Name: Walton

Country: United Kingdom

How long have you been into Bitcoin and what got you interested?

I first bought bitcoin in August 2018, after being repeatedly pestered by a friend who was a maximalist. I was skeptical of the concept of Bitcoin, but after being convinced that Bitcoin had absolute scarcity, and more importantly, an independently verifiable supply - I was sufficiently convinced to buy my first sats. At the time I was trying to get a business off the ground and didn’t have much fiat to put in - but I tried to start SAVING again… a million sats here, a million sats there.

Best Bitcoin experience and worst Bitcoin experience?

My best Bitcoin experience was probably meeting about 100 bitcoiners in Miami in April, at the Conference and at satellite events, many of whom I’d spent hours and hours talking to on Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces, podcasts etc. Bitcoin plebs have a rare optimism for the future - a stark contrast to nocoiner normies.

My worst experience was thinking I’d lost a bunch of sats on my lightning node, in the very early Plebnet days (about a year ago)....but actually all that happened was that my alias was too long; SSH’ing into my node & changing it to something shorter and it was back to running normally.

What is the biggest fail you have seen in the Bitcoin world?

The Nic Carter self-immolation

Explain what CoinBeast is?

Bitcoin education is time-consuming, challenging, and sometimes convoluted. To understand Bitcoin requires individuals to grasp concepts from a variety of disciplines. All Bitcoin education can be free - but requires more time and more capacity to learn & work independently. As I like to say: “with full sovereignty comes full responsibility” - and this responsibility can be daunting for many - especially when it comes to taking self-custody for the first time.

Some individuals may elect to hire a Bitcoin Tutor to help bolster their knowledge & understanding to a level that they can be more sovereign - and take that step independently. Other people may be interested in mathematically modeling their mining returns, or learning to run their own node. At CoinBeast they can book a 30/60 minute call with a “Pro” of their choice for bespoke 1-to-1 Bitcoin education (coinbeast.com/connect). I joined the team a couple months ago and haven’t looked back. I’d been in private education for a long time, mainly tutoring Math, so tutoring Bitcoin also had great overlap.

What is the council of Autism and who else is involved?

I used to spend a lot of time on Clubhouse talking to Bitcoiners, but left because the community there started being too soft on shitcoiners, with some Bitcoiners pushing pro-Cantillon assets like NFTs. Twitter Spaces had just launched, and so I hopped over.

After a couple of months in Spaces, being a regular co-host in others, I launched a new space - once again because the regular Bitcoin Twitter spaces were being too soft on shitcoiners, giving them platforms to spout disingenuous takes.

I formed The Bitcoin Council of Autism - a place that would put the principle of truth above niceness, that would put integrity over popularity. Shinobi and TC were co-founders, with Jim, Ant, Magoo, L0n0 and Tarantula joining not long after. Unlike basically every Bitcoin Twitter space, we never record our spaces, instead providing a space where Bitcoiners can hang out, shitpost, and occasionally learn - without fear of not appearing as a polished speaker on a recording.

How can people attend one of your council of Autism spaces?

Make sure to follow The Bitcoin Council of Autism on twitter - we run spaces 3-4 nights a week - usually for a few hours from 4.20 CT (sometimes 6.15ET).

Why do you think meming is important in Bitcoin?

“A picture is a thousand words” - it can make communication more efficient.

Humor is a key factor to drive virality, so memes can also spread the message further than information heavy tweets/articles/podcasts etc.

Memes are also a low demand on time, so can be taken in quickly - an individual’s time is the only thing more scarce than bitcoin…

What is your favorite meme of all time?

Laser Eyes til Fiat Dies.

Why is there so much drama between meme crews? 

I think it is largely artificial, a marketing trick.

Why is Bitcoin Toxicity important?

Bitcoin “Toxicity” is usually a misnomer. The fiat world has incentivised individuals who have high “political quotients” - essentially individuals who are good at manipulating the behaviors of others. They frame ideas disingenuously and then leverage “politicized niceness” against those who speak out against them. Many Bitcoiners are autistic and will (can?) not tolerate mistruths spoken by others. The label of “Toxic” is a prime example of high PQ individuals resorting to ad hominem attacks, to try to win in the court of public opinion.

Integrity is important. Fiat maximalists want to frame it as toxicity because they want to get away with their scams, usually targeting “lost souls” who have high time-preference, cultivated in the fiat world. Bitcoiners should continue to call them out - because Bitcoiners should continue to tell the truth.

Who is the biggest Bitcoin sell out of all times that deserves to be put on blast?

Bitcoin sell outs don’t deserve more attention, since that’s what they crave. Bitcoin sell outs are almost always midwits who think they’re smarter than they actually are.

Who are some of the most hardcore Bitcoiners you know and why?

Chateau members. This requires no further explanation.

What are your thoughts on this recent pull back in the market?

It’s a chance to continue to buy cheap corn - which incentivises me to work even harder.

How long do you think it will take to turn this around?

I don’t care tbh. I came into Bitcoin in a bear market - it’s a great time for learning more about the tech, and the tech developments (lightning is getting tough to keep up with)!

Why do you think some people, especially noobs, gravitate to shitcoins?

So, I’ve never bought a shitcoin - in large part thanks to being orange pilled by a maximalist - but also recognising that independently variable supply and absolute scarcity are of utmost importance.

Many noobs gravitate to shitcoins for three reasons:

• High time-preference - essentially despairing individuals looking to gamble

• Misunderstandings about “diversification”

• Shitcoiners have exploited internet and traditional marketing organizations by paying influencers to drive traffic to articles on shitcoins - this then drives those “data-driven” organizations to produce more articles on shitcoins

Why do you think Bitcoin plebs are important?

Bitcoin plebs are individuals who have recognised that fixing the money enables them to work on fixing themselves. They are principled individuals, trying to better the lives of themselves and those around them. Plebs are people who know that it’s only by fixing themselves that we have a hope of fixing the world.

Why do some Bitcoin influencers hate Bitcoin Plebs?

Because plebs telling the truth gets in the way of cringefluencers/simpfluencers monetising their followings.

What are your thoughts on the future of Lightning?

I’m bullish as fuck. Lightning is a very exciting technology that will significantly help with scaling Bitcoin to more users - but there is still a lot of work to be done - especially with regards to privacy.

Why do you think shitcoiners underestimate Bitcoin and Lightning?

Because they don’t do the work to understand it - or they do understand it but are morally corrupt, and will put down Bitcoin and Lightning to pump their shitcoin bags.

What do you think of ESG finding its way into Bitcoin?

I think we should reject fiat-maximalist corrupt framing of things - but it is also possible to argue that Bitcoin is the most ESG-friendly commodity.

What Bitcoin innovations have you the most fired up lately?

Taproot - but it still needs to be implemented by many wallet providers.

What are your goto Bitcoin storage options?

I love multisig - the redundancy is especially very appealing - and, if seedless, makes transitioning to self-custody much easier than using a single signing device for a single-sig wallet. Self-hosted multisig is even better (obviously so for privacy), but requires a little more technical understanding.

Any tips you want to give to people new to Bitcoin?

NOT YOUR KEYS, NOT YOUR COINS.

Self-custody, and don’t seek yield on your bitcoin.

Know that you now can SAVE effectively for the long term, and focus on building your business, your income, your family and your life.

Name some of your favorite information sources and/or podcasts in the space.

Lopp.net

Bitcoiner.guide

Kycjelly.com

Simply Bitcoin (Phil where’d you go!?)

Bit Buy Bit

BTC Sessions

Any last words?

FUCK SHITCOINS