How to Find Bitcoin Events and Merchants Using Satlantis Discovery Features

Since launching in early 2026, Satlantis has helped users create over 700 Bitcoin-focused events with more than 15,000 registrations in just three months. For Bitcoin nomads and travelers, the app solves a persistent problem: finding both community gatherings and places to actually spend sats in unfamiliar cities.

Here's how to make the most of its discovery features.

Getting Started with Satlantis

Download the Satlantis app from iOS or Android app stores. You can sign up using a Nostr account, email, Google, or Apple authentication. The Nostr option unlocks the full social graph features, but you can start with any method and connect Nostr later.

Once inside, the app integrates a Lightning Network wallet directly. This matters because you can pay for event tickets, buy from merchants, and receive payments without switching apps. Stripe integration also handles fiat payments, which helps when coordinating events with non-Bitcoiners who aren't on Lightning yet.

Finding Bitcoin Events

The events page at satlantis.io/events serves as a global calendar for Bitcoin meetups, conferences, and community gatherings. You can browse Featured Events on the homepage or search by location to find what's happening near you.

What sets this apart from generic event platforms is the social layer. You can see which people in your network are attending, RSVP publicly, and follow specific calendars. If you're planning travel to a new city, checking who from your social graph has attended events there gives you both community context and potential contacts.

The personalized feed learns from your social connections. Follow people whose taste in events matches yours, and the discovery algorithm surfaces relevant gatherings you might otherwise miss. This works particularly well for finding smaller side events around major conferences like BTC Prague.

Discovering Bitcoin Merchants Through Collections

Merchants don't appear in a traditional business directory. Instead, Satlantis uses community-curated "Collections," which are user-created lists of places tied to specific themes or events.

For example, an event host in Barcelona might create a Collection called "Verified BTC Merchants in Barcelona" linking to cafes, restaurants, and vendors that accept Lightning payments. Other users create Collections around personal preferences, such as seed oil-free restaurants that take Bitcoin, or raw milk vendors in a particular region.

To find merchants:

1. Search for Collections related to your destination city
2. Check Collections linked to upcoming events you plan to attend
3. Follow users who create merchant lists in areas you frequent
4. Save Collections you find useful for offline reference

Collections can be public or private. Public ones spread through the social graph as people save and share them. The quality depends entirely on community curation, so following active local Bitcoiners tends to surface the best merchant recommendations.

Using Your Social Graph for Travel

The Nostr backbone makes Satlantis particularly useful for Bitcoin nomads. Your existing Nostr connections carry over, so you're not building a network from scratch. When traveling to a new city, you can see which contacts have attended events there, what merchants they've recommended, and who might be worth meeting.

This social layer distinguishes Satlantis from static merchant maps. Rather than relying on outdated listings, you're tapping into current, crowd-verified information from people whose judgment you've chosen to trust.

Practical Limitations

Merchant discovery depends heavily on active local communities. In cities with established Bitcoin scenes, Collections tend to be comprehensive and current. In places without much Bitcoin activity, you may find sparse or outdated recommendations.

The Nostr requirement for full features can be a barrier if you're new to the protocol. Basic functionality works without it, but the social graph features that make discovery most useful require a Nostr identity.

Making It Work for You

The platform rewards active participation. Creating your own Collections for cities you know well helps others and builds reciprocal connections. Attending events and RSVPing publicly increases your visibility to like-minded travelers.

For Bitcoin nomads or anyone relocating to a new city, spending fifteen minutes browsing relevant Collections and upcoming events before arrival can save significant time finding community and places to spend sats. The integrated Lightning wallet means you can act on recommendations immediately rather than juggling multiple apps.

Whether you're planning for a major conference or just trying to find a coffee shop that accepts Bitcoin in an unfamiliar neighborhood, the combination of social discovery and community curation offers something traditional business directories cannot: trust through human connection.