbed him ‘the most non-compliant man in Bitcoin,’ with some supporting and others exasperated at his stupidity. Someone even applauded his attempt to ‘orange pill’ Secret Service agents — evangelizing them to buy and believe in Bitcoin.
Many Bitcoiners have gained their moment of fame for dumb reasons, but egregious violations of security protocol at a presidential campaign rally might top the list. Montes promises to attend without disrupting next year’s Bitcoin 2025 conference.
