After a hurricane, tropical storm and a lot of chaos, the FIRST BTC Isla class will officially be graduating TOMORROW!

#Bitcoin to the moon 😎

Financial privacy isn’t always about the government or corporations. Sometimes it’s simply about peers. Here’s an anecdote.

In Egypt, people born into lower socioeconomic statuses often don’t have a lot of flexibility for their life path. It’s often largely set by family and tradition, especially for women. And so, it’s kind of the luck of the draw how constructive their family is.

In certain social circles, a girl is generally considered the responsibility of her father. If she dates, has sex, doesn’t wear hijab, etc, then it is considered to reflect badly on him.

Once she marries, responsibility over her is transferred to her husband. He will usually control the main income, he will often control the family finances even if she does have an income, and he will often control most major decisions. And divorce is structured in favor of men here. Initiating a divorce as a woman comes with more limitations and consequences.

Many fathers push their daughters to marry pretty early so that they can relieve themselves of responsibility for her, even if she’s not thrilled about the prospective husband. She can be pressured socially, economically, and sometimes even physically. And at that socioeconomic level, she likely isn’t fluent in other languages, likely has not been exposed to outside ideas very much, is likely surrounded by people who would take her father’s side against her, and so the direction and pressure from her family is mainly how she contextualizes her role in the world.

So in many cases, someone goes from a girl with little power to a wife with little power at a young age, and with limited economic, social, or legal recourse if it ends up not being a good path. A decent percentage of fathers and husbands are abusive, unfortunately. In theory there are safeguards against this, but in practice it’s easy to fall through the cracks.

I know a family that owns an apartment building in Cairo, and they employ a husband and wife as live-in assistants to oversee the property and their family, like a casual butler and maid basically. He cleans, runs errands, and provides security, while she cleans and cooks. The husband and wife come from a low socioeconomic background, and have both been working for the family for 15 years, and are heavily trusted. They make like $4k/year USD equivalent combined, plus receive free basic shelter and a used car.

The husband and wife do not have bank accounts, so they just save in physical Egyptian cash that quickly devalues. Inflation in Egypt hurts people like them the most. With their extended family, they also own a unit for themselves in an apartment building in a poor neighborhood. It’s an unfinished raw brick building that they don’t live in. Their extended family all contribute to the shared building structure and underlying small land lot, and they own their unit within the structure and can choose to invest in finishing it with electricity and plumbing and flooring and furniture to live in, or just leave it as an empty brick hull. Many remain unfinished like that indefinitely throughout Cairo; it’s basically treated as illiquid savings and optionality.

Anyway, one day when the wife was getting a raise from the family that employs her, she asked that her raise be kept private from her husband. She wanted to have autonomy over that portion; their combined income is otherwise mainly under his control. Her husband is by all accounts a nice guy, but that is the common way of doing things in their socioeconomic circle. A private raise would let her keep a tiny bit of pocket cash in her own control. One of the things she wanted to do with some of her own money was send a tiny bit each month to a family member that needed help. So the family agreed to keep her raise private.

As her pocket cash eventually grew a bit, the next challenge arose: how to keep it safe and secret while living in a 250 square foot living area with her husband and daughter. She went back to her employer and asked if she could keep her private savings with them as an informal bank. They agreed to do that for her as well.

As is the case for many people like her, even though she doesn’t have a bank account, she does have a smartphone. Over time, certain types of mobile wallets and their widespread adoption could improve her ability to save privately and in less debase-able ways, and that don’t rely on the particular helpfulness of her employer. And if not her, then maybe her daughter one day.

A shoutout to all the devs working on such wallets and their ease of use; there are certainly plenty of people in the world who could benefit from them!

Oof

"Are you pro or against UBI or UHI (Universal High Income)?

When do you think we will start to see it being implemented in the Western world?

If you think it's a bad idea, what, in your opinion, is a better short-term solution in a world with extremely advanced Al's and automation, where almost all jobs can be easily automated?"

enter bitcoin

this is why it is crucial for the foreseeable future in a world where ai and automation dominate.

as jobs become automated, traditional income sources diminish, making alternative financial "systems" like bitcoin essential.

bitcoin offers a decentralized, inflation-resistant store of value, providing financial security independent of traditional economic structures.

its global accessibility ensures everyone can participate in the economy, making it a vital tool for financial inclusion and stability in an automated era.

ai will create enormous abundance while bitcoin will try to protect it

The scale of the unfunded pension liabilities globally is almost incomprehensible. Hundreds of millions of people around the world expecting to retire comfortably will see their pensions worth pennies on the dollar or their currencies completely debased.

studying #Bitcoin  inevitably leads to a fundamental change in mindset & life choices

When you see the price of your bitcoin portfolio go down, and you start smiling, that's a sign that you have done your homework. #bitcoin

Timechain or blockchain?

Satoshi called it both, curious your preference?

You could choose Monero for your spendings.

But instead you choose inactivity in the hope others will fix the system for you.

It’s not coming; we’re going there.

“Why would I spend bitcoin?”

— person who spends unrealized-sats every day in the form of fiat