How much are your favourite Bitcoin #influencers, educators, and speakers being paid, by whom, and what does that do to the Bitcoin content and #podcasts we consume?

- Ads: A single 300K-view video can earn $5,000+ before sponsorships. The incentive is to create content optimised for emotional reactions and clicks.

- #Sponsors: Publicly filed press releases from a single Bitcoin company show a creator sponsorship at $22,000/month in cash and shares, and another exceeding $480,000 over 18 months. At that rate, what creator is going to scrutinise the service paying their salary? The audience never sees what wasn't said.

- Affiliate Deals: Some of the most recommended Bitcoin services pay creators up to $450 per converted lead. 57% of the top channels I audited had at least one undisclosed affiliate link. When that's not disclosed, you hear a personal endorsement, but what you're actually getting is a referral payment disguised as a personal endorsement.

- Conferences: Speaking slots, sponsors, and audience size feed each other in a loop that compounds and amplifies certain voices. I was offered a fully paid trip to a major conference plus a six-figure sum to present. Almost 1.5 Bitcoin. I turned it down because the offer itself was exactly what this series is about, fiat incentives everywhere...

I spent the last few months researching and writing the series, it's been cathartic. I'm glad to see that now this is an active conversation on Nostr. Here's all the data I gathered on the marketing side: https://daniella.io/bitcoin-marketing

https://primal.net/e/nevent1qqs20qkdpedrv5ps4thpt22utj275ncajyez4znn9eu4pk474ha3k5gcgvdj7

https://primal.net/e/nevent1qqspnstmxjc6tfm0pq8hs3evsxsr80wpe5h9rxecyg2dz6ezlr225mccny6vg

Yes, and here is why: https://daniella.io/bitcoin-marketing

Independent research across 169 companies in the Bitcoin space demonstrated that the larger the #VC raise, the more likely the company drifts into stablecoins, fiat lending, altcoins, or tokenisation.

Above $50M in funding, every Bitcoin-focused company drifted (16/16), whereas bootstrapped ones remain Bitcoin-only at 75%.

Find out why in this article from the series "Fiat Everywhere:"
https://daniella.io/bitcoin-funding

Strategy pays retail investors 11.5% in depreciating fiat while accumulating Bitcoin with no public proof of reserves and no redemption right. 80% of holders are retail.

It may not be a Ponzi, but the structural argument is that STRC rebuilds a Cantillon Effect on top of Bitcoin. The entity closest to accumulation holds the scarce asset while the participants furthest from it hold claims in the depreciating one. I traced the full capital structure from SEC filings and the prospectus.

Fully sourced analysis:
https://daniella.io/bitcoin-strc

The fiat system is being rebuilt on top of Bitcoin and calling itself Bitcoin:

- Saylor's #STRC is the Cantillon Effect reconstructed on top of Bitcoin
- Your favourite Bitcoin influencers are financially incentivised to not cover certain topics or disclose certain information
- One org's engineer merged 56% of all Bitcoin Core changes in 2025 while independent contributors "burnout" and disappear
- Every single Bitcoin company that raised over $50 million is not Bitcoin-only

I researched each for months; fully sourced:
https://daniella.io/fiat-incentives-everywhere

"The fiat system is being rebuilt on top of Bitcoin and calling itself Bitcoin."

For the past few months I kept seeing the same pattern: If we look at Bitcoin like an organization, fiat incentives have infiltrated every department: https://daniella.io/fiat-incentives-everywhere

- Sales: STRC's Cantillon Effect on top of Bitcoin
- Dev: Funded compliance & why independent contributors disappear
- VC Funding: More capital, further from Bitcoin
- Marketing: How money shapes the signal
- Plebs: A comfortable trap

A video covering the full series will come end of June/early July.
Zap what this research was worth to you.

Sales: https://daniella.io/bitcoin-strc
Development: https://daniella.io/bitcoin-development
Funding: https://daniella.io/bitcoin-funding
Marketing: https://daniella.io/bitcoin-marketing
Plebs: https://daniella.io/the-comfortable-trap
Where it ends: https://daniella.io/leaving-fiat/