Clarity means getting clear on not only your passion, but the riverbanks for that passion.
For example, I used to waste a lot of energy pouring my time into too many projects where I was passionate about the mission, but the direction it travelled was ill-defined
Your energy is like water - when directed with skill, it can give life to whole river valleys. But when the banks of the river are not clear, it can be a destructive force that squanders not only your time and energy, but those of other people.
Getting clear on both what you are doing (the water) and how (the banks of the river) is a much better way to serve others and make an impact.
For example, I'm passionate about many tech and bitcoin projects, and I'm equally clear that I only invest in what I know really really well: that is Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining projects running on landfills. That's it. That allows me to be very clear whenever I get one of the myriads of unsolicited LinkedIn messages from people telling me about their tech project, and asking if I want to hear their pitch. I've been that person, so I always do this respectfully, and promptly, so the person can focus their efforts where they are more likely to yield fruit.
I am very passionate about helping people grow missions that I care about. But I don't do this through investment any more (stopped that in 2020 to focus on Bitcoin). I don't do this through setting up JVs or taking sweat equity in new ventures (I've already started and exited a tech company, not looking to repeat that), and I only coach people who implement the results of coaching sessions immediately (yes, you can test for this before working with someone). For others, I have some free ebooks I offer, or I refer them to other coaches.
Helping people reach their potential is one of my core values. I fulfil this value in two ways that I've found have the biggest impact on helping people: the first is teaching breathwork and meditation (my volunteer time, alongside Bitcoin advocacy), and the second is coaching (my income). I don't do free coaching because I trialled it many years ago and found that it was a disservice both to those I coached and my impact, because they implemented very little.
When it comes to Bitcoin advocacy, I focus on putting out free content about Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining, that anyone is welcome to use without attribution. Requests such as "I'd love to pick your brains on ...", "can you read over my proposal on...", "I'd love to have a call with you about (something where the objective is not sated/not clear/not aligned to how I operate)", or "can you be an unpaid/ equity-remunerated advisor about..." are examples of water that does not flow between the banks of the river, and as such would leave me feeling swamped, and the other party getting underwhelming value. I learnt the hard way that every time I say "yes" to an invite like that, I was saying "no" to having real impact.
For example, the reason I was able to do so much environmental advocacy work for Bitcoin and make a difference in this niche was that there were a lot of these sorts of requests I did not take up, that would have defocused me, and watered down my impact.
If you haven't already gotten clear on not just your own passion, but the river banks for that passion, I would highly recommend you do both. It doesn't just protect your time and energy, it protects the time of energy of others and makes sure that everyone get the best of you.
They won!
18 months ago, the advisory firm Cartwright orangepilled UK's first pension fund. The fund allocated 3% to Bitcoin, ~30x higher than any previous fund.
Since then Cartwright has won contracts to help another 5 businesses set up corporate treasuries
Sam Roberts, who is director at Cartwright, was one of the Bitcoiners on our latest coaching group, so it was amazing for us all to see (and pour gasoline on) his drive and energy to help Bitcoin get normalized among traditionally conservative funds and corporates.
Bottom line: whether you think you have the capacity to make a difference to Bitcoin, or you think you can't - you're right!
Apparently, most people use AI as a search engine on steriods. You type a question, it gives you an answer, you move on.
I did that too ... until I didn't.
One day, I started teaching it my coaching frameworks - not so it could coach other people, but so it could coach me!
I fed it 20 years of methodology, my own principles, the things I share with clients on a weekly basis, and then asked it to hold me accountable to those same principles.
Turns out the person who most needed my coaching system was the coach himself!
Here's what I wasn't expecting.
It showed me where I wasn't consistently practising what I teach. And ... it had my own words, my own frameworks, and it reflected them back with uncomfortable precision. (Ouch).
It showed me10 specific areas where I was coaching clients on things I wasn't consistently doing myself. I'd built a mirror ... and then been surprised when I didn't like all of what it showed me. But I knew it was true.
It remembered things I said weeks ago, which I'd conveniently forgotten. It noticed when last week's commitment quietly disappeared from this week's conversation. And being a machine, it had no concern for how I'd feel about the discomfort (oh yes, I also removed that annoying feature of Claude where it affirms you without evidence, and tells you what it thinks you want to hear)
Claude has one client: me, and it never forgets.
It started asking questions I hadn't thought to ask - not because it's smarter, but because it has every transcript, every framework, every decision I've made loaded simultaneously.
The pattern recognition it does illuminates connections I can't see from inside my own head.
I found myself reflecting on the process of working with AI, and those reflections became some of the most useful thinking I've done in years. Not just "AI helped me with X" but "what does it mean that I resisted AI's feedback on Y, and what does that resistance tell me about myself?"
The meta-layer turned out to be where the real learning lives.
Then I built a version of it for my wife. She's the first person other than me to use it. Watching her experience my coaching methodology delivered by something I built, and seeing it land, changed how I understood what I'd spent 20 years creating.
I build things following the mad scientist philosophy: tests the potion on yourself first. Then once you know it is safe, you give it to someone else.
None of this was the plan. I sat down to be more productive, but what I'd created was a mirror that showed me blindspots I probably would have gone through my life not seeing.
And here's the funny thing - as a coach (who has also received a lot of really valuable coaching over many years), I'm the most likely person to discount the value of AI-coaching relative to a human.
It's true - there are many things a human coach can do that AI never can - contextual and situational awareness, knowing when to push - when to affirm, intuitive knowledge that doesn't come from the data in front of you and much more.
But AI is better at doing gap-analysis between your stated goals and current behaviours, accountability and mirroring - and those things are important elements of coaching.
And the discomfort about seeing my own blindspots? Turns out that is a neurological phenomenon that happens when the neurons in our brain start unbundling their old pattern and rebundling in a new, more optimal way.
"There are talents, skills, attributes that you need to acquire before you embark on your Bitcoin project" is a fiat mindset
Destroying your own doubts and uncertainties is one of the best ROI (ripple of impact) activities for Bitcoin
Not theory - history.
In the EU, the G in ESG stands for Gaslighting
In Brazil it stands for, well, Governance
ESG Inside, a Brazilian sustainability media company just became the 16th sustainability-focused media outlet to report positively on the environmental benefits of Bitcoin mining
They covered the investment by Itau Unibanco (Brazil's largest bank) into Minter, a startup that uses Bitcoin at renewable energy sites where the power would otherwise be wasted
But this is the bit that shows ESG working as it should: Phillippe Schlumpf, head of Itau Ventures (the bank's corporate VC arm) said this about the investment:
"Minter's thesis combines two relevant vectors: the expansion of renewable generation and the growing demand for computational infrastructure ... [addressing] curtailment in a flexible way, close to the point of generation, with attention to governance."
Imagine any EU banker publicly stating that Bitcoin mining supports renewable expansion and addresses curtailment with "operational discipline and attention to governance." For political reasons (it threatens ECB's attempt to control the narrative on Bitcoin) - that would be career limiting to say the least. In Brazil, freed from that political constraint, banks can do what makes commercial and ESG sense.
The environmental benefits highlighted by ESG Inside are worth listing because they're the same ones that 24 peer-reviewed publications have been establishing for years - it's just that now a major bank's investment team is saying them out loud:
- monetizes wasted renewable energy that generators are currently being forced to curtail
- provides flexible, interruptible load that stabilises the grid by absorbing surplus and releasing it on demand
- enables 100% renewable-source Bitcoin mining without diverting grid power from households
Meanwhile, the EU continues to instruct officials to write reports labelling Bitcoin environmentally harmful (even though the paper underpinning that view has now been debunked). But the actual data, the peer reviewed science, the countries deploying renewables at scale, and even their bankers, are reaching the opposite conclusion in increasing numbers.
The G in ESG is supposed to mean governance - making evidence-based decisions with transparency and accountability.
The irony is not lost on me that it is the LATAM economy which has been busy doing that, while EU stays busy gaslighting.
Itaú Unibanco lidera rodada Série A em startup de infraestrutura digital que monetiza energia renovável excedente | ESG Inside
So many ancillary revenue sources for Bitcoin miners now - to the extent in Europe the sats are generally the 2ndary revenue source.
Saying you've flipped to ETH because you're concerned Bitcoin Mining is unsustainable due to lack of a security budget is like deciding to trade your piano for a xylophone because you are concerned there isn't enough ivory left to make piano keys anymore
At the end of 2023 I met the person who ran GreenpeaceUSA's campaign against Bitcoin.
I expected it to be tense.
It wasn't.
He told me he'd read every response to every post I'd made on Twitter.
"I wish we'd engaged with you and people like you from the outset," he said.
Two months later he left Greenpeace. A few months after that they ended the campaign entirely.
It was the most well-funded, yet the worst result in their history.
I keep coming back to that phrase. "People like you." Not me. A whole group. Troy Cross, Margot Paez, Elliot David, Susie Violet Ward and many others.
We were working independently, with no budget and no coordination. We just shared data and conviction.
It is a great story of a decentralized response beating a multi-million dollar centralized campaign, not by being louder but by a combination of being right and expressing that truth in such a way that reasonable people could see.
And it is a recipe we can use again and again.
If you look at your vision and think "I don't have the skills to pull that off", you're probably right.
You don't. At least not yet.
But that's the whole point.
The person who will implement your vision is not the person you are today, it's the person you become in the pursuit of it.
I've seen this happen enough times now, both in my own life and in the founders I've worked with.
The doubt is real. But it's a photograph of who you are right now, not a prediction of who you'll be.
So if you're looking at a goal thinking "I can't do that" - good! That's the sign it's probably the right assignment, because your growth will be a necessary component in the fulfilment of your vision.
Imagine
... if you believed in yourself as much as you believe in Bitcoin
-- if you defended yourself against your inner critic as strongly as you defended Bitcoin against outer critics
... if you dismantled your own fears, uncertainties and doubts as effectively as you disregarded FUD about Bitcoin
For Bitcoin to win, the work of making sure you are a strong node in the network is not optional. It is mandatory.
Because Bitcoin alone will not change the world. But Bitcoin together with a network of unstoppable Bitcoiners does.
No earth day event is complete without looking at the importance of Bitcoin mining to preserving our environment, stabilizing our grids and mitigating methane. Great to see this now being taught in schools.
Seek and destroy the FUD which is the sniper in the dark.
But to destroy, you must first be able to see it.
Africa has already validated the usecase for Bitcoin as a medium of exchange "𝟳𝟬% 𝗼𝗳 𝗮𝗹𝗹 Bitcoin 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 $𝟭,𝟬𝟬𝟬 𝗲𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝗿 𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗻𝘁" source:
https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/africa-cryptocurrency-adoption/
"Crypto has penetrated key markets and become an important part of many residents’ day-to-day lives."
With the combination of autocracy and high inflation, use of Bitcoin in Nigeria is off the charts (see image below)
Bitcoin's % use is increasing as a medium of exchange in Africa, as education improves and people understand its the only decentralized, censorship-resistant digital currency.
This is thanks to a number of Bitcoiners working tirelessly in Africa.
Putting this out here on Nostr first:
Who'd be potentially interested if we ran a retreat specially for Bitcoiners in Costa Rica?
I've noticed that the fiat-mindset likes to stack stuff. But Bitcoiners like to stack experiences.
So the idea would be to structure an unforgettable experience that leads to new friendships, and bringing back more energy than you came with, which leaving behind all your stresses.
We'd visit the Bitcoin jungle (Uvita) which has the highest concentration of business owners using Bitcoin anywhere in the world, whalewatching, watch the sun set on the beach of Esterillos. And you can't go to Costa Rica without doing a full reset and recharge from the madness of the world with powerful breathwork and then silent meditation retreat in La Montaña Azul. We'll also leave plenty of white space for the type of inspiring Bitcoin conversations that change the world too.
Looking at Thurs 9 July - Sat 18 July as potential dates.
Send me a comment of DM if this sound like the sort of experience you'd like to stack.
There are 3 instruments that destroy FUD.
I recently realized that this applies to the own inner critic that holds you back just as much as an outer critic who tries to hold Bitcoin back
Why a high standard of clarity and communication is required when talking about Bitcoin:
Misinformation travels 10x further than the truth, and gets 10x the coverage - so anyone articulating the truth need to state it 100x more clearly, just to reach parity.
Imagine if I said to you "Earth is an uninhabitable place to live"
You look at me sideways and say "Ah... why?"
I reply "Planets are awful bad. Pluto/Uranus/Neptune, you'd freeze. Mercury, you'd burn. Venus, you'd be poisoned. Jupiter and Saturn, you'd be crushed. Mars: nothing to breath.
It's true. Most of the planets, including over 5700 exoplanets, are really really bad places to live.
The conclusion that this means earth is uninhabitable is a basic logic fail.
Now imagine some self-proclaimed crypto-commentator tells you "Bitcoin is a scam"
Again, you look at him sideways and say "Ah... why?"
He replies "Most crypto has gone to zero. VCs dump on retail. Memecoins are complete rugpulls. Pre-mined tokens, you get diluted to oblivian. ICOs, you're the exit-liquidity for founders and early investors.
It's true. Most of the thousands of cryptocurrencies launched since 2009 are complete scams.
But again, the conclusion that this makes Bitcoin a scam is equally a basic logic 101 fail.
Earth is the only planet with a breathable atmosphere, the right temperature band, and liquid water.
Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency with the combination of no insider enrichment, a fixed supply that nobody can change, and a 17-year unhacked decentralised ledger.
In both cases, some very special and unique features make the general rule inapplicable to the one obvious exception.
This logical fallacy has been around long enough to have a name. Aristotle spotted it about 2,300 years ago and called it the "Fallacy of Accident" - taking a pattern that's true for a category and forcing it onto the one member where evidence shows it obviously doesn't hold.
A few days ago, Ben McKenzie sat on Jon Stewart's podcast and committed this exact logic-fail: citing crypto's failures as his evidence against Bitcoin.
He's not the only one to fail in this way. Paul Krugman, Elizabeth Warren, Jamie Dimon, Christine Lagarde all conflated Bitcoin with all crypto for years. Many journalists still fail to distinguish Bitcoin from all other crypto (though the better ones are starting to).
In fact, this fallacy has been deployed for years with impunity by people who either don't know, or forgot to mention that Bitcoin has unique features making it materially different from all other crypto.
The irony is that Bitcoiners and crypto-critics are on the same page: the rugpulls, the insider enrichment, the tokens engineered to extract value from retail investors are all things that Bitcoiners like @CorySwan and other have been vocally calling out for over a decade, long before category-conflating journalists and actors from teen dramas decided they had an opinion about it.
It's not that hard
Unless you have the attention-span of a gnat-fly, you can easily do 5 mins research (AI-assisted if you really want) and discover either what the core differences are between Earth and all other planets, between Bitcoin and all other crypto.
Earth is an incredibly, uniquely habitable planet for humans to live.
Bitcoin is an incredible, uniquely suitable form of currency for humans to use.
What do you say if someone says "But Bitcoin mining blockrewards won't be profitable soon and fees are not enough to sustain mining."
Here's how I just responded
I completely get why you'd be concerned that fees are not enough to provide ancillary mining revenue as halvings but into block rewards. And you're right, this was a big concern a few years ago.
The reason it is no longer an issue for mining companies is because they have found a myriad of ancillary revenue sources including grid stabiliization (demand response, FCAS, 4CP, blackstart in particular), heat recycling, carbon credits, RECs. I was talking to a mining company 3 days ago that's now regularly earning 2/3 of their income through proactive grid stabilization. This is why I have no concerns about the long-term economic viability of mining.
Cory introduced me to a couple of VCs a while ago. But they didn't want to talk so much about the coaching work I did with founders.
They wanted to know how Bitcoin mining could save the planet.
... and I was happy to share exactly how that worked
