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I will not be voting for US president next month

this is why:

https://john-dennehy.medium.com/the-problem-with-voting-5460bd1f1fac

Transparent funding for Bitcoin education is crucial

we should support every org that does this & question why others do not

nostr:note1waryqeclm996kfax5h6xh04kdlvgket42ujylwjd9tq7hthgxhvqxh60lu

Independent Bitcoin education is the gateway drug to a better society

'We need to create a robust, decentralized, global network of Bitcoin educators and defend their independence at all costs'

It was an honor to represent nostr:npub17cyatz6z2dzcw6xehtcm9z45m76lde5smxdmyasvs00r4pqv863qrs4ml3 at the 2024 Grassroots Summit in Nashville, organized by nostr:npub17xvf49kht23cddxgw92rvfktkd3vqvjgkgsdexh9847wl0927tqsrhc9as at nostr:npub1theparkprcs70dcs437ke9zzwsr6u60f8flu7rg28m30438aep9sd94dha

the system can not be reformed

I'm here for the revolution

nostr:note16lqn5a0869xf0fj9shfywkrrs9tw7asrw8mdhfz3p2vhcq438qtqkw2xls

this is the day before nostr:npub1ad0ptuzte83alpkpqqctvewlaqj5zq23c83m82xw8apg4t6zlyns6xng2c and they have a good list of places to stay here: https://sv24.adoptingbitcoin.org/

look fwd to seeing you in Nov!

This is a decentralized conference

This is a non-commerical space, where ideas and wisdom are given away

If you are a bitcoin educator (all bitcoiners are), come to a beautiful venue on the side of a volcano, share best practices, speed up the timeline and change the world!

nostr:note1598qgtq322h4n576uqjxnpf3mjmee2vhhrdm5d09wfqaxun6dqjqk9ekvr

so many things ...

but one big problem is most here don't realize how different it is compared to fiat. most think of it as another (fiat) money when in fact it's an alternative to (fiat) money. therefore, they don't see how great the potential is

I took this photo three years ago today: an anti-bitcoin mob destroyed a Bitcoin ATM downtown before setting it on fire

Sept 15th is independence day in El Salvador. In 2021 this was 8 days after Bitcoin became legal tender and there was plenty of local opposition. I spent all day with a couple of thousand people--to this day the largest protest I have seen in El Salvador. They spray painted walls, blocked traffic and chanted slogans. Finally, once downtown, the crowd destroyed and burned one of the new Bitcoin ATMs

I was still pretty new to the country and still trying to understand how people felt about Bitcoin to discover the best approach for nostr:npub17cyatz6z2dzcw6xehtcm9z45m76lde5smxdmyasvs00r4pqv863qrs4ml3 The broad conclusion was that almost no one opposed to Bitcoin actually knew anything about it

I can't imagine this happening today. There is so much farther to go, but we've already come a long way

23 years ago, the world changed. My world changed.

I was away starting my second year at university, but grew up in New York and just two weeks prior was at an internship close enough to the World Trade Center that I ate lunch in the plaza at its base some days. My father still worked in the neighborhood. My uncle, a police officer, was in the towers helping people evacuate that morning--though I didn't know that on Sept 11th. They were both okay, though I didn't know that on Sept 11th either. The phones networks were all down for hours after the attacks. They were overloaded and crashed, though I didn't know that reason at the time either.

The only thing I did know that day, for the first time in my young life, was that there was something terribly wrong with the world.

I woke up a typical, oblivious 19 year old and when I did go to sleep--the next day--I was a changed person. I was an activist.

The first steps were identifying the problem--the concentration of power with too few, leaving too many to feel disenfranchised and disempowered, which is a recipe for a dark future.

Within days of the attack I had, along with friends, formed an activist organization. We started to organize teach-ins and protests. I was drawn to movements that didn't ask permission, and thus started a multi-year journey of arrests and state intimidation.

You're not really free, that's an illusion. You're free so long as you don't challenge the status quo--and asking for permission to protest does NOT challenge the status quo.

The first arrest--of 14--was at an IMF protest a few months later.

Some things have changed a lot in the 23 years since, but that same core problem still exists, nay has gotten worse: we do not control our own future. The one thing that has changed for me is I'm no longer trying to slow the bad, but rather am now trying to speed the good.

Three years ago I founded @MyfirstBitcoin_ and moved to El Salvador. One year ago my first son was born. Today, I'm as confident as ever that we can create something better.

Three years ago, on Sept 7, 2021, I woke up in San Salvador. Bitcoin would become legal tender in El Salvador that day, becoming the first nation in the world to do so

I was a journalist so I woke up before dawn, traveled around the city taking photos, getting quotes and filed my first story by 9:00am from a protest downtown--for Al Jazeera and soon after for BBC

The law had some opposition, this was months before the gang crackdown, and heavily armed military guarded the brand new Bitcoin ATMs

It would be the last time I would ever work as a journalist. I would soon be too invested in the success of Bitcoin (education) in El Salvador that I decided that I could no longer be impartial and therefore should no longer be a journalist

That evening I celebrated in Bitcoin Beach

I remember September 7, 2021 like it was yesterday. It's incredible to think of how much has changed since then

There is a long way to go, but the progress already made is inspiring

Happy birthday #BitcoinCountry! 🎉🎉🎉

I saw a headline about BlueSky adding 2 million users this week, many from Brazil. so it seems like it's still alive and kicking

my impression is that it's less censorship resistant than Nostr though

aren't there others though? or they all already peaked you're saying?

I've been using Nostr more lately

it's a significant upgrade from early 2023 when I first signed up, there is still some lag, but the progress is clear

I'm here for two reasons: first, censorship resistance

and I'm more specificly on Nostr due to social proof

plenty of people whose intelect and opinions I trust are on here

it's striking to me that nearly everyone I know seeking decentralized social media are going to Nostr and almost zero going anywhere else. why is that? is it mostly the later--choosing Nostr because others before you did? or is it mostly the former--chosing Nostr because it has better censorship resistance compared to other decentralized social media? Third option is just because Nostr has embraced Bitcoin more and my social circle is mostly bitcoiners.

curious about how Nostr came to dominate my social circle. why did you join Nostr and not a different alternative? social proof? better censorship resistance? zaps and other cool features? other?

It's been a busy week, let's recap

nostr:npub17cyatz6z2dzcw6xehtcm9z45m76lde5smxdmyasvs00r4pqv863qrs4ml3 announced they were low of funds in the short term and asked the community to help fund the next two months, after which some grants will come in. As part of this Call To Action, the organization shared detailed breakdowns of both income and expenses and called on other bitcoin education projects to do the same

The community responded! There was a surge of donations and community support and in just a few days we reduced our needed 'bridge' in half. Our two month deficit has been reduced to one month. We still need your support NOW, but we are making solid progress--thanks to you!

There were also two announcements about conferences and in the spirit of financial transparency let's look at each from that angle

In a few weeks I'll be speaking at Learning Bitcoin. The conference itself will pay travel expenses, I'll stay in a spare room of the conference founder/ organizer, and the trip will cost My Firsts Bitcoin nothing. Quick plug here: this is an education focused bitcoin conference, super high-signal and exactly the sort of thing we want to support--you should too

We also announced ticket sales for the 4th edition of the Bitcoin Educators Unconference, hosted in El Salvador on Nov 14th. This is a non-commercial event and will never allow sponsors, so we try to keep costs as low as possible and recoup costs from ticket sales only. We expect to break-even, though if you count salaries of paid staff that help organize then this would likely lose money, still we consider this a worthy cost as its a massive boast to the international movement of community-led, front-line independent bitcoin educators

#RadicalTransparency #WorkingInPublic

go to a My First Bitcoin meetup (small every Tuesday, big one last Thursday of month)

San Salvador volcano right now....as seen from my backyard

#BitcoinCountry #ElSalvador

I'm passing along all the various zaps I've received recently to the Mi Primer Bitcoin campaign on Geyser

sent over 100k yesterday and another 10k just now

thank you!

congratulations 🎉

your life is about to get both harder and better. it's a joy