I just sent out Newsletter #2---this is the first one, sent in January......
FOR A BETTER WORLD
Welcome
This is the inaugural edition of this newsletter, sent to a very select group of 21 individuals.
I’ve meet all of you and deeply respect what each of you do in the space.
You know me as the founder of nostr:nprofile1qqs0vzw43dp9x3v8drvm4udj326dld0ku6gdnxajwcxg8h36ssxragsprdmhxue69uhkzmrvv4ek7tngv93rxumfw3ax2m3wv3jj7qgewaehxw309akxjemgw3hxjmn8wfjkccte9e3k7mf0jzjm6m, but this newsletter isn’t about that project. It is about the why behind it.
I don’t have to waste words on the tremendous potential of bitcoin to reimage what’s possible—everyone here understands that.
However, independent, introductory education is severely undervalued in the space.
Why is it so important? Why is this the front-line of the next war? Why are we doing this?
I am ultra-bullish on the future of humanity. I also believe that the world is broken, on the wrong path, and hurtling toward a cliff.
It’s not a feat of cognitive dissidence to simultaneously hold these truths. It’s a recognition that we now have the tools, like bitcoin, that give us new abilities to reimage our future, yet if we ignore this opportunity, this narrow window, we will speed off that cliff into the dark abyss below.
My First Bitcoin is NOT focused on bitcoin education. That is simply a means to an end.
The world is broken, in large part, because we have lost the ability to think for ourselves. We have lost agency in our own lives. That has serious second-order effects. If we don’t control our money, if we don’t control our present, that is a strong disincentive to plan and create.
Bitcoin allows us to take back control of our money, whose effects can ripple deep into our potential. The more we control our present, the better we can look into the future, the more incentivized we are to build, create and learn.
The revolution isn’t a better money, it’s a better human.
Introductory bitcoin education is our best tool EVER to change our individual relationship with power. If the problem is that we live in a world where we have lost sovereignty and critical thought, then the solution must be a radical departure from what got us here.
Bitcoin will be the base layer of the future world. Independent, empowerment-focused education will be the base layer of a better bitcoiner.
However, without a serious and conscious effort to build and entrench an alternative approach, bitcoin education will repeat all the same mistakes that got us here.
It will be captured by whoever funds it. If we leave it to corporations and governments to define it, it will dictate to students what to think rather than empower them to think for themselves.
The next war will be fought inside each of our own minds. Our best chance for a better world to emerge is to build a decentralized, community-led network of front-line bitcoin educators who empower their students not just to learn about bitcoin, but also about themselves, and their own potential future.
The difference may seem subtle in the present but the question of whether we can avoid a legacy-world-mentality takeover of bitcoin education, is the difference between the hope that we can reimagine what’s possible and the fear that we will continue down the same path, speeding toward the cliff’s edge.
This isn’t just an idea; My First Bitcoin is the proof-of-concept. And it’s struck a chord. As promising as the work has been inside of El Salvador, the greatest success has been how quickly it has spread. This emerging network of independent bitcoin educators around the world now has roots in over 30 nations. This network will be the front-line offense of the revolution.
This has been accomplished, starting from zero, in under 3 years, with under a million dollars, entirely grassroots.
We need to make the environment even more hospitable to this emerging life.
MFB will continue to work hard on explaining the why, building more infrastructure, and creating more proof-of-work. We need your help with more money, attention, and wisdom.
