You might not characterize the community of bitcoiners as a welcoming group of folks. Market forces have caused some of the most vocal among us to have developed a certain “toxicity”. And this is a rational mechanism of defense against all the nonsense scams, schemes and fraudsters orbiting bitcoin (and boy are there a lot of them!).
However, I have a more welcoming idea to share. You can be a “real bitcoiner™️” without subscribing to all the angry toxicity. I’d suggest all it takes is understanding what makes bitcoin special. I have been accused of not being a “real bitcoiner™️” at times. But, I don’t really care. I’ve been on a continual journey of educating myself and my friends about this technology. You can begin to climb the educational ladder as soon as you begin to become curious. Understand what bitcoin uniquely adds to the world: digital scarcity.
A partially ordered list of the stages you might go through:
  • buy some bitcoin via an ETF
  • buy some bitcoin and hold it on an exchange
  • understand what makes bitcoin special
  • withdraw some bitcoin to a non-custodial wallet
  • withdraw some bitcoin to cold storage
  • run a bitcoin full node
  • explore privacy preserving technologies like TOR and CoinJoin
  • buy some non-KYC’d bitcoin
  • convert all your personal assets to bitcoin
  • run a bitcoin miner
  • exclusively hold all your wealth in cold storage
  • exclusively use bitcoin to pay for all your monetary needs
  • move to El Salvador or another bitcoin-centric community/region
  • only participate in circular economies on the bitcoin standard
The beauty of bitcoin is that it’s a voluntary system that nobody controls. So don’t let anyone shame you into living up to their expectations of what it means to be a “real bitcoiner™️”. I’m somewhere in the middle of this list personally. The further I get down the list, the more curious I become about items a bit further down. I don’t expect I’ll be moving to El Salvador, but I’m a “real bitcoiner™️” and you can be, too.
I like this -- I've had a similar reaction over the years, where I've done the full loop from being excited by btc and excited to meet anyone who was into it, to having a default negative reaction to anyone who describes themselves as a 'bitcoiner', bc it's been so taken over by the sorts of asshats who take over most things. It's not really about btc, it's more about human nature.
Anyway, this makes me curious about what 'a real bitcoiner' means to me. I'm going to noodle on it.
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21 sats \ 2 replies \ @dk OP 6 Feb
I love to hear what it means to you after the noodling session!
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I thought about it overnight.
I think what being a bitcoiner means to me -- or at least, what I want it to mean -- is digging deeply into things. The origin of btc is technically informed people who dug into other aspects of how the world works. They were actually trying to understand the social world of politics and economics in the same way they understood tech, as systems whose functioning had implications -- often, non-intuitive implications -- for the world; and they weren't afraid, as outsiders, to get after it with the same intelligence and focus as they built other complex systems. If you read the old bitcointalk discussions they're both deep and broad. They were informed across a host of fields and topics. Not everyone, but many; and the people in the 'audience' respected actual learning. I wish I could have been there, live.
Contrast that with the dominant form of expression today, which is a sort of mindless tribalism, repeating standard catchphrases, accusations of heresy of one type or another, forming your opinion based on what some btc thought leader says. You can identify the thought leaders by who's built their personal brands on the podcast circuit. They've got giant bags, and they'll go through the talking points because ideas are now a threat. They have tons of hot takes on politics without knowing anything about politics, or history, or really anything. Their reading list is a circle jerk curriculum of warmed-over propaganda. Every so often I wind up on an airplane sitting next to a 'bitcoiner' and my internal voice always says oh shit.
So anyway, to your original question, that first type of active seeker and far-ranging thinker and builder, that's the version of bitcoiner that I'm holding onto.
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100 sats \ 0 replies \ @dk OP 6 Feb
Beautifully written. I'm here for the same.
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152 sats \ 1 reply \ @kepford 6 Feb
Love this
The beauty of bitcoin is that it’s a voluntary system that nobody controls. So don’t let anyone shame you into living up to their expectations of what it means to be a “real bitcoiner™️”.
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thanks for appreciating! 🤙
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220 sats \ 1 reply \ @kr 6 Feb
great post.
among all possible versions of the future, i don’t think there is a single one where everyone makes it to the bottom of this list… it’s probably a sign of a healthy ecosystem if the majority of people find themselves in the top half of the list.
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thanks, Kevin!
in our lifetimes top half of the list sounds healthy to me
on a centuries timeframe I think everyone arrives at the bottom
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The list is pretty spot on. I did these in pretty much the exact order listed
  • buy GBTC (basically like buying a ETF)
  • buy some bitcoin and hold it on an exchange (Coinbase)
  • understand what makes bitcoin special
  • withdraw some bitcoin to a non-custodial wallet
  • withdraw some bitcoin to cold storage
  • run a bitcoin full node
So I guess the next step for me is to explore privacy preserving technologies like TOR and Coinjoin and to buy some non-KYC's bitcoin (which I have not done yet.)
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the path of learning is endless! 🫂
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Bitcoin is a way of life. At 10 mil a corn, I’d be surprised if bitcoinism didn’t become the most dominant political/philosophical ideology on earth. At a certain point, one will either be a bitcoiner or a charlatan.
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Great list. I agree that paying for everything with Bitcoin will be such a power move that I will feel in control of my life.
Unfortunately, I don’t think my country will adopt a system in which we get paid in sats any time soon. Nonetheless, a bill payment platform has partnered with a crypto payment platform to allow us to pay for our bills in Bitcoin. Hence, I wanna stack sats from SN n other sources so that I can pay for my utilities bill with sats.
Big dream, baby steps
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the future may come a lot faster than you imagine. lot of changes afoot in the world that compound/accelerate
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My experience has been that bitcoiners are very welcoming. Can you elaborate on this point?
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10 sats \ 2 replies \ @dk OP 6 Feb
I've found many welcoming people in bitcoin personally. But there's a certain loud (possibly minority) that sounds very angry and demands compliance with their view of what are real bitcoiners. so I wrote this with the idea in mind that some people first heard about bitcoin through those voices.
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42 sats \ 1 reply \ @jgbtc 6 Feb
There are some people like this, but I've only seen it directed at those who I'd characterize as another "insider" - that is, at least involved with crypto/bitcoin in some way, or maybe some academic economist types or similar who think they have all the answers. I guess I take issue in particular with your usage of the word "welcoming". I mean, honestly, I can't think of another group on the internet that is more welcoming to newcomers who come with honest curiosity and even skepticism. Where things do get testy is with people who have already made up their minds about bitcoin and are looking for fight. Then, yes, many bitcoiners are happy to oblige (myself included). However, I reject this stereotype that we are not a welcoming community. It's just simply not true, and I like to call it out whenever I see it.
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very reasonable
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The twitter people that deem themselves "real bitcoiners" are a minority of a minority. There are plenty of people that own bitcoin that aren't even aware the toxic maxi "culture" even exists. I had to be made aware of it through podcasts.. because podcasters can't seem to shut up about twitter drama. Prior to then, I didn't even know that group of people existed.. and if you tried to talk to any normie about bitcoin, they'd have no idea either.
If you own bitcoin, you're a bitcoiner :)
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agreed 🤝
owning is enough
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👏👏
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @dk OP 6 Feb
💪💪
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I wonder if you mean that only those who are more curious are real Bitcoiner. Instead I am of the view that anyone who HODL and lives a life with Bitcoin, I mean he has enough to survive, is a real Bitcoiner.
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sure, I don't mean to force a minimum. but I was trying to include people who just think/support bitcoin even if they haven't taken an action to HODL yet. trying for a minimum bar of what's "required" 😝
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I see myself as a real bitcoiner.
But looking at your list, I realize I may not be as hardcore as I thought I was.
Can only check off 6 things of 15 on the list.
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if you've got even 1 of these you're "a real bitcoiner™️" in my book. the whole point is curiosity is all that's required. don't let someone's list tell you what's needed. 6 is a lot actually
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Cool that you copied the text here as well 🤙
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20 sats \ 0 replies \ @dk OP 6 Feb
it's so fiat to force you to visit my stupid blog 🤙
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You wrote: "I’ve been on a continual journey of educating myself and my friends about this technology." Which technology...? 🤔 Thanks!
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63 sats \ 0 replies \ @dk OP 6 Feb
so many details to how the bitcoin technology actually works - I still learn stuff every day
and also a huge world of stuff like lightning
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I think it's relative thing to categorize people as real bitcoiners, I mean if someone acknowledges bitcoin advantages but chooses to just hodl in an exchange not a real bitcoiner? It is in my book, sure he does not hold the keys in fact he just has some IOU but it's still demand for bitcoin, it's probably someone who would accept bitcoin payments. I think maxis get a "toxic" label from other mostly because we are bitcoin only, and saying to some noob that is into crypto that everything else except bitcoin is a scam without him understanding why that is might come off as extrimist "toxic" person.
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