I was delighted to watch this battle of giants in person at the Plan B conference in El Salvador and witness in real time intellectual spears magically get transformed into boomerangs by these thought-smiths as they debated which one is better money—gold or bitcoin.

The match started with Peter Schiff trying to do a dirty cheat by throwing a curveball at @Saifedean Ammous by saying he would like to debate Tether Gold instead of gold. Saifedean pretended that simply didn’t happen and the debate continued with the pre-agreed conditions being honored, at least for a while.

Opinions were laid out. Saif was loved and Schiff loved not to be loved by the bitcoin-loving orange-glowy-eyed crowd. I think he really enjoys being the bad boy of bitcoin. A moment of respect to Schiff though for carrying the role of the villain with such fortitude and gusto for all these years and providing us with much entertainment. We’re loving it and I suspect the climax will very soon turn into an anti-climax when he stops resisting that big, juicy orange pill and swallows it whole.

I detour and digress, I know.
Back to the game.

Towards the middle, Schiff remembered his beloved dirty curveball and brought it back into the match, asking Saif again to discuss Tether Gold instead of good ol’ fashioned clinky gold. And that’s when the juice got even juicier!

It got so juicy that Juan Sartori, who had just two hours prior given a keynote speech on Tether Gold, forgot that he was team Schiff and just lost himself in the thrill of the game, his head going from left to right to left with a huge smile on his face, said smile being interrupted frequently by laughter. Was he thinking, “This is just as good as football”?

He was in my line of vision, seated in the VIP section, between myself in the pleb section and Saif on stage, and I expected him to jump up, fists in the air, and scream, “GOOOOOOAL!” any second but he probably didn’t know which winner to yell for with so many goals coming from both sides, so he didn’t!

That was a fantastic match to watch gentlemen. Thank you!

Now I simply cannot WAIT for the next round between these two as I’m sure it will be bitcoin vs Tether Gold and, wow, that’ll be even more titillating than this one!!

And I hope this takes place before crazy alchemists crack the secret of making gold in their secret old candle-lit caves paving the way for our god-candles to rise to the moon (new point for your next debate Saif. You’re welcome.) ;)

Link to the debate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiQBMFuRodE

Anyone who lives in El Salvador will confirm that the bridge of destiny between what you wish for and what is actually meant to be is a very short one, like watching someone on a podcast, losing your mind about something they said and then bumping into them within days and getting to ask them about it personally, which is exactly what happened to me last weekend at the Bitcoin Farmers Market when I finally got to meet the instantly-lovable Bob and ask him about those mystical men and that sacred message that they gave him during the war in 1984.



Backstory:

We were watching Bob from House of Life on Efrat’s podcast last week when he mentioned that during the war here in El Salvador, where he was courageously living at the time with his Salvadoran wife (and everyone who could was running in every other direction to stay alive), two wandering north American Christian gentlemen, missionaries perhaps, but also prophets, came to him to deliver to him a sacred message.

Although these words reached him more than forty years ago, and Bob didn’t quite know what to make of it at the time, he never forgot their essence.

The message was a wish and a prophecy.

The gentlemen told Bob that they wished for him to never give up on El Salvador because it had been revealed to them that El Salvador, The Savior, would be the country from which a brand new dawn for humanity would emerge and it would then spread like a blessed wave to the rest of the world, leading it out of darkness!

But who were these prophets, how was the message passed on from the silent world into their consciousness and, most importantly, what was the full prophecy?! Bob could not remember the other details they’d mentioned but he is just as keen as I to figure it out!

We’re now on a mission: To try to find these wise men and get the full version of the prophecy... but how? Bob said there were a few things he would try to do to see if some clue could be found but that I could also write about it to see if anyone else has any ideas.

If you are also as enthralled as I am and wanting to dive into this secret, sacred gem of a story, please spread this message with the intention that it lands into the right hands and finally reaches the eyes of those wise men who many years ago wished of Bob to never give up on this country… which he never did!

Here’s where I heard it first: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SH4GDejCdpY
And here’s Bob: https://x.com/bobmcdonell1

Guys--Bitchat in SV! Geohash #d4

Heard the sweetest orange pill story recently, all the way from Turkey:

Young Turkish guy @nobody wakes up one morning around 2021 with a notification on his phone asking for acceptance of WhatsApp’s new terms and conditions, a permission for nosey noses to be able to access all sorts of things on his phone.

It’s early in the morning and this pisses him off. He presses ‘decline’ and is promptly locked out of his WhatsApp.

This pisses him off even more, but this time into action, and he starts researching alternatives and educating himself instead of just bitching and complaining.

This then leads him to into the world of open-sourced alternatives that actually allow for freedom of communication and privacy by default.

Soon, he is on Fediverse and that’s where he stumbles onto Nostr. He innocently gets on #Nostr just to try out some protocols. I’m sure you can guess the rest if you’re a Nostriching bitcoiner, but I’ll continue. :-D

At this point he knew a bit about cryptos. Yes, cryptos the things you buy and sell to make money. The number go up thingos. Cryptos like bitcoin. (Keep reading dear maxis, there’s something here for you.)

Looking around Nostr as a newbie, he sees all these lunatics raving and celebrating the price plummet of bitcoin.

This is a bit non-sensical to him—why would anyone be happy if the price of a crypto falls? Ideally you buy for less, sell for more, then celebrate... They cray-cray?

He asks the shiny happy orange people, “Why are you guys celebrating? What do you know that I don’t?”

And so it begins—the orange pill delivered bit by bit: The Bitcoin Standard, The Sovereign Individual, “don’t trust, verify,” “bitcoin, not crypto.”

His life changes from that point on, very suitably and symbolically, in lightning speed.

It’s been a bit over two years. He’s now interning at #Blink , has been helping organize bitcoin conferences and will be making his debut as a speaker in a #bitcoin conference later this year.

This kid is only 24 years old!

This gives me goosebumps as well as so much hope!

The new orange dawn is here, illuminating the new generation.

It will be a beautiful new era!

Taylan kardeş—you are an absolute star!
Thank for sharing your story with me.
I’m sure it’ll make everybody smile.
Yolun açık olsun! 🙏