T.T. 45: channeling growth
I missed a lot last week — "Bitcoin All Time High" vibes in an "Early Stage Startup" context — so here's a recap post
Hola amigos,
Greetings from Berlín, El Salvador!
My life has gotten insane.
Especially this week.
In fact… “this week” is now “last week” lol
It’s been a LOT to keep up with.
So much building in progress!
If you think Bitcoin is volatile…
Try (co)organizing a conference…
And launching a startup podcast studio…
With zero professional experience doing either…
In a country where you barely speak the language…
Where you don’t own a car…
Where you’re still on a tourist visa…
Where many import goods take time to get…
Trying to collaborate with multiple organizations…
It’s working.
Somehow. It’s actually working!!!
None of it would be possible without help, of course. None of the actual implementation… teamwork has been ESSENTIAL. I’ll elaborate on that later.
But man…
I’ve been crazy busy as well.
The past week… week and a half…
two weeks have been a rollercoaster ride.
That’s why I’m writing this “Thoreau Thursdays” late (again) on a Friday evening Saturday morning/afternoon… updating Tuesday WEDNESDAY …actually the next Thursday morning by the time I’m finally finalizing it. Two days One day before the next post… a full week late. Oops. Better late than never?
It ended up over 1,500 words long.
And I’m still leaving out so much…
Regardless, I’m excited to finally share all of these updates! Hopefully they’re worth the wait. Let’s dive in:
Topic list today:
Bitcoin Beach meetup “last Friday”
Podcast gear shopping trip
Bitcoin All Time High
Overcoming challenges
Bitcoin Week
Space last week
Space two days ago
Teamwork
Also…
Since this post is too long…
(Again… over 1500 words already)
Preview for a follow-up post very soon:
Economía Bitcoin (same venue)
Mi Primer “Unconference” inspiration
Bitcoin Atlantis inspiration
Bitcoin Beach inspiration
Storytelling…
BerlínCast episode 1
But first…
Here’s the recap from missing last week’s post:
Topic 1:
Bitcoin Beach meetup last Friday
El Zonte…
If you’ve been a reader for a few months, you already know that Bitcoin Beach has a very special place in my heart.
It’s where the Bitcoin movement started here.
It’s what inspired Bukele to make BTC legal tender…
It’s an honor to be working with them!
More on that later. Including the full clip of that “speech” at the Bitcoin Beach meetup alongside Chimbera and Paco. I’ll post it at the end of this!
Topic 2:
Podcast gear
My other reason for last weekend’s trip..
As I mentioned in last week’s post.
Mission = success!
For the most part.
The store didn’t quite have everything I needed…
But it had enough to get started with the next step.
And I was able to pay in Bitcoin!
Speaking of which…
Topic 3
I have to address the Price topic again.
More briefly, unlike last post.
Only to say, for now, that it has ALREADY made it easier to orangepill new merchants in parts of El Salvador — outside of “Circular Economy” hubs — where they previously had been much more resistant during the bear market.
“Number go Up” isn’t just price.
“Interest go Up” as well when people see these gains.
And okay…
I actually have to say a bit more.
This bull market might just be getting started…
Updatd version a few days later:
Honestly…
“Number Go Up” is kinda annoying.
It’s making it extremely hard to focus…
I have too much work to get done — volunteer work organizing a conference AND entrepreneurial work launching a podcast studio — to be “making” this much money in the background with zero effort in the present… purely as a result of previous effort.
I can’t afford to rest on my laurels.
I don’t have the time.
Bitcoin Twitter has been a party. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun to feel vindicated. We reached an All Time High… dipped a few thousand dollars… then smashed back above $70k again already. BTC has passed the market cap of silver. THE MARKET CAP OF SILVER. Not bad for “Magic Internet Money” that only recently turned 15 years old in January.
But man… it’s distracting as hell. Normally, Bitcoin Twitter is useful for information flows. That — “curating high signal information flows” — is something I prioritize, as longtime T.T. readers may remember. In the past two weeks, if I’m being honest with myself… I’ve wasted too much time on screens. I haven’t been using these powerful technology tools deliberately enough.
I need to stay focused. In the moment.
Less scrolling. More doing + writing + doing…
Connecting information flows with people flows:
Bonus tangent:
I added my first merchant tag to BTC Map!
I’ll elaborate more another time, I guess.
Topic 4:
Overcoming challenges
Life hasn’t been 100% smooth sailing.
I try to focus on the positives…
Try to stay focused on building…
But I’m a perfectionist.
There’s always more work to do.
More room for improvement.
There was also more that I had intended to say here… but now is not the time for reflection. This morning, I need to just finish publishing these updates, then get back to work ASAP. It’s too much to keep up with otherwise at the moment.
For now… here’s just a
relevant thread I posted about my
San Salvador → El Zonte bus trip.
Anyway… back to work.
I need to pick up where others have left off in the background. It’s my turn to step up the output with a LOT more writing, public speaking, and connecting next steps. Shoutout to coorganizer Charlie Stevens by the way, among others, for laying the operational groundwork in the meantime.
This is a team effort:
Speaking of which…
Topic 5
BITCOIN WEEK: April 2-9
Shoutout to the Halving Party.
Also to Bitcoin Beach and Mi Primer, of course. That goes without saying.
But the Halving Party is the “anchor event” that’s bringing hundreds of Bitcoiners from around the world to Bitcoin Country less than a month from now.
We’re all grateful to be collaborating with them to turn their three-day party at a resort into an entire week celebrating what’s happening here in El Salvador!
Thank you to the organizer Big Sean Harris for writing this post on their own Substack previewing the entire week:
We’ve also been doing weekly “Spaces” on Twitter/X together every Tuesday evening (7pm El Salvador time).
Tonight will be
Two nights ago was the fifth in a row!
Last week’s included some awesome moments with Tone Vays and Jimmy Song (Jimmy Song!!!)… both of whom are intrigued by the new Circular Economy we’ve been building in Berlín :)
Full link on X:
"Bitcoin Week" Space, Round 4
And then this week’s…
Two nights ago…
Tuesday evenings… Round 5.
This time with the Simply Bitcoin team…
One of whom is coming to Berlín…
Rustin, who was also on my first podcast episode!
At the end of this Space, they also invited me on one of Simply’s daily lunchtime livestreams soon… Their YouTube channel has over 32k subscribers. Kinda daunting — not gonna lie — but they’re genuinely solid Bitcoiners, and I’ll try my best to represent both Bitcoin Berlín and Economía Bitcoin well.
Here’s the closing clip segment from our conversation hosted by Big Sean a couple nights ago:
Full link on X:
"Bitcoin Week" Space, Round 5
Word count over 1,500…
“Near email length limit”
I need to write another post.
ASAP. Published by Saturday.
Before our meetup on Sunday.
I’ll just leave you with this clip… and then the recap from above, of the preview for my next post… but one thing at a time:
Not my most prepared speech, but still a cool experience! I’ll elaborate more in the next post, but thank you to Chimbera for hosting this, and for helping me remember some talking points (man, I’m out of practice… I’m glad he was there!)
I was gonna add more about
“Topic 6: Teamwork”
But I’ll emphasize that in the follow-up post instead, since this is already way too long… and since those teammates are counting on me to do more of my own work today!
For now… I’ll just leave it with this.
Repeating this week’s Thoreau quote:
“Wherever there is a channel for water, there is a road for the canoe.”
Henry David Thoreau
That’s all for now.
See you soon for a SATurday follow-up post!
JeThoreau@getalby.com
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Peace, amigos.
“The global peaceful monetary revolution will not be centralized.”
Stay creative and focus - building as you are - the rest is pure noise ⚡️⚡️⚡️