Everyone responsible for the confusion between Bitcoin and crypto should read this.

Bitcoin Ekasi is a bitcoin circular economy in South Africa. It is one of dozens of bitcoin circular economies around the world inspiring grassroots activities driving the adoption of bitcoin in Asia, Africa, Latin America.

The success of Bitcoin Ekasi is directly responsible for South Africa's largest supermarket chain Pick n Pay integrating bitcoin payments throughout the country.

This is a tweet from Bitcoin Ekasi today,

Here's the reality:

Today I attended the opening of a new Bitcoin education center in Kumasi, Ghana, in rural Africa.

The village chief spoke during the formalities and he expressed some unexpected skepticism towards the opening of the new center.

He said, and I'm paraphrasing:

"Bitcoin can be good, but it can be dangerous. Bitcoin can be a scam. A business collapsed and people lost millions of dollars. I am not sure you should teach our children about Bitcoin here."

Of course, the basics of Bitcoin to be taught at this center has nothing to do with the FTX casino and its crypto delinquency.

But this is the reality of its after effects.

This is the unseen and largely unrecognized effect of endless tokens riding on Bitcoin's coattails.

I challenge anyone who argues against Bitcoin Maximalism to step outside their techno bubble.

Step outside that place where a small minority of earth's people live, with a skill that takes years to acquire under the best of circumstances, which enables nuanced differentiation.

Take a trip down to ground level, come see what's being built, and spend time to understand it.

And then tell me Bitcoin Maximalism doesn't make sense.

I am waiting.

The proliferation of endless centralized premine, ICO shitcoins printed out of thin air by silicon valley start ups hiding behind bitcoin to escape from silicon valley regulations and those who support and enable shitcoin casinos are contributing to the confusion. The normalizing of affinity scam marketing and exploitation by companies and VC behind shitcoins is a scourge on bitcoin.

There's no company behind bitcoin. No foundation, premine, ICO, VC, license, trademarks, not even an "official" website, code repo or even a formal specification. There are only bitcoiners. If you think bitcoiners who call out and fight back against marketing of scams in the name of bitcoin are toxic, ask yourself what does that say about you?

When you think about bitcoin, think about this message from Hal Finney,

“The computer can be used as a tool to liberate and protect people, rather than to control them. Unlike the world of today, where people are more or less at the mercy of credit agencies, large corporations, and governments.

Naturally, in today's society, with power allocated so disproportionately, such ideas are a threat to large organizations. Balancing power would mean a net loss of power for them. So no institution is going to pick up and champion these ideas.

It's going to have to be a grass-roots activity, one in which individuals first learn of how much power they can have, and then demand it.”

― Hal Finney, The Cypherpunks Mailing List (1992)

Bitcoin is a human project built and shaped by people like you and me. Bitcoin's success originates from grassroots activities like Bitcoin Ekasi empowering people and communities who never had access to the global economy until now. Even if you are not someone who is positively making a difference to bitcoin, at least you can try not to be disruptive to people who are the real heroes of this movement.