I walk again through the ocean, it's a hot and wet air with a kind of smell when your are walking inside of some giant wash dryer. But it pleasant, I like it...I like warm temperature in general, sometimes in the middle of the summer In Amsterdam I can put a heater on. I don't like cold swimming pool. I prefer heated jacuzzi in that matter. So, Cambodia is just perfect with it temperatures and what is even greater. You can smoke weed here just like in Amsterdam or even better. The last day I order bag of grass in the restaurant and they just added to my total bill and charge my credit card which I can still uploaded with BTC. I feel more needed here then in Europe, where everyone is fighting over position and power, especially in the bitcoin world, where we supposed to have most intelligent people.
For last five years I try to be active bitcoiner. In 2013 I placed first working bitcoin ATM in Europe in Amsterdam. The big giants of the industry where one year behind me. When we had a year later, the biggest Bitcoin Conference 2014 in May in Amsterdam, there were Lamasu, GeneralByte, BitX ATM, and even MyCelium guys build some prototype, but when you wanted to pay for one and take home, you will hear: - "Sorry sir, software will be ready in few months."
But Bitcoin ATM in Amsterdam was not really needed, I sell maybe 50000 Euro worth of BTC per month. When our friends in Paris did it every day. The good think was, that this ATM was first initiative to forget about banks their fiat money and create a self sustaining circle. All happens as always in life, unexpected. At first i had 2 Bitcoin ATM's in my living room, day later i sold one to the bigger miner in Netherlands. They can placed in their lobby where they were selling bitcoins. In the end they sell not even one bitcoin. The second machine i wanted to place in the center on Amsterdam. Which i did few days later, it's location becomes later Bitcoin Embassy Amsterdam. http://www.bitcoinembassyamsterdam.nl
The location where i place my ATM decide to accept bitcoin as payment for the drinks and food. I place a QR code on the ATM with it's bitcoin address, so the sellers could just send the bitcoin to the machine for free and observe on the blockchain if their bitcoins where sold. Every tuesday and thursday I sit in the cafe with a key to the ATM waiting for the sellers to come, to pay them their cash.
Today my concept is so popular that we have a company in Amsterdam and they call themself as well bitcoin embassy amsterdam, so I guess I succeeded in that matter.
Bitcoin Embassy Amsterdam, what start as a great and helpful idea, become a struggles of power.
I could predict it, I remember still myself as a lonely bitcoiner.
Everyone from us beginner's was lonely. Bitcoin on it's own in the beginning was a lonely category of interests in the end people didn't name it for nothing a decentralized network. Most of us had work from home, sitting behind large monitor screens, anonymous and autonomous people running biggest invention of the 21 century. We love it. It was money but without value yet, that give us a privilege to create something without jalousies among the participants. No one could could be richer the other participant, they could only earn more or less bitcoin of which the value was zero. Technology was the goal, to create a better use case for bitcoin.
This all end it in 2010 with a first 10000 BTC pizza we had a price discovery and everything moves from there. It's took 2 years more for real adoption, at first WikiLeaks then Coinbase to introduce "alpaca socks" and of course SilkRoad, the king in this jungle of anonymous payments, at least what most had think, they had to pay a price years later. Bitcoin becomes a fact, an event in human history. Bitcoin manage to enrich Us in just few short years. More and more people start to notice, more people could take an advantage of this amazing technology. More and more, "less-smart" people, they create greed in the space, the simplest human emotion introduce to Us was like a poison among not greedy individualist. Balans was lost. There was a big difference the most of them saw in bitcoin the mechanism to enrich themself. Greed took over technology, suddenly role has change, there were still some last bitcoin mohicans like Core developers or individuals as Charlie Shreem, Andreas Antonopoulos and others... but soon most of them will be eliminated, a boogey man with money was coming and he was coming soon.
We all get tricked, only few survive. Bitcoin meetups starts to appear on the world map of cities. Some are being good some are being bad, but at the time no one protest. To talk about bitcoin was good, in the end we had to inform the whole world about this technology, we have to give it in the hands of people. 2 billions creditcards user against 5 billions unbanked. Who will win this fight? I guess we already all have that knowledge.
We can all pray again :" Hodl Lord Satoshi, Hallelujah. "
I remember my first bitcoin meetup in Amsterdam. They call themself now Bitcoin Wednesday, back then it was just Bitcoin Meetup. They announced a location on their meetup page, Shouwburg Theater Leidseplein Amsterdam 19.00. It was winter january 2013, bitcoin price was at 10 $. After sitting home for 3 years in front of my computer, trying to figure out what more can i do propagate this technology, there were people meeting to talk about it. So i went to the theater to meet them. I was shy, so I walk around looking through the windows. I saw some group of strange looking guys, I make one more turn to walk again around windows so i could take a better look. Then i went home, I was still not ready. I did it every months, February I manage to walk into the cafe, to walk around them just to hear what they are talking about, but I was still not ready, so I just left. Finally we had March 2013 coming with it's 260 $ bitcoin price. Everyone starts to notice bitcoin now, this months i went to my first bitcoin meetup. We all just sit, walk talk with each other, being 1000 percent enthusiastic. In the and we had our Bitcoin to the Moon days.
As i travel i stay every two days in different location. I pay for my holidays from the trades i make on Yobit. I have around 18 BTC on the exchange, from which 10 BTC is in altcoins which i trade to double my bitcoin stash. I am no really a trader, when I buy something for 1, i sell for 2 or more, usually more, as every year i have a better knowledge of their highest and lover prices. As you all know everything in cryptos comes in waves. When any altcoin price went up it must goes down as well. You just wait and have to believe. From my daily earnings on Yobit, which is around 0.1 BTC per day I spend 20 percent on my expenses and hotels, 30 percent to learn locals about trading by giving them my affiliate from Yobit and after they open an account i give them 100$ in Bitcoin to start trading. The last 50 percent i save.
I started to preach Bitcoin last week, the night my six friends left to Poland to their jobs. The hotel i stay is run by Cambodian family, they have 5 sons all helping to run business. They were enthusiastic when i told them story about bitcoin, every day I stay they known more and more. They become even more enthusiastic when I told them last day that the way to spread this evangelie of bitcoin amongst people its to give them the part of bitcoin, so they can be now a believers as well.
- "More bitcoin you hold more you believe" - I told them - "So now i have to give you some bitcoin and I have to show you the way to multiply your belief by learning trading. I will give you each 100$ in BTC".
They were very happy, my total bill for a 5 days accomodation was only 260$ and i just give them 500. After I show them how to trade, I told them:
- "For every transaction you will made you are going to pay 0.02 % commision to the exchange from which i will get 20%. If you guys gonna be successful i am going to be successful too and I can give more 100 $ to people".
It's nice and easy, they earn 300-400$ monthly, so someone giving them 100$ in bitcoin its fine.
Next night I stayed in new hotel run by germans, clean and luxurious. There was a Cambodian boy working in the reception who arrange for me the other day the private speed boat, so i could take my polish friends arounds the islands and lonely beaches. I was sitting in the closed restaurant on the beach, it was 11 in the night, i start rolling the joint. Suddenly he appears from the dark.
- "Hi" - he says - " How was a speed cruise sir?"
- " Great. How are you?"- I asked.
- " It's my last day here Sir, i am starting my own business tomorrow. I open a shop with my wife in the next village".
I started to prepare my liturgical mass and soon he left with 100$ of BTC.
I am going to shower and then i jump into the ocean. See you tomorrow.