I mean it depends. I don’t think the point of these spaces is just “solving loneliness.” I can only speak for my own space (@bitshala), not hackerspaces in general. But first... watch the video below. Now imagine you're one of the developers these guys are talking about. Your work is helping people in countries you've never even visited. Then you come home and your flatmate, friend or cousin thinks bitcoin is some ponzi scam. After a point you just stop talking about your work or ideas to most people around you because explaining it properly takes too much energy. That’s the kind of loneliness we were trying to solve. Not every hackerspace does that. A lot of them (seem like) are simple networking grounds or content factories. But I do think spaces built around a very particular kind of work or mission can matter a lot to the people inside them. All of the devs who came to Bitspace alone two years ago now have close friends here. People who understand the "why" of the work, the obsession, the stress around it. People they can just sit beside after a long day without having to defend or explain bitcoin. If a space can do that for even a small group of people, I think it’s worth running.
