Starting last year, my life started to change a lot as I was living in the country that started the war in Ukraine. But my post is not about politics.
Most of our citizens faced reality when bank accounts started to be restricted, cash withdrawal limits were set, and the country was disconnected from using VISA and MasterCard outside the country. People began to realize that they did not own or control their hard-earned money, nor could they dispose of it as they saw fit.
To my personal luck, I had some sats in my wallet for a long time and it helped me a lot until I was able to withdraw the balance from my bank accounts.
Then another disaster happened, I lost my job and my only source of income and I had to move to another country where I have been for a year and where bitcoin is not restricted by repressive laws, which helped me a lot. In the new country I didn't even try to get bank accounts. Trust has been lost definitively and irrevocably.
At the moment I use either cash or sats. It's hard, it's uncomfortable and unfamiliar, but I feel this taste of complete freedom and the realization that right now I truly own everything I've earned and no one can take it away.
When you live in a peaceful country and occasionally use sats for payments, it's not the same experience as when you just have no other option but to start using bitcoin to survive. It changes the perception and attitude towards hard money and fiat a lot.
My journey continues, I still have to use fiat as not everyone wants to mess with bitcoin, but I'm working on explaining and teaching people and showing them the bright side.
Peace, everyone.
In which NATO country did you live then?
From the first sentence I assumed he was a U.S. citizen!
I am a citizen of the Russian Federation, but I don't think it matters)
You're right, of course. It doesn't.
It's probably better to not start with a debatable political statement.
Pointing out Russia attacked Ukraine, and then fucked their message's credibility by saying that Finland and Sweden joining NATO was no big deal isn't in any way political.
Both countries are fucking terrible, and it's because of the figureheads that run both. The only people I remain sympathetic towards are the civilians, even those taking sides.
He said that Russia started the war. Agree or not, that's debated by a lot of people who say it's a result of NATO expanding too much to the east. Remember, only 15% of the world population lives in a country that supports Ukraine. Most governments don't take a side or side with Russia.
Even if NATO provoked it, Russia started the war. If I provoke a guy on the street and he hits me, it’s still him facing jail time.
It's a NATO war, period. Putin has done everything to prevent it, probably too much for too long.
Let's not take this political topic further. That's not what this post was about. Thank you
Understood, and fair enough.
does it matter? Just help the man in trouble, buy him a coffee with sats.
not really.. was just a pun :p
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Nice story! Please let me buy your a beer/coffee from a local merchant that accept BTC. And please tell the merchant your story and show them the power of BTC. Follow this thread I started 2 days ago Pay it forward
Thank you very much for the offer! Unfortunately, most sellers who accept sats use custodial wallets, or rather exchanges like binance to accept payments or onchain transactions, so it is not always possible to pay in the moment and you have to wait)
But I'll try to remember to remember and find the right merchant.
Did you checked here https://btcmap.org/? Or just onboard a new one That will be much better!
Yes, I checked, I've already contacted one merchant, promised to give an answer soon)
Great story :) you really understand the power that btc gives you
Cherish it!
Lightning network to me has made the Bitcoin Standard more possible and affordable to people in poor countries and low income
Excellent post. Good luck to you and have a beer on me.
Thanks)
Thank you very much for sharing this story.
This reminds me of Evie Hammond's speech in V for Vendetta. Sorry you've had to go through all this, but it's impressive how you found a way out to the other side. Thanks for sharing.
Didn't even think of that. Really similar) But in this movie there was a bigger change with her than my situation.
Yeah, but you're a real person (I assume) and you actually had to go through it.
The scary thing is that what is shown in this movie may actually become a reality in some countries, although a few years ago I would not have believed it.
I got off easy, you might say.
No kidding. When I rewatched it last year, it was way more disturbingly close to our reality than when it first came out.
Yeah, I agree.
Glad you were able to find someway to get money out and to take it with you, It really shows the power of this technology even if it's an unfortunate situation for you. Personally I am stacking sats with a high probability of capital controls coming here too and stupid high inflation more so than the 15% compounding we get per year for the last 25 years
Hope that you'll be able to get a job soon and start building a life for yourself, all the best man, keep up the good fight
Thanks
Life is messy and beautiful all at the same time. Thank you for sharing about your journey. I'd be interested in hearing an update about this.
A lot has changed since then and I'm in the process of preparing for a trip to El Salvador.
Best of luck to you my friend!
your bitcoin journey... were you already quite well educated on the subject before your money was frozen? it seems so? how long have you been involved with btc, and where, how did you you educate yourself?
Yes, you could say that the knowledge at that time was enough. I learned on my own, watching videos, reading books and forums.
In which country are now? Somewhere in South America?
Anyways, wish you all the best with your journey. We all must stay (geographically) flexible and leave oppressive countries and deprive their degenerate leadership of our taxes and brainpower.
I'm actually in Vietnam right now) I was planning to go to El Salvador, but I decided to spend some time in Vietnam first.
👏👏👏