Running a node is the only way to have a vote in the bitcoin system. For example, my node will never run drivechains, even if they manage to do get through.
The right to vote in the bitcoin protocol is analogous to being a citizen in Ancient Athens. Not all were citizens, and (unfairly) all were male, contributing members of the Athenian society. There were slaves and people born elsewhere that didn't have citizen rights. And anyone going against the city-state was ostracized, but that's not possible in bitcoin.
The analogy still stands, because the Athenian citizen had to stay informed on current events, matters of the state and had to vote on various issues. That's why democracy worked, not because everyone voted, but because the voters were mainly valuable citizens.
Back to bitcoin, it seems we're creating the same sort of governance. Informed noderunners get a vote, people who leave the thinking to others do not get one.
It's a sort of democracy of 17.000 noderunners and it's messy but it works so far. And it's the only way to sustain one.
He's Making a List, he's Checking it Twice
You’re Santa Claus. Gift bitcoin at every opportunity. Weddings, birthdays, namedays, anniversaries.
People in Greece and Russia like to commemorate a big event like an engagement or a wedding with something gold. Turn this custom into an opportunity for orange-pilling. Gift them bitcoin, it’s digital gold after all.
Keep it simple. Just load up a wallet with some sats, write the seed words down on a piece of paper with simple instructions on how to recover the funds and give it to them in a nice envelope along with your best wishes.
When people ask about bitcoin, demonstrate how easy it is to transact with lightning. Get them to download a simple wallet like Wallet of Satoshi, tell them to tap “Receive,” scan their QR code and send them 1000 sats. The number looks impressive but it’s a negligible amount, at least at the time of writing this in 2023.
The whole thing looks like a magic trick from their perspective. Downloading an app, hitting a button, scanning a QR code and instantly receiving sats looks like magic.
Purists and cypherpunks cry out about this, that we’re orange-pilling people the wrong way, we’re not teaching them about self-custody, that Wallet of Satoshi is custodial and that’s not real bitcoin and so on.
Who cares?
Nobody has time to educate everyone.
We’re talking about a 2-minute interaction here. If you’re sitting down with an interested party who’s into learning how to bitcoin the right way, by all means.
Go with a non-custodial hybrid solution like Phoenix Wallet, Breez or Zeus, show them how to write down their seed words, explain how important they are, demonstrate how to recover their wallet.
But it’s in a case-by-case situation. Sometimes you’re in a taxi, talking to the driver. Sometimes you’re talking to a waitress in Prague at the end of her shift and you tell her, “I want to tip you with bitcoin, would you like that?”
And every bitcoiner at the table chips in.
That last bit happened for real after a round of beers with Evan Kaloudis during BTCPrague. It helps having other friends to keep it going, like the passionate KenobiNakamoto taking the opportunity to explain to the waitress where she could spend the satoshis we all tipped her.
My point is, that since you’ve taken up the role of orange-piller, that you’re now the Orange Santa Claus. Set aside a few thousand sats on a user-friendly lightning wallet and when the opportunity arises, gift them to people. If you can’t afford to gift out sats to everyone, show your work on social media like twitter (X) or nostr, tell other bitcoiners that you’ve been talking to this person and that person, post a photo, either with their face or concealed, ask for permission, and get people to zap them some sats over the internet. If you have a good enough following and the timing is right that might be even more effective than just sending it yourself. The recipient might get zaps from around the world. Joe Nakamoto does this quite well.
No matter how you do it, keep it simple, fast and easy. Remember, after bitcoin itself, our time is scarce and limited. You want to tease people to look into bitcoin but you can’t do that work for them. It might trigger a search, they might forget it for years and then come back later as hardcore maxis, they might go into shitcoins, they might ignore it and forget about it the next day.
Keep your time and sats invested into this to a minimum because you’re going to be doing this for a long time.
Read my orange pilling guide. 