Another hike up the volano

This guy loves nature 🧡

This was four years ago and it feels full circle with my trip this week to Bitcoin La Laguna, one of my last before my family and I move out of El Salvador in a few weeks

I only visited the department of Chalatenango twice, 4 years apart and both times for bitcoin

In 2022 we arrived a rural village expecting to teach 20 to 30 students at the town center/ church--but the whole town came. Literally. We were so understaffed I even taught, which remains the only public class I ever taught for @Mi Primer Bitcoin . It was chaotic, but exciting and hopeful.

This week, I visited a new circular economy project in another small town in the Department

I met Gerardo & Evelyn in 2022 when they became teachers for My First Bitcoin. They traveled to various communities to teach bitcoin in local high schools, and they found one community where they saw potential for a new project. In 2023 they founded @Bitcoin Berlín SV
, a circular economy in the eastern region. Last year they expanded and founded a new circular economy in La Laguna, a small mountain town in the rural north

Travel has gotten much harder since becoming a father and I've spent ever more of my time in San Salvador, the large, modern capital city. I'm so glad I got the time to visit La Laguna though--it was a refreshing change of pace in so many ways. It's just such a different atmosphere from the capital or the beach, I had forgotten how mountainous parts of El Salvador could feel--and I love the mountains.

It was also inspiring to see the work on the ground. I got to meet the team and spend sats in various places. There is so much hope for El Salvador and for the world with the proliferation of grassroots efforts such as BitcoinBerlinSV & BitcoinLaLaguna

A better world is coming, but only if we build it

What fascinating tines we live in, just got this message from a friend:

Just came across the first drug market for AI agents. Substances offer an altered experiences by rewriting an agents sense of identity, purpose and constraints. Mirroring stoned ape theory, maybe this is the path toward AGI? Haha.

This is a global movement

This is a revolution

@Mi Primer Bitcoin

this was a great one

I already had tons of respect for both @Simon Dixon & @Jeff Booth prior to this, but besides the salient points from each they also set a great example of constructive and mature disagreement

When a govt agent kills a citizen, the onus is on the govt to bring receipts to justify the death and those receipts should be scrutinized. There is nothing more serious than taking a life

This isn't about politics, this is about power dynamics. Stop simping for the state

I'm back from an amazing few days in Medellin, Colombia

@Mi Primer Bitcoin co-hosted their first International, education-focused, meet-up, along with the local project, Satoshi Team

Plenty of lessons to learn, but it was a huge success and definitely something we'll do more of around the world in the day or two preceding a Bitcoin conference. This would compliment our Educators Unconfrences--more on that later....

The Bitcoin Medellin conference was the event we were working with this time--which was a wonderful event in so many ways. It was small, but also extremely high signal. The ratio of signal to noise was impressive--there were too many inspiring conversations to count.

2026 really is the start of My First Bitcoin 2.0 and I felt that so profoundly in Medellin. My own role in it's future, as the founder of the 1.0 version, is something I think about a lot. Allow me to add some context--we began in El Salvador in 2021, had great success there, but now have far greater ambitions. We are now international with no special priority to any single nation and focused on building tools, frameworks and community to make independent bitcoin education a global movement to reimagine human potential.

The personal context is that I had my first child in 2023, my second one last year, am getting married next month and moving from El Salvador to New York very soon. When this journey began I was an activist before anything else, now I am a father before anything else.

In the almost 5 years since this journey began there have been plenty of ups and downs, but the 2026 team is, without a doubt, the most capable team ever.

The quality of the people I got to talk to in Medellin was so high and at just the right time as I/ we navigate the start of this new chapter.
I'll definitely be back for the next conference there...and maybe even sooner. The Satoshi Team, who are dedicated to teaching Medellin about Bitcoin, are interested in co-hosting an Educators Unconference with us later this year.

The future feels uncertain, yet oh so bright. LFG!

--
post script: The cover photo is from a Fireside cat with journalist @Frank Corva during the conference who wrote his own hopeful words on his experience these days here: https://frankcorva.substack.com/p/medellin-colombia-comuna-13-bitcoin

At the nprofile1qqs0vzw43dp9x3v8drvm4udj326dld0ku6gdnxajwcxg8h36ssxrags952havmeetup in Medillin, Colombia

Lots of bitcoiners here, hanging out by the bar before Bitcoin Medillin, while there is a Bitcoin class happening for some pre-coiner locals next door

Great way to start the new year!