In 2017 when Bitcoin was about $9000, and before I knew what Bitcoin was a mentor of mine said "I'm going to give you 1 bitcoin. In the future I want you to repay me".

"You want me to repay you $9000" I asked?

"No, I want you to pay me back 1 bitcoin".

That started the wheels turning. Although it still took years of study for me to fully understand. I did some shitcoining for awhile. But eventually I learned enough to understand why it's Bitcoin only.

also worth noting that your profile actually says "South Africa is fucked". So perhaps you are not being totally honest about it being the best place in the world?

I'd say in South Africa there are a lot more places that "tourists" shouldn't go than most places in the world, actually. And as I said the country I live in has no such issues even in the poorest regions.

For me it's all about culture. Since I have enough Bitcoin to live anywhere in the world, I am looking for a place where people get a long the best, treat each other with respect, and humble and polite, open hearted and friendly.

I have not done much traveling in South Africa. When I was there I was advised quite strongly about which areas were safe for me and which were not. The country I live in, even though I do not speak the language, is safe for me to go literally anywhere. I have been to the very poorest areas and I was treated well. There were no safety concerns at all.

As for earning in USD, I am retired and do not have an income anymore. I do understand the value of earning in USD and living in a country where that money goes much further. There are many such places. The country I live in is one example.

I'm curious though: If you have traveled all over the world and you earn in USD, why are you unable to stack much Bitcoin? World travel is not cheap.

I am glad that you're happy where you live. If South Africa works for you that's great.

South Africa has some of the highest crime rates in the world. Frequent power outages. Some of the highest levels of income inequality in the world. High unemployment rates lead to social unrest. Political instability. Racial tensions. Water shortages.

I'm curious: If you think South Africa is the best place in the world, how much traveling have you done globally?

What makes you think I do not have dual citizenship? You make a lot of assumptions.

I do not live in South Africa. I've been there. Wouldn't want to live there. As for renting, that's kind of specific to the individual. In my situation I want my family to own the home my children grow up in and this creates a level of security for my family they would not have if something happened to me. So some % of my bitcoin traded for a nice house makes sense in my case.

No I did not renounce my US citizenship. You are required to pay all unrealized capital gains taxes to do that.

I already live in the best place in the world. There is nowhere to vacation that is better than where I live now. As for my car, I don't own one. My wife has some kind of 4-cylinder Honda that we use to go to the market. I no longer work for a living and instead of that I am growing my family and spending all my time with them.

If bitcoin does a 100x in price tonight very little in my life will change.

also consider that a lot of people are just stupid. Watch those "i won the lotto" shows and see what happens to "average" people when they become rich... most end up broken in a couple of years, often far less happy than they were before it happened.

You can't really fix stupid.

by breaking the banking cartel and creating fair money more people will be able to save.

yes I pay my taxes. Every penny. I'm not good to my family in a prison cell. But you be that big bad rebel sunshine. Good luck in prison.

tax fraud is a pretty serious thing. Good luck with that

neither do i. Other than buying some coldcards that required me to spend bitcoin because they don't take cash from the country I live in, I haven't sold a single satoshi since 2017

I'm not sure you understand how capital gains taxes work sunshine.

Nah? Sounds like you have a lot of experience with the IRS then. What do you think is going to happen by ignoring it?

as long as you can prove a cost basis, ignoring it seems fine. Otherwise what's going to happen is when you trade some bitcoin for a property for your family, education, healthcare, or you die and your family inherits your bitcoin, then you'll pay tax with a $0 cost basis.

it seems like this issue you are having boils down to "I want my boss to buy the bitcoin for me instead of doing it myself" and I really have no idea why it matters to you who does the actual buying, you or him.

I dunno, I'm quite confused by your dilema.

I don't see the problem. Get paid in fiat, buy bitcoin. It's like a few mouse clicks to do this. You want your boss to change his whole accounting system to accommodate you're lack of desire to set up an auto-buy with river or some other exchange?

You can set it up so it just autobuys. I really don't see the problem. You make it sound like it's impossible to just buy bitcoin with fiat.

I don't think it will. Bitcoin will only be the primary medium of exchange when fiat is gone, and that might be awhile, if ever.

A decentralized ledger is the most inefficient way of computing in the history of computing and to use such a method must be justified with a very good reason. The reason is censorship resistance, that is the only reason bitcoin is used as a means of exchange. And in the vast majority of cases this is unnecessary. So all the extra redundant computing is pointless if you do not need to protect yourself from censorship.

I don't think people are going to use bitcoin as a method of payment anytime soon. Only ideological bitcoiners who want to drive adoption would spend their time and energy doing such a thing. The vast majority of humans will simply use the cheapest and easiest way, and that is with a centralized database. If you do not need censorship protection, you will not use it.