Today I don’t want to talk about numbers. I want to talk about feelings. About emotions.

Let me share, with humility, my journey up to this point 👇

One day I realized that my country was going downhill without brakes. And I decided I needed an escape plan. I started studying programming, looking for a way out.

And then Bitcoin came into my life.

At first it was just a spark: “eh, this is interesting”.

Then came the clarity: “wait, this actually solves real problems”.

And soon after, the revelation: “we are at the beginning of something immense”.

Each new lesson was like opening another door in my mind. Until I understood that Bitcoin is not just technology: it is the perfect money humanity has been searching for over thousands of years.

Money that lasts, that is scarce, that doesn’t depreciate. Money that moves freely. Money that cannot be corrupted.

At first I doubted: “why run a node, if companies already do that?”.

But curiosity won. I got an affordable PC and turned it into a node. And that small step marked a before and after.

What started as a whim became a journey of discovery. Setting things up, making mistakes, fixing them, moving forward. And suddenly I found myself part of a network of barely 16,000 LN nodes in the world. A minority that, silently, is sustaining one of the greatest revolutions in history.

I obsessed over making my node profitable. Until I realized that the true profit isn’t measured in sats, but in what you learn, what you build, and what you share. Because when you see your node routing millions of sats, helping the network grow, operating in full self-custody… you understand the real value is priceless.

Along the way, you make friendships, you share strategies, and you realize you’re not alone.

One day, in a free Bitcoin class, I saw someone build an online store that accepted BTC in real time using AI. And my mind exploded 🤯.

I was interested in Polymarket, but they didn’t accept Bitcoin. So I asked myself: what if I build it?

I jumped in. I invested, I failed, I suffered, I learned. I leaned on those who walk the same path (thank you nostr:nprofile1qqsqqqqqqpg87x38ks7jc3769m5zvdudhgq82qwkv6gl4k3kl2f3s4spz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduhszrnhwden5te0dehhxtnvdakz7qgswaehxw309ahx7um5wghx6mmd9u2rc4dw 🙌). And little by little, the impossible began to take shape.

Until one day, without noticing, I realized I was hosting my own Bitcoin betting app. Connected to my own node. Where money flows from player to player without permission, without intermediaries, without barriers.

And then it hits you: this is not just an experiment. This is freedom in its purest form.

That was the moment I knew I had fallen deep into the rabbit hole.

And I understood there is no way back.

The rabbit hole has no bottom. But the deeper you fall, the clearer it becomes: what we seek is not wealth… it is freedom.