Damus
Lyn Alden profile picture
Lyn Alden
@LynAlden
I see a lot of posts about Thanksgiving discussions on bitcoin. It’s usually from the American-style perspective, like trying to convince your normie drunk uncle and aunt, and they often don’t see the demand since they have top-tier money and their downsides are subtle. They are like, “why the fuck does someone need a BitCoin?”

Meanwhile, my husband’s equivalent Thanksgiving discussion will be far easier, since he is in Egypt with our family managing a new property build-out for nine people that we are doing, and their bank just blocked my payments to them for the next capital infusion for no stated reason. So now we have to do a bunch of janky high-fee remittance workarounds for a time-sensitive payment (like making your mortgage) and then expend our human capital to go to the bank in the US and figure out where this got blocked (our bank didn’t specify, but implied on Egypt’s side). Every bank sucks here. None of them were clear, which means the customer has to investigate.

The idea of self-custodial global open-source money would be inherently interesting to my family’s dinner if it catches on and starts to have more liquidity points in Egypt like it has in Argentina, Turkey, and Nigeria.

Meanwhile drunk Americans will be like, “What does a BitCoin do, lol?”
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Theory of Everything · 145w
https://image.nostr.build/993c7bf20776159c4775177150183b98de1653c6a454f91ae6c9736fbfa2dc86.jpg
Tatum Turn Up · 145w
“Tatum I still don’t understand what it is that you do or what these bits of coins are” “Well Uncle Cletus, I’ve explained it to you about 50 times and I’m starting to think you’re just a fucking idiot”
KaMeek Lucas Taitt · 145w
Completely. It’s hard for a lot of people in America to see a solution to a problem they’re not having.
Evan · 145w
Wow what a reminder of financial privilege. Happy Thanksgiving to you and the fam!
Mnm · 145w
Tell them you can own jpg's, that's clearly Bitcoin killer feature.
Petr · 145w
"Why would my payment/account get blocked? I am not doing anything wrong" - and if it never has happened it is very hard to imagine in countries with easy access to banking services. Then why would anyone need anything else...? How do you convince someone that it is even a possibility?
DougieT · 145w
My approach this year is going to simply pose the question ‘Why is Bitcoin still around and worth $37k?’ It fucking pisses me off that nobody has any damn curiosity to even try and figure out why. My entire fucking family knows I am a bitcoiner, and not one of them is curious. Like, I’m th...
Narwhal Tacos · 145w
Yep. My daughter backpacked Europe over this past summer. I spent at least 2 or 3 hours talking with banks & visa about why it wasn’t their fault payments couldn’t be processed. Even had one person ask if the payment was for ‘crypto’. I really needed that. I needed another nail in the coffi...
JB · 145w
I got you covered, Lyn. https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/how-i-talk-about-bitcoin-at-thanksgiving
Matty Mick · 145w
Bank wires when you understand Bitcoin are like asking someone to telegraph a note in morse code when you have email. nostr:note1mhjfsrgpw22l2zlfcrtxx27cm5a2yvtxtg8rhqq6p9wgv7w50n3sty3kgs
Paula · 145w
I hear you Lyn. I hope you figure something out for your family. I live in the USA and can’t persuade my extended middle-upper class family to consider Bitcoin. They are quite comfortable thank you very much 🍁 My family live in Zimbabwe and I can’t persuade them either 🤣. Maybe in 202...
SailToshi · 145w
So true only those that live internationally and send money internationally truly understand how fucked up money and banking really is. I tried to send 4k to NZ yesterday for a set of old sails and the transfer was blocked until we could prove where the money came from. Not only that when we did fin...
marek · 145w
Meanwhile the Egyptian banks marketing themselves: “Trust me bro.” https://image.nostr.build/e260c8e774c4c2c915207f86aa84e19a8a6d911a485ecfdca237da2e4c0e1faa.jpg
Brindon ⚡️ · 145w
😂😂😂This came from the heart. Sorry about this Lyn
Eric Gens · 145w
Eh, I only bring it up anymore if asked, at which point I'm happy to talk about it. This year, more hoping AI gets brought up than Bitcoin, and that's a change.
Gigi · 145w
But what does a bit coin do, exactly? 🤔
Scale Bar · 145w
Sorry to hear you can't spend Thanksgiving with your husband this year. Hope you have some family/friends nearby to enjoy the day! 🦃 I remember having to miss Thanksgiving one year, on a work trip in Germany. My colleagues were so nice, when they realized the magnitude of missing this holiday. T...
Smiffy · 145w
I sense that US banks are a lot more clunky and arbitrary than in Europe.
DN Comply · 145w
I’ve only spent a week in Egypt, but I can say anecdotally that in my entire life the only time I’ve heard someone shouting inside a bank was in Egypt. I think this anecdote is likely related to your post.
Breno Brito · 145w
Exactly, and you can find the similar people here in Brazil. Usually some upper class guy who works in a bank or is close friends with his account manager that says "Why do you need this? We have great banks and it is very cheap to send money abroad ($100)".
DougieT · 145w
Woo Hoo! I’ve got a Bitcoin relative! One that shitcoined around for awhile but is now Bitcoin only. #Thankful
Psilocyberbull · 144w
I went to my sister's, I cant have that conversation with her lol I gave her a copy of your book and said if you ever wanna read it, you have it. It turned into an ARGUMENT about me trying to "propagandize her" lmao baffled