T.T. 61: creation, production, and beauty
In honor of those who build through tumultuous times
Hola amigos,
Greetings from El Salvador.
That’s right… I’m back!
But only for a few days this particular time… and unfortunately for a sad reason. I flew back here last Thursday overnight for the Friday morning funeral of a special soul who passed away in Berlín’s Bitcoin community.
This evening (Tuesday) overnight I’ll fly back to the U.S. for my fiat mining sales job, but I’m making the most of my time while here. I’ll get into all of that later in this post.
It’s also been more than 2.5 months since my previous post on February 17th. A lot has happened since then, for myself and for the world, so I’ll work in some of those updates as well.
In fact, I had already started drafting that post before Tim passed away. A big theme was the comeback story of rational self-interest: both Presidents Bukele and Trump taking calculated risks — with much criticism and thus far imperfect/incomplete results — in efforts to reposition their countries to be more sovereign in the long run.
Speaking of Presidents Bukele and Trump… in the meantime since my last post, those two allies met at the White House recently, while I was just a couple miles away in D.C. working to stack more sats.
The global geopolitical dynamic since I left El Salvador a year ago — initially intending to renew my passport and promptly return, before Biden became much more hostile to U.S. Bitcoiners — has shifted in a direction that’s relatively safer for me now to bounce between the two countries and stay involved with Bitcoin projects pretty openly.
I still like the idea of tying those themes back in after my tribute to Tim… but out of respect for him, I’m gonna go deeper into more meaningful themes, instead of dwelling on surface level politics.
After all, even the time that President Bukele retweeted me on X literally included me saying that people don’t have to simp for politicians. That won’t be my focus at all here.
The REASON for being sovereign is because it enables you to live a more beautiful life. It’s not JUST about resisting tyranny for its own sake.
Beauty through creative productivity is among the most noble goals in our scarce time on this earth. It’s what humanity does at our best.
Tim lived that to the fullest.
Let’s dive in.
Topic list
Tim’s funeral in Berlín, El Salvador
Economic news
Personal business updates
Geopolitical news
Berlín + Economía Bitcoin updates
Tim’s funeral in Berlín
Life is precious.
There are many reasons why, but (as Bitcoiners can appreciate most) scarcity is certainly among them. A big part of what gives life meaning is that each of us only has one. It’s guaranteed to end sooner or later, and it’s up to us to make the most of the time that we do have.
Tim McMahon certainly made the most of his.
It’s hard to distill into words the essence of why Tim was one of the most fascinating characters I’ve ever met.
Try picturing a mix between Santa Clause, your fun loving uncle with the craziest stories, and a wise elder who wants the best for everyone in his community.
That was Tim.
But he was also so much more.
Before I even try to convey how much of a positive impact this man had on so many people… a picture says a thousand words, and a video says a million.
The Salvadoran owners of the place that Tim rented and renovated into Berlín’s legendary hangout spot — aptly named “The Standard” — offered to his brother (who flew down to Berlín from the U.S. as soon as Tim passed) to bury Tim in their family tomb in the town’s historic cemetery.
It was a tremendous honor, especially for a gringo who had only known them for a little over a year:
But that was Tim.
You didn’t need to know him for very long to get the sense that this man was full of soul and life experience.
His background was hospitality and events. He owned a successful wedding venue in Orlando, Florida — which was constantly booked two years in advance — before becoming disillusioned with Fiat America under Biden’s rule, and finding a new home in Bitcoin Country.
And the life he built here truly was beautiful.
I started living in Berlín in October 2023, a couple months before Tim first arrived. The place Tim found as his home here was already among the town’s most beautiful spots, but watching it evolve into THE Standard was extraordinary.
Bitcoiners in my experience tend to be impressive people… but… how should I put this? Not all of them are necessarily people persons. The ‘tism is strong among us.
Tim was absolutely a people person though. He was a natural host, but never in a forced way. The man radiated authenticity and a welcoming aura.
The Standard very quickly became many people’s go-to lounge. Whether you wanted a tasty meal, a quiet place to get some work done, a room with a view, or just a place to hang out and have some cold beer with great people… Tim was almost always home, almost always entertaining at least a few guests.
Before the heart attack at Bitcoin block height 893812 on his 60th birthday, Tim was also making big plans to double down on his life in Berlín. He had just invested several million sats (several thousand dollars) into adding a new cabin for The Standard, and renovating the shop above the lounge’s street entrance.
Tim’s motto was “create, don’t compete” and he led by example.
El Salvador is in a unique moment. After decades of their economy being artificially suppressed by civil war and gang terrorism, many aspects of their civilization are a relatively blank slate.
Many Salvadoreños have already begun rebuilding in this newfound environment of safety and stability, and many expats have joined them.
El Salvador has become an entrepreneur’s dream, and Berlín is one of its most naturally entrepreneurial towns. Tim fit right in, working well with locals and expats alike to contribute value in all sorts of ways.
It’s impossible to do justice to his life with just words, but that’s the biggest inspiration I take away from Tim’s example:
Live life to the fullest by creating as much beauty, community, and value as you can.
Economic news
There’s so much to say here.
I could go into detail. After all, my college degree was in Quantitative (Keynesian aka propaganda) Economics… in addition to my Austrian (real) Economics self-education.
I could ramble on with a bunch of economic commentary about tariffs, interest rates, and more. But honestly, I’ve been way too busy actually participating in the real economy… 12 hour days, six days a week, for about 7.5 months now.
I haven’t earned the time yet — or the professional credibility compared to many others — to focus on commentary full time. As I emphasized two posts ago, I prefer economic experts who walk the walk before they talk the talk.
So instead I’ll just share some links to the most interesting Econ podcasts from a few of the most insightful commentators over the past 2.5 months!
One of them I personally helped arrange between two people whom Elon Musk follows and frequently retweets on X:
Professor Peter St. Onge on Spaces With Josie
The Redheaded Libertarian is one of my favorite interviewers, and Professor St. Onge is a world class economics educator.
(Here’s the episode link on Spotify in case you don’t have X)
That was on February 24th, just about a month into President Trump’s administration. It featured the optimistic summary of his economic agenda, explained in terms for an intelligent laymen. Josie asks great questions, and Professor St. Onge is very articulate.
Next I’ll link an interview that I definitely can NOT take any credit for setting up personally. It was just way too relevant to leave out of this post.
Howard Lutnick oversaw President Trump’s transition team. He’s also the former CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald (now run by his son, who will be speaking at the big Bitcoin Conference in Vegas), the giant Wall Street bank (weirdly enough also a Federal Reserve member bank) that custodies Tether’s U.S. treasuries.
He also happens to be a big Bitcoin advocate, personally owning hundreds of millions of BTC… I even saw him speak in person at the world’s biggest annual Bitcoin Conference in Nashville last year.
And now, Secretary Lutnick is in charge of the Department of Commerce.
His recent interview on the All In podcast got even more views than their interview with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (who also happens to like Bitcoin). It was a fascinating glimpse even deeper into the optimistic explanation of Trump 2.0’s economic agenda:
There are many other episodes from the past 2.5 months that I could include here as well, but for now, I’ll leave it with just one more.
You know you’ve made a good introduction when the newfound acquaintances continue doing things together, even without your continuous prompting.
Three weeks ago, Clint Russell invited Guy Swann back on one of the biggest libertarian podcasts for (at least) his 10th appearance.
Aleks Svetski joined them as well for his fourth appearance on Liberty Lockdown, so Clint hosted while Svetski and Guy debated the theory and the reality of Trump’s tariff strategy so far.
Svetski is more inclined to defend Trump’s approach, whereas Guy takes a more purist Austrian Economics perspective. All three fully understand the backdrop of the fiat inflationary debt bubble.
It was a nuanced discussion between articulate and accomplished commentators who understand all of the different angles and perspectives on how the Tariff War could play out.
Speaking of Clint by the way, he’s building a new in-person studio in Florida. This is especially exciting news for his fans because all of the most popular shows thrive on face-to-face conversations. Having the host and the guest(s) in person, in real time, together always levels up the caliber of interaction.
Clint cut his teeth on the big stage of in-person podcasts with Timcast. Then he gained more consistent big stage experience as Luke Rudkowski’s cohost. Now he’s ready to launch his own studio!
He mentioned this was always part of the plan when he was a guest on my first ever podcast episode by the way. At the time, I was building my own studio, so I can appreciate firsthand that it’s not necessarily a straightforward task.
It’s very cool to see Clint’s vision coming to reality now after he called his shot a year ago.
Speaking of in-person podcasts, I also just recorded one here in the studio that I helped start up in Berlín’s Bitcoin Center. More on that later.
Personal business updates
Before I start this section, it’s worth mentioning that the next one will address politics. So much is changing in the world that I feel compelled to address a few specific points.
That being said, I have actively chosen to walk away as much as possible from direct politics.
In fact, I’ll be moving away from D.C. soon.
(Specifically to San Antonio, Texas for work. More on that later)
So forgive me for the following few paragraphs of self-indulgent rambling. I guess I feel the need to explain myself, and maybe to convince myself that this really is all going to work out as well as I know it can.
I was born and raised in the capital of the United States, surrounded by politics my whole life.
In 5th grade, I met a U.S. Congressman in his office next to the Capitol as part of a special school trip downtown for student council members (my first year of eligibility). I saw Senator Barack Obama give a speech that day on the Senate floor about minimum wage laws, before he was elected President. I still remember the experience a little bit, all these years later.
I vaguely remember 9/11 when I was 5 years old at school in D.C. I also remember the Bush years a bit more clearly, and the antiwar movement being from the left at the time, back when I was in middle school.
I took all the A.P. and honors history and civics classes through high school. When I was accepted to take two official Harvard University classes at their Summer School, one of those classes was called “The American Presidency” in the Kennedy School of Government… and I somehow still had enough respect for politics to earn an A in that class, despite the year being 2013, right after I had started really going down the Ron Paul rabbit hole.
I’ve maintained an unfortunate fascination with politics ever since, despite becoming increasingly libertarian over the years.
I guess you could call it a guilty pleasure? Or maybe politics have just become so ubiquitously integrated into NORMAL life (from DEI to Covid tyranny) that it became impossible to ignore fully.
It’s a weird twist of fate that through my favorite anti-establishment circles — the Bitcoin movement and the Mises Caucus takeover of the Libertarian Party — I’ve ended up just one or two degrees of separation away (through multiple different vectors of mutual followers on X) from some of the most powerful people in the world: Elon Musk, Secretary Lutnick, Joe Rogan, President Bukele, and even President Trump himself.
It’s not like we’ve shifted toward statism… strangely, in some important ways, the establishment has shifted toward us, because it’s become so undeniable that their fiat ways are unsustainable.
If I cared more about stuff like power and status, I would have re-optimized my life to lean into that, as soon as those opportunities presented themselves.
But honestly?
I really don’t care that much.
In fact, when the Bitcoin Policy Institute put out a call for Bitcoiners to apply for staff positions with U.S. Congressmen and Senators, a well-connected friend sent it my way. I even DM’d with the guy a little bit… but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it’s not the direction I want to go in.
The need for power and status has always kinda grossed me out. Energy is positive, but power games often just hold back everyone involved.
Energy > power
And even when some sort of local hierarchy is necessary for sorting through conflict, it can still be unpleasant. Politics is fundamentally the act of coercion, of imposing one’s will on others without consent. Coercion is not what I enjoy in life.
I’m an entrepreneur and an artist at heart.
I prefer to create, to persuade, or to inspire rather than to force. I prefer to focus on building value that people voluntarily appreciate.
Taking more inspiration from Tim!
In the long run, that will certainly mean increasing my involvement with more cool projects here in El Salvador.
Even just during my few days back here, I’ve caught up with so many friends — both Salvadoreños and expats alike — who have made such incredible progress on their various small businesses and new homes in the past year!
But that also requires capital…
And professional quality skills.
The people I know here who are having the easiest time with their projects are the ones who were already successful in the business world before coming here, with good savings to afford periods of unprofitability, as well as organizational discipline to establish consistent business flows over time.
Those are things I’ve worked on developing for myself during my time back home in the world’s biggest economy.
I’ve always liked the idea of entrepreneurship theoretically. The version of me from 2013 at Harvard Summer School who idolized Elon (I started following Tesla a few months before the stock price tripled that same year) would probably be stunned that I haven’t been more interested in exploring those degrees of separation during his time in my home city with DOGE!
But again… politics simply requires too many unpleasant elements for me to go deeper in that world, even if it is with the purest intentions. I prefer building!
And the experience of co-organizing Economía Bitcoin last year revealed to me just how demanding the responsibilities of entrepreneurship are in practice.
Last April, our team rose to the challenge — the debut mini conference more than doubled our expectations of total attendees, with 223 instead of 100 — but I learned that I’m definitely not Elon. I had (and still have) a long way to go in developing certain specific skills.
It’s no coincidence that the job I sought out for fiat mining has also specifically forced me to grow in those areas.
And, at least for the next year, I plan to double down on that fiat mining job as my full time income stream.
Two posts ago, I alluded to an update about that job.
The big news is that, although I’m still working for the same sales contracting firm, I’ve switched to the campaign for a different massive corporate client.
It’s still in the telecommunications industry — which, for a variety of reasons, happens to be perfect for me to develop these sales skills — but instead of selling deals on fiber optic internet, now I’m doing promotions to help people save on their monthly cell phone bills.
(I’m finishing this post btw in a car on a Salvadoran highway using my cellphone hotspot for the laptop. I chatted in Spanish with the driver for the first 45ish minutes — he’s a smart kid from Berlín studying to be a lawyer, and yes, I’m paying him in Bitcoin for this ride — but he understood that I wanted to finish this post before my flight)
The commissions are higher on this new campaign. Also, unlike when the product is internet (maximum of one sale per house), cellular family plans mean that I can earn multiple commissions from a single sale.
It’s still pure commission, so I still earn nothing on my worst days. But on my best days? I’ve earned about six times my entire monthly Berlín rent in a single day on this new campaign.
Half a year of future El Salvador time earned in a single day of U.S. work? As much as I love being back here in Berlín, it would be foolish of me to not continue this arrangement for now.
This job’s potential for growth (after getting promoted, it can realistically reach high six or even seven figure incomes) is also more significant with this new corporate client. They promoted my direct boss to open a new office in San Antonio, and I’ve decided to join his office expansion for several reasons:
San Antonio is in Texas
San Antonio is closer to El Salvador (maybe I can visit more often on long weekends?)
San Antonio is about 90 minutes outside of Austin, which is basically the Bitcoin Capital of the U.S.
I’ve already made contact with the Bitcoin community in San Antonio (which frequently collaborates with the nearby Austin community)
San Antonio is 60% latino, so I’ll be able to practice Español (I’ve done a couple more sales entirely in Spanish since my last post)
My direct boss is a genuinely good leader, so it’s gonna be fun in its own way to learn from helping him to open a new sales office
The opportunity includes a faster track to promotion and higher income, if I choose to continue the arrangement of bouncing back and forth between Texas and El Salvador
It’s going to be a fun adventure.
I’ve already visited Texas a bunch of times growing up — I have some family there — and I’m already used to a place that is 99% latino, so 60% should be más fácil.
Stay tuned for more updates!
But between that and the other big update at the end of this post, I’m far too busy to waste time on political issues that are outside of my control anyway.
So I’ll keep this next section short, only addressing the essentials:
Geopolitical news
I’ll just briefly focus on three:
U.S. foreign policy
El Salvador - U.S. relations
El Salvador’s legal tender Bitcoin law
I’ll keep my thoughts on U.S. foreign policy extremely brief.
I like it when the U.S. is leading the world economically through free market contributions. I dislike when our Military Industrial Complex and banking complex go out of their way to interfere with everyone else’s business.
I like constructive cooperation. I don’t like bullying, or taxpayer funds being wasted on unnecessary authoritarianism abroad.
With that in mind, it’s pretty easy to summarize the quick version of my take on multiple key issues:
Relatively good news on the Ukraine front toward peace.
Very mixed news in terms of deescalating conflict in the Middle East.
Apologies to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. I had expected him to be more of a neocon, but apparently he’s pushed hard internally against attacking Iran… and thus he’s faced an onslaught of Military Industrial Complex media pressure now for the crime of heroically trying to avoid World War 3.
Speaking of backlash from neocons… I’m going to withhold any comment at all on the Israel-Palestine bloodbath — I happen to like a lot of Jewish and Muslim individuals that I’ve met over the years — other than to say that I’m very proud of Dave Smith for winning this debate on Rogan.
It went extremely viral (4.2 million views on YouTube alone for the full episode, not to mention clips and all other platforms) and has perhaps helped to turn the overall narrative tide toward peace:
El Salvador - U.S. relations
This is the aspect of geopolitics that is much more relevant for me to comment about.
When I left Berlín last year, after our successful mini-conference Economía Bitcoin, I had intended to renew my passport and promptly return to El Salvador.
Unfortunately, within days of my arrival back in the U.S., the Biden Administration started ramping up their legal attacks on Bitcoiners.
They made an example out of Roger Ver for pioneering the medium of exchange phase early in Bitcoin’s history. Then they made an example out of the Samourai Wallet developers, who had built one of Bitcoin’s most important privacy tools.
In that context — and also knowing that my savings were running low anyway, without being replenished yet after my 8 months in El Salvador — I decided to stay back home, lay low, and focus on earning fiat to buy more Bitcoin.
Now though?
The geopolitical environment has become much safer for me to start getting involved more openly again. President Trump and President Bukele actually get along really well now!
Both are Bitcoin-friendly, and it’s much less overtly rebellious for me to bounce back and forth between the two countries now, working on the types of projects that I find interesting and meaningful.
I know there have been criticisms about Bukele monetizing through renting out his mega prison to the U.S., and as a civil libertarian, I’m certainly sympathetic to some of those points.
But ultimately, Bukele is a pragmatist. Even if I don’t love every move he makes, there’s a reason why El Presidente has an approval rating over 90%. He is directionally correct to use El Salvador’s assets in their own best interests.
It’s also smart strategy to extend that olive branch to Trump.
At a time when the world’s most powerful country is aggressively sorting out friends from foes, it’s understandable why little El Salvador — with aspirations to become the Singapore/Dubai/Florence of Central America — would want to ensure good terms with its regional superpower.
(This is especially true after how Canadian commies just completely humiliated themselves by taking the opposite approach to The Art of Dealing with Trump)
All things considered, I get where some of Bukele’s critics are coming from… but also, a lot of them are just American leftists looking for reasons to whine about his new alliance with Trump.
Things aren’t 100% perfect, but that’s an unrealistic expectation anyway. I’m content enough with the political status quo for an American Bitcoiner who loves El Salvador that I’ll remain diplomatic. Instead of joining that debate, I’ll stay focused on things within my own control.
Legal tender Bitcoin law
This one is a bit messier.
President Bukele turned El Salvador into the world’s most interesting country because of two main reasons: he made it safe, and he made it Bitcoin Country.
The Bitcoin portion of that arguably came first. He announced the legal tender law at the biggest annual Bitcoin Conference in 2021, and officially made history when it went into effect on September 7th of that year.
It wasn’t until 2022 that things really started to become safe here… and it wasn’t until this year, 2025, that the U.S. officially changed its travel designation to recognize that El Salvador is now the safest country in all of the Americas.
Bitcoiners were already taking a chance on El Salvador YEARS before the word got out about its newfound safety though.
Many had already started visiting here, moving here, investing here, and building various nonprofits as well as real businesses to help jumpstart the economy after decades of an unsafe business environment.
Throughout the past few years, President Bukele continuously earned increasing admiration among Bitcoiners and anti-globalists/anti-communists by frequently calling out the global banking establishment in particular.
He criticized the Federal Reserve by name in an interview with Tucker Carlson, and again in his speech at CPAC. He even called out the IMF for bullying small countries.
So… with all that context, it’s understandable why many Bitcoiners felt betrayed a few months ago when El Salvador announced that they had made a deal with the IMF.
The most significant consequence of that deal was that Bukele agreed (at least for now) to essentially remove Bitcoin’s status as legal tender here.
Originally, the 2021 legal tender law required all businesses to accept Bitcoin. That was never truly enforced, so the real adoption was always voluntary anyway, but it’s a significant symbolic loss nonetheless.
It was undeniably easier to persuade Salvadoran merchants to try accepting Bitcoin when you could point out that their own government (and their President with an approval rating over 90%) recognizes it as real money.
But life goes on!
As I mentioned, the real adoption was always grassroots and voluntary anyway. The circular economies in El Zonte and Berlín continue to thrive.
I was more upset about the news before I realized that the loan is only for $1.4 billion dollars. That sounds like a lot for an individual, but it’s relatively small for a rapidly developing country.
President Bukele has multiple billionaire friends like Michael Saylor and Elon Musk who could pay off that loan like it’s nothing. The reason he’s going through the IMF, in my opinion, is to establish more credibility in global financial (especially sovereign debt) markets. If Bukele can pay back the IMF, it will improve their credit rating, and unlock more capital to flow into the country.
It would be nice if Bukele offered a bit more transparency, but maybe the deal included a gag order. Max and Stacy still remain positive about El Salvador being Bitcoin Country, and grassroots initiatives have continued to develop on their own.
So for now, despite the undeniable setback, I’m focusing on the positives. In the long run, the move might help El Salvador become more sovereign, and in the short run it hasn’t changed the real grassroots adoption much either way.
During my four day visit, I’ve still been able to pay for nearly everything with Bitcoin. My ride from the airport… my meals… even my fourth ever surfing lesson in El Zonte!
I finished up most of the second half of this post at one of my favorite cafes in Berlín (Good Coffee Bistro), where I paid for the appetizer (wings) and drinks with Bitcoin.
Then I went to buy some cuts of meat and veggies with Bitcoin before going to my Bitcoiner friend’s place for a feast with other Bitcoiners. Now I’m finishing this in the aforementioned ride to the airport, which I’m also paying a Berlíner for in Bitcoin.
Living as close as possible to full time on a Bitcoin Standard is still absolutely possible here. Educational and circular economy initiatives continue to thrive here.
So regardless of the pragmatic “top down” moves, as long as President Bukele continues to let the real economy work its magic here, I’ll continue happily supporting the projects here and visiting as often as I can!
Speaking of which…
Berlín updates:
Economía Bitcoin
That’s right.
I mentioned it in my January post, but now it’s officially official.
We’re bringing the Economía Bitcoin mini-conference back to Berlín!
Last time we piggy-backed off the Halving Party in April. This time we’re following alongside Adopting Bitcoin, El Salvador’s main annual conference.
That will be in San Salvador on November 14th and 15th. After another “Bitcoin Week” of side events, the festivities will culminate once again with our event in Berlín.
But this time it’s going to be even bigger and better organized!
Last time, despite no prior experience, Charlie and I managed to pull it off. 223 attendees (double the expectations), about 30 speakers/panelists, numerous booths and sponsors… and ultimately a big boost to the circular economy projects here.
This time, we have more experience, more connections, and helpful feedback about what to improve from last time.
Instead of cramming 30 speakers into a single day, we’ll spread the talks across Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 3pm… and then have a big festival in the evenings.
That was Mike Peterson’s big advice to us last time. Anyone can do a Bitcoin conference anywhere, but Berlín has so much more potential to make it an overall EXPERIENCE.
The talks will still be high signal, of course. We’re still focused on sharing the toolkit for developing more circular economies.
But there will also be more music, more art, more fun side events (poker, 5 a side soccer, etc), and more!
We also have an extra two months of preparation: last time it was less than 4 months from idea to event, and now we still have just over 6 months.
Charlie and I just recorded a podcast in Berlín’s Bitcoin Center studio with Pierre, who will be helping me implement the content strategy.
Charlie will also be representing us at the end of this month in Vegas, at the world’s biggest annual Bitcoin Conference.
We’ve already scheduled one meeting for him there with a prominent potential speaker. Feel free to reach out if you’d like to meet with Charlie in Vegas about potentially getting involved as well.
And also stay tuned for more updates!
Pierre and I will be flooding the X and YouTube accounts in particular with much more content very soon:
X: @EconomiaBTC
YouTube: @EconomiaBitcoin
Definitely be sure to follow/subscribe to those profiles. And stay tuned here as well… I’ll be extremely busy these next few months, but the updates will be increasingly fun as we get closer to November!