Name: BTCDELICA

Country: USA! USA!

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

I got into Bitcoin in early to mid 2016. I had a friend who was getting into Body Building competitions and at the same time researching Bitcoin. Sometimes, this friend spoke of Coinbase but mainly how he was using it to transact in this Bitcoin ecosystem. This was novel to me, and I became really intrigued.

By August of that same year, 2016, I was on Coinbase, and the shitstorm that was Brian Armstrong’s business model was in full effect already. By December, I had purchased my first whole coin. The date was 12/14/16 and my total cost was $731. Yes, $731. But unfortunately, I lost most of this in the casinos of the time, ICOs and  trying to play with leverage. The ensuing dump and lack of experience became a big lesson to me. I learned not to let go of what I had acquired, to hodl and try again from the beginning.

Best Bitcoin experience and worst Bitcoin experience?

Best experience:

Definitely, the best experience has been getting a last minute opportunity to go Quartz mining with FractalEncrypt and SatoshisArk. It was an awesome experience akin to Fear and Loathing, hop in, no time to explain- type of situation. 

Needless to say, two days of digging in the dirt with these two plebs changed my Bitcoin path and mindset as a bitcoiner. Fractal literally got me hooked on Crystal, hahaha the ones you mine out of the dirt. I still go back regularly to the same area and try to stay in contact with our assigned Miner, Dave, from that first trip.  

The three of us were able to successfully orange pill Dave throughout the 6-7 hours of digging. By the end, it was Fractal, Dave and I left. By the time we had made it back to the shop, Dave was set up on Samurai, tipping him directly in sats, which to my knowledge he still hodls.

Spending time with those two, with SatoshisArk and I sleeping on Fractal’s cabin floor, on cots, was pretty magical. Three bitcoiners, literally mining crystal out of the ground, talking about Bitcoin and orange pilling a stranger. What could be better? This was literal proof of work in the middle of a National Forest, with other based Bitcoiners — the ultimate best bitcoin experience, hands down.

Worst experience:

Yeah, there was a bad experience. Worst of the worst. I got lured into a setup of selling virgin coins to a regular… He'd been compromised as were the sms/signal/TG chat logs. 

It was an absolutely surreal experience. I learned a lot about confirming and verifying. Assuming that this was a safe interaction, especially with somebody I had dealt with multiple times previously, viewed as a mentor and knew my family, I was eventually pistol whipped after being driven to an ATM because they confused the idea of selling non-KYC sats with having the money to purchase them.
What I must impart on readers though is to understand who you are transacting with, and never ever trust. Always verify, verify, and verify again. If you need help, reach out to someone and verify with them. Plebs strong, plebs united.

You are very outspoken about mining Bitcoin. Explain why mining is such a passion for you.

Bitcoin is the gateway to self sovereignty and freedom. Mining gives you even more freedom. It puts my financial freedom on a trajectory that provides KYC free escape velocity from the clown world, something I wrote about in Citadel 21 VOL 19 “A Meditation on At Home Mining”.

Proof of Work is a livelihood that allows me to exit the rat race, delete LinkedIn, FB, IG etc. The work of our hands, the investment of our time, and the due diligence we perform everyday is what will ultimately reflect and prevail. PoW is not only a legacy in the making, but also the spark that ignited the kindling of an eternal flame to guide and something to be able to encourage normies to opt out of the clown world's narratives. To not be sheep lost in a crowd of wolves. The ingenuity and remarkable impact of utility load balancing and testing, the harvesting of stranded energy off grid, the advancements in waste heat use, will radiate. The Proof of Work and the security bitcoin offers will radiate brighter and brighter as time goes on. It ensures our energy and time will not be harvested ruthlessly by others, distracting us from aiming towards and achieving self-sovereignty. 

As a miner, I take enormous pride for what securing the network epitomizes. I celebrate the exposure of unchecked greed Bitcoin brings.

As a miner, I watch, block by block, as we build a new Orange Brick Road to a Happy Destiny and a solid future. 

Bitcoin is unstoppable under any circumstance and I find enormous pride in supporting that as a miner.

What is the best way for people interested in mining Bitcoin to get started?

The best way for people to get interested in mining is by understanding what Bitcoin is; and what it is for themselves as well. Understanding core or how to code is not really necessary; you need to be sure that what you want out of bitcoin is a solid future. From there you can begin to digest the technical aspects of what being a miner means and how much commitment, discipline and resiliency you are going to be able to master in this life when the worst of times are upon you. Always make sure to take the appropriate time to execute your decisions, build outs, and don’t pass over the finer details. Run your numbers and dismiss ALL doubt, as now it’s in black and white and you can gut check yourself. If you are ever lost, surround yourself with people who build you up, establish good ties with reputable vendors, and have a good tribe of pleb friends who will help you in a crunch. Those are the true bitcoiners.

Your Network is Your Strongest Asset.

Don't look back in hindsight and say "I could have, but I didn't”. Don't let indifference destroy your future aspirations for generational wealth. 

After all, we’re securing the strongest, soundest monetary network thus far in human history, and will be rewarded handsomely.

Develop a philosophy towards your mining endeavor so that it may not only be a solvent endeavor, but also a profitable one that can deliver true non-confiscatable monetary security for you and your families' for multiple generations to come.

Do not stay stagnant for too long, but build. The world is changing and we’ve got to stay one step ahead. 

Then suddenly, all at once, you might find yourself in the middle of boundless, extraordinary and fulfilling opportunities and friendships. 

Things will happen along this orange brick road to discovery that you could have never imagined; you will meet people, make friendships, learn about the world, change your viewpoints, and in the end become a more responsible person. Afterall, your decisions in the Bitcoin ecosystem as a pleb, as a miner, as a participant on twitter, help direct the path of our bitcoin's culture.

What is the best way for people interested in Bitcoin to get started?

Hell, where to begin? Ideally your local meetup! You might be fortunate enough to have a local miner; but if that is not an option, get off your butt and off zero and go get you some Bitcoin!! Now, I don’t advocate for exchanges, but as a beginner you need to start where you are most comfortable, and some beginners have found that Swan, River, Cash App or Strike are useful to them. Although they all have their drawbacks; you take it as a learning experience and progress as you can at your own pace. For what it’s worth, avoid the purchasing platforms that afford you the opportunity to make poor decisions, especially in a bull market. That would encourage unit bias, greed for fast profits and missing the Bitcoin forest because your head is so far up the NFT trees large asshole to see anything else but your fiat minded gains. Measure in sats and understand Value Density. Measure everything in sats.

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

There have been quite a few. It’s a close race for #1, so I will just list in the order that it comes to my mind: Andreas, Trace, Greedlove, Willy, Pomp, Clemente, Nic (AGAIN) Novogriftz with his LUNA tattoo, Lopp and Luke.

Also, I want to give honorary mentions to team members and long time bench riders, Alfred and Porter.

Why do you think meming is important in Bitcoin?

They say pictures are worth a thousand words, but I’d wager they are worth more. Shitposting has united us. The infighting of bear markets has dwindled, and the dope memes are being churned out just as fast as FTX rehypothecated customer deposits. Memes come with the backing of 1000 words, communicating succinctly what a 1000 words could never hope to do. Clocking into meme world and shitpost have become indispensable components of the often toxic Bitcoin maxi culture. So too has handing out your GM's & GFY’s, clowning on the Faketoshis, Greedloves, Novogratz, Mashinskys and SBF/CZ et al. of the space.

Stay with the pure signal and don't let the noise destroy the ineffable future of what we’re doing — what we are a part of creating and ushering into not only our world, but the world of our children: ultrasound money.

What is your favorite Bitcoin meme of all time?

The Fight Club Pleb Meme.

Without the toxic maxis, we would all be pushovers. They are the true fighters, no matter how tiny or large their platform is. These are the bitcoiners that are our strongest plebs and the ones that will help you, fight for you and the network, and stick with bitcoin till the very end.

But in all seriousness, we are fighting an ideological battle, sometimes with the most dense individuals on the planet. Being a toxic maximalist is taking up a position in the Vanguard and calling out what you see, as you see it. Being a toxic bitcoin maxi is being truthful; in all areas of life. Bitcoin is prone to inflate individual egos. Toxicity is calling out obvious affinity, yield & all the other scams and shitcoinery we’ve mostly all been through to get here. But, we also work from within, holding each other to a higher standard than the clown world expects. See Breedlove for an example. 

We are simultaneously attempting to save newcomers from getting rekt, through education, memes and shitposting on the one hand, while also protecting what we have worked so hard for to this point on the other. 

We protect against the Ver's, Wright's, Armstrong's, JesPow’s and CZ’s of the space. 

We are the mechanics, diligently working to fix what is so fractured in the clown world, crypto and even Bitcoin.

We’re here day and night, shouting “NOT sorry we told you the truth you stupid bitch!” The old adage “The Truth will set you Free;” is what memes are all about. The bitcoin toxic maxis will set the truth on fire so that everyone can see, understand, and repeat until we are all set free. Toxic maxis have no problem being toxic, anywhere, anytime. 

Why do you think a lot of people don’t understand Bitcoin Toxicity and shit on it?

In my experience, it seems to be a cognitive bias. So many individuals are under the assumption they are terminally unique when entering the space, and that little to none of the wisdom disseminated by those of us who’ve been around the block, applies to them. 

Whether it is the above, unit bias or statist bias, it’s usually always ego and its insidious four horsemen of false-pride, fomo, intellectual fetish and laziness to self educate. Put your ego aside, put your views aside, and just be open minded to learn. Bitcoin toxic maxis are friendly; they’ve been down the same road as you and will help. Just ask. 

I find a lot of newcomers to be somewhat close minded about the potential of Bitcoin, and that’s no place to start your Bitcoin journey.Take the time to extrapolate what Bitcoin is and what it means for your life, and open your mind.

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

Hands down it’s got to be David Bailey, platforming so many harmful shills on stage over the years in the name of sponsorship dollars and who knows what else. We’ve seen so many shills and sellouts:. Mayweather, Novogriftz, O Leary. 

Now he’s attempting to fix the GBTC conundrum by organizing shareholders as if there was no prior conflation between him and other 'influencers' between unredeemable paper BTC (GBTC) and actual BTC. 

GBTC is one of the worst products to be normalized in legacy terms — in the clown world — of all time for me.

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

My 14 y/o ++++ 🧡, bitcoinbabybee, hodlonaut, HodlTarantula, Coinicarus, CryptoCloaks, SusieBdds, GHOSTawyeeBOB, mrhodl, Adam Back, Excellion, boner4bitcoin, JonPDiGiacomo, RD_btc, andhans_jail, GhostOfBekka, the_king_of_TN, ghostofwhitman, Sean Harris, Greg Zaj, Yellow, Ropium, Saylor, SatoshisArk, Barnminer, RoninMiner, Eric_RAIL, Rick @ CC, BTCSpeedBoat, Tomer, Gigi, Mr Hodl, Piratebeachbum2, Katia, Tarzan, Frito2x, Pubby, Anders, Parman, The Rodgers, Ronin, x21,  KyleoftheCorn, Chairforce_BTC, Surfer Jim, Padre, Pleb Miner Group, Barbour, Adam, Cory, Saylor, Wicked Smart BTC, Tselly, Cedric, Derek Ross, Stack Hodler, Caitlin Long, Lyn Alden, Preston, BTCSessions, Walton, Jedi, Drew, Yakes, Quittem, Paul the Bird Man, Gegelsmr4l, Nakadai, Alex @ KB and all the staff there, Rob W, cornokun, deniz & 58k gang, mandrik, 420anna, btc therapist, Pedro, hodl never sodl, fartface2k, mcshane, el barto, liotta, vikingo, foss (dont @ me), booth, toni hodl, marcus, my livin truth, copernicus, ln_prints, zucc, remnant, and ALL BTC meetup attendees/orgs and so many more. 

I left out a boatload.

For the most part these individuals have shown unwavering commitment to truth, Bitcoin, and supporting other plebs. Not all are perfect, nor am I. It’s hard to dole out praise without blame as a nearby companion. Most have stayed true to their virtue, are consistent and place the advancement of self sovereignty, sound money and maximalist culture above all else. Some post controversial content and I think that is genuinely important to have in your feed; because it makes you think not just about Bitcoin but about life and changing your view. After all, bitcoin affects not just your pocket and bottom line, but also your opinion of the world around you and the clown show we live in. All these plebs are or have been tremendously important in my own personal journey and add enormous value to the space. Upward and onwards!!

What are your thoughts on the current price of Bitcoin?

Relatively of little interest to me as fundamentals have NOT changed.

If we'd hit sub 14 I would be more attentive to following the price. But I am no Willy Woo (LOL). 

For what it’s worth, we’ve seemed to bounce off of the 16k crabwalk pretty firmly and seem to be gathering some steam, but all I've been hearing about is this is a bull trap and we're headed to 14k. So who knows. I'm no palm reader or TA magician. Never rule it out; there are always newbies embarking on the orange brick road to discovery, and some exit far too quickly. Those are the ups and downs. It will even out and be stable over time; but we’ve got it to hodl on.

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

Paging TA wonderkids… Paging all TA wonderkids….

Is Willy Woo back yet? What's Clemente doing? 

I keep my head in the clouds, and my feet on the ground. Price indifference is conviction, and almost Bitcoin Satori. In Japanese, Satori is similar to that of Nirvana or enlightenment, properly defined as a Japanese Buddhist term for awakening, "comprehension; understanding."  On this orange bricked road to discovery you will pick up that Nirvana, or Satori, and keep it about you. I try to continue building, contributing to the signal as I can and help to organize our Meetup. 

Macro voices I've found to be reputable: Luke & Lyn to name a couple. 

TA Macrovoices I trust: ZERO

What is the biggest lesson you learned from this last Bull market or want others to know?

1) keep a level head in the bull market and don’t find yourself over leveraged

2) I regret as a maxi not being more aggressive at calling out the other artists in our ecosystem that needed to be checked as well. The response to Breedlove was unsettling for me to see

3) fucking DCA, HODL in COLD storage and practice decent opsec

What do you think about the collapse of FTX, Celsius, etc.?

CEL, FTT, BNB enjoy(ed) unbridled access to creation of platform vaporware tokens, almost certainly out of thin air. Now, couple this with suspect record keeping or pathetic attempts to attest to this or proof of reserves push, because that is a true recipe for absolute chaos. The clown world is full of chaos; don’t let it infect our bitcoin world. 

Bitcoin can bring healing to fractured lives that may have been destroyed by the fractional, and more recently fictional, reserve central banking. From the rehypothecation that exchanges like FTX, Binance, Coinbase, Celsius, Gemini & all DCG entities et al. And the self custody fud disseminated in order to keep their business models afloat. All whilst knowing perfectly well that a majority of their clientele base is getting absolutely rekt by their poor offerings of useless coins and tokens.

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

• Looking to get rich quick or feel as if they missed the BTC boat.

• Unit Bias

• Cognitive Bias

• FUD from all directions (BSV, BTCash, mETH tards & the NFTs on top of them, Greenpeace, MSM, Shit journalism and misleading websites like bitcoin.com, coingeek, coindesk et al.)

Why do you think Bitcoin plebs are important?

Plebs make this what it is. We are the vanguard, the due diligence performers, the educators. Being a pleb — whether a taco pleb, a mining pleb, meetup organizer pleb or just a standard run of the mill pleb — this signals to me you have taken the time to educate yourself about the unchecked greed and dirty underbelly of the legacy financial systems, government institutions and aquired a basic grasp of what money is/was and how we got here into this Bitcoin world.

Plebs are an extremely high ethics bunch: doing the right thing even when no one is looking, doing what was said would be done and taking personal responsibility and accountability. Plebs are authentic and try fervently to save people from ruin, rather than viewing them as cattle to be milked for personal financial gain. True plebs will support you. They will help you, and encourage you to grow.

In my experience, rarely will you find one that will turn their back on you. Be warned they do exist!  

As a pleb, check yourself and who you came in with. Toss away any and all of the bad takes and doubts of the clown world, and foster within yourself a space of courage, conviction and hope. Hope will always carry you through. Faith is a beggar. Faith walks through the coals and hope jumps firmly over. 

Many of the plebs who I consider family, have done just that, and each is doing what they’ve come here to do, living out everyday of this journey in an authentic, genuine fashion, that is chalk full of utter passion for life, liberty, and happiness. Not to sound cliche, but it’s true.

What are your thoughts on the future of Lightning?

Lightning is controversial. There are some who say it’s a great invention and others who think it needs work. I’m in between. Lightning has some scalability issues. Now, hear me out: there are nodes that are running 24/7 and this allows the network to be penetrated (yes, it would need to be someone well versed in such a pen test but it can happen) and this leaves that entry point vulnerable. Not many Plebs know how to secure their node. 

Then we have the inability to process multiple transactions over the same time which in turn leads to slower processing times and I haven’t even touched upon the higher fees to open or close a channel as well as routing them. 

Then, we have the headache of offline risks associated with lightning network. Can they be improved, Yes! Do I know how, No! Are there people willing to learn that I know, Yes!

Why do you think people underestimate Bitcoin and Lightning?

It goes against everything you’ve ever been taught about money and payments. People don’t even understand how money is created, and inflation. Much less layer 2 fiat rails (visa/mc/discover/amex) settling on layer 1 legacy rails. Or FED repo and FED FOMC meetings.

Time preferences are high and open mindedness is often low. How can we expect normies to see it for what it is at first glance? Education and rigorous and disciplined research over a number of years is the remedy, and that is a personal responsibility which in my experience will eventually evolve to true understanding. A lot of newcomers in the realm lack any coherent personal philosophy about Bitcoin, and become disenchanted when they get rugged, rekt, dumped on from a shitcoin.

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

ESG? In Bitcoin?

ESG is becoming the dinosaur of the legacy finance world, and dying out slowly. But it's a fun spiral to watch. Kind of like a dumpster fire trying to flood itself out. We've got excellent plebs that are investing tremendous amounts of time and energy to fight this FUD.

What Bitcoin innovations have you the most fired up lately?

Nostr! :)

The various implementations of privacy focused tools, and hopefully more solid use cases built on LN layer 2 rails. (apps etc) There is much to be done with Lightning, and it will require tinkering, but once it’s ready to change the world, it will, more than it has thus far.

In the mining space; EFFICIENCY seems to be at a peak machine wise, and the newest open sourced material in the community is growing at a feverish pace. Open sourced Black Box schematics, heat recycling and hvac techniques, immersion cooling and running miners off grid with a standard water well access are some of the exciting things to watch.

On the exchange front: Bitcoiners’ wake up call to rehypothecation, magical unicorn yield, and self-custody. Pulling BTC from the hands of the exchange cartels, who are mostly reliant on shitcoin casino operations, many of which hold very little Bitcoin they sell.

Self custody is key to self sovereignty. So, I guess I mean to say that the curtain is falling if you have to use KYC on ramps. Bitcoiners are turning to Bitcoin ONLY exchanges like Bull (CA), Swan, Relai (EU) Cashapp, Strike, River, Unchained etc.

What are your goto Bitcoin storage options?

My family (teen daughters!) love to use pink Ledgers and Blue. This is fine with me, they're far ahead of their peers and most bitcoiners 2-5x their age and educational prowess. They attend meetups and have relationships with based Bitcoiners who have come to visit. Personally I rely on Muun, Blue and Sam for mobile, and would rather not discuss the nature of my cold storage opsec or how I operate my mining income dispersal. 

BTCSessions provides great educational material, as does Parman, on cold storage options, and I recommend that you do your own research and due diligence. Then choose what 1) you are able to technically operate and 2) what you feel meets your desired features and security requirements.

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

NYET SHITCOINS. 

Start putting in the time, sometimes 100+ of education and reading (that Saylor evangelizes), to form your own understanding.

MEETUPS! Find your local one and get in there, shake hands and absorb the signal. You can still remain anon even at a meetup! 

Don’t take financial advice on Twitter. EVER. Legacy markets or BTC. Anyone remember Mike Alfraud boasting about “under my direction my mother has allocated 10K to Bitcoin, what have you done for your parents” or something to that effect.(we were at the fucking top 58-69k, lmao)

Curate your Twitter feed to filter out the noise and introduce strong signal into your feed.

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

Citadel 21 & Pleb Underground in all forms (print, meme comps, featured articles and of course the print versions), Council of Autism, the plebs who shitpost and meme on the daily.

I find much signal is within these forms of communication. RD, Rope, Bekka, Sean, Greg, Yellow, a tremendous amount of more memers I left out and the true frens/plebs I have made along the way (HodlTarantula, Barnminer, Fractal, Yourself, Hodlonaut, Susie Tink), most Luke Gromen, 98% of Lyn Alden, Preston and Cecil’s Pods for platforming signal (what is an arguably difficult part to navigate with virtue as we've seen with Peter McCuck.) They have a keen ability to navigate these conversations and produce some of the best audio visual signal outside of Pleb Undergrounds efforts.

Any last words?

Opt out, and you will enjoy a future free of deliberately manufactured misery, chaos and FUD. Bitcoin provides the escape velocity: The ability to exit from the clown world. Channel your time and energy toward an overarching purpose, to secure and advance bitcoin. Patience is hard to find at times, but I aspire to be patient, as a dedicated miner and a crucial part of the network. Don’t get distracted from aiming towards, and achieving, self-sovereignty. If you’re lost reach out- any of the plebs I’ve mentioned in the beginning, along with myself, will be happy to help you find your bearings.