criptoluis

bitcoin

REPORT: How does Salvadorian media perceive Bitcoin?

Bitcoin Berlin, a newborn Bitcoin circular economy in El Salvador

Hello,

So I reported live from AdoptingBitcoin conference this week, and this thread is a walk-through of the exposition booths that included several companies & projects from El Salvador.

Get to discover them, reach them out and ask for their services, as they thrived through this awful bear market while keeping their Bitcoin focuse.

Here's the thread: https://x.com/criptoluis/status/1722474140731388354?s=20

Also, consider tipping me here or at criptoluis_@blink.sv, as Independent Bitcoin only journalism is necessary to spread the word about many things that most people are not aware of.

Cheers!

Walk around AdoptingBTC exposition booths (Lots of salvadorian projects!)

CRIPTOLUIS - THE JAMESON LOPP INTERVIEW🎙️

I talked to 
@lopp
 about many topics around Bitcoin during the 
@LuganoPlanB
 Conference.

This is the transcription of the recorded interview.

Some remarkable quotes✍️

-“At a very low technical level, Bitcoin is not money [...] Ultimately this is a distributed programmable database”

“I can explain things to you but I can't learn them for you”

Special thanks to 
@bitrefill
 for sponsoring this trip.

FULL INTERVIEW 👇

@CriptoLuis
: So here's the interview with Jameson Lopp, CTO of 
@CasaHODL
 and Bitcoin advocate, also a cypherpunk, you could say.

I feel that we have so many things to discuss in the Bitcoin space right now. So first, I would like you to introduce yourself for my audience.

@lopp
 : Sure. Jameson Lopp. I'm the co-founder and CTO of Casa. I've been working on Bitcoin self-custody solutions for eight years now.

CriptoLuis: So what was your background before getting into Bitcoin? What you were doing?

Lopp: Computer scientists by trade. Spent the first decade of my career working building infrastructure for online marketing.

CriptoLuis: Okay. What would you say is the main solution that Casa provides?

Lopp: Well, it's always been possible to be your own bank with Bitcoin. But the question has always been how much knowledge is required, how difficult is it to understand all of the trade-offs, the best practices, the ways that you architect your self-custody so that you don't shoot yourself on the foot and have a catastrophic loss.

So Casa provides a mobile app that's really easy to use software. And we also are basically a consulting service. We make it easy for you to call in and let us know what you need help with. And then we also hold a key for you so that if you do lose some private keys, we can help you recover your money.

CriptoLuis: So who's your client persona, your ideal client for the solution you provide?

Lopp: Anyone who has enough Bitcoin that it would be a life-changing problem if they lost their Bitcoin. Basically, if you feel like you have enough to lose that you're willing to put in some time and effort to become a client of ours and pay essentially a subscription fee so that you have our consultation services.

CriptoLuis: So now that you provide these custody service, do you believe that self-custody could be hard for certain kinds of people?

Lopp: Well, yeah. I mean, it's hard, especially hard for non-technical people, but even technical people, it comes down to a question of how much time are they willing to put into it. So even we have plenty of technical people who are clients of ours and they see paying a subscription to us as basically a time-saving mechanism because what you're really paying for is the aggregate and the sum of knowledge of all of our employees and myself who have, we've seen a lot of terrible events happen over the past 10 years and we've learned from them and we've developed best practices and then we've created our software with those best practices in mind.

CriptoLuis: And did you have a different way of thinking before realizing that problem? I mean, if you were some type of maximalist or like, because the self-custody and the self-sovereignty has always been present into the Bitcoin space, how do you reconcile those two visions?

Lopp: Yeah, I mean, for the first several years that I was working in the space, I was working for a provider that was really enterprise-focused and so the people that were our clients then, they were very technical and they were engineers and they were generally paid to already be well-versed in the space and be able to navigate all of the pitfalls. But when I founded Casa and we started taking on just more regular people as clients, we got to see that there's a much broader range of skill sets and perspectives and the willingness to put in time to understand all of these problems. And so over the past several years we've learned even more about how the average person might approach self-custody, might be intimidated by various aspects of it.

So what we're trying to do is make it easier and easier and less intimidating because it doesn't really matter if it's possible to be your own bank if most people are too afraid to take on the responsibility that comes along with that.

CriptoLuis: That's definitely an issue. Maybe provided service for individuals or private entities, maybe in first world countries. But what do you think Casa could provide for emerging markets and individuals that live in societies that are not aware of Bitcoin or this approach to personal responsibility?

Lopp: Well, we have a number of different tiers of service that are available and we do in fact have a free wallet that anyone can check out. And while our free tier of service doesn't give you the elimination of all the single points of failure, it's still a single signature wallet on your phone, it does give you some things like automatic backup and encryption of the keys so that it's almost impossible for you to lose that key. So there still are benefits that are available for people even if they don't have like $20 a month to spend on a subscription consultation service.

CriptoLuis: Okay. What has been your approach to Bitcoin education by yourself? I know you have, I mean you run this website named Statoshi, I use it myself to access resources. It's like what's your main goal with all of what you do in that aspect?

Lopp: Well, a lot of my educational resources site that has like 1500 links on it is purely self-serving because I just get tired of having to explain the same thing over and over again. So I actually spend a little bit of time almost every day making updates to that site, adding and removing things, just making sure the links all work. And that for me is a time saver and I think it's also a time saver for anyone else because I've categorized things so depending on what aspect of Bitcoin you want to look into, you can find every resource that I've ever come across there. So unfortunately it is still a thing where it's complicated and people do have to be willing to invest the time to navigate it. I think there's a good quote like, I can explain things to you but I can't learn them for you.

CriptoLuis: What is Bitcoin?

Lopp: Bitcoin is our attempt at codifying an optimal form of money and that comes along a number of different attributes but essentially in order to be an equitable open affair it needs to be transparent, it needs to be an open-source project where anyone who cares enough can contribute to, they can weigh in. And many other interesting attributes that we generally call self-sovereignty have followed as a result of that.

CriptoLuis: Okay, so in that line of talk I don't know if you have been following these recent innovations in Lightning and Bitcoin that try to make Bitcoin do some other things. We started with Bitcoin as a monetary network but now people are doing all kinds of stuff.

I just had an interview with the guys from Simple Proof, they used the Open Time Stamp Protocol to check on the elections of Guatemala. What do you think about these kinds of applications and potential applications?

Lopp: Yeah, I mean at a very low technical level, Bitcoin is not money. We use Bitcoin as money because of the interesting attributes that the system has. But ultimately this is a distributed programmable database.

And while the functionality that the protocol in the database allow you is very limited on purpose to give you a strong level of security, there is still some flexibility in what you can do. And over the years what we found is there's almost an element of discovery of what happens in this ecosystem. And there's very creative people come along and they find ways to use the protocol that others didn't even envision. So that's what we're seeing happen, people continuing to build new utility, new applications.

CriptoLuis: So what type of applications are you following right now? Like we have this thing with the drivechains and sidechains and all those type of stuff. On the part of Lightning we have the potential tokenization of assets, Taproot Assets🥕, RGB…. What are your thoughts on all these variety of innovations that have come up in the last couple years?

Lopp: Yeah, one of the good and yet unfortunate aspects of the ecosystem is that it has grown to the point where it's accelerating and evolving faster than anyone can really keep track of.

It's not possible for me to have a deep level of understanding of all of these different systems because they're all complicated in their own right. So I'm trying to at least maintain a surface level of understanding of the innovations and keep a general track of which ones seem to be gaining traction, which ones seem to be able to actually deliver on the theoretical promises that they started from the offset. This is also really my job as a CTO is that I need to remain apprised of everything in the ecosystem so that I can see if a particular technology or tool becomes very valuable and has a lot of utility, then it's something that I want us to then incorporate into our own product to leverage the attributes of that piece of the technology.

CriptoLuis: So in that line of thought, what do you think the future of #Bitcoin is going to be?

Lopp: Well, I certainly have my optimistic takes of where I would like to see it go. I obviously want to see adoption continuing. The main thing that I'm focused on is making it easier and easier for people to take self-custody. That's always going to be a challenge where we're facing these third-party custodians who have a massive advantage. The advantage that they have is at least two-fold. One, it's where a lot of the on ramping is still happening. So it's the sort of default where a lot of people are coming into Bitcoin.

I am optimistic. I've been seeing, especially with Lightning, more people directly receiving Lightning payments. If you're getting paid in Bitcoin, then you're less likely to, I think, have that go to a trusted third party.

The other thing is that the technology is going to continue to evolve faster and faster as more developers come in. So it's not even really possible for us to envision what the world might look like 10 years from now. But I do think that people are going to find ways to leverage this distributed database to secure a variety of different things beyond just money.

CriptoLuis: What are your thoughts about the stabilization of the value of Bitcoin? Do you think that Bitcoin is going to remain as database that is fluctuating and it has many things happening into it? Or are we going to reach stability in its value as a monetary asset eventually?

Lopp: Well, I think that it will stabilize as it becomes larger and larger and larger. But it's also almost a weird question to ask because I think that fiat will continue to destabilize. So what are you measuring Bitcoin? If you're measuring it in fiat, it may actually get worse.

CriptoLuis: So what about Bitcoin becoming a fiat-like asset with all these things happening with the ETFs or what people call the paper Bitcoin, the so called ‘BTC’?

Lopp: It's dangerous. I mean, sure it can be good from a liquidity flow perspective, but it's dangerous because I think that this opens up the opportunity for quote unquote paper Bitcoin, Bitcoin IOUs and potentially threatens the sanctity of the 21 million Bitcoin limit.

CriptoLuis: Have you ever had the chance to visit any emerging markets like the ones in Africa or probably El Salvador? What was your experience?

Lopp: Yeah, I did get to go to #ElSalvador  a year or two ago and it was definitely a very different experience. The people there they have a very different set of things that they're worried about compared to people in the first world. So I am somewhat optimistic though that people that are in kind of worse economic situations, they don't need to be preached at. They don't need to proselytize these people why they need better money. They already have crappy money and they'll take anything that looks better.

CriptoLuis: Indeed there are many different use cases in the first world and the third world as well. To end that, do you think that maybe the ETFs are an attack from the state or there might be a chance that the state develops another type of attack that comes into the future?

Lopp: I'm not too worried about #ETF being attacked. It's pretty clear that the government organizations are very worried about ETFs. They've been trying to stall them for years now. It's been like eight years and they clearly don't want them to happen for a variety of reasons. But could nation states come up with attacks if they actually get to the point where they feel threatened by Bitcoin?

Yeah, sure. But this is where one of the reasons to be optimistic about Bitcoin is that it's a global network and there are many of us. And ultimately, the power of the people is always greater than that of the government . So governments do a really good job of making themselves look intimidating.

CriptoLuis: You know, I've seen you on Twitter sharing these types of attacks that happen around the world, like people that try to sell Bitcoin on the street and then they get attacked or they got their house robbed. What was the most shocking one for you that you have ever seen that you can remember?

Lopp: Well, actually, there was one that just came out a few days ago where this woman in South Korea 🇰🇷was attacked and actually murdered. So there have been a small number of them that have unfortunately ended in the death of the people who were targeted.☠️

CriptoLuis: So lastly, what do you think about the Plan B forum? How do you like it? This conference? If possible, if you can compare it with other conferences, what's best, what's worse about it?

Lopp: I would say 
@LuganoPlanB is probably my favorite, you know, one of my favorite conferences that I go to. They treat the speakers very well. They have excellent food, excellent programming. They make sure everything runs on time. The Swiss 🇨🇭make sure that things run on time. You don't have to worry about people getting behind schedule or whatever. And then they definitely stay on top of me and make sure that I get to where I need to get going.

Who is Satoshi Nakamoto and what does it matter to know?

Satoshi is the culmination of decades worth of Cypherpunk ideas. Their identity is irrelevant; Bitcoin is powered by contributors and Satoshi stopped contributing 12 years ago.

CriptoLuis: In a succint answer, why Hal Finney is not Satoshi Nakamoto?

Lopp: Hal can't be Satoshi because he was provably doing other things, not at a keyboard, while Satoshi was active.

CriptoLuis: Who is your favorite Satoshi candidate? Who do you think he might be?

Lopp: I think it's immoral to accuse anyone of being Satoshi without irrefutable evidence. I will say I think it's silly that most folks think that the pool of candidates is fewer than 10 people.

CriptoLuis: Where do a beginner should start to learn about Bitcoin in the proper way?

Lopp: http://Bitcoin.page, that has all the resources you need. What is this page? It's my website of educational resources. It might be easier to remember than http://lopp.net.

CriptoLuis: Thank you, Jameson.

Lopp: Thank you, Luis

SUPPORT BITCOIN-ONLY JOURNALISM.

⚡criptoluis@8333.mobi - 
@Machankura8333

⚡criptoluis@getalby.com - 
@getAlby

⚡criptoluis_@blink.sv - 
@blinkbtc

⚡️criptoluis@stacker.news - 
@stacker_news

Share on Twitter: https://twitter.com/criptoluis/status/1721563407596355650

THE JAMESON LOPP INTERVIEW - CRIPTOLUIS

Book your taxi driver in El Salvador & earn $15 from Bitrefill

How to run a Bitcoin circular economy anywhere in the world

New to Stacker. Just saying hi and trying it out! Love it so far! 👋 

Stacksats

Welcome! What are you up into? I am a journalist and I use to publish interesting stuff here. Bitcoin related, of course.

Hal Finney video talking about ZKProofs at 1998 Cryptography conference

So It's a pretty long story, actually. Venezuela has nothing to envy to a epic Netflix movie.

The Tocorón Prison is the biggest & more dangerous prison from Venezuela. 

From there, a criminal organization named "Tren de Aragua" operates most of the crime in the central region in the country, but with the recent migration crisis they've managed to spread their tentacles all over South America, including countries like Colombia, Ecuador, Perú and Chile.

"Tren de Aragua" means the train of Aragua, a province of Venezuela. It refers to an old unfinished & abandoned train construction workers sindicate that evolved into this criminal and prolific organization.

The Tocoron prison was like a criminal citadel. Let me explain: they had a neighborhood for family and friends, a club where international artists presented their shows, a pool with park and recreation for kids, a farm with exotic animals and guess what... a Bitcoin mining facility INSIDE THE PRISON.

The Tocoron prison is located nearby the San Vicente industrial area, where many companies closed shop thanks to fucking communism & Bitcoin miners took their place to do their thing, taking advantage of industrial facilities and cheap energy. Some of these mining entrepeneurs have been working there since around year 2014. Many of them are legit, I can say. Some others are corrupt politicians, army officials and whatnot.

So it's not a surprise that yesterday, when the government decided to raid the prison, they fund several Bitcoin mining equipment in there.

As I said, this is a heavy material for a script writer to make a Netflix movie or series.

Anyway, check the media coverage of this chapter in my crazy crazy country. 

BeINCrypto: https://es.beincrypto.com/decomisan-maquinas-minar-bitcoin-carcel-tocoron-venezuela/

Crimen Sin Castigo: https://crimenessincastigo.com/fugas-y-traslados-durante-intervencion-en-tocoron/

ReporteYA (VIDEO): https://twitter.com/ReporteYa/status/1704828839975690450?s=20



SUPPORT BITCOIN ONLY JOURNALISM

⚡criptoluis@8333.mobi
⚡criptoluis@getalby.com
⚡criptoluis_@blink.sv
⚡️criptoluis@stacker.news


PRAY FOR VENEZUELA

Venezuela: Bitcoin mining machines found at the biggest & most dangerous prison

Chile: Drug Trafficking Gang Engaged in Bitcoin Mining Dismantled

LOL It's funny how criminal organizations work better than governments because they're essentially illegal private enterprises. Big W for economic freedom.

Have you already heard about SPIDERCHAINS?

This is how the spider networks of #Bitcoin will look like 🕷️🕸️ 🔻

I've already said that Bitcoin is and will be the protocol that governs them all, both in terms of market value and technology🔧🔐📈

At recognizing this, more initiatives will seek to build on Bitcoin because its capabilities are unparalleled. Bitcoin is unique.

Yesterday I came across a new proposal called "Spiderchain" or spider network, which, rather than a sidechain, is defined as a bridge between Bitcoin and any other network compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) ⚙️💻

Spiderchain is being developed by @BotanixLabs, and although it is still a concept and a private testnet, it is said to have several advantages:

- It does not need to modify Bitcoin to function (soft fork).

- It does not require Ethereum DApps or other EVM-compatible networks to be modified to make them compatible with Bitcoin.

- It has a mechanism similar to Proof of Stake (PoS), so it does not require Bitcoin miners or use mechanisms like merged mining or others.

However, it does not function like traditional PoS. In addition to having to deposit a certain amount of BTC as collateral to ensure you won't attack the network as a staker, the staking funds are randomly distributed among participants through a multisig, avoiding the centralization of this federation and reducing the risks of attack, as I understand it.

It's a new technology, and I still find it very complex to fully understand, but the biggest lesson I take away is that, regardless of your opinion on this development, it's unavoidable. It's going to happen.

That being said, I applaud @BotanixLabs' approach in respecting the ethical and technical foundations of #Bitcoin to build their own vision of the potential this technology could achieve.

I quote this from Botanix's website:

"Bitcoin's fair distribution, decentralization, and unparalleled security meet Ethereum's diverse applications, igniting a new frontier"

It seems like a similar approach to the one of Rootstock, which has been tested for much longer and is also EVM-compatible.

But again, we cannot ignore Spacechains.

In the end, my personal prediction comes true: Bitcoin is not only and will be the best reserve asset from a monetary perspective, but also an interplanetary network of currencies that will coexist within it. 🌌🪐

If you've made it this far, please visit my article for BeINCrypto Español: 

https://es.beincrypto.com/spiderchains-evm-ethereum-bitcoin/

It's a way to support me in continuing to do what I do: Bitcoin only journalism. #Bitcoin

THANK YOU STACKERZ.

Spiderchains, a new solution to merge Bitcoin and Ethereum

A drug trafficking gang was also involved in Bitcoin mining, as reported by the Investigative Police (PDI) of Chile.

In an operation conducted on September 6th in the locality of La Cisterna, Santiago de Chile, they seized 19 Bitcoin (BTC) mining rigs, along with various prohibited substances and weapons.

https://es.beincrypto.com/chile-banda-narcotraficantes-mineria-bitcoin/

Dear English speaking friends,

At WatchOut Bitcoin! we’re crowdfunding a live streaming to take this event to the Spanish speaking masses around the world.

VISIT IT HERE:
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/wobitcoin/1005375

WatchOut Bitcoin! has become the most prominent #Bitcoin only event from Spain, but out chances to reach out people worldwide will increase with your support. Let me explain why.

There are at least 500 million souls that have Spanish as their native language, but not everyone can visit Spain for this event that will be held on October 6,7 and 8th.

Most of these persons live in emerging thriving markets that need Bitcoin to escape financial colonialism and improve their lives & society in general.

I’m talking about countries with hyperinflation like Argentina & Venezuela, countries like El Salvador that still need to further Bitcoin adoption, or countries like Ecuador which uses the U.S dollar as a currency, and many many more.

Also, you must think about every Spanish speaking migrant that is working hard in other countries living paycheck to paycheck, with virtually no chances to acquire financial freedom. They deserve to learn about Bitcoin, because Bitcoin is hope.

As you know, bear market has been brutal and many companies can’t sponsor the event this time, even when they would love to do it. We appreciate everyone of them, but we have to turn to our community to make this possible.

In WatchOut Bitcoin! 23 you’ll find top tier Bitcoin leaders & educators like Lunaticoin, who runs the most popular Spanish speaking Bitcoin podcast.

Also, you’ll find the influential economist Dr. Juan Ramón Rallo, who has educated millions of people in Austrian economics for many, many years.

Alvaro D. Maria, author of the best-selling book, “The Philosophy of Bitcoin”, published by BTC Media (who also runs Bitcoin Magazine), will also be present sharing his amazing insights.

Another influential speaker is Marc Vidal, who is a reputed tech & economy communicator, conferencist, TV host with 500.000 subscribers in his YouTube channel.

I’m happy to say that I will also be present there, among great friends, admired hard workers and leaders like Criptobastardo, Marce Romero, Lore Bitcoin, BTC Andres, artist Maxis Club, Jose A. Bravo, Gael Sanchez Alfre Mancera, Bitcoin & Lightning developer, mentor & educator Dulce Villarreal, Bitcoin privacy expert and educator P_hold, and many others.

So from the top of my heart, support WatchOut Bitcoin! as it’s a community driven initiative and the chances to make big changes in the world is very high.

Visit this link to learn more: 
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/wobitcoin/1005375

Nostr Note: https://primal.net/e/note1wr6x2sywzg5gl52grmxafrv788wukl3ph3ugrcfqhe9rawzgdrtstrcm7k

WatchOut Bitcoin! Conference needs your help - Help us reach Spanish speakers! 

I'm going to be published!

artdesignbySF

@MyfirstBitcoin_ lessons just started in #Cuba 🇨🇺

So far, they're taking #Bitcoin education to 17 countries around the world 🌐⚡️

🇸🇻El Salvador
🇬🇹Honduras
🇭🇳Guatemala
🇨🇷Costa Rica
🇵🇹Portugal
🇿🇦South Africa
🇭🇰Hong Kong
🇩🇴Dominican Republic
🇿🇲Zambia
🇰🇪Kenya
🇺🇾Uruguay
🇦🇷Argentina
🇺🇸United States (U.S)
🇧🇷Brazil
🇬🇧United Kingdom (UK)
🇨🇺Cuba

CONGRATULATIONS! @MyfirstBitcoin_

Original Post: https://twitter.com/criptoluis/status/1703152910282916062

-
SUPPORT INDEPENDENT BITCOIN JOURNALISM

⚡criptoluis@8333.mobi
⚡criptoluis@getalby.com
⚡criptoluis_@blink.sv


My First Bitcoin arrives to Cuba - A real #Bitcoin revolution 

My interview with @Econoalchemist, the #Bitcoin home mining wizard ⛏️⚡️🧙‍♂️

A long overdue transcription from the Guns & Bitcoin Conference, Miami, Florida, April's 9th & 10th, 2022 🔫🎙️

CriptoLuis: Econoalchemist, nice to meet you. Thank you for giving me this interview and congratulations for the JStark Award you won today.

Econoalchemist: Thank you, thank you very much. A pleasure to be here.

CriptoLuis: Well, talk to us a little bit more about you. What are you dedicated to, what are you focused on in the Bitcoin space.

Econoalchemist: I focus primarily on Bitcoin. I focus on how to use Bitcoin in a censorpship resistant way and how to self-custody Bitcoin and one of the main areas I’ve been focusing on recently is mining Bitcoin at home which kinda is the intersection of self-custody and censorship resistance.

CriptoLuis: How are things going in that regard? Is mining from home widely expanded in the US now?

Econoalchemist: Yeah, there’s been a lot of interest that has grown specially in the home mining area and over the last year and a half there seems to be this renaissance of creativity where these home miners are coming up with very creative ways to integrate these mining machines into their homes and they’re doing amazing things with the emerging technology and they’re like capturing the heat byproduct that’s produced by the miners and using it to heat their homes and reduce energy cost in other areas like natural gas. And you know with situations that we have with the Freedom Convoy in Canada I think a lot of people have really opened their eyes recently on how important self custody is and the dangers of KYC.

CriptoLuis: What would be your advice on the things to take into account for a person that wants to get into home mining and doesn’t know anything about mining at all?

Econoalchemist: There’s a lot of really good resources now. There’s a guide on my website that a lot of people have found useful, so my website is econoalchemist. com, on there you can find my home mining for non kyc bitcoin guide and in there I kinda outline how a person would start from zero and how they would ? an ASIC machine and the kinds of electrical ? had to make to their house and the of considerations that they should make for dealing with the heat, for dealing with the noise and the kind of tools they can use for calculate their returns and figure out what’s profitable or when they should shut their miner off or how long can they expect to continue running it and then also how to connect to the mining pool so you can earn more rewards instead of trying to mine solo all on their own.

CriptoLuis: Do you think that sometime in the future the government will take some measure against the people that are mining from home?

Econoalchemist: Yeah I do. We’ve already seen governments do it. China is an example, they have banned Bitcoin mining. recently we saw the government of Kazakhstan steal 200 million dollars of mining equipment from people taht were quote on quote unregistered miners, and then we’re seeing pushes in places like the european union were they’re trying to say that only Proof-Of-Work mining needs to be banned and that they allow Proof-Of-Stake to continue. So I think the attacks on Bitcoin mining are just going to continue to get more elaborated and more sophisticated and I think people really do need to be prepared for handling situations were they may find themselves being labeled as a criminal and you don’t know when that pendulum is going to swing but imagine the people who are standing up for bodily autonomy during the canadian trucker convoy, just with the struck of a pen overnight they’re were suddenly criminalized and labeled as a extremist and it was easy for the government to disregard their rights and to discredit them and to start going afther them and punishing them by shutting down their access to basic financial services and I do think that in some parts of the world you’ll see situations like that unfold involving Proof of Work mining under the guise of ESG initiative or green initiative or some sort to push to help climate change, so I really think people should be prepared and make serious considerations about their network level privacy, how their machines talk to the Internet, and also their on-chain privacy, what they’re doing with the rewards they earn from mining.

CriptoLuis: I don’t know if you know anything about other countries in regard of mining Bitcoin besides the US, but do you think that this model of mining bitcoin from home it’s sustainable and reproducible outside of the US?

Econoalchemist: It’s definitely difficult for me to speak to the situation that people have in other countries because I’ve never lived in another country, I’ve visited them, but I live in the United States, so I can only speak from my experience, but based on the conversations I had, some of the problems I helped people solve from around the world -I help people in Kuwait, I help people in Paraguay, all around the world people have been reaching out to me to try and get some help and guidance to solve their unique problems and they share their stories with me, and they share pictures and videos of their unique setups with me, so I’ve seen a lot of variations of home mining, and you know, these people are out there making it work. I think anywhere you have a problem that mining bitcoin can solve no matter what the situation is, people are going to figure out a way to solve that problem. So yeah I want to say that it is possible. That doesn’t mean that I can come up with a step by step guide to tell you exactly how to do it, but I can give people the basic tools and the basic understanding of the concepts and then they can kinda use their own knowledge and their own Do It Yourself (DIY) skills to put everything together and figure out how to make it work for them. In my opinion all governments are trending towards tiranny and they’re trying to restrict the movements of people, they’re trying to take away bodily autonomy, they’re trying to weaponize money and so the more that people can take that power back into their own hands and do that thorugh mining bitcoin at home they’re going to figure out ways to do that because that solves very real world problems for them, so no matter what sort of situations they have they’re going to figure it out.

CriptoLuis: We’re at the Guns n Bitcoin conference and culturally weapons acceptance is not too much widespread throughout the world, you know, it’s like a very particular thing in the US, the weapons acceptance. We have Bitcoin and Guns in the same space and it’s not like a common thing to do, it tends to be like different crowds. What do you think they have in common?

Econoalchemist: I think the intersection here is freedom technology so you use your cryptographic keys to protect your coins and you use your guns to protect your keys. So it’s all about being able to draw that line and deffensively guard the things that you value, wether that is your privacy or your values, you need to be able to defend yourself or guard yourself because I guarantee you at some point your government senses that you’re a threat or they feel that somehow the sovereignty of the nation is at stake, there’s nothing they won’t to isolate that threat and at a certain point they will kill you, they will come after you and this is happening all around the world, it’s been happening for centuries is a universal problem, but luckily there are now universal solutions that are coming up to help empower the individual and some of those solutions are things like these 3D printed guns, that brings the access of fire power into the hands of anyone in the world and there’s great tools like DEFCAD is putting together to help people understand how to built that themselves in their own homes, so that they don’t have to ask permission, so that they don’t have to provide their personal information and wind up on a government watchlist and you’re seeing the same thing happening with Bitcoin. The guns is the fire power piece of it and the Bitcoin is the financial soverignty piece of it and when you combine both of those things you have an enpowered individual that can defensively guard the things that they value and when you have several individual that are able to guard the things that they value in life what do they do with that? They put a roof over their heads, they provide food for their family, they take care of their community, people just want to be able of live their lives. None of these people are extremists that are trying to make other people do other things. They’re just trying guard what they hold

CriptoLuis: What I like about this event the most is that there’s no political issues involved. I mean, its political because you’re defending your freedom and you take a stance about your life and everything but it’s not like being part of some extremist movement or something like that.

So you’re gonna be here tomorrow and what are you going to talk about?

Econoalchemist: Actually I gave my talk these morning and it was on self custody so I was talking about -I highlighted some of the reasons why self custody is important and at a high level it’s because you’re going to be able to mitigate censorship, you’re going to be able to mitigate counterparty risk with the centralized exchanges and you’re goning to be able to mitigate the state’s monopoly on violence because they’re weaponizing the money against you, and then I talked about some of the tools that you can use to get the Bitcoin off of the exchanges and put it into either a mobile wallet like Samourai Wallet or a desktop wallet like Sparrow Wallet, or a hardware wallet like Coldcard or the Foundation Devices’s Passport and I talked a little bit about what you can do to backup the information you need to make sure that you always have access to that bitcoin even if you lose those devices or don’t have access to the same computer or mobile phone any longer.

CriptoLuis: I don’t know if this is a silly question but would you consider yourself like a bitcoin maximalist or something?

Econoalchemist: No, I don’t consider myself a maximalist I say I’m more a like freedom maximalist, I’ll just cut to the chase here, I do not think that monero (XMR) is a shitcoin, I think that it solves a problem where there is privacy blindspot in Bitcoin and because it solves a problem I think it’s a valuable tool and when we’re talking about every government trending towards tiranny and the rights of the individuals being eroded away a little by little, people need to use every tool they have access to to defend what they value and to defend their freedoms and so if Monero can help me engage digital currency more privately, then I’m going to use that tool to do it because I guarantee the state is not going to hesitate to use any tool that they have at their disposal so I think people should be a little bit smarter and a little bit more open about the tools that are available today that they can start using to defend their freedom.

CriptoLuis: Well thank you Econoalchemist for this interview and this wholesome explanation, congratulations on the JStark award as an honorable mention for your work and we will be in touch following you and everything you have to offer to us.

Econoalchemist: Thank you.

📸 Luis Esparragoza, for @CriptoNoticias
 
-
Special thanks to @RagnarLif
 for his trust in me & allowing us to shoot photos & record audio in a privacy focused event.
-
SUPPORT INDEPENDENT BITCOIN ONLY JOURNALISM:

⚡criptoluis@8333.mobi
⚡criptoluis@getalby.com
⚡criptoluis_@blink.sv
_
Twitter post: https://twitter.com/criptoluis/status/1703152910282916062
Nostr note: https://primal.net/p/npub10m6lrv2kaf08a8um0plhj5dj6yqlw7qxzeag6393z352zrs0e5nsr2tff3

Interview with Econoalchemist, the #Bitcoin home mining / self custody wizard

Canadian exchange & local Bitcoin wallet allows Bitcoin payments in Costa Rica

Use a Bitcoin wallet from WhatsApp with this tool

Coffee producers in El Salvador are adopting Bitcoin thanks to a new project

It does! The bag includes a QR code that takes you to a profile page of the coffee producer, where you can tip him directly or even contact him to trade directly.

Yesterday, @cheritocafe presented a proof of concept that will allow coffee producers to be onboarded into a #Bitcoin circular economy, allegedly, during an event held by Tierra Bendita, USAID & FUSAI.

The system developed by @christianblaze makes possible to compensate coffee producers with 'royalties' anytime their product is traded around the world, since the moment it leaves the farm.

A demo test was shown to us today, where someone bought a pound of specialty coffee with Bitcoin, and seconds later a micropayment arrived directly to the producers wallet, who were there watching the whole process.

The premise is the same as Bitcoin: to remove third parties from the picture, and make value distribution fair and frictionless.

I was told coffee producers could use any wallet like @BlueWallet & @BlinkBTC to receive these royalties, confirmed @ArguetaSalim. 

More tools like @DitoBanx's debit cards will be added in the future, said @CheritoCafe.

The system is being developed right now (call it beta) but proofs like the latter have already been successful, they say.

Further technical details will be informed in the following  couple months (you know I love to explain those, I owe you)

An important thing to notice is that most of the coffee grown in El Salvador is acknowledged as 'specialty coffee', which means that it reunites very specific standards to make it a world class product. 

Among the participants there were award winning salvadorian coffee producers, who also completed a course provided by USAID & FUSAI  to learn the best practices in coffee production ☕ They ended it today with a small ceremony.

One of the main challenges is to educate producers, which is why this initiative by Tierra Bendita will be backed by @MyfirstBitcoin_, who is exploring the possibility to bring education through the #BitcoinDiploma, said Alejandro Galán @pilamaHT, National Director of Education of Mi Primer Bitcoin.

Adopting Bitcoin has raised the interest of coffee vendors, institutions and universities for @CheritoCafe & Tierra Bendita in the United States already, so a pilot to distribute coffee there is already in the makings.

This meeting was held at Hotel Maya, nearby La Palma, Chalatenango, El Salvador. They accept Bitcoin and have beautiful views, mountain weather, amenities, delicious food and coffee.

Learn more: http://tierrabendita.net

S/O @The_BitCafe & @swilmarth

- 
⚡criptoluis@getalby.com
⚡criptoluis_@blink.sv

▫️http://linktr.ee/criptoluis

-
Original Post: https://twitter.com/criptoluis/status/1694551828355043822