Adoption Special: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays, through Feb. 25, Burlington Animal Services, 221 Stone Quarry Road, Burlington. Adopt any dog or cat for $14. Adoption fees include spay or neuter and vaccinations. www.BurlingtonNC.gov/pets.
Wellness Clinic: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. second Saturday, RCSPCA Building, 300 W. Bailey St., Asheboro. Wellness checkups, skin and ear checks, heartworm tests, pet weighing, microchips, vaccines, preventative medicine. 704-288-8620 or info@cvpet.com.
Volunteer Days: 10 a.m. Sundays, Carolina Veterinary Assistance and Adoption Group, 394 Cook Florist Road, Reidsville. Walk, brush, interact with pets, gardeners are welcome to help in the community garden. 336-394-4106 or www.cvaag.org.
Adoption Fair: noon-3 p.m. Saturdays, PetSmart, 2641 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro. With Triad Independent Cat Rescue. Visit www.triadcat.org or email meowmire.yahoo.com.
Low-cost Rabies Clinic: noon-2 p.m. third Saturday, SPCA of the Triad, 3163 Hines Chapel Road, Greensboro. www.triadspca.org.
Adoption Fair: noon-3 p.m. Saturdays, PetSmart, 1206 Bridford Parkway, Greensboro. With Juliet’s House Animal Rescue. julietshouse1@gmail.com.
Cat Adoptions: Sheets Pet Clinic, 809 Chimney Rock Court, Greensboro. $100 for one cat, 6 months or older; $150 for two adopted together to the same home, 6 months or older. $125 for each kitten, $200 for two kittens adopted at the same time. Fees includes spay/neuter, microchipping, testing for feline leukemia and/or feline immunodeficiency virus, current and age-appropriate vaccinations, FeLV vaccinations for kittens, flea treatment, and deworming. All adoptees receive an “exit exam” from a veterinarian before going home. Every cat or kitten adopted from Sheets Pet Clinic receives half-price vaccinations for the rest of its life, if brought in for yearly wellness exams. Every cat receives one-month free pet insurance. Also, adoption fairs, 1-3 p.m. on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month. petadoptions@sheetspetclinic.com or www.sheetspetclinic.com.
SPCA of the Triad: Open for adoptions from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays and noon-4 p.m. Sundays, 3163 Hines Chapel Road, Greensboro. Submit an adoption application and wait for approval email. www.triadspca.org, www.facebook.com/ TriadSPCA, www.instagram.com/spca_of_the_triad/. Funds are needed for SPCA’s new 9,000 square foot, $3 million facility which will hold more than twice as many homeless pets than the current shelter.
This is an opinion editorial by Joe Nakamoto, a pseudonymous Bitcoin traveler and reporter who helped create a recent documentary on Madeira’s Bitcoin adoption.
What is a Madeira? Why do Bitcoiners keep talking about it? Does it come with fries? And why did Pleb Music (aka, Max DeMarco) shoot a Bitcoin documentary on this tiny island?
Answering those questions, a band of high-profile Bitcoiners set out to “orange pill” the Portuguese island of Madeira this summer. Pleb Music brought its Bitcoin story to life in a documentary resplendent with swooping drone shots, storytelling sleight of hand and the agile camerawork of his talented videographer friend, @Cinemuck_. With the Northern hemisphere winter biting hard, it’s worth watching. You’ll drink in a warm mug of life on Madeira and find it to be an up-and-coming Bitcoin base.
But before we get to that, let’s reach consensus on Madeira; let’s explore why this Portuguese isle should now feature on any traveling Bitcoiner’s bucket list.
The Pearl Of The Atlantic
The sunkissed island of Madeira rises up from the Atlantic Ocean some 600 miles off the coast of Portugal. A popular tourist destination thanks to Instagram-ready landscapes, a warm, temperate climate and a rich cultural heritage, it’s a peaceful patch of land. There’s a regular direct flight to New York while low-cost airlines whisk passengers to a handful of European capital cities.
Much like other small island developing states, or SIDS, Madeira’s development is restricted by its area. A burgeoning tourism industry props up the local economy, but natural resources are limited. Madeiran bananas and passionfruit — often spotted in my local supermarket on Portugal’s mainland — are plentiful but not profitable. Madeira also exports just enough tea to keep the United Kingdom quenched for about two seconds, as well as Madeiran wine.
Tourism aside, there’s a smattering of remittance sent in from the many Madeirans scattered across the world (oh look, Bitcoin fixes this!), as well as some trade in its ports.
In the winter months, tourism diversification strategies such as ecotourism and enticing digital nomads to work from the island serve two purposes: one, keeping Madeira’s economy ticking over in the low season, and two, driving down the average age of holidaymakers on the island.
Madeira is home to espetada (loads of Madeiran meat piled up on a skewer like a posh kebab), quality steak and scrumptious fish. It certainly appeals to the average Bitcoiner’s diet; while the vegetarians and vegans can be rest assured that a lot of food is cultivated locally.
Quality red meat and fish are abundant on the island. Restaurant: Lá ao fundo. Source: author.
Madeira boasts an educated population, absurdly fast internet and civil engineering infrastructure that made Greg Foss’ jaw drop more frequently than he deploys the f-bomb on Bitcoin podcasts. Indeed, although the Madeiran economy pretty much relies on tourism, Madeira receives a substantial chunk of EU subsidies to build bridges, roads and even cable cars.
One of Madeira’s many highrise, highway tunnels. Source.
For the 2021 to 2027 period, the European Commission will invest a whopping 1.9 billion euros in the “outermost regions” of the EU, which includes the Açores and Madeira. The Açores are Madeira’s bigger, colder brothers, hundreds of miles northwest of the island. The EU money is earmarked for improving the connectivity of the islands, transport and, undoubtedly, tunnels.
Without the substantial EU subsidies, Madeira would likely suffer and economic activity may dwindle. And without tourism — as shown during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Madeira’s GDP contracted by as much as 10% — the island may grind to a halt.
However, the ace up this small island’s sleeve is a certain André Loja. Loja, pronounced “Loshja” (no, not “lo-haa,” Daniel Prince), is a proud Madeiran entrepreneur with business interests that straddle tourism, real estate and, crucially, Bitcoin.
Loja (far left) relaxes after lunch at Restaurante Fajá Dos Padres. Source: author.
Prior to developments on the island, Loja was a rather lonely Bitcoiner. Fortunately, and much like many others Bitcoiners who I have the pleasure of calling friends, he’s unhinged. Because rather than simply try to introduce his friends to Bitcoin, Loja thought, “Fodasse, caralho!” — Portuguese for “fuck it!” — “I’m going to orange pill the president of this island.”
A Madeiran Monetary Transition
Loja’s work, coupled with that of Prince Philip of Serbia, Prince and a brief cameo from Michael Saylor, led to an announcement by the president of Madeira, Miguel Albuquerque, at the Bitcoin 2022 conference. During Samson Mow’s keynote, Albuquerque exclaimed, “I believe in the future and I believe in Bitcoin.”
However, contrary to some rather dodgy crypto media reporting, this outburst does not mean that Madeira adopted bitcoin as legal tender. And nor can it.
Madeira uses the euro and is highly unlikely to replace or even complement the European shitcoin with magic internet money any time soon. With this in mind, our visit to the island in June 2022 was an investigation and an aid to the announcement; an ode to “don’t trust, verify.” The mission would uncover what it means for Madeira to “embrace” Bitcoin, and understand how we, as Bitcoiners, can pitch in.
Sidebar: Like all good Bitcoiners, once upon a time, Madeira shitcoined hard. The Madeira Blockchain Association hosts an annual conference, while the coworking space that Loja runs is a favorite for cRypT0pp digital nomad types. You know the sort: jabbering millennials passionate about something that they can’t quite define but will probably, definitely empower everyone online, all the time, cuz WAGMI, Web3, “Yes it does need a blockchain, here’s why.”
I deeply empathize with Loja, who I sometimes picture in his office next to the coworking space, scrolling on Bitcoin Twitter while overhearing conversations and ideas from his cowork tenants. Ideas such as how to decentralize the luggage storage industry or build the next best dapp on Ethereum that, “Trust me, bro it’s more secure than Bitcoin.
The entrance to Loja’s coworking space, Cowork Funchal. Do you think it accepts bitcoin? Source: author.
Furthermore, similar to Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert’s approach to El Salvador, Loja strives to steer the crypto scams and Ponzi schemes clear of his shores. It’s a thankless, unrelenting task. And it’s undoubtedly why not a single Bitcoiner who participated in the Madeira trip could be considered a “shitcoin sympathizer.” Indeed, for a man who lives by the catchphrase, “I don’t know shit about fuck,” the man knows his shit when it comes to organizing a serious batch of Bitcoin advocates.
Orange Pill Dispensers
And so, over the course of 10 days in June 2022, the all-star team set about showing, sending and sharing Bitcoin with locals in Madeira. From surf shops to civil servants, taxi drivers to tax officials and poncha bars to presidents, they spread the word about Satoshi Nakamoto’s innovation. (FYI, “poncha” is the Madeiran drink of choice. It’s potent. Just ask Jeff Booth).
The surf shop owner Foss and I paid bitcoin to (using the Lightning Network, naturally) for surfboard rentals. Source: author.
Thanks to Loja, the group took a Lightning-guided tour of the island and its infrastructure. Not only had Loja spent hours setting up meetings with policymakers and business leaders in Madeira, but he’d also organized the obligatory Bitcoin boat ride (Yes, my private keys are now on the Atlantic seabed); a cable car to a secluded restaurant and trips through more tunnels than there are shitcoins listed on CoinMarketCap. The group got a real taste of Madeira.
Although DeMarco’s documentary underlines that the pinnacle of the trip was meeting with the president, Madeira is simply a must-visit destination. It has all of the ingredients to become a Bitcoin citadel — or a free private city — just ask Peter Young.
With 200,000-ish people, a manageable, fertile land area, warm weather, cheap cost of living and phenomenal internet speeds, what’s stopping you from moving there? Or at least, entertaining the daydream — I often do.
Câmara de Lobos, formerly an impoverished area of Madeira — now it’s Instagrammable. Source: author.
You can buy a house with bitcoin, spend sats at a few merchants and hang out at Bitcoin meetup. The Regional Forum of Economic Education, or F.R.E.E Madeira, is on hand to help you on your journey. Cofounded by Bitcoiners and Madeiran experts, the group hopes to make Madeira one of the new homes for the “new base layer of the new internet,” as Booth explained. And this is just the start.
However. Madeira is not El Salvador. You cannot live on a Bitcoin standard in Madeira. Peer-to-peer interactions, Bitrefill, the Bitcoin Company, FREE Madeira’s assistance and many other Bitcoin workarounds will assist you in using bitcoin on the island, but be aware that cash reigns supreme on Madeira and we are still very early. In this regard, Madeira needs your help.
Ask not what Madeira can do for you, but what you can do…
If you’re reading this, you’re probably a Bitcoin enthusiast or you’re at least Bicurious (no, not the horny kind). I’m going to assume, therefore, that you know 100 times more about Bitcoin than the average Madeiran does. In Madeira, a lot of people have not yet heard of Bitcoin. In my experience, over 95% of the population have not used Lightning and awareness is in its genesis.
Following the Presidential meal, Prince onboarded Madeiran ministers using Muun wallet. Source: author.
Moreover, President Albuquerque is not quite on the same level as laser-eyed President Bukele of El Salvador. The Central American nation executed a top-down Bitcoin adoption strategy when declaring bitcoin as legal tender in 2021.
To continue the El Salvador comparison, while Salvadorans see volcanoes as a source of energy for Bitcoin mining, in Madeira, during our visit, the civil servants at the energy ministry raised the valid question, “How did you know the Bitcoin is here?” The energy specialist had not yet grasped that Bitcoin is digital, and not physical. We are still very early.
The Madeira men in the president’s office. Source: author.
Our conversations with business people, ministers and entrepreneurs were among the first Bitcoin touchpoints. For example, if Madeira was to mine Bitcoin, who would custody the keys? Should it be sold for euros or should it be HODL’d? Is it even legal to do so, and what would the EU think?
To add to this, while the president is fully on board with Bitcoin, how far do his powers extend? It’s worth considering the impact of the EU one day banning Bitcoin mining or the MiCA (markets in crypto assets) regulation on Madeira’s decision to embrace Bitcoin — and to what extent the EU would come down on Madeira, or let it live in a gray area as an EU outer zone.
So, What Can You Do?
First, book your ticket. Take a dip in the natural sea pools, ride cable cars and hike “levadas” (hillside canal walks). Break bread with Bitcoiners and laugh off the clown word we inhabit over a glass of poncha in Maderia’s capital, Funchal.
Consider the cumulative effect of all of these visits and Bitcoin connections on Madeira over the next five to 10 years. It’s a bit like Bitcoin Park in Nashville, or Praia Bitcoin in Brazil or Bitcoin Jungle in Costa Rica. If enough Bitcoiners come down, show interest, set up shop or even relocate to Madeira, the island will reach what Swan Bitcoin has coined the “intransigent minority.”
It’s of course a low-time preference goal, and some ways away. But it’s a future I can get on board with.
In the meantime, I don’t know about you, but shooting the shit with Bitcoiners IRL is far more enjoyable than shitposting on Twitter (or Nostr, sorry). And the best part about this Portuguese paradise? In Madeira, you can do both.
This is a guest post by Joe Nakamoto. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
Animal Adoption Event: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Feb. 4, Greensboro Science Center’s SAIL Center, 4301 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro. Host: Animal Rescue & Foster Program. Greensboro Fire Department’s Sparky will be onsite to talk about what to do for pets in a fire emergency. A representative from the Guilford County K9 unit will be available to talk about what goes into training police K9s. Free. 336-288-3769, Ext. 1315.
Wellness Clinic: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. second Saturday, RCSPCA Building, 300 W. Bailey St., Asheboro. Wellness checkups, skin and ear checks, heartworm tests, pet weighing, microchips, vaccines, preventative medicine. 704-288-8620 or info@cvpet.com.
Volunteer Days: 10 a.m. Sundays, Carolina Veterinary Assistance and Adoption Group, 394 Cook Florist Road, Reidsville. Walk, brush, interact with pets, gardeners are welcome to help in the community garden. 336-394-4106 or www.cvaag.org.
Adoption Fair: noon-3 p.m. Saturdays, PetSmart, 1206 Bridford Parkway, Greensboro. With Juliet’s House Animal Rescue. julietshouse1@gmail.com.
Cat Adoptions: Sheets Pet Clinic, 809 Chimney Rock Court, Greensboro. $100 for one cat, 6 months or older; $150 for two adopted together to the same home, 6 months or older. $125 for each kitten, $200 for two kittens adopted at the same time. Fees includes spay/neuter, microchipping, testing for feline leukemia and/or feline immunodeficiency virus, current and age-appropriate vaccinations, FeLV vaccinations for kittens, flea treatment, and deworming. All adoptees receive an “exit exam” from a veterinarian before going home. Every cat or kitten adopted from Sheets Pet Clinic receives half-price vaccinations for the rest of its life, if brought in for yearly wellness exams. Every cat receives one-month free pet insurance. Also, adoption fairs, 1-3 p.m. on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month. petadoptions@sheetspetclinic.com or www.sheetspetclinic.com.
SPCA of the Triad: Open for adoptions from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays and noon-4 p.m. Sundays, 3163 Hines Chapel Road, Greensboro. Submit an adoption application and wait for approval email. www.triadspca.org, www.facebook.com/TriadSPCA, www.instagram.com/spca_of_the_triad/. Funds are needed for SPCA’s new 9,000 square foot, $3 million facility which will hold more than twice as many homeless pets than the current shelter.
Volunteer Days: 10 a.m. Sundays, Carolina Veterinary Assistance and Adoption Group, 394 Cook Florist Road, Reidsville. Walk, brush, interact with pets, gardeners are welcome to help in the community garden. 336-394-4106 or www.cvaag.org.
People are also reading…
Adoption Fair: noon-3 p.m. Saturdays, PetSmart, 2641 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro. With Triad Independent Cat Rescue. Visit www.triadcat.org or email meowmire.yahoo.com.
Low-cost Rabies Clinic: noon-2 p.m. third Saturday, SPCA of the Triad, 3163 Hines Chapel Road, Greensboro. www.triadspca.org.
Adoption Fair: noon-3 p.m. Saturdays, PetSmart, 1206 Bridford Parkway, Greensboro. With Juliet’s House Animal Rescue. julietshouse1@gmail.com.
Cat Adoptions: Sheets Pet Clinic, 809 Chimney Rock Court, Greensboro. $100 for one cat, 6 months or older; $150 for two adopted together to the same home, 6 months or older. $125 for each kitten, $200 for two kittens adopted at the same time. Fees includes spay/neuter, microchipping, testing for feline leukemia and/or feline immunodeficiency virus, current and age-appropriate vaccinations, FeLV vaccinations for kittens, flea treatment, and deworming. All adoptees receive an “exit exam” from a veterinarian before going home. Every cat or kitten adopted from Sheets Pet Clinic receives half-price vaccinations for the rest of its life, if brought in for yearly wellness exams. Every cat receives one-month free pet insurance. Also, adoption fairs, 1-3 p.m. on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month. petadoptions@sheetspetclinic.com or www.sheetspetclinic.com.
SPCA of the Triad: Open for adoptions from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays and noon-4 p.m. Sundays, 3163 Hines Chapel Road, Greensboro. Submit an adoption application and wait for approval email. www.triadspca.org, www.facebook.com/TriadSPCA, www.instagram.com/spca_of_the_triad/. Funds are needed for SPCA’s new 9,000 square foot, $3 million facility which will hold more than twice as many homeless pets than the current shelter.
This is an opinion editorial by Haider Rafique, the global chief marketing officer for cryptocurrency exchange OKX.
As we reflect back on a wild and woeful year in the markets, it is easy to overlook the fact that we are living through the next great technological revolution. Anyone doubting this need only take ChatGPT for a spin and imagine how artificial intelligence will change society in the years to come. Market cycles come and go, but the innovations being built today bring lasting potential for revolutionizing how we go about our lives in the future.
Yet the underappreciated tragedy of this technological advancement is in those who don’t stand to benefit. Almost 1.5 billion people around the world are unbanked — cut off from the modern financial system. In a time of economic downturn, they face steep odds to improve their standards of living, let alone take advantage of the latest technology that can improve their lives.
The majority of unbanked people are located in developing countries that have been hit harder by rapid inflation in 2022. This is not going away — the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that inflation in emerging markets and developing economies will be nearly twice that of advanced ones in 2023.
This past year has produced some scary examples of runaway inflation — in Turkey, yearly inflation peaked at 85%. In Lebanon, yearly inflation was well above 100% throughout 2022. Heavy-handed, interventionist monetary policy sparked political crises, and access to reliable banking services was interrupted.
It’s clear that systemic risks built into the legacy financial system as well as the policy responses of many governments have failed spectacularly to serve those most vulnerable to economic shocks.
Bitcoin can help fix this. Nothing is a panacea, but if we stand a chance of bringing more economic equality and financial inclusion to those who need it most, we need a financial revolution led by Bitcoin to be part of the solution.
I know that Bitcoin can help bring about that revolution. That’s because Bitcoin is:
Money that doesn’t require intermediaries to be transferred anywhere in the world
Programmatically designed to be deflationary
An open, decentralized and permissionless protocol
However, there is a massive information gap that needs to be filled before Bitcoin can reach its potential. That’s why first, we need to educate people on what Bitcoin is, provide examples of what Bitcoin can do for them, and fight for crypto policy that keeps the unique benefits of the technology intact. This is how we can create the best ecosystem for Bitcoin to be an effective catalyst for change.
Increasing Bitcoin Adoption Through Education
Currently, the global finance climate looks like a perfect storm for Bitcoin advocates to call for greater adoption of bitcoin as both a store of value and a payment technology.
However, ask the average person on the street what Bitcoin is, and you likely won’t get a positive answer. We have the bear market, Three Arrows Capital implosion and FTX debacle to thank for that. These highly-publicized developments have set Bitcoin adoption back by several years and have greatly damaged the reputation of the technology underpinning the asset itself.
In my capacity as chief marketing officer at OKX, I am focused on seeking platforms that not only market our business but build understanding of Bitcoin among mainstream audiences who could be the next wave of adopters. Through our partnerships with Manchester City F.C., McLaren Racing and the Tribeca Film Festival, it is our hope that a rising tide will lift all boats.
But awareness is only half of the battle. User adoption happens when people become convinced of the real-world use cases for a technology. Theoretical arguments are nice, but this is a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately world. Luckily, the practical arguments for Bitcoin have become very clear after the events of the last year:
Intermediary-free, fast, low-cost money transfer: The protocol allows bitcoin transfers anywhere in the world, anytime, with no need for expensive money service providers or cumbersome bank processes
Censorship avoidance: No one can prevent anyone else from using the protocol, which has real-world implications for those in need during times of traditional banking outages, conflict or rights movements
Anti-inflationary store of value: No central oversight authority means that no one can change the supply of bitcoin or devalue the asset through inflation
It will take hard work to spread awareness of these benefits and cut through the noise. For every Bitcoin advocate, that hard work starts now. Every journey has setbacks and hardships. But those of us who truly believe in Bitcoin must do all we can to expand access and awareness of this technology so it can realize its revolutionary potential.
This is a guest post by Haider Rafique. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
Pet Adoption Special: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays, through Jan. 21, Burlington Animal Services, 221 Stone Quarry Road, Burlington. Adopt any dog or cat for $23. Adoption fees include spay or neuter and vaccinations. www.burlingtonnc.gov/pets.
Pet Adoption Special: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays, through Jan. 21, Burlington Animal Services, 221 Stone Quarry Road, Burlington. Adopt any dog or cat for $23. Adoption fees include spay or neuter and vaccinations. www.burlingtonnc.gov/pets.
Wellness Clinic: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. second Saturday, RCSPCA Building, 300 W. Bailey St., Asheboro. Wellness checkups, skin and ear checks, heartworm tests, pet weighing, microchips, vaccines, preventative medicine. 704-288-8620 or info@cvpet.com.
Volunteer Days: 10 a.m. Sundays, Carolina Veterinary Assistance and Adoption Group, 394 Cook Florist Road, Reidsville. Walk, brush, interact with pets, gardeners are welcome to help in the community garden. 336-394-4106 or www.cvaag.org.
People are also reading…
Adoption Fair: noon-3 p.m. Saturdays, PetSmart, 2641 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro. With Triad Independent Cat Rescue. Visit www.triadcat.org or email meowmire.yahoo.com.
Low-cost Rabies Clinic: noon-2 p.m. third Saturday, SPCA of the Triad, 3163 Hines Chapel Road, Greensboro. www.triadspca.org.
Adoption Fair: noon-3 p.m. Saturdays, PetSmart, 1206 Bridford Parkway, Greensboro. With Juliet’s House Animal Rescue. julietshouse1@gmail.com.
Cat Adoptions: Sheets Pet Clinic, 809 Chimney Rock Court, Greensboro. $100 for one cat, 6 months or older; $150 for two adopted together to the same home, 6 months or older. $125 for each kitten, $200 for two kittens adopted at the same time. Fees includes spay/neuter, microchipping, testing for feline leukemia and/or feline immunodeficiency virus, current and age-appropriate vaccinations, FeLV vaccinations for kittens, flea treatment, and deworming. All adoptees receive an “exit exam” from a veterinarian before going home. Every cat or kitten adopted from Sheets Pet Clinic receives half-price vaccinations for the rest of its life, if brought in for yearly wellness exams. Every cat receives one-month free pet insurance. Also, adoption fairs, 1-3 p.m. on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month. petadoptions@sheetspetclinic.com or www.sheetspetclinic.com.
SPCA of the Triad: Open for adoptions from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays and noon-4 p.m. Sundays, 3163 Hines Chapel Road, Greensboro. Submit an adoption application and wait for approval email. www.triadspca.org, www.facebook.com/TriadSPCA, www.instagram.com/spca_of_the_triad/. Funds are needed for SPCA’s new 9,000 square foot, $3 million facility which will hold more than twice as many homeless pets than the current shelter.
This is an opinion editorial by Rikki, author and co-host of the “Bitcoin Italia,” and “Stupefatti” podcasts. He is one half of the Bitcoin Explorers, along with Laura, who chronicle Bitcoin adoption around the world, one country at a time.
Laura and I continueouradventuresin Central America with the aim of gaining an in-depth understanding of the peculiar characteristics of Bitcoin adoption in the very different countries there and reporting it without bias on our YouTube channel, “Bitcoin Explorers.”
The great curiosity that grips us after spending more than a month in El Salvador, and leaving it behind, is to try to understand what people think about Bitcoin in countries where there has been no government propaganda, no media coverage and no lousy state app like the Chivo wallet to complicate things. Countries where, therefore, adoption is not happening by decree, but solely through the free initiatives of citizens and through the work of private companies that believe in Bitcoin and build products and services on top of its protocol.
But the question we would like to try to answer is not the simplest one: Is bottom-up Bitcoin adoption better than the top-down adoption theorized by El Salvador President Nayib Bukele?
Exploring Grassroots Bitcoin Adoption In Guatemala
To find the answer, our latest destination was Guatemala, a country that is, in some ways, very similar to El Salvador. As of 2017, there were 16.5 million inhabitants there, nearly 60% of whom lived below the poverty line, likely unbanked or underbanked, and 23% lived in extreme poverty. At that point, 0.001% of Guatamalans held more than half of the country’s wealth. These are ideal conditions for Bitcoin’s intrinsic features to be appreciated.
Unlike El Salvador, however, Guatemalan government policy is not favorable to cryptocurrencies, in fact, it is quite the contrary. Significant laws and regulations have been passed in an attempt to harness the phenomenon and control it.
We spent about ten days on the shores of the lake and what we documented surprised us in a positive way, beyond our wildest expectations.
We found ourselves in a place of rare beauty. A large body of water surrounded by volcanoes and impenetrable jungle — tropical nature in its purest expression.
All article images taken by the author.
On the banks of Atitlán rise several local settlements, some larger towns, such as Panajachel, where there really is everything one could want in order to spend a few weeks of leisure and rest, and other smaller villages, for example San Marcos, totally immersed in nature and definitely more suitable for those who want to relax, meditate or hike. These are very different locations that thus manage to meet the needs of all kinds of tourists. And indeed, the lake thrives on tourism. It is striking how many hotels, bars, restaurants and activities are offered to those who choose to spend their vacations here.
There is one thing, however, that unites every activity around here: cash. Even in Guatemala, access to electronic payment instruments is very limited and credit card fees are exorbitant. Any tourist would soon realize this, because as they travel here they will see that the few businesses that accept credit cards charge 5% or 10% more on your bill if you want to pay with Visa or Mastercard. This is another ideal condition in Guatemala, then, to build an alternative economy with Bitcoin.
And this is an opportunity that some local companies are understandably seizing. In addition to the plethora of open-source bitcoin wallets available, there are applications such as Osmo, which, in addition to allowing people to receive and send bitcoin, allows them to instantly convert them into quetzales, the local currency, or even U.S. dollars. There are local payment services such as IBEX that offer merchants a state-of-the-art implementation of the Lightning Network, ideal for larger businesses that also have reporting requirements. These services, thanks to the Bitcoin protocol, really do brilliantly replace a bank account or point-of-sale (PoS) provider. This is perhaps why there is so much enthusiasm on the lake for this technological innovation, and why adoption is growing so strongly. When you consider that the Bitcoin Lake experiment began not even a year ago, it is impressive how many businesses and merchants are already accepting bitcoin: a system that is faster, safer and cheaper than credit cards.
What Is It Like To Live On Bitcoin In Bitcoin Lake?
But what is it like, then, to live on bitcoin in Bitcoin Lake?
Super fun!
There are so many options available to Bitcoin travelers. We ate lunch and dinner at grassroots restaurants, had breakfast tasting the excellent local coffee, danced late into the night drinking great cocktails, even flew paragliders over the lake, rented a boat and took a tuc-tuc: all while paying in bitcoin. There are dozens and dozens of businesses that already accept them, and one is honestly spoiled for choice.
The comparison with Bitcoin Beach is, in this respect, merciless. Atitlán is a much larger and more organized resort, so the supply in bitcoin will be greater considering such a wider reach for adoption. El Zonte, outside of the ocean and the surf, has little to offer and is a very small village, where at 8:00 at night you struggle to find an open restaurant. But Panajachel, for example, is a resort that manages to entertain well into the night. Here, you can happily come on vacation with your wife or pre-coiner friends while enjoying a wonderful Bitcoin holiday without the fear that they might get bored.
But how do merchants react when, upon entering their store, you ask if you can pay in bitcoin?
We were also very impressed by their reactions! They often gave us toothy smiles and said “yes” with a pride and enthusiasm not often encountered with most merchants in El Salvador. When it was time to pay a bill, they took their tablets or smartphones with incredible confidence, opened their wallets and, with four taps, showed us the correct QR codes — amazing awareness and knowledge of the technological tool.
Needless to say, of course, this was not always the case. There were also those who panicked, those who answered us that, right now they could not accept our transactions because the owners were not there and the bitcoin wallet was on their smartphones, those who told us that today “Bitcoin is not working” and therefore, they were sorry, but they could only accept cash.
In short, there is everything and more in Bitcoin Lake and it is still so early! But the feeling we have is that there is a lot of curiosity in the streets. When we stopped to talk about Bitcoin with locals, we always sensed a keen interest. They often asked us questions, they wanted to know more.
“Is it true that it’s free? Really with the right application, even if you pay in bitcoin, I can receive quetzales or dollars?”
No testy expressions, huffing faces or politically-aligned answers like, “I don’t care about bitcoin because I hate Bukele.”
In Bitcoin Lake, we were only a few hundred miles further north than El Salvador, but a totally different wind seemed to be blowing. We have no doubt that this will soon be a very popular destination among Bitcoiners. After all, for what reason should anyone visiting Bitcoin Beach in El Salvador not spend a few days here as well? There are private buses that directly connect El Tunco, the town right next to El Zonte, with Lake Atitlán. It only takes a few hours of travel time, is an extremely inexpensive transportation option and you will pass through majestic landscapes, traveling along safe roads.
Our journey in Central America continues but our impression is that this part of the continent is waking up. There is a lot of economic and tourism potential here, and Bitcoin meets real needs. The Bitcoin traveler’s horizons, in short, are expanding rapidly and, as we have shown, the number of options is not limited only to El Salvador.
This is a guest post by Rikki. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
Pet Adoption Special: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays, through Jan. 21, Burlington Animal Services, 221 Stone Quarry Road, Burlington. Adopt any dog or cat for $23. Adoption fees include spay or neuter and vaccinations. www.burlingtonnc.gov/pets.
Wellness Clinic: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. second Saturday, RCSPCA Building, 300 W. Bailey St., Asheboro. Wellness checkups, skin and ear checks, heartworm tests, pet weighing, microchips, vaccines, preventative medicine. 704-288-8620 or info@cvpet.com.
Volunteer Days: 10 a.m. Sundays, Carolina Veterinary Assistance and Adoption Group, 394 Cook Florist Road, Reidsville. Walk, brush, interact with pets, gardeners are welcome to help in the community garden. 336-394-4106 or www.cvaag.org.
Adoption Fair: noon-3 p.m. Saturdays, PetSmart, 2641 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro. With Triad Independent Cat Rescue. Visit www.triadcat.org or email meowmire.yahoo.com.
Low-cost Rabies Clinic: noon-2 p.m. third Saturday, SPCA of the Triad, 3163 Hines Chapel Road, Greensboro. www.triadspca.org.
Adoption Fair: noon-3 p.m. Saturdays, PetSmart, 1206 Bridford Parkway, Greensboro. With Juliet’s House Animal Rescue. julietshouse1@gmail.com.
Cat Adoptions: Sheets Pet Clinic, 809 Chimney Rock Court, Greensboro. $100 for one cat, 6 months or older; $150 for two adopted together to the same home, 6 months or older. $125 for each kitten, $200 for two kittens adopted at the same time. Fees includes spay/neuter, microchipping, testing for feline leukemia and/or feline immunodeficiency virus, current and age-appropriate vaccinations, FeLV vaccinations for kittens, flea treatment, and deworming. All adoptees receive an “exit exam” from a veterinarian before going home. Every cat or kitten adopted from Sheets Pet Clinic receives half-price vaccinations for the rest of its life, if brought in for yearly wellness exams. Every cat receives one-month free pet insurance. Also, adoption fairs, 1-3 p.m. on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month. petadoptions@sheetspetclinic.com or www.sheetspetclinic.com.
SPCA of the Triad: Open for adoptions from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays and noon-4 p.m. Sundays, 3163 Hines Chapel Road, Greensboro. Submit an adoption application and wait for approval email. www.triadspca.org, www.facebook.com/TriadSPCA, www.instagram.com/spca_of_the_triad/. Funds are needed for SPCA’s new 9,000 square foot, $3 million facility which will hold more than twice as many homeless pets than the current shelter.
Adoption Event: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Jan. 7, Greensboro Science Center, 4301 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro. With Guilford County Animal Services. Also, free rabies clinic in the front entrance circle for cats and dogs. Guest animals are not allowed inside of the GSC. City of Greensboro Waste Reduction and Recycling will be on site demonstrating ways to reduce waste when purchasing pet products.
Wellness Clinic: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. second Saturday, RCSPCA Building, 300 W. Bailey St., Asheboro. Wellness checkups, skin and ear checks, heartworm tests, pet weighing, microchips, vaccines, preventative medicine. 704-288-8620 or info@cvpet.com.
Volunteer Days: 10 a.m. Sundays, Carolina Veterinary Assistance and Adoption Group, 394 Cook Florist Road, Reidsville. Walk, brush, interact with pets, gardeners are welcome to help in the community garden. 336-394-4106 or www.cvaag.org.
Adoption Fair: noon-3 p.m. Saturdays, PetSmart, 2641 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro. With Triad Independent Cat Rescue. Visit www.triadcat.org or email meowmire.yahoo.com.
Low-cost Rabies Clinic: noon-2 p.m. third Saturday, SPCA of the Triad, 3163 Hines Chapel Road, Greensboro. www.triadspca.org.
Adoption Fair: noon-3 p.m. Saturdays, PetSmart, 1206 Bridford Parkway, Greensboro. With Juliet’s House Animal Rescue. julietshouse1@gmail.com.
Cat Adoptions: Sheets Pet Clinic, 809 Chimney Rock Court, Greensboro. $100 for one cat, 6 months or older; $150 for two adopted together to the same home, 6 months or older. $125 for each kitten, $200 for two kittens adopted at the same time. Fees includes spay/neuter, microchipping, testing for feline leukemia and/or feline immunodeficiency virus, current and age-appropriate vaccinations, FeLV vaccinations for kittens, flea treatment, and deworming. All adoptees receive an “exit exam” from a veterinarian before going home. Every cat or kitten adopted from Sheets Pet Clinic receives half-price vaccinations for the rest of its life, if brought in for yearly wellness exams. Every cat receives one-month free pet insurance. Also, adoption fairs, 1-3 p.m. on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month. petadoptions@sheetspetclinic.com or www.sheetspetclinic.com.
SPCA of the Triad: Open for adoptions from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays and noon-4 p.m. Sundays, 3163 Hines Chapel Road, Greensboro. Submit an adoption application and wait for approval email. www.triadspca.org, www.facebook.com/TriadSPCA, www.instagram.com/spca_of_the_triad/. Funds are needed for SPCA’s new 9,000 square foot, $3 million facility which will hold more than twice as many homeless pets than the current shelter.
This is an opinion editorial by Anita Posch, the founder of Bitcoin For Fairness who has traveled around the world to learn how the globally unbanked can benefit from sovereign money.
In early 2020, during my first visit in Zimbabwe, my assumption that Bitcoin is needed the most in the Global South was confirmed. I found a nation in distress about money, because of a kleptocratic ruling elite that had been defrauding and stealing from their people by inflating the national currency for decades. Despite this, corruption and military support allowed these leaders to stay at the top for over 40 years.
The need was there, but what about understanding of Bitcoin? I found a few true believers and HODLers from the early days, but I didn’t find a single Bitcoin-only event or community. What existed were cryptocurrency trading groups on WhatsApp and Facebook and a lot of scams. The first questions about Bitcoin always were: “How can I join Bitcoin?” (which is the language that scammers are using to lure in their victims) and “How can I trade it?” (which is the language of short time preference).
In 2021, I had the idea to bring Bitcoin knowledge to the Global South with a focus on fostering communities on the ground and connecting them infrastructure-wise and people-wise with the Bitcoin network. Elizabeth Stark of Lightning Labs encouraged me to apply for a donation at the Human Rights Foundation, which became the first donor supporting “Bitcoin for Fairness.”
With the advice of Sharon Dow of Lightning Ventures and Jacob Strumwasser of Lightning Labs, I drafted a grant proposal, which resulted in sponsorships from LEDN, Okcoin, Paxful, Coinfinity, Breez and Trezor. I set up a crowdfunding campaign on Geyser which received over 500 donations from Bitcoiners all over the world. Brad Mills, Peter McCormack and f418_me all donated significant amounts. I’m sure I’m forgetting other donors — sorry about that and thank you each and everyone for your support!
Our Impact
Through Bitcoin For Fairness, I visited four African countries to spread Bitcoin education and connections this year. The most time I spent was in Zimbabwe and Zambia, which I visited two times each. In April after Bitcoin 2022 in Miami, I gave up my apartment in Vienna and started my nomad life.
It led me to South Africa in May, where I worked with Bitcoin Ekasi. In June, I was at the Oslo Freedom Forum to connect with human rights activists and freedom fighters like Meron Estefanos, Farida Nabourema and Leopoldo Lopez. COVID-19 stopped me for a few weeks and after the Baltic Honeybadger conference in Riga, I returned to Zimbabwe and Zambia. The last traveling I did in 2022 led me to the first pan-African Bitcoin conference in Ghana.
Zambia
In March, I was speaking to 50 students at the University of Zambia — we hosted a Lightning Network workshop, I gave radio and newspaper interviews and we started a Bitcoin education group on WhatsApp, which has grown to 65 members. All of this was organized by Ndesa, Emmanuel and Japhet, three crypto-interested individuals who hadn’t known each other before. In May, they set up the first Bitcoin For Fairness (BFF) meetup in Lusaka.
In December, the fifth BFF meetup took place and the Bitcoin and Lightning node was up and running. The BFF goal to initiate a local group of Bitcoiners to conduct regular meetups and bring Bitcoin infrastructure to Zambia has been fully met. The local BFF group has set up their own ZambiaBitcoinMeetups.com website, it meets at Scallywags a (restaurant accepting bitcoin) and one of the members started a Bitcoin podcast in the local Bemba language on our recently-launched BTC Podcasting platform.
Zimbabwe
We kicked the Zimbabwe trip off with a Bitcoin talk in early March which was attended by 60 participants in the capital of Harare. One of them was Alexandria, who took a six-hour bus ride from Bulawayo, because he didn’t know any other Bitcoiners. I encouraged Alexandria to start a Bitcoin-only WhatsApp group and ask the guests to join. Today, that group has grown to 300 members and is on Twitter, too. Alexandria and his Bitcoin Reach group is fully independent from BFF now. This has also been a goal of mine: self sovereignty and self organization of the communities.
I have actually lost count of the number of Bitcoin meetups that have happened in Zimbabwe since my talk in March, which is a good thing. The meetups in Gweru and Bulawayo were sponsored by BFF. “Run With Bitcoin” Paco was our guest, too.
We gave away Trezor devices and I conducted a workshop to help people set the devices up. Because of my work, a Zimbabwean farmer owning a solar power plant came together with someone from the international community, who donated six ASIC miners. The machines have been mining bitcoin from solar power since June 2022.
This tweet had been shared a lot and Trevor Ncube, a highly-acclaimed journalist in the Southern African region, invited me to be a guest on his popular YouTube Show “In Conversation with Trevor.” The show included my wallet setup video in the episode and I onboarded Trevor to Lightning and Bitcoin. Being the trailblazer that he is, he invited me to make his podcast “Value4Value” ready for a bitcoin standard. Now, his show is the first Zimbabwean podcast receiving bitcoin payments via Alby.
After my appearance on “In Conversation With Trevor,” Newsday Zimbabwe published an article titled “Bitcoin Should Be The Currency Of Choice,” writing, “Anita Posch has urged Zimbabwean businesses and individuals to use bitcoin as a medium of exchange because of its low charges when transacting as well as its being less prone to abuse.”
Newsday Zimbabwe has more than 640,000 followers on Twitter and is one of the bigger newspapers in Zimbabwe.
Since November, you have been able to pay for your groceries at one of the biggest supermarket chains in South Africa. This is a huge step for the future success of the circular Bitcoin economy in the township. Now, people can earn and spend bitcoin without the need to exchange to the South African rand.
We also brought a RaspiBlitz and Trezor devices to Bitcoin Ekasi. The senior coach there named Luthando learned how to run the node and I did a hardware wallet workshop with him and the junior coaches. Now, the shop owners in the township can secure their bitcoin savings offline.
A German television network that was interested in doing a documentary about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies sent a team of theirs to follow BFF and the Ekasi team in the township. Here, you can watch the documentary in German.
Last but not least, I served as the matchmaker between Bitcoin Ekasi’s new teacher, named Ms. Nomsa, and a BFF volunteer, who helped her get knowledgeable about Bitcoin. I also connected Paxful with the community, which led to a Paxful and Built With Bitcoin education center being placed on site.
Ghana
As soon as I heard the announcement of the first Pan-Africa Bitcoin conference, I knew I wanted to be a part of it. Organized by Farida Bemba Nabourema, a Togolese human rights and Bitcoin activist, it came to be the greatest Bitcoin conference I have been to so far. The focus on Bitcoin as a tool for Africans to empower and free themselves financially from colonial and authoritarian structures resonated with the work of BFF.
Prior to the conference, I helped Marcel Lorraine, the founder of Bitcoin Dada, a women-focused Bitcoin education group raising funds, to visit the conference and I also met Noelyne Sumba and Mary Imasuen who organized a BFF sponsored meetup in Nigeria earlier this year.
With Marcel Lorraine from Kenya and Noelyne Sumba from Nigeria
After the conference, we organized a BFF meetup together with the local Bitcoin Cowries community in One Corner Garden, a restaurant accepting bitcoin, where we installed wallets, gave away a Trezor device and spoke about how to earn bitcoin.
Built Educational Content And Infrastructure For Communities
The Bitcoin Flyer
On top of all of the above, I published the BFF Bitcoin flyer together with the C4 Cryptocurrency Certification Consortium. The flyer is an easy and cheap-to-produce Bitcoin FAQ to give away at meetups or conferences. With the help of volunteers, we translated the flyer to twelve languages, including Swahili, Luganda and soon, Akan Twi and Eritrean. We encourage volunteers to translate the open-sourced folder into their local languages.
BTC Podcasting
Together with Michael Bumann from Alby, I developed a new podcast hosting platform called BTC Podcasting, where Bitcoiners can host their podcasts for free and, at the same time, earn bitcoin from their listeners without the need to run their own Lightning nodes. BFF wants to encourage communities to start their own podcasts. Given that the cost for internet bandwidth is very high and the speed also doesn’t allow video streaming in many African regions, we learned that audio is a much better medium through which to reach people.
Documentary: How Bitcoin Enforces Human Rights
One of the most compelling reasons for me to start working with and for Bitcoin was the humanitarian and social aspects. The possibility to stick it to authoritarians and take the power out of their hands and put it back into the hands of the people was compelling.
During the last six years since I started in the Bitcoin space, it became clear to me that only Bitcoin delivers fair access for anyone to take economic action and that it is essential for enforcing human rights. This is the reason why I called my NPO initiative “Bitcoin For Fairness” and why I wrote an essay for Bitcoin Magazine about “How Bitcoin Enforces Human Rights.”
I also produced a podcast and a video documentary about it, so that people can share these thoughts easily with their peers. The importance of the Bitcoin project may not be underestimated. It’s our only shot to regain digital and financial privacy and to have an alternative system for the short-sighted, debt-based and consumption-driven fiat economy. If we mess up, there will be no similar freedom project in the near future.
Learnings
Blockchain technology and crypto are big in African countries. But the differences between Bitcoin and altcoins are widely not understood. Altcoins and their marketing departments have done a great job of letting people believe that they are the better Bitcoin, telling them that the original is slow and not scalable. Even the people who are organizing events and sharing crypto knowledge haven’t heard of the Lightning Network or sidechains like Rootstock or Liquid yet.
In most countries, crypto and stablecoins are king. Only in Nigeria is the share of Bitcoin usage higher than that of altcoins, as I was told by Ray Youssef, the CEO of Paxful. In Zimbabwe, a trader who exchanged a volume of $6 million in 2021 told me that most people are using USDT, and only a handful of convinced Bitcoiners are HODLing.
There are hundreds of free guides, tutorials and videos about Bitcoin, but where to start? Five out of 50 people at my first talk in Lusaka were interested in Bitcoin only. They are isolated and far away from where the experienced users and developers are — it’s hard to catch up. They can’t afford to attend Lightning hackdays or other Bitcoin-focused conferences, which are mostly in the U.S. or Europe. Traveling to other African countries is expensive and cumbersome.
There is a need for more boots on the ground to share knowledge and tools. Nobody I had met at my talks was using a hardware wallet. The devices are very expensive for the average person and hard to get. I gifted a BitBox02 to a friend in Zimbabwe two years ago and he told me that he hadn’t set it up yet.
There is a need for more local Bitcoin infrastructure and the Africa Free Routing project is a great start, because the two nodes I was able to bring are not enough. One great example of a solution built for Africa by an African is Machankura, a custodial Lightning wallet, which allows you to send and receive bitcoin on a feature phone without internet connection. It’s using the same technology that mobile money providers in Africa have been using for years called USSD. We used it in Zambia.
Going Forward
Building in the bear market was not an easy task, but thanks to the BFF volunteers and donors, we did so. Our goal for 2023 is to focus even more on education around self custody and privacy.
One thing we learned is that after all of the crypto scammers who have been hitting the African continent, building trust by being on the ground is essential. But it’s not enough, there has to be a possibility to stay connected and offer further knowledge to the communities and especially the individuals who are driving their groups.
That’s why I’m going to build a community site with online courses and education around non-KYC bitcoin, privacy tools and, of course, self custody in 2023. At the same time, BFF’s goal is to find more volunteering translators for the Bitcoin flyer and to accompany Bitcoiners to develop their community podcasts and start earning bitcoin.
This is a guest post by Anita Posch. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
This is an opinion editorial by Obi Nwosu, CEO of Fedi and a board member for ₿trust.
In 2020, I predicted that Bitcoin would face attacks during the 2018 to 2023 period but would ultimately emerge successful by the end of it. Although I am not a prophet, it was clear to me that this would be a critical time for Bitcoin. When the bear market hit this year, we saw a “cleansing” of the Bitcoin ecosystem and an opportunity to refocus on its main mission of monetary freedom.
The snowball started in the heat of July with the Celsius bankruptcy, which was the first sign that the ecosystem we were building was not healthy. The fact that we were using a decentralized currency to mirror the centralized financial system did not match the vision for Bitcoin.
This once again highlighted the existence of two alternate and diverging realities for Bitcoin: “real” Bitcoin, which is rising from the bottom up and focuses on the value Bitcoin can bring to the world, and “regulated” Bitcoin, which is focused on price and committed to regulatory systems and adoption through speculation.
I sold Coinfloor in 2021 because I realized that exchanges like ours were too often dedicated to keeping their users trapped in regulated Bitcoin land. As we near the end of 2022, the negative effects of this have been painfully demonstrated by the collapse of FTX, the regulatory fallout and the losses incurred by so many innocent people.
On the other hand, real Bitcoin is flourishing in the Global South and post-Soviet regions, where innovation is addressing the narrative that Bitcoin has no good use cases. For instance, a new version of frontier towns is emerging, combining renewable energy, Bitcoin mining, internet connectivity and community custody. As I have long suspected, real Bitcoin adoption can only come from the people, and Fedimint and Fedi seek to be key in achieving hyperbitcoinization. The world will experience the most primitive form of protection — humans united — translated and turbocharged through the highest technology.
In the coming years, communities will play a crucial role in defining the path for Bitcoin. Bitcoiners are already empowering communities around the globe, but it is vital that our global community also stays united to win this battle. As I predicted in my 2020 post, we will certainly succeed in this endeavor and so I am more convinced than ever that Bitcoin will win in 2023.
This is a guest post by Obi Nwosu. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
Home for the Holidays Adoption Special: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays, through Dec. 31, Burlington Animal Services, 221 Stone Quarry Road, Burlington. Adopt any dog or cat for $15. Adoption fees include spay or neuter and vaccinations. www.burlingtonnc.gov/pets. Animal Services is currently full and at capacity. Fosters are needed too. BAS supplies food, supplies and all medical care for pets in foster homes. www.burlingtonnc.gov/foster.
Free Cat and Dog Adoptions: 1-4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, through Dec. 31, Rockingham County Animal Shelter, 250 Cherokee Camp Road, Reidsville. Adopt any cat or dog without paying any adoption fees. In partnership with Best Friends Animal Society. 336-394-0075, rockinghamcountyanimalshelter.org, bestfriends.org/rockingham-county.
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Adoption Event: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Jan. 7, Greensboro Science Center, 4301 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro. With Guilford County Animal Services. Also, free rabies clinic in the front entrance circle for cats and dogs. Guest animals are not allowed inside of the GSC. City of Greensboro Waste Reduction and Recycling will be on site demonstrating ways to reduce waste when purchasing pet products.
Wellness Clinic: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. second Saturday, RCSPCA Building, 300 W. Bailey St., Asheboro. Wellness checkups, skin and ear checks, heartworm tests, pet weighing, microchips, vaccines, preventative medicine. 704-288-8620 or info@cvpet.com.
Volunteer Days: 10 a.m. Sundays, Carolina Veterinary Assistance and Adoption Group, 394 Cook Florist Road, Reidsville. Walk, brush, interact with pets, gardeners are welcome to help in the community garden. 336-394-4106 or www.cvaag.org.
Adoption Fair: noon-3 p.m. Saturdays, PetSmart, 1206 Bridford Parkway, Greensboro. With Juliet’s House Animal Rescue. julietshouse1@gmail.com.
Cat Adoptions: Sheets Pet Clinic, 809 Chimney Rock Court, Greensboro. $100 for one cat, 6 months or older; $150 for two adopted together to the same home, 6 months or older. $125 for each kitten, $200 for two kittens adopted at the same time. Fees includes spay/neuter, microchipping, testing for feline leukemia and/or feline immunodeficiency virus, current and age-appropriate vaccinations, FeLV vaccinations for kittens, flea treatment, and deworming. All adoptees receive an “exit exam” from a veterinarian before going home. Every cat or kitten adopted from Sheets Pet Clinic receives half-price vaccinations for the rest of its life, if brought in for yearly wellness exams. Every cat receives one-month free pet insurance. Also, adoption fairs, 1-3 p.m. on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month. petadoptions@sheetspetclinic.com or www.sheetspetclinic.com.
SPCA of the Triad: Open for adoptions from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays and noon-4 p.m. Sundays, 3163 Hines Chapel Road, Greensboro. Submit an adoption application and wait for approval email. www.triadspca.org, www.facebook.com/TriadSPCA, www.instagram.com/spca_of_the_triad/. Funds are needed for SPCA’s new 9,000 square foot, $3 million facility which will hold more than twice as many homeless pets than the current shelter.
This is an opinion editorial by Kal Kassa, an Ethiopian Bitcoiner.
2022 was an exciting year for the global Bitcoin community, and particularly African Bitcoiners. With a large population that is much younger than many other continents, the 54 countries of Africa are increasingly primed for Bitcoin with a growing arsenal of educators, advocates and developers.
As we look toward the future of what is possible with sovereign money, especially in the areas of the world that can benefit most, it’s helpful to review some of the news and highlights to come out of Ethiopia, a country that could emerge as one of the leaders in Bitcoin adoption and innovation in the year to come.
Yilak Kidane ran a full Bitcoin node using a Raspberry Pi 4 and live streamed the process from Addis Ababa.
Dr. Abiy Ahmed, the prime minister of Ethiopia, encouraged the country’s institutional bankers to research innovative technologies “like cryptocurrencies.” These comments were made at an inaugural celebration for the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia at its headquarters building.
An introductory class titled “Bitcoin 101” was held in Addis Ababa as an effort to increase education and adoption. These classes were inspired by books from Bitcoin-focused authors like Jimmy Song, Andreas Antonopoulos and Saifedean Ammous.
Paco de la India (aka, Run With Bitcoin) traveled to various cities in Ethiopia to spend time with early adopters and bitcoin-accepting merchants. India also held a Bitcoin meetup in Addis Ababa, sharing sats (fractional amounts of bitcoin) with more than a dozen attendees.
Going into 2023, I am full of optimism. Bitcoin is indeed a powerful tool unlike any money the world has seen. And as with any powerful tool, great care and responsibility should be taken. Stay humble, stack sats and have a beautiful new year!
This is a guest post by Kal Kassa. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
