Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Thank you.
(00:30):
Well, good morning, everybody, and welcome to Bitcoin Veteran Spaces number 253.
My name is Bob Van Kirk, and I'm back.
Sorry.
Sorry for missing yesterday, but did want to take a second and thank Texas Toast and
(00:51):
Captain Trips for taking over, taking the reins yesterday, doing a great job.
Got to listen to some of the episode and promise to listen to the rest when I have time.
But it sounded like everybody had fun.
And I'll be your host this morning.
Joined again, once again, by Texas Toast.
And it looks like we have Neil up here.
(01:12):
Pubby, good morning.
Bitcoin for Precedence, BFP.
And working to get some of the folks from the Mayan Bitcoin Conference up here on stage.
Have a couple of them already.
But if you're in the audience and you'd like to come up and speak, please do hit that microphone button.
We'd love to have an awesome conversation about this conference that's taking place.
(01:33):
And so we'll get into that here in a second.
But I do have a couple of announcements right after we look at the time chain stats.
Time chain calendar. Thank you, TC, who I see in the audience.
So let's take a peek at the Bitcoin stats.
(01:54):
All right, we are at Bitcoin block height number 912,098 with the Bitcoin price sitting just below 113,000, which means you can still pick up 886 sets for each US dollar.
And it looks like we are still able to send Bitcoin pretty cheaply on chain.
(02:15):
So consider that if you need some UTXO consolidations.
All right.
Another announcement here.
We have been talking about it quite a bit, but we have Bitcoin Veterans Second Annual Summit coming up on November 10th and 11th.
Check that out at BitcoinVeterans.org forward slash summit 2025.
(02:37):
It's going to be taking place on November 10th and 11th in Nashville, Tennessee, with day one being the conference day.
and day two, range day.
And so we're looking for people who want to get involved,
whether you want to attend, be a volunteer, be a speaker,
or you have an idea for panel topics,
go to bitcoinveterans.org forward slash summit 2025 to get involved.
(03:00):
Awesome.
I think we'll go around the horn, say good morning to everyone
as we continue to maybe get some more folks up on stage
that can join us from the My and Bitcoin conference.
And then we'll hop into it with them here in a second.
But did want to say thank you again and good morning to Texas Toast.
(03:20):
How are you, sir?
Good morning.
Doing great.
Pretty fired up, honestly.
I think that's kind of the goal of the media spin in our feed lately.
So trying to figure out the best way to channel that energy.
But it's a good morning.
(03:42):
Excellent.
Yeah, thanks again for being with us, and thanks for covering for me yesterday.
Neil, how are you this morning, sir?
I'm doing good, Bob.
For as much as I missed you yesterday, it just made me really appreciate knowing my bones,
how much I like your presence.
Glad to have you back.
Well, speaking of presence or precedence, let's see how BFP's doing this morning.
(04:07):
That's a pretty good one, Bob.
Your humor is intoxicating.
Good morning. Nice to be here. Thanks for having me.
Yes, sir. Always good to have you. Pubby, how's it going this morning, sir?
Hey, good morning. Yeah, you know, we hit down, what, 111, 110, 109, and it was going to a dollar again.
(04:28):
Way to hang in there, all of you hodlers.
And no judgment. Hey, if you've been here long enough to stack and hodl in order to have enough to smash by a Lambo,
you will get no judgment from me. Well done.
Lambos for us all, if you want that kind of thing.
Honestly, I've not even really been around one, but I'm guessing just due to my height that I wouldn't be able to really fit in one very well.
(04:55):
So that's not on in the cards for me.
But speaking of Lambos, we do have a couple of folks so far from the Mayan Bitcoin conference up here on stage.
I think Viva is going to do most of this speaking.
But guys, please do follow these two handles and everybody up here on stage.
But, yeah, this morning we're going to be speaking with Viva Bitcoin, it looks like, about this conference.
(05:22):
And maybe we, again, can get some other folks up here from the conference just to have a conversation and explain what is going on down in Mexico.
And I think this is going to be the conference for Latin America.
They're trying to bring kind of everybody together.
And, yeah, so I wanted to say good morning to you two folks.
(05:43):
And I think one of you will be speaking at least.
And so, Viva, how's it going this morning?
Thanks for being on.
Thanks for being on.
Thank you for having me on here.
Appreciate it.
All you Bitcoin Maxis, love you guys.
And we're spreading the Bitcoin gospel, you know, all over the world.
And it's always great to see people who love Bitcoin, who are passionate about it.
(06:06):
I see all you guys at conferences.
I see you guys all around the different spaces.
And we're trying to get the Spanish speaking people in Latin America, especially 130 million Mexicans in Mexico and all of Spanish speaking communities, over 500 million people who speak Spanish around the world.
(06:27):
And that's our passion. We want to preach this Bitcoin message in Spanish.
And we're having the first only Bitcoin conference in Mexico.
It's a bunch of Bitcoin maxis.
It's just exciting to see people come to Bitcoin.
You know, my wife just got orange peeled this year after about eight years of telling her about Bitcoin and being married 25 years.
(06:55):
She finally got orange peeled this year and attended one of our Bitcoin meetups this past Sunday.
And so if my wife can become a Bitcoiner, I believe anybody can become a Bitcoiner.
and it's pretty amazing to see all you guys out here.
I know a lot of you, like I said, and we're trying to reach the community.
(07:16):
You know, there's some of the great leaders in Latin America are Bitcoiners
and there's a lot of shit coining going on in Latin America and that's hard.
You know, it's hard because people try to associate Bitcoin with crypto
and we're trying to get the truth out there.
There's a lot of misinformation.
And when you give the message in Spanish, in Espanol, cuando hablas con el pueblo en Espanol, when you're speaking Spanish, it's easier for people to relate. Right.
(07:45):
So the conference is December 4th through the 7th.
And we're going to have a lot of great speakers talking about Bitcoin this year, December 4th through the 7th.
And it's going to be at the Merida Hyatt in Yucatan, Mexico.
So just a little bit of history about Medida, Yucatan.
(08:07):
The Mayans were the first, I would say, one of the first civilizations to use the number zero, which, you know, we all know with Bitcoin zero one and all computers.
So just the history there, you know, all that's happened in the region.
Many people have studied the Yucatan is where many of us believe there's that huge crater that hit there millions of years ago and, you know, destroyed, I believe, destroyed all the dinosaurs.
(08:41):
But the history there is amazing.
It's considered the safest city in all of Latin America.
I was just there recently in May.
You know, we're walking around at midnight, one in the morning, hanging out.
It's a great place.
There's a lot of culture.
There's a lot of history.
And I want everybody to come out, support the Spanish-speaking community.
(09:04):
Like I said, we're having speakers from all of different parts of Latin America, from the U.S., Mexico, Central America, South America.
We have people from Spain coming.
So we'd like for all of you to come out.
Yeah, awesome introduction.
man you touched on a lot of different things and uh wanted to actually start out i know we're going
(09:26):
to talk a lot i think about the my and bitcoin conference but wanted to ask you about your wife
i think it is interesting to see how um you know different people come to bitcoin at different
points and i think i would say recently uh my wife had the same um experience and uh just kind
(09:49):
Maybe by attrition from me.
But yeah, I wanted to ask you a little bit about that first.
And then, yeah, I have quite a few questions about the conference.
Very interested and considering attending.
But yeah, talk about this.
What finally put her over the edge?
How did she get there finally?
So I got into Bitcoin around 2016.
(10:12):
You know, like everybody had their journey, right?
I did a little bit of shit coining, you know.
sold my Bitcoin when I got in in 2016, you know, the whole thing.
And then I would say I became a maxi about four years ago.
But one of the things that helped my wife, my wife is an accountant.
She works for a CPA firm.
(10:33):
And all of a sudden, these past few years, all these people have come out, you know, to,
you know, they're mainly non-KYC, right?
Non-KYC people that have come out that had either Bitcoin or other cryptos on exchanges, right, who have either cashed out or old taxes or something, right?
So she got what they call in the accounting world crypto certified, right, where you help people with their taxes.
(11:01):
You know, people want to write off their miners.
People want to write off their energy.
They want to write off, you know, their treasure wallets, whatever it is, right?
It's a write off.
You know, your computer, you put solar panels up, you know, on your building to get energy to mine, whatever, whatever you can basically tax right off right in the United States, especially I'm in California, where they tax you, you know, about 50 percent of your income is taxed when you're self-employed.
(11:31):
So that was part of it. Part of it was she was seeing what was happening in the Bitcoin community or just in the crypto space. Right.
Which she started asking all the questions. And then her firm, her CPA firm, started calling me all the time about certain questions.
Hey, you know, this guy wants to write off, you know, his minors. You know, how many employees are that?
(11:58):
And then I had to explain what a miner was. Right. This guy wants to write off his treasure wallet or or this guy pulled his money, his Bitcoin out of cold storage.
So all the terminology really affected, you know, the CPA firm on, you know, questions about, you know, hash rate, this guy, you know, and all these different questions.
(12:19):
And so that was part of the orange peel process.
But I would say the biggest part for my wife, the real orange peel was the price of Bitcoin.
Right. Because I've been talking about it for eight years. Right.
So in 2016, 17, you know, it was about 500.
And then in 2017, it hit that all time high of 17,000. Right.
(12:40):
But but really the price she just over the years, you know, being skeptical, but then seeing how the price now over 100,000 this year,
and last year has really held.
And then all the new legislation that's happening in America,
where states like Missouri has, you know, no capital gains on Bitcoin.
(13:01):
Right. So so we start seeing these laws and you start seeing all this,
these different things happening. People start calling. Right.
People that, you know, for eight years thought you were crazy or people that,
you know, even even last year when Trump won, you know, when it was at sixty four
thousand and then it hit, you know, all time high, I believe it was one hundred nine thousand.
(13:23):
Right. So you start getting the calls. You start seeing that Bitcoin is unstoppable.
It's consistent. What you bought four years ago, what you bought eight years ago has gained in
value. So so people are starting to see the message. Right. And especially accountants.
You know, a lot of CPAs are real critical about many things to do with taxes, money and,
(13:47):
And, you know, just seeing the fact that I went to El Salvador last year and you could buy, you know, you could go to Starbucks in El Salvador and buy coffee, right?
You can go into a store and pay in Bitcoin now.
You see it.
So that was one of the orange peel, I would say, highlights is more than anything, the price.
You know, my wife's seen that the price, it's gone up.
(14:14):
Yeah, really good stuff.
I think it's always interesting to hear.
And you're right.
It is all of these fundamental things that have some people paying attention.
I think when it starts hitting your job, then for sure, you really do have to reconsider
maybe passing it off or just not thinking about it.
So I do think that's a cool story.
(14:35):
Thanks for sharing and giving that insight.
Did want to also though cover some of the other things that you had kind of said in your opening dialogue there So tell me what or tell the audience what inspired the creation of this event of this conference and how you guys it seems like are set to focus on Latin America and kind of set it apart from other global Bitcoin conferences
(15:03):
Well, what happened for me personally, what personally happened for me, I was going to a lot of conferences like Pacific Bitcoin, you know, Bitcoin conference in Vegas, you know, the Miami Bitcoin conference, Bitcoin Day.
I mean, if there's a Bitcoin event, I try to be there. Right.
Even in Northern California, we have Bay Area Bitcoiners.
(15:26):
There's, you know, there's there's Bitcoin events all over.
I went to the halving party with Sean Harris last April.
That was awesome. So I try to go to pretty much if it's Bitcoin, Bitcoin only Bitcoin event, you know, I try to go, you know, if it's a Bitcoin barbecue get together, you know, I go.
(15:48):
Right. And what I started to see, even in the Latin American Bitcoin conferences, I was going to, you know, plan B or adopting Bitcoin or, you know, any of the ones in anywhere in Latin America.
Right. Is what I started to see was they were mostly held in English. Right.
So the native tongue of the country was not being spoken.
(16:13):
Yo hablo español. I speak Spanish fluently. I can read and write in Spanish.
and I speak a little bit of French, you know, a few other languages.
But I was going to these conferences all over, you know,
and I was just in France not too long ago and I was meeting people.
I was able to speak to them in French about Bitcoin.
(16:33):
So my thing is when you speak the native language of the people, right,
you're able to relate a little better, right?
You're able to talk to them about what you believe, you know, why Bitcoin.
You know, people constantly ask me, you know, why is Bitcoin better than crypto?
Bitcoin, is it a pyramid?
(16:54):
Bitcoin, you know, was started by the government.
All the different misconceptions about Bitcoin, when you're able to explain it in Spanish with the terminology and the language of the people, you're able to orange peel more people.
And that's been my experience.
All my family in Mexico, Mexico City, have been orange peeled.
(17:19):
And a lot of my friends in Mexico, Latin America, friends in Guatemala, Costa Rica,
I have friends all over.
I've traveled.
I used to teach English in Latin America when I was a lot younger.
So a lot of my friends, when I gave them the message in Spanish,
and then I started giving them Bitcoin about three, four years ago,
(17:41):
I gave a lot of my family $50, $100 in Bitcoin just to follow it, to study it.
You know, they downloaded a wallet, you know, gave them a little bit of Bitcoin.
And I said, just follow it.
Just look at it.
You know, don't get caught up with the price so much, but just follow it.
And by doing those different things and going to different Latin American countries
(18:03):
and speaking Spanish, teaching Bitcoin, people are really, really hungry for Bitcoin.
Because in most Latin American countries, the money is so broken, the money is so corrupt, that in a lot of Latin American countries, stagflation, inflation, the devaluing of money is an everyday occurrence, right?
(18:28):
So like to give you an example, in Mexico, you know, just the peso is devalued.
So I would send money to family in Mexico and I'd go to Western Union, right?
I'd go to Western Union in California to send $100.
Western Union would charge me $10 to send $100 to my family.
(18:52):
And then my family in Mexico would not get $100.
They would get $97 in pesos.
So then they're taking another $3.
So in a $110 transaction, $13 were lost.
And on the show right now is Capital X.
(19:13):
Jose Flores, a friend of ours who's helping with the conference,
he has a company called Capital X where you can have Bitcoin.
So now I send my family $100 in Bitcoin.
The transaction will cost me, you know, on Lightning would cost me about probably 25, 50 cents.
(19:34):
They get the $100 through Capital X.
As long as you don't exchange it and you keep it on your Capital X account, you can use the Capital X card and go spend that Bitcoin anywhere in Mexico.
So now that $13 that was lost before in the transaction is about 50 cents.
(19:57):
So you just took the middleman out.
So this is things that are happening.
We send $80 billion in remittances are sent from California to Mexico alone, $80 billion every year.
And of that $80 billion, about $12 billion is the profit that's sent from the U.S. to Mexico.
(20:21):
And then what happens is the dollars in Mexico are sold back to the U.S. at a percentage.
So when that all happens, you're talking billions of dollars that are going from the U.S. to Mexico where there's 13 percent loss, 12 to 13 percent, which is about eight to nine billion dollars in transaction fees.
(20:44):
And now with Bitcoin, cost you about 25 cents. Right. And that's something we want to educate people just because the money, the way the money is broken in Latin America,
any country, there's countries that are dollarized where, you know, for example,
El Salvador, Nicaragua, Ecuador, a lot of these countries that people pay in dollars,
(21:09):
but people don't make the money that they make in the U.S.
So our passion is to educate, and especially in Latin America, there's a lot of crypto.
There's a lot of shit coining going on.
And I have a lot of passion for that because there's a lot of Ponzi schemes.
And so people really confuse. They really confuse Bitcoin with crypto. So the education is the most critical part.
(21:39):
Yeah, it's a really good point. I do think it makes sense that you guys have described it as a culturally immersive crypto event, because you probably want to bring in some of these crypto folks to understand Bitcoin.
Obviously, it's a Bitcoin conference, but that culturally immersive part, I want to kind of key in a little bit just to get people a little bit of information about the area.
(22:06):
And just wondered how you guys are weaving in the Yucatan Peninsula's rich Mayan heritage into this conference experience.
Can you talk a little bit about the area and why this is such a great place to have a conference and why people should be interested in attending?
Yeah, it's the whole place of the Yucatan is it's a central point.
(22:31):
We call it the central point of the Mayan Empire there, because within that radius, you have Guatemala, you have El Salvador, you have all of Central America that's within about, I would say, about within one or two hour flight from anywhere in Central America.
and then you have Miami, you have Texas, which is also about a two-hour flight into the area.
(22:56):
For us from California, it is a longer trip, but it's definitely a central point, right? It's a
central point there, but also you have Cancun, you have the Tulum, you have that whole area there
that's within about a four-hour drive from Medida Yucatan. We have a strong community there.
(23:18):
There's Amanda with Big Casas there.
There's a lot of other people who are there who are of my descent.
There's a lot of people from different parts of Mexico who have moved to Merida for safety, better jobs and everything.
There's a huge expat community.
(23:39):
And there's a huge community from all over the world there from different parts.
It's not just from America or Canada, but from different parts of the world.
So we would call it a strategic location. It's a safe city. As you know, a lot of Mexico has had problems with different cartels and things like that. But Merida is definitely the safest city in Latin America.
(24:07):
And being a central point to a lot of the we have people coming from different Caribbean countries.
We have some people coming from Cuba, Dominican Republic.
We have a few people we've invited from Haiti, Puerto Rico.
So it's a central point.
And we feel Merida is where it can start for us.
(24:33):
Mexico, like I said, Mexico is 130 million people and Spanish speaking throughout Latin America is about 500 million people.
So there's there's a big group there we're trying to reach.
And with Merida and the location, it's a central point for many of us.
And we just we felt it was one of the safest places to have it.
(24:57):
And on the last day, that Sunday, the 7th, which is that last day of the conference, we have a trip planned to one of the Mayan pyramids that are there.
We have a trip planned that Sunday morning for the group to go see the Mayan pyramids.
I think it's a real good way to network, you know, have fun.
(25:20):
There's a lot to do in Mérida.
40 minutes from there is Progreso where the flamingos are.
There's Sasal.
It's a great fishing port there in Sasal.
Beautiful beaches.
There's a lot to do.
So it's a beautiful place.
We want to bring the tourism there.
There are some Bitcoin businesses there already that are accepting Bitcoin.
(25:44):
But we definitely want to bring tourism.
I don't know if Amanda is going to talk more about her business,
but big casa and the purchasing of properties in Bitcoin.
That's something big there.
I'm hoping my wife will allow me this year to buy a property in Merida.
We'll have to wait and see, right?
(26:05):
One thing at a time, right?
She just got orange peeled.
Now buying a house in Merida is probably another few years, right?
But it's one of the most beautiful places I've been to,
and I've traveled all of Latin America,
And I've lived in a lot of different countries in Latin America.
And the key to any Bitcoin community is the Bitcoin economy, right?
(26:28):
The Bitcoin economy, the circular economy within Bitcoin of buying a house in Bitcoin,
you know, tokenizing, buying a house in Bitcoin, the different businesses that accept Bitcoin,
keeping that Bitcoin in our community, the circular economy, right?
that the Bitcoin services that are out there, whether you sell coffee, you sell real estate,
(26:52):
you're in construction, you're a developer, you're a miner, the Bitcoin staying within our community is so critical.
And that's what we want for Merida.
We want the community and the different businesses that are accepting Bitcoin and the different Bitcoiners there.
It's critical, right?
As we all say, you know, Bitcoin economy, circular economy for the Bitcoin to stay within our community, especially non-KYC Bitcoin, right?
(27:21):
Yeah, really good stuff.
Did want to give the opportunity for Texas Toast or BFP to ask any questions they have.
But next question I had was, has the local community and Merida, have they embraced this?
Are they excited that this conference is coming? Have they helped at all? I know you mentioned that there's some businesses locally that are probably pretty excited about the conference.
(27:48):
But in terms of bringing in this tourism and Bitcoin, what response have you gotten from any of the local leaders that help with economic development or the mayor or anything like that?
Anything from them or are you guys just kind of pushing ahead and getting as many people to come as you can?
(28:08):
um the part of uh the local community maybe amanda from uh bit casa can uh elaborate more
on that but my experience so far is um we went to the hyatt so the hyatt hotel in merida is where
we're having our conference so we went to them um about almost a year ago now presented um our
(28:34):
conference and they're excited because, you know, whenever you bring business to a community,
they get excited, right? Because just like any, any economical situation or any community that's,
wants business, wants tourism, wants the restaurants filled, get excited, right? And in that moment,
(28:58):
When we talked to the Hyatt and they gave us a contract, we, you know, left our deposit.
We started paying our bill.
They got excited.
Other restaurants that we told, hey, we want to hold one night.
We're going to have a dinner here.
We're a Bitcoin group.
They're excited, right?
So local people seeing that you are bringing business that you bringing a community there maybe at first might be a little skeptical but once they see you there bringing the business for example one of the taxis
(29:34):
one of the taxis I took from the Merida airport to the hotel, we orange peeled, we told them about
Bitcoin. We told them in Spanish, hey, you know, Bitcoin, we're doing this conference. He's a taxi
guy. He's excited. He wants that business. He wants to learn about Bitcoin. So whenever people
see you spending, even if you're spending in fiat, right, you're spending in fiat,
(29:57):
but you're representing Bitcoin, it's still people will listen, right? People will listen
because you put your money where your mouth is, right? Like, hey, we're going to go to this
restaurant. We're going to eat here. What are you guys going to do here? Oh, we're setting up a
Bitcoin conference. Oh, what is that? People start to ask, especially if you're spending money on
(30:18):
drinks and food, right? So that's exciting. That's been my experience in Merida. People are very
receptive to it, want to learn about Bitcoin. Amanda, you have a little bit to say there?
I just wanted to add on to... Hi, everybody. Tony, this is awesome. I love you explaining this.
(30:39):
that's pure passion um i just wanted to add to any government representatives yes so we do have
the director of ecology of yucatan he'll be coming to speak dr ebear and he actually he is of mayan
descent and he's a very respected professional and he just has so much insight about history here
(31:03):
and culture. So he's going to be speaking. We also have the president of the Gastronomy Association
of Yucatan, and he's been working with us to help get the word out and start networking amongst
other Bitcoin businesses that can be part of the conference network with us. I just need to say
that. Carry on, Tony. Yeah, so Amanda's definitely boots on the ground there in Merida. She's a
(31:29):
warrior out there, you know, teaching about Bitcoin. One thing, Amanda, my cousin, my cousin
from Mexico City, Christian Lara from Guadalajara have been teaching at the universities in Merida.
So that's exciting. My cousin was able to speak at one of the universities not too long ago,
(31:51):
a few months ago, and the students are very receptive. There's quite a few universities in
Merida. That's one of our passion is the young people there, young developers, you know, people
that are getting into computers, computer programming in Merida there. So we're pretty
active. Amanda and her team are very active in the universities, which is the next generation,
(32:15):
right? I'm 51, you know, I'm headed over into retirement, right? But the younger generation
that's coming in, they definitely need Bitcoin.
Go ahead, Bitcoin.
How's it going, man?
I had a question that's a little bit off topic,
(32:37):
but it made me think of your conference
and the speakers and stuff made me think.
Is there any Spanish-speaking Bitcoin face
or ambassador for Bitcoin?
You know, you got sailor, maulers, and you got all these English-speaking Bitcoin evangelists.
But I'm trying to think of like a big key name.
(33:01):
I know you are, but you're kind of a nim, you know.
But do you know of any?
Locally in this community is Adrian Chivino, and he's based in Monterey.
He runs the Bitcoin network Monterey.
That's what Capital X is part of as well.
and he's been a pretty big influencer for the younger generation.
(33:22):
Aside from that, I don't know what's the answer.
Is there any way you could put him in the nest so I could follow him?
Yeah, do it right now.
Thank you.
Also, Jose Flores from Capital X.
He's one of the owners of Capital X.
He's on the space right here.
(33:42):
I don't know if Jose wants to say something,
but Jose Flores is from Monterey.
huge Bitcoin influencer in Latin America now in Mexico.
And Boyd, Boyd is a professor, PhD professor of economics at Monterey University.
So some big that's part of the event.
Part of the event is also to bring all these Spanish speaking leaders that are coming out,
(34:08):
you know, that people never heard of or people are kind of in the shadows working.
Right.
But that's what the conference is about, to bring these people together.
And Jose Flores, I don't know if Jose Flores has something to say there.
Yeah. Hi, everyone. Thank you for this space.
So, yeah, I mean, I would say that the thing that there's not a lot of like big names on Bitcoin Spanish as of now.
(34:37):
And part of the reason is because a lot of people here in Latin America, they just get distracted with crypto.
And they're still on this process of learning the difference and understanding the true value of Bitcoin.
So I think, you know, we're trying to do that with the Bitcoin conference in Merida is to make people aware of these differences and, you know, create this influencer type stuff like you guys have in the U.S.
(35:08):
where, you know, people, it's just like the way I see it is the market is, it has a process
and we are like five years behind the US.
So we're starting to mature here in Mexico.
And part of the conference is to accelerate that.
For example, there's also Isabela Santos.
(35:29):
I mean, she creates a lot of content in English down in Isla Mujeres, but she's like, her
native language is Spanish. Hopefully she'll join the conference. And the idea is to give a place
for these guys to start reaching more audience and hopefully it'll go viral as it did in the US.
(35:51):
I'm pretty sure it will, but it's a process. And yeah, right now we're trying to get rid of
shitconer and just like pyramid schemes and people staffing people. So for that, we need education
And once we have that, I think we'll have the big influencer type of personalities gain some traction there.
(36:18):
Jose, thanks for coming up.
I did have a question in particular for you that I think would benefit the audience.
Talk about the regulatory uncertainty around cryptocurrencies in Latin American countries.
Like, how does that impact things, especially like you said, there's a lot of people who are distracted with other things besides Bitcoin.
(36:42):
How do you think that impacts things, the regulations?
And then also, like, is that going to be covered at the conference at all?
Like, obviously, you guys have a good product for your company, but how do you join all that stuff together?
How's the regulation working?
Yeah, for sure.
That's the topic we'll cover at the conference.
(37:02):
And, you know, it's like everywhere where regulation is not very clear.
And I think it's been a mistake from governments all around the world.
I mean, the U.S. is getting better with this new administration.
But like here in Latin America, there's no clear regulation.
And, of course, what that creates is this void where people can, you know,
(37:26):
take advantage and exploit it and do all kinds of things.
So the only regulation that applies right now, at least in Mexico, it's KYC, AML, anti-money laundering regulation.
But that's pretty much it.
Actually, in Mexico, there's this unwritten law created by the Central Bank of Mexico where any financial institution, they cannot touch any crypto or Bitcoin or anything.
(37:58):
So financial institutions are excluded from offering Bitcoin to the general public.
But what that creates is basically any private company can do it without any type of regulation.
And as you can imagine, that has created a lot of chaos.
I think that the community is very well connected.
(38:21):
So we've been able to, you know, just like unravel a lot of the fraud and just like pick it up really early.
For example, there was a Colombian network doing like huge, huge, you know, they got a lot of people and it was a huge scam.
In Mexico, we were able to like stop it on its tracks, but that was just like a community effort.
(38:46):
So to go back to your point, there's no regulation, and that has really hurt the community,
has really hurt people out there, and it hurts Bitcoin because a lot of people think it's
all part of the same thing.
And yeah, we've been battling that, and part of the conference is to address exactly that
(39:09):
and make sure people know the difference between Bitcoin and crypto, and also how to properly
buying costly Bitcoin so you don't get scammed.
Yeah, thanks for sharing that.
And it really does seem like you guys have a groundswell of support
from some of the, I think, companies, including yours,
(39:29):
that support Latin American efforts with Bitcoin.
So it's really cool.
Do you want to talk, anybody, Amanda, anybody up here,
do you guys want to talk about maybe some of the other,
just highlight some of the businesses, business owners, like I'm thinking of Montabit, Kardashev, Swapido.
(39:53):
Maybe highlight a couple of those because you guys do have a groundswell of support from quite a few Bitcoin businesses
that hopefully can push through this clarity for people in Latin America on Bitcoin versus everything else.
Okay, I'm taking it.
Yeah, we have, well, I mean, this would not be able to go to scale without Viva Bitcoin and Capital X.
(40:19):
Just for the record, Capital X as of yesterday was rebranded as Arcadia B.
Anyways, so without those two, this could not be to scale because it takes a team, as you guys know.
Then we have Supportive Gen 3.
Aqua Wallet is the official wallet of the event.
(40:39):
We have some really fun speakers that we haven't announced online yet,
but I'm just going to anyways.
We have Nathan from Saz Mining will be joining us.
And I think you guys know Saz is based in the U.S. mostly,
but they're definitely integrating in Latin America, so that's really cool.
(41:00):
um we have mexico-based there's guys there's a lot of stuff going on in mexico like we have
la casa de satoshi and the co-founders of la casa de satoshi is kardashev and gustavo um from
swapito so they will be here talking about everything they've been doing in mexico city
(41:21):
because the devs like things that are coming out of there are special then jimmy you guys all know
Jimmy in Rancho San Satoshi. He's in the middle of building things. So I don't know if he's going
to be able to put real clothes on and get out of the desert. He's trying. Everyone from Bitcoin
Network Monterey. So that's Dr. Boyd Cohen from Agade Business School, Arcadia B, Jose,
(41:46):
Adrian Trevino, and more. Ed Julien, formerly of MicroStrategy, Bitcoin Treasuries expert.
us um jose is working with isabella to check her schedule
um and then from outside sources there is a lot of companies that are really looking to expand
(42:09):
outside of el salvador outside of spain we have setlantis is joining us from spain
I think, too, with American companies, a lot are looking to see that there's a lot more adoption and Bitcoin use happening in Latin America.
(42:29):
And I think a lot of North American companies are looking to come and integrate.
So then we have Christian Laura. He's down in the audience.
He is founder of Panoramica Films, Mexico's best marketing company.
um he's going to be live streaming the event and also helping with translations as well
(42:49):
so hopefully that can help integrate people that are strictly english speaking into the latin
american bitcoin business community am i missing anybody guys
i'll take that as a note but that's that's amazing and i think people just you know especially in the
(43:09):
United States, we fail to realize what's going on in other parts of the world. So personally,
I'm just excited to hear all this activity and all these things going. Did want to say good
morning to Sal. Not to put you on the spot, sir, but did you have any questions or comments
related to the conference? I do. Good morning, everyone. Sorry, I was a little late.
(43:31):
As always, thank you for hosting this, Bob. Congrats to the Mayan Bacon Conference. Super
excited to hear the war of Central America. So it's glad to hear Guatemala, El Salvador,
I'm from El Salvador originally. And I was able to join a call yesterday, a space regarding,
it was super interesting on sort of the circular economies in Latin America. And there were folks
(43:54):
representative from sort of Cuba, Mexico, I believe, Paraguay. So it was just really insightful
to hear the challenges of adoption.
So my question to you all here as far as the Mayan Bitcoin Conference I would love to know sort of what are the top three challenges that you encountering and how are you addressing them on the field when it comes to
(44:18):
you know, and this is what I heard in the phone call yesterday,
the circular economy cannot work if people convert their Bitcoin to fiat.
We can have so many businesses accepting, but if the first question as,
you know on the field there's education and the first question is okay how do i convert this
bitcoin to whatever local currency you know that that poses major complications so i'd love to get
(44:43):
just some insights on on i mean i love hearing the bitcoin of the business adoption the speakers i
think that's phenomenal and it's all part of the the growth that's needed but what what is the
temperature like a temperature check on on sort of the challenges for for that you're experiencing
or you're seeing as far as making this circularity stick in that region in Merida.
(45:03):
We'd love to get some insights.
Thank you all again for what you do.
I can speak to Merida, but I think there's other Mexican communities in here that can speak to theirs.
But in Merida, we've had, and I know Jose touched on this, is the difference.
People have been in crypto for so long, and they all have had their experiences,
(45:25):
as we all know what those were.
and it's a main thing is education,
teaching them that there's a difference.
Bitcoin is not crypto.
So that's been our main challenge
and it is slow, but surely.
So I'm waiting for the suddenly.
We're not at the suddenly yet.
For accepting on a circular economy level,
(45:47):
that was a huge challenge for our first year.
But then we have products like Capital X
because Capital X now, or KDB, sorry,
has, we have a Bitcoin visa. When you guys come to the conference, you can actually sign up and
take one home with you because you can use it anywhere. You can use Bitcoin just for the record.
But anyways, with that, when people say no, we can actually take out our Bitcoin visa card and say,
(46:12):
okay, well, I just paid you with Bitcoin anyways. And if you don't have your visa card, we also have
Swapido. And Swapido does direct from Lightning to bank transfer. And in Mexico, I'd probably say,
I'm making this data, but I'd say it's probably 90% of businesses will accept bank transfer.
Like you can actually sit at a restaurant and just pay with bank transfer if you don't have cash or cards.
(46:38):
So with things like that, they're showing like, oh, I just paid you with Bitcoin.
And then it leaves that little thought bomb.
And then we have a WhatsApp group locally.
And so we invite everybody in, even if they're not, you know, haven't said yes yet.
So we have a community. It's a learning center. And come join us.
(46:59):
And then eventually, after me harassing them, they're starting to come on board.
Yeah, what I would add to that is I think it's something that we're facing all around the world.
And it's basically, you know, lightning, which it's I love the technology.
I think is great, but doing it in a self-custody way is like too technical for 99.9% of the population.
(47:27):
So I think there's just problems that they're going to get fixed as we move along.
But for now, it's just using Lightning with your own node and everything.
It's kind of hard right now.
And the second one is regulation.
It's, you know, when you pay Bitcoin, in theory, if you made a gain, you need to pay taxes.
(47:47):
I mean, of course, in a circular economy that's small, it doesn't matter.
But if it starts scaling, you know, of course, the government is going to notice and, you know, it can create some friction there.
So I would say those are the two main things that we've encountered that are preventing things from really scaling.
(48:10):
Yeah, and the other thing.
Go ahead, Vivo.
Yeah, the other thing, too, as you know, like in the U.S., you know, we've had FTX, you know, scam.
We've had, you know, Mount Dox, if some of you that remember back in the day, you know.
So we've had a lot of the scams here in the U.S., you know, and the different things that have gone on, right?
(48:34):
In Latin America, it's on a different scale, but it's starting to happen.
It's starting to happen. And, you know, just like anything else with the Mayan Bitcoin Conference, which is a Bitcoin conference, only Bitcoin only.
We're trying to educate. We're trying to let people know the facts of Bitcoin and how the economy can work.
(48:58):
Because the other thing that happens in Latin America, Sal, as you know, Sal, just to answer your question, is that in Latin America, a lot of people don't make a lot of money.
So they have to find a way to get Bitcoin.
So there's a lot of businesses.
There's people that sell coffee, sell hats, sell T-shirts.
(49:19):
There's a lot of different ways people are trying to gain Bitcoin, right?
So that's the hard part.
And as you know, in the U.S., we can have a good fiat job and buy Bitcoin.
But in Latin America, it's people sometimes that I've talked to, all they do is they make
50 or 100 a week that's their income and i'm telling them to buy 25 in bitcoin right i said
(49:45):
all you got to do is buy 25 in bitcoin well when you make 50 a week or you make 100 a week
uh that's a lot of money that means you don't eat groceries that week right so with the economy and
education and all you know even giving someone some stats you know here's a little bit of you
know, Bitcoin stats, follow it, look, you know, study it. It's hard. So, yeah, the economy there
(50:10):
and people learning about Bitcoin, it's hard because here in America, I tell my family and
friends, yeah, buy, you know, how much Bitcoin should I buy every week? And I say what you can
afford and, you know, say, oh, I could buy $50 in Bitcoin a week. I just won't go to Starbucks this
week, but I'll buy $50 in Bitcoin. Well, in Latin America, $50 is what you make. So it is
(50:31):
social economics there is different. There is a harder way to tell people, you know, hey,
buy $10 in Bitcoin a week. Well, that's, you know, that's what I make in a day. So it's that's one of
the challenges for me over the years has been when I've gotten to Latin America and talk to people
about buying Bitcoin, I got to know my audience, right? Know the audience, know who I'm talking to.
(50:57):
And sometimes I give away a little bit of stats.
You know, I give away a little bit of Bitcoin here.
Download this wallet.
We actually did that in Merida.
We were an area where there's a bee called the Melopona bee that makes honey.
We gave some Bitcoin away to some of the kids there.
It's just to teach, you know.
It's cool.
It's fun.
(51:17):
But definitely the scams are in Latin America.
Thank you all for the granular insights.
And it's always incredible to me to just see, you know, even though it's one region, right, but it's so nuanced and every region has differences to the approaches and the challenges.
So really just happy to see this.
(51:40):
I unfortunately won't be able to make it, but I can't wait to catch the next one.
And, yeah, this is a great job.
Thank you all for sharing the proof of work and the effort they were putting in helping scale adoption.
For sure.
Thank you.
Yeah, thanks, Sal, for the question, too.
And I do think this has been a fun space just hearing about this.
I'm trying to evaluate all the different conferences that are coming up.
(52:05):
And I think, you know, it's not always about numbers.
I think success can be measured in a lot of different ways.
But there's a lot of competition out there for conferences.
And so wondering how you guys think about that.
And then maybe as we wrap up the show, just let everyone know, you know, where they can
get plugged in for the conference.
Someone want to take that one? Amanda, maybe?
(52:27):
I don't really think about competition, to tell you the truth.
The others might think differently, but I don't.
I think all of us that are on the team have just a passion to, number one, put Mexico on the map.
I think we are the biggest Latin American country, and there's a lot people don't know.
So that's kind of the main thing. Passion. Competition isn't really a big thing.
(52:51):
We understand this is our first. I think it's very, it's a big deal that, you know, all the propaganda news that's going on.
And then, you know, there's Trump and cartels and those kinds of things.
That's been, that's kept a lot of people out of this country.
But where we are, we are actually the safest city in Mexico and actually number two in all of North America.
(53:16):
I think Quebec, Canada is number one, but those results are probably skewed.
So I think that will bring people here.
We understand maybe we're not going to be massive this time.
And that's okay, too, because sometimes smaller events are the ones where you really get to have enriched conversations.
And we're going to do this every year.
(53:37):
So we'll grow.
Did I answer it all?
What I would add to that, Amanda, is that we really don't have any competition.
I mean, there's a lot of conference, but almost everything is in English.
And, you know, people want to get the big, you know, press releases and the big speakers.
We're not about that.
(53:57):
We're about like boots on the ground and orange spilling the local population.
So, you know, there's no big speakers in Spanish, like we were saying.
So we don't have the big names, but we're the few conference in the world as of now that the content is going to be 100% in Spanish.
So we don't think we have a lot of competition.
(54:18):
And if we do, we welcome it because it's better for everyone.
Yeah, I love it.
The second part of the question was just to maybe talk about how people can get plugged in or how they can support you guys.
Where should they be going?
www.mayanbitclangconference.com.
I actually put a couple things up in the nest.
(54:40):
If you follow at MayanBTC, that's our conference Twitter.
So we're posting in there often new speakers and sponsors and just fun Merida stuff.
Yeah, awesome.
And once again, thank you guys, everybody who came up here and explained what's going on.
(55:02):
All the excitement gave all that perspective on Latin America and what you guys are trying to do.
Excited to see what's going on there.
And it is good to hear that you'll have, for some of us non-Spanish speakers, you'll have maybe some translation.
So that's awesome, too.
I definitely want to come down and visit that part of the Yucatan Peninsula.
(55:22):
I think most people think of Cancun.
And so I think it sounds like Merida is awesome and definitely want to check it out.
So this is a good opportunity for a lot of people.
But, yeah, thank you to everyone.
Go ahead, Viva.
You got one more thing before we close out the show today?
Yeah, just a quick note. You know, I was in El Salvador about 25 years ago. I was in El Salvador driving through there as the most dangerous country I'd ever been to 25 years ago. And then I was there recently a year ago at the having party with Sean Harris.
(55:57):
and the country had totally turned around, right?
And that's what we're hoping for Latin America and Mexico
and a lot of other countries.
You know, that's the vision.
That's always what we want.
You know, we want countries to be safe,
to be economically healthy, right?
You know, politics is going to be politics, right?
(56:18):
But it was definitely a 25-year difference
of being in El Salvador and just driving through there.
They just said, hey, just don't stop.
Just drive through El Salvador. Don't even stop and eat any pupusas. Just keep going.
And then now going to El Salvador, you know, a year ago, it's totally different.
And that's what we're hoping for. Latin America, not just Mexico, but Cuba, you know, Venezuela.
(56:45):
We have people from Venezuela coming to speak. But for every Latin American country, that's all we want is that the native people are safe,
healthy economy and something that can be fixed, right?
Very cool. Well, yeah, it does take something to build this.
And I think the long game is what it's going to take.
(57:08):
Doesn't happen overnight. So appreciate what you guys are doing. Once again,
thank you for coming on the show and thank you to all of you who listen every
day. We do this every weekday at 10 a.m. Eastern and we'll do this again tomorrow.
Lord willing, 10 a.m.
So please do join us for a fun Friday, Freedom Tech Friday.
I guess, yeah, I hopefully will have some more speakers next week, guest speakers.
(57:38):
And so those will be coming up where we'll be able to announce those soon.
We're just trying to figure out some dates.
Did want to remind everybody, BitcoinVeterans.org, if you need help on your Bitcoin journey,
We'll get you plugged into helpful resources.
And that's all we have for today.
I want to wish you guys once again a wonderful Thursday.
And remember, whatever you do, do not Bitcoin.
(58:06):
It's like taking cough medicine to cure hemorrhoids.
Thanks, everyone.
And Bitcoin veterans, so much honor for all of you guys.
Appreciate you.
All people that use fiat currency as a store of value, we call them we poor.
(58:34):
People that use fiat currency, we call them we poor.
Thank you.
Thank you.
(00:30):
Well, good morning, everybody, and welcome to Bitcoin Veteran Spaces number 253.
My name is Bob Van Kirk, and I'm back.
Sorry.
Sorry for missing yesterday, but did want to take a second and thank Texas Toast and
(00:51):
Captain Trips for taking over, taking the reins yesterday, doing a great job.
Got to listen to some of the episode and promise to listen to the rest when I have time.
But it sounded like everybody had fun.
And I'll be your host this morning.
Joined again, once again, by Texas Toast.
And it looks like we have Neil up here.
(01:12):
Pubby, good morning.
Bitcoin for Precedence, BFP.
And working to get some of the folks from the Mayan Bitcoin Conference up here on stage.
Have a couple of them already.
But if you're in the audience and you'd like to come up and speak, please do hit that microphone button.
We'd love to have an awesome conversation about this conference that's taking place.
(01:33):
And so we'll get into that here in a second.
But I do have a couple of announcements right after we look at the time chain stats.
Time chain calendar. Thank you, TC, who I see in the audience.
So let's take a peek at the Bitcoin stats.
(01:54):
All right, we are at Bitcoin block height number 912,098 with the Bitcoin price sitting just below 113,000, which means you can still pick up 886 sets for each US dollar.
And it looks like we are still able to send Bitcoin pretty cheaply on chain.
(02:15):
So consider that if you need some UTXO consolidations.
All right.
Another announcement here.
We have been talking about it quite a bit, but we have Bitcoin Veterans Second Annual Summit coming up on November 10th and 11th.
Check that out at BitcoinVeterans.org forward slash summit 2025.
(02:37):
It's going to be taking place on November 10th and 11th in Nashville, Tennessee, with day one being the conference day.
and day two, range day.
And so we're looking for people who want to get involved,
whether you want to attend, be a volunteer, be a speaker,
or you have an idea for panel topics,
go to bitcoinveterans.org forward slash summit 2025 to get involved.
(03:00):
Awesome.
I think we'll go around the horn, say good morning to everyone
as we continue to maybe get some more folks up on stage
that can join us from the My and Bitcoin conference.
And then we'll hop into it with them here in a second.
But did want to say thank you again and good morning to Texas Toast.
(03:20):
How are you, sir?
Good morning.
Doing great.
Pretty fired up, honestly.
I think that's kind of the goal of the media spin in our feed lately.
So trying to figure out the best way to channel that energy.
But it's a good morning.
(03:42):
Excellent.
Yeah, thanks again for being with us, and thanks for covering for me yesterday.
Neil, how are you this morning, sir?
I'm doing good, Bob.
For as much as I missed you yesterday, it just made me really appreciate knowing my bones,
how much I like your presence.
Glad to have you back.
Well, speaking of presence or precedence, let's see how BFP's doing this morning.
(04:07):
That's a pretty good one, Bob.
Your humor is intoxicating.
Good morning. Nice to be here. Thanks for having me.
Yes, sir. Always good to have you. Pubby, how's it going this morning, sir?
Hey, good morning. Yeah, you know, we hit down, what, 111, 110, 109, and it was going to a dollar again.
(04:28):
Way to hang in there, all of you hodlers.
And no judgment. Hey, if you've been here long enough to stack and hodl in order to have enough to smash by a Lambo,
you will get no judgment from me. Well done.
Lambos for us all, if you want that kind of thing.
Honestly, I've not even really been around one, but I'm guessing just due to my height that I wouldn't be able to really fit in one very well.
(04:55):
So that's not on in the cards for me.
But speaking of Lambos, we do have a couple of folks so far from the Mayan Bitcoin conference up here on stage.
I think Viva is going to do most of this speaking.
But guys, please do follow these two handles and everybody up here on stage.
But, yeah, this morning we're going to be speaking with Viva Bitcoin, it looks like, about this conference.
(05:22):
And maybe we, again, can get some other folks up here from the conference just to have a conversation and explain what is going on down in Mexico.
And I think this is going to be the conference for Latin America.
They're trying to bring kind of everybody together.
And, yeah, so I wanted to say good morning to you two folks.
(05:43):
And I think one of you will be speaking at least.
And so, Viva, how's it going this morning?
Thanks for being on.
Thanks for being on.
Thank you for having me on here.
Appreciate it.
All you Bitcoin Maxis, love you guys.
And we're spreading the Bitcoin gospel, you know, all over the world.
And it's always great to see people who love Bitcoin, who are passionate about it.
(06:06):
I see all you guys at conferences.
I see you guys all around the different spaces.
And we're trying to get the Spanish speaking people in Latin America, especially 130 million Mexicans in Mexico and all of Spanish speaking communities, over 500 million people who speak Spanish around the world.
(06:27):
And that's our passion. We want to preach this Bitcoin message in Spanish.
And we're having the first only Bitcoin conference in Mexico.
It's a bunch of Bitcoin maxis.
It's just exciting to see people come to Bitcoin.
You know, my wife just got orange peeled this year after about eight years of telling her about Bitcoin and being married 25 years.
(06:55):
She finally got orange peeled this year and attended one of our Bitcoin meetups this past Sunday.
And so if my wife can become a Bitcoiner, I believe anybody can become a Bitcoiner.
and it's pretty amazing to see all you guys out here.
I know a lot of you, like I said, and we're trying to reach the community.
(07:16):
You know, there's some of the great leaders in Latin America are Bitcoiners
and there's a lot of shit coining going on in Latin America and that's hard.
You know, it's hard because people try to associate Bitcoin with crypto
and we're trying to get the truth out there.
There's a lot of misinformation.
And when you give the message in Spanish, in Espanol, cuando hablas con el pueblo en Espanol, when you're speaking Spanish, it's easier for people to relate. Right.
(07:45):
So the conference is December 4th through the 7th.
And we're going to have a lot of great speakers talking about Bitcoin this year, December 4th through the 7th.
And it's going to be at the Merida Hyatt in Yucatan, Mexico.
So just a little bit of history about Medida, Yucatan.
(08:07):
The Mayans were the first, I would say, one of the first civilizations to use the number zero, which, you know, we all know with Bitcoin zero one and all computers.
So just the history there, you know, all that's happened in the region.
Many people have studied the Yucatan is where many of us believe there's that huge crater that hit there millions of years ago and, you know, destroyed, I believe, destroyed all the dinosaurs.
(08:41):
But the history there is amazing.
It's considered the safest city in all of Latin America.
I was just there recently in May.
You know, we're walking around at midnight, one in the morning, hanging out.
It's a great place.
There's a lot of culture.
There's a lot of history.
And I want everybody to come out, support the Spanish-speaking community.
(09:04):
Like I said, we're having speakers from all of different parts of Latin America, from the U.S., Mexico, Central America, South America.
We have people from Spain coming.
So we'd like for all of you to come out.
Yeah, awesome introduction.
man you touched on a lot of different things and uh wanted to actually start out i know we're going
(09:26):
to talk a lot i think about the my and bitcoin conference but wanted to ask you about your wife
i think it is interesting to see how um you know different people come to bitcoin at different
points and i think i would say recently uh my wife had the same um experience and uh just kind
(09:49):
Maybe by attrition from me.
But yeah, I wanted to ask you a little bit about that first.
And then, yeah, I have quite a few questions about the conference.
Very interested and considering attending.
But yeah, talk about this.
What finally put her over the edge?
How did she get there finally?
So I got into Bitcoin around 2016.
(10:12):
You know, like everybody had their journey, right?
I did a little bit of shit coining, you know.
sold my Bitcoin when I got in in 2016, you know, the whole thing.
And then I would say I became a maxi about four years ago.
But one of the things that helped my wife, my wife is an accountant.
She works for a CPA firm.
(10:33):
And all of a sudden, these past few years, all these people have come out, you know, to,
you know, they're mainly non-KYC, right?
Non-KYC people that have come out that had either Bitcoin or other cryptos on exchanges, right, who have either cashed out or old taxes or something, right?
So she got what they call in the accounting world crypto certified, right, where you help people with their taxes.
(11:01):
You know, people want to write off their miners.
People want to write off their energy.
They want to write off, you know, their treasure wallets, whatever it is, right?
It's a write off.
You know, your computer, you put solar panels up, you know, on your building to get energy to mine, whatever, whatever you can basically tax right off right in the United States, especially I'm in California, where they tax you, you know, about 50 percent of your income is taxed when you're self-employed.
(11:31):
So that was part of it. Part of it was she was seeing what was happening in the Bitcoin community or just in the crypto space. Right.
Which she started asking all the questions. And then her firm, her CPA firm, started calling me all the time about certain questions.
Hey, you know, this guy wants to write off, you know, his minors. You know, how many employees are that?
(11:58):
And then I had to explain what a miner was. Right. This guy wants to write off his treasure wallet or or this guy pulled his money, his Bitcoin out of cold storage.
So all the terminology really affected, you know, the CPA firm on, you know, questions about, you know, hash rate, this guy, you know, and all these different questions.
(12:19):
And so that was part of the orange peel process.
But I would say the biggest part for my wife, the real orange peel was the price of Bitcoin.
Right. Because I've been talking about it for eight years. Right.
So in 2016, 17, you know, it was about 500.
And then in 2017, it hit that all time high of 17,000. Right.
(12:40):
But but really the price she just over the years, you know, being skeptical, but then seeing how the price now over 100,000 this year,
and last year has really held.
And then all the new legislation that's happening in America,
where states like Missouri has, you know, no capital gains on Bitcoin.
(13:01):
Right. So so we start seeing these laws and you start seeing all this,
these different things happening. People start calling. Right.
People that, you know, for eight years thought you were crazy or people that,
you know, even even last year when Trump won, you know, when it was at sixty four
thousand and then it hit, you know, all time high, I believe it was one hundred nine thousand.
(13:23):
Right. So you start getting the calls. You start seeing that Bitcoin is unstoppable.
It's consistent. What you bought four years ago, what you bought eight years ago has gained in
value. So so people are starting to see the message. Right. And especially accountants.
You know, a lot of CPAs are real critical about many things to do with taxes, money and,
(13:47):
And, you know, just seeing the fact that I went to El Salvador last year and you could buy, you know, you could go to Starbucks in El Salvador and buy coffee, right?
You can go into a store and pay in Bitcoin now.
You see it.
So that was one of the orange peel, I would say, highlights is more than anything, the price.
You know, my wife's seen that the price, it's gone up.
(14:14):
Yeah, really good stuff.
I think it's always interesting to hear.
And you're right.
It is all of these fundamental things that have some people paying attention.
I think when it starts hitting your job, then for sure, you really do have to reconsider
maybe passing it off or just not thinking about it.
So I do think that's a cool story.
(14:35):
Thanks for sharing and giving that insight.
Did want to also though cover some of the other things that you had kind of said in your opening dialogue there So tell me what or tell the audience what inspired the creation of this event of this conference and how you guys it seems like are set to focus on Latin America and kind of set it apart from other global Bitcoin conferences
(15:03):
Well, what happened for me personally, what personally happened for me, I was going to a lot of conferences like Pacific Bitcoin, you know, Bitcoin conference in Vegas, you know, the Miami Bitcoin conference, Bitcoin Day.
I mean, if there's a Bitcoin event, I try to be there. Right.
Even in Northern California, we have Bay Area Bitcoiners.
(15:26):
There's, you know, there's there's Bitcoin events all over.
I went to the halving party with Sean Harris last April.
That was awesome. So I try to go to pretty much if it's Bitcoin, Bitcoin only Bitcoin event, you know, I try to go, you know, if it's a Bitcoin barbecue get together, you know, I go.
(15:48):
Right. And what I started to see, even in the Latin American Bitcoin conferences, I was going to, you know, plan B or adopting Bitcoin or, you know, any of the ones in anywhere in Latin America.
Right. Is what I started to see was they were mostly held in English. Right.
So the native tongue of the country was not being spoken.
(16:13):
Yo hablo español. I speak Spanish fluently. I can read and write in Spanish.
and I speak a little bit of French, you know, a few other languages.
But I was going to these conferences all over, you know,
and I was just in France not too long ago and I was meeting people.
I was able to speak to them in French about Bitcoin.
(16:33):
So my thing is when you speak the native language of the people, right,
you're able to relate a little better, right?
You're able to talk to them about what you believe, you know, why Bitcoin.
You know, people constantly ask me, you know, why is Bitcoin better than crypto?
Bitcoin, is it a pyramid?
(16:54):
Bitcoin, you know, was started by the government.
All the different misconceptions about Bitcoin, when you're able to explain it in Spanish with the terminology and the language of the people, you're able to orange peel more people.
And that's been my experience.
All my family in Mexico, Mexico City, have been orange peeled.
(17:19):
And a lot of my friends in Mexico, Latin America, friends in Guatemala, Costa Rica,
I have friends all over.
I've traveled.
I used to teach English in Latin America when I was a lot younger.
So a lot of my friends, when I gave them the message in Spanish,
and then I started giving them Bitcoin about three, four years ago,
(17:41):
I gave a lot of my family $50, $100 in Bitcoin just to follow it, to study it.
You know, they downloaded a wallet, you know, gave them a little bit of Bitcoin.
And I said, just follow it.
Just look at it.
You know, don't get caught up with the price so much, but just follow it.
And by doing those different things and going to different Latin American countries
(18:03):
and speaking Spanish, teaching Bitcoin, people are really, really hungry for Bitcoin.
Because in most Latin American countries, the money is so broken, the money is so corrupt, that in a lot of Latin American countries, stagflation, inflation, the devaluing of money is an everyday occurrence, right?
(18:28):
So like to give you an example, in Mexico, you know, just the peso is devalued.
So I would send money to family in Mexico and I'd go to Western Union, right?
I'd go to Western Union in California to send $100.
Western Union would charge me $10 to send $100 to my family.
(18:52):
And then my family in Mexico would not get $100.
They would get $97 in pesos.
So then they're taking another $3.
So in a $110 transaction, $13 were lost.
And on the show right now is Capital X.
(19:13):
Jose Flores, a friend of ours who's helping with the conference,
he has a company called Capital X where you can have Bitcoin.
So now I send my family $100 in Bitcoin.
The transaction will cost me, you know, on Lightning would cost me about probably 25, 50 cents.
(19:34):
They get the $100 through Capital X.
As long as you don't exchange it and you keep it on your Capital X account, you can use the Capital X card and go spend that Bitcoin anywhere in Mexico.
So now that $13 that was lost before in the transaction is about 50 cents.
(19:57):
So you just took the middleman out.
So this is things that are happening.
We send $80 billion in remittances are sent from California to Mexico alone, $80 billion every year.
And of that $80 billion, about $12 billion is the profit that's sent from the U.S. to Mexico.
(20:21):
And then what happens is the dollars in Mexico are sold back to the U.S. at a percentage.
So when that all happens, you're talking billions of dollars that are going from the U.S. to Mexico where there's 13 percent loss, 12 to 13 percent, which is about eight to nine billion dollars in transaction fees.
(20:44):
And now with Bitcoin, cost you about 25 cents. Right. And that's something we want to educate people just because the money, the way the money is broken in Latin America,
any country, there's countries that are dollarized where, you know, for example,
El Salvador, Nicaragua, Ecuador, a lot of these countries that people pay in dollars,
(21:09):
but people don't make the money that they make in the U.S.
So our passion is to educate, and especially in Latin America, there's a lot of crypto.
There's a lot of shit coining going on.
And I have a lot of passion for that because there's a lot of Ponzi schemes.
And so people really confuse. They really confuse Bitcoin with crypto. So the education is the most critical part.
(21:39):
Yeah, it's a really good point. I do think it makes sense that you guys have described it as a culturally immersive crypto event, because you probably want to bring in some of these crypto folks to understand Bitcoin.
Obviously, it's a Bitcoin conference, but that culturally immersive part, I want to kind of key in a little bit just to get people a little bit of information about the area.
(22:06):
And just wondered how you guys are weaving in the Yucatan Peninsula's rich Mayan heritage into this conference experience.
Can you talk a little bit about the area and why this is such a great place to have a conference and why people should be interested in attending?
Yeah, it's the whole place of the Yucatan is it's a central point.
(22:31):
We call it the central point of the Mayan Empire there, because within that radius, you have Guatemala, you have El Salvador, you have all of Central America that's within about, I would say, about within one or two hour flight from anywhere in Central America.
and then you have Miami, you have Texas, which is also about a two-hour flight into the area.
(22:56):
For us from California, it is a longer trip, but it's definitely a central point, right? It's a
central point there, but also you have Cancun, you have the Tulum, you have that whole area there
that's within about a four-hour drive from Medida Yucatan. We have a strong community there.
(23:18):
There's Amanda with Big Casas there.
There's a lot of other people who are there who are of my descent.
There's a lot of people from different parts of Mexico who have moved to Merida for safety, better jobs and everything.
There's a huge expat community.
(23:39):
And there's a huge community from all over the world there from different parts.
It's not just from America or Canada, but from different parts of the world.
So we would call it a strategic location. It's a safe city. As you know, a lot of Mexico has had problems with different cartels and things like that. But Merida is definitely the safest city in Latin America.
(24:07):
And being a central point to a lot of the we have people coming from different Caribbean countries.
We have some people coming from Cuba, Dominican Republic.
We have a few people we've invited from Haiti, Puerto Rico.
So it's a central point.
And we feel Merida is where it can start for us.
(24:33):
Mexico, like I said, Mexico is 130 million people and Spanish speaking throughout Latin America is about 500 million people.
So there's there's a big group there we're trying to reach.
And with Merida and the location, it's a central point for many of us.
And we just we felt it was one of the safest places to have it.
(24:57):
And on the last day, that Sunday, the 7th, which is that last day of the conference, we have a trip planned to one of the Mayan pyramids that are there.
We have a trip planned that Sunday morning for the group to go see the Mayan pyramids.
I think it's a real good way to network, you know, have fun.
(25:20):
There's a lot to do in Mérida.
40 minutes from there is Progreso where the flamingos are.
There's Sasal.
It's a great fishing port there in Sasal.
Beautiful beaches.
There's a lot to do.
So it's a beautiful place.
We want to bring the tourism there.
There are some Bitcoin businesses there already that are accepting Bitcoin.
(25:44):
But we definitely want to bring tourism.
I don't know if Amanda is going to talk more about her business,
but big casa and the purchasing of properties in Bitcoin.
That's something big there.
I'm hoping my wife will allow me this year to buy a property in Merida.
We'll have to wait and see, right?
(26:05):
One thing at a time, right?
She just got orange peeled.
Now buying a house in Merida is probably another few years, right?
But it's one of the most beautiful places I've been to,
and I've traveled all of Latin America,
And I've lived in a lot of different countries in Latin America.
And the key to any Bitcoin community is the Bitcoin economy, right?
(26:28):
The Bitcoin economy, the circular economy within Bitcoin of buying a house in Bitcoin,
you know, tokenizing, buying a house in Bitcoin, the different businesses that accept Bitcoin,
keeping that Bitcoin in our community, the circular economy, right?
that the Bitcoin services that are out there, whether you sell coffee, you sell real estate,
(26:52):
you're in construction, you're a developer, you're a miner, the Bitcoin staying within our community is so critical.
And that's what we want for Merida.
We want the community and the different businesses that are accepting Bitcoin and the different Bitcoiners there.
It's critical, right?
As we all say, you know, Bitcoin economy, circular economy for the Bitcoin to stay within our community, especially non-KYC Bitcoin, right?
(27:21):
Yeah, really good stuff.
Did want to give the opportunity for Texas Toast or BFP to ask any questions they have.
But next question I had was, has the local community and Merida, have they embraced this?
Are they excited that this conference is coming? Have they helped at all? I know you mentioned that there's some businesses locally that are probably pretty excited about the conference.
(27:48):
But in terms of bringing in this tourism and Bitcoin, what response have you gotten from any of the local leaders that help with economic development or the mayor or anything like that?
Anything from them or are you guys just kind of pushing ahead and getting as many people to come as you can?
(28:08):
um the part of uh the local community maybe amanda from uh bit casa can uh elaborate more
on that but my experience so far is um we went to the hyatt so the hyatt hotel in merida is where
we're having our conference so we went to them um about almost a year ago now presented um our
(28:34):
conference and they're excited because, you know, whenever you bring business to a community,
they get excited, right? Because just like any, any economical situation or any community that's,
wants business, wants tourism, wants the restaurants filled, get excited, right? And in that moment,
(28:58):
When we talked to the Hyatt and they gave us a contract, we, you know, left our deposit.
We started paying our bill.
They got excited.
Other restaurants that we told, hey, we want to hold one night.
We're going to have a dinner here.
We're a Bitcoin group.
They're excited, right?
So local people seeing that you are bringing business that you bringing a community there maybe at first might be a little skeptical but once they see you there bringing the business for example one of the taxis
(29:34):
one of the taxis I took from the Merida airport to the hotel, we orange peeled, we told them about
Bitcoin. We told them in Spanish, hey, you know, Bitcoin, we're doing this conference. He's a taxi
guy. He's excited. He wants that business. He wants to learn about Bitcoin. So whenever people
see you spending, even if you're spending in fiat, right, you're spending in fiat,
(29:57):
but you're representing Bitcoin, it's still people will listen, right? People will listen
because you put your money where your mouth is, right? Like, hey, we're going to go to this
restaurant. We're going to eat here. What are you guys going to do here? Oh, we're setting up a
Bitcoin conference. Oh, what is that? People start to ask, especially if you're spending money on
(30:18):
drinks and food, right? So that's exciting. That's been my experience in Merida. People are very
receptive to it, want to learn about Bitcoin. Amanda, you have a little bit to say there?
I just wanted to add on to... Hi, everybody. Tony, this is awesome. I love you explaining this.
(30:39):
that's pure passion um i just wanted to add to any government representatives yes so we do have
the director of ecology of yucatan he'll be coming to speak dr ebear and he actually he is of mayan
descent and he's a very respected professional and he just has so much insight about history here
(31:03):
and culture. So he's going to be speaking. We also have the president of the Gastronomy Association
of Yucatan, and he's been working with us to help get the word out and start networking amongst
other Bitcoin businesses that can be part of the conference network with us. I just need to say
that. Carry on, Tony. Yeah, so Amanda's definitely boots on the ground there in Merida. She's a
(31:29):
warrior out there, you know, teaching about Bitcoin. One thing, Amanda, my cousin, my cousin
from Mexico City, Christian Lara from Guadalajara have been teaching at the universities in Merida.
So that's exciting. My cousin was able to speak at one of the universities not too long ago,
(31:51):
a few months ago, and the students are very receptive. There's quite a few universities in
Merida. That's one of our passion is the young people there, young developers, you know, people
that are getting into computers, computer programming in Merida there. So we're pretty
active. Amanda and her team are very active in the universities, which is the next generation,
(32:15):
right? I'm 51, you know, I'm headed over into retirement, right? But the younger generation
that's coming in, they definitely need Bitcoin.
Go ahead, Bitcoin.
How's it going, man?
I had a question that's a little bit off topic,
(32:37):
but it made me think of your conference
and the speakers and stuff made me think.
Is there any Spanish-speaking Bitcoin face
or ambassador for Bitcoin?
You know, you got sailor, maulers, and you got all these English-speaking Bitcoin evangelists.
But I'm trying to think of like a big key name.
(33:01):
I know you are, but you're kind of a nim, you know.
But do you know of any?
Locally in this community is Adrian Chivino, and he's based in Monterey.
He runs the Bitcoin network Monterey.
That's what Capital X is part of as well.
and he's been a pretty big influencer for the younger generation.
(33:22):
Aside from that, I don't know what's the answer.
Is there any way you could put him in the nest so I could follow him?
Yeah, do it right now.
Thank you.
Also, Jose Flores from Capital X.
He's one of the owners of Capital X.
He's on the space right here.
(33:42):
I don't know if Jose wants to say something,
but Jose Flores is from Monterey.
huge Bitcoin influencer in Latin America now in Mexico.
And Boyd, Boyd is a professor, PhD professor of economics at Monterey University.
So some big that's part of the event.
Part of the event is also to bring all these Spanish speaking leaders that are coming out,
(34:08):
you know, that people never heard of or people are kind of in the shadows working.
Right.
But that's what the conference is about, to bring these people together.
And Jose Flores, I don't know if Jose Flores has something to say there.
Yeah. Hi, everyone. Thank you for this space.
So, yeah, I mean, I would say that the thing that there's not a lot of like big names on Bitcoin Spanish as of now.
(34:37):
And part of the reason is because a lot of people here in Latin America, they just get distracted with crypto.
And they're still on this process of learning the difference and understanding the true value of Bitcoin.
So I think, you know, we're trying to do that with the Bitcoin conference in Merida is to make people aware of these differences and, you know, create this influencer type stuff like you guys have in the U.S.
(35:08):
where, you know, people, it's just like the way I see it is the market is, it has a process
and we are like five years behind the US.
So we're starting to mature here in Mexico.
And part of the conference is to accelerate that.
For example, there's also Isabela Santos.
(35:29):
I mean, she creates a lot of content in English down in Isla Mujeres, but she's like, her
native language is Spanish. Hopefully she'll join the conference. And the idea is to give a place
for these guys to start reaching more audience and hopefully it'll go viral as it did in the US.
(35:51):
I'm pretty sure it will, but it's a process. And yeah, right now we're trying to get rid of
shitconer and just like pyramid schemes and people staffing people. So for that, we need education
And once we have that, I think we'll have the big influencer type of personalities gain some traction there.
(36:18):
Jose, thanks for coming up.
I did have a question in particular for you that I think would benefit the audience.
Talk about the regulatory uncertainty around cryptocurrencies in Latin American countries.
Like, how does that impact things, especially like you said, there's a lot of people who are distracted with other things besides Bitcoin.
(36:42):
How do you think that impacts things, the regulations?
And then also, like, is that going to be covered at the conference at all?
Like, obviously, you guys have a good product for your company, but how do you join all that stuff together?
How's the regulation working?
Yeah, for sure.
That's the topic we'll cover at the conference.
(37:02):
And, you know, it's like everywhere where regulation is not very clear.
And I think it's been a mistake from governments all around the world.
I mean, the U.S. is getting better with this new administration.
But like here in Latin America, there's no clear regulation.
And, of course, what that creates is this void where people can, you know,
(37:26):
take advantage and exploit it and do all kinds of things.
So the only regulation that applies right now, at least in Mexico, it's KYC, AML, anti-money laundering regulation.
But that's pretty much it.
Actually, in Mexico, there's this unwritten law created by the Central Bank of Mexico where any financial institution, they cannot touch any crypto or Bitcoin or anything.
(37:58):
So financial institutions are excluded from offering Bitcoin to the general public.
But what that creates is basically any private company can do it without any type of regulation.
And as you can imagine, that has created a lot of chaos.
I think that the community is very well connected.
(38:21):
So we've been able to, you know, just like unravel a lot of the fraud and just like pick it up really early.
For example, there was a Colombian network doing like huge, huge, you know, they got a lot of people and it was a huge scam.
In Mexico, we were able to like stop it on its tracks, but that was just like a community effort.
(38:46):
So to go back to your point, there's no regulation, and that has really hurt the community,
has really hurt people out there, and it hurts Bitcoin because a lot of people think it's
all part of the same thing.
And yeah, we've been battling that, and part of the conference is to address exactly that
(39:09):
and make sure people know the difference between Bitcoin and crypto, and also how to properly
buying costly Bitcoin so you don't get scammed.
Yeah, thanks for sharing that.
And it really does seem like you guys have a groundswell of support
from some of the, I think, companies, including yours,
(39:29):
that support Latin American efforts with Bitcoin.
So it's really cool.
Do you want to talk, anybody, Amanda, anybody up here,
do you guys want to talk about maybe some of the other,
just highlight some of the businesses, business owners, like I'm thinking of Montabit, Kardashev, Swapido.
(39:53):
Maybe highlight a couple of those because you guys do have a groundswell of support from quite a few Bitcoin businesses
that hopefully can push through this clarity for people in Latin America on Bitcoin versus everything else.
Okay, I'm taking it.
Yeah, we have, well, I mean, this would not be able to go to scale without Viva Bitcoin and Capital X.
(40:19):
Just for the record, Capital X as of yesterday was rebranded as Arcadia B.
Anyways, so without those two, this could not be to scale because it takes a team, as you guys know.
Then we have Supportive Gen 3.
Aqua Wallet is the official wallet of the event.
(40:39):
We have some really fun speakers that we haven't announced online yet,
but I'm just going to anyways.
We have Nathan from Saz Mining will be joining us.
And I think you guys know Saz is based in the U.S. mostly,
but they're definitely integrating in Latin America, so that's really cool.
(41:00):
um we have mexico-based there's guys there's a lot of stuff going on in mexico like we have
la casa de satoshi and the co-founders of la casa de satoshi is kardashev and gustavo um from
swapito so they will be here talking about everything they've been doing in mexico city
(41:21):
because the devs like things that are coming out of there are special then jimmy you guys all know
Jimmy in Rancho San Satoshi. He's in the middle of building things. So I don't know if he's going
to be able to put real clothes on and get out of the desert. He's trying. Everyone from Bitcoin
Network Monterey. So that's Dr. Boyd Cohen from Agade Business School, Arcadia B, Jose,
(41:46):
Adrian Trevino, and more. Ed Julien, formerly of MicroStrategy, Bitcoin Treasuries expert.
us um jose is working with isabella to check her schedule
um and then from outside sources there is a lot of companies that are really looking to expand
(42:09):
outside of el salvador outside of spain we have setlantis is joining us from spain
I think, too, with American companies, a lot are looking to see that there's a lot more adoption and Bitcoin use happening in Latin America.
(42:29):
And I think a lot of North American companies are looking to come and integrate.
So then we have Christian Laura. He's down in the audience.
He is founder of Panoramica Films, Mexico's best marketing company.
um he's going to be live streaming the event and also helping with translations as well
(42:49):
so hopefully that can help integrate people that are strictly english speaking into the latin
american bitcoin business community am i missing anybody guys
i'll take that as a note but that's that's amazing and i think people just you know especially in the
(43:09):
United States, we fail to realize what's going on in other parts of the world. So personally,
I'm just excited to hear all this activity and all these things going. Did want to say good
morning to Sal. Not to put you on the spot, sir, but did you have any questions or comments
related to the conference? I do. Good morning, everyone. Sorry, I was a little late.
(43:31):
As always, thank you for hosting this, Bob. Congrats to the Mayan Bacon Conference. Super
excited to hear the war of Central America. So it's glad to hear Guatemala, El Salvador,
I'm from El Salvador originally. And I was able to join a call yesterday, a space regarding,
it was super interesting on sort of the circular economies in Latin America. And there were folks
(43:54):
representative from sort of Cuba, Mexico, I believe, Paraguay. So it was just really insightful
to hear the challenges of adoption.
So my question to you all here as far as the Mayan Bitcoin Conference I would love to know sort of what are the top three challenges that you encountering and how are you addressing them on the field when it comes to
(44:18):
you know, and this is what I heard in the phone call yesterday,
the circular economy cannot work if people convert their Bitcoin to fiat.
We can have so many businesses accepting, but if the first question as,
you know on the field there's education and the first question is okay how do i convert this
bitcoin to whatever local currency you know that that poses major complications so i'd love to get
(44:43):
just some insights on on i mean i love hearing the bitcoin of the business adoption the speakers i
think that's phenomenal and it's all part of the the growth that's needed but what what is the
temperature like a temperature check on on sort of the challenges for for that you're experiencing
or you're seeing as far as making this circularity stick in that region in Merida.
(45:03):
We'd love to get some insights.
Thank you all again for what you do.
I can speak to Merida, but I think there's other Mexican communities in here that can speak to theirs.
But in Merida, we've had, and I know Jose touched on this, is the difference.
People have been in crypto for so long, and they all have had their experiences,
(45:25):
as we all know what those were.
and it's a main thing is education,
teaching them that there's a difference.
Bitcoin is not crypto.
So that's been our main challenge
and it is slow, but surely.
So I'm waiting for the suddenly.
We're not at the suddenly yet.
For accepting on a circular economy level,
(45:47):
that was a huge challenge for our first year.
But then we have products like Capital X
because Capital X now, or KDB, sorry,
has, we have a Bitcoin visa. When you guys come to the conference, you can actually sign up and
take one home with you because you can use it anywhere. You can use Bitcoin just for the record.
But anyways, with that, when people say no, we can actually take out our Bitcoin visa card and say,
(46:12):
okay, well, I just paid you with Bitcoin anyways. And if you don't have your visa card, we also have
Swapido. And Swapido does direct from Lightning to bank transfer. And in Mexico, I'd probably say,
I'm making this data, but I'd say it's probably 90% of businesses will accept bank transfer.
Like you can actually sit at a restaurant and just pay with bank transfer if you don't have cash or cards.
(46:38):
So with things like that, they're showing like, oh, I just paid you with Bitcoin.
And then it leaves that little thought bomb.
And then we have a WhatsApp group locally.
And so we invite everybody in, even if they're not, you know, haven't said yes yet.
So we have a community. It's a learning center. And come join us.
(46:59):
And then eventually, after me harassing them, they're starting to come on board.
Yeah, what I would add to that is I think it's something that we're facing all around the world.
And it's basically, you know, lightning, which it's I love the technology.
I think is great, but doing it in a self-custody way is like too technical for 99.9% of the population.
(47:27):
So I think there's just problems that they're going to get fixed as we move along.
But for now, it's just using Lightning with your own node and everything.
It's kind of hard right now.
And the second one is regulation.
It's, you know, when you pay Bitcoin, in theory, if you made a gain, you need to pay taxes.
(47:47):
I mean, of course, in a circular economy that's small, it doesn't matter.
But if it starts scaling, you know, of course, the government is going to notice and, you know, it can create some friction there.
So I would say those are the two main things that we've encountered that are preventing things from really scaling.
(48:10):
Yeah, and the other thing.
Go ahead, Vivo.
Yeah, the other thing, too, as you know, like in the U.S., you know, we've had FTX, you know, scam.
We've had, you know, Mount Dox, if some of you that remember back in the day, you know.
So we've had a lot of the scams here in the U.S., you know, and the different things that have gone on, right?
(48:34):
In Latin America, it's on a different scale, but it's starting to happen.
It's starting to happen. And, you know, just like anything else with the Mayan Bitcoin Conference, which is a Bitcoin conference, only Bitcoin only.
We're trying to educate. We're trying to let people know the facts of Bitcoin and how the economy can work.
(48:58):
Because the other thing that happens in Latin America, Sal, as you know, Sal, just to answer your question, is that in Latin America, a lot of people don't make a lot of money.
So they have to find a way to get Bitcoin.
So there's a lot of businesses.
There's people that sell coffee, sell hats, sell T-shirts.
(49:19):
There's a lot of different ways people are trying to gain Bitcoin, right?
So that's the hard part.
And as you know, in the U.S., we can have a good fiat job and buy Bitcoin.
But in Latin America, it's people sometimes that I've talked to, all they do is they make
50 or 100 a week that's their income and i'm telling them to buy 25 in bitcoin right i said
(49:45):
all you got to do is buy 25 in bitcoin well when you make 50 a week or you make 100 a week
uh that's a lot of money that means you don't eat groceries that week right so with the economy and
education and all you know even giving someone some stats you know here's a little bit of you
know, Bitcoin stats, follow it, look, you know, study it. It's hard. So, yeah, the economy there
(50:10):
and people learning about Bitcoin, it's hard because here in America, I tell my family and
friends, yeah, buy, you know, how much Bitcoin should I buy every week? And I say what you can
afford and, you know, say, oh, I could buy $50 in Bitcoin a week. I just won't go to Starbucks this
week, but I'll buy $50 in Bitcoin. Well, in Latin America, $50 is what you make. So it is
(50:31):
social economics there is different. There is a harder way to tell people, you know, hey,
buy $10 in Bitcoin a week. Well, that's, you know, that's what I make in a day. So it's that's one of
the challenges for me over the years has been when I've gotten to Latin America and talk to people
about buying Bitcoin, I got to know my audience, right? Know the audience, know who I'm talking to.
(50:57):
And sometimes I give away a little bit of stats.
You know, I give away a little bit of Bitcoin here.
Download this wallet.
We actually did that in Merida.
We were an area where there's a bee called the Melopona bee that makes honey.
We gave some Bitcoin away to some of the kids there.
It's just to teach, you know.
It's cool.
It's fun.
(51:17):
But definitely the scams are in Latin America.
Thank you all for the granular insights.
And it's always incredible to me to just see, you know, even though it's one region, right, but it's so nuanced and every region has differences to the approaches and the challenges.
So really just happy to see this.
(51:40):
I unfortunately won't be able to make it, but I can't wait to catch the next one.
And, yeah, this is a great job.
Thank you all for sharing the proof of work and the effort they were putting in helping scale adoption.
For sure.
Thank you.
Yeah, thanks, Sal, for the question, too.
And I do think this has been a fun space just hearing about this.
I'm trying to evaluate all the different conferences that are coming up.
(52:05):
And I think, you know, it's not always about numbers.
I think success can be measured in a lot of different ways.
But there's a lot of competition out there for conferences.
And so wondering how you guys think about that.
And then maybe as we wrap up the show, just let everyone know, you know, where they can
get plugged in for the conference.
Someone want to take that one? Amanda, maybe?
(52:27):
I don't really think about competition, to tell you the truth.
The others might think differently, but I don't.
I think all of us that are on the team have just a passion to, number one, put Mexico on the map.
I think we are the biggest Latin American country, and there's a lot people don't know.
So that's kind of the main thing. Passion. Competition isn't really a big thing.
(52:51):
We understand this is our first. I think it's very, it's a big deal that, you know, all the propaganda news that's going on.
And then, you know, there's Trump and cartels and those kinds of things.
That's been, that's kept a lot of people out of this country.
But where we are, we are actually the safest city in Mexico and actually number two in all of North America.
(53:16):
I think Quebec, Canada is number one, but those results are probably skewed.
So I think that will bring people here.
We understand maybe we're not going to be massive this time.
And that's okay, too, because sometimes smaller events are the ones where you really get to have enriched conversations.
And we're going to do this every year.
(53:37):
So we'll grow.
Did I answer it all?
What I would add to that, Amanda, is that we really don't have any competition.
I mean, there's a lot of conference, but almost everything is in English.
And, you know, people want to get the big, you know, press releases and the big speakers.
We're not about that.
(53:57):
We're about like boots on the ground and orange spilling the local population.
So, you know, there's no big speakers in Spanish, like we were saying.
So we don't have the big names, but we're the few conference in the world as of now that the content is going to be 100% in Spanish.
So we don't think we have a lot of competition.
(54:18):
And if we do, we welcome it because it's better for everyone.
Yeah, I love it.
The second part of the question was just to maybe talk about how people can get plugged in or how they can support you guys.
Where should they be going?
www.mayanbitclangconference.com.
I actually put a couple things up in the nest.
(54:40):
If you follow at MayanBTC, that's our conference Twitter.
So we're posting in there often new speakers and sponsors and just fun Merida stuff.
Yeah, awesome.
And once again, thank you guys, everybody who came up here and explained what's going on.
(55:02):
All the excitement gave all that perspective on Latin America and what you guys are trying to do.
Excited to see what's going on there.
And it is good to hear that you'll have, for some of us non-Spanish speakers, you'll have maybe some translation.
So that's awesome, too.
I definitely want to come down and visit that part of the Yucatan Peninsula.
(55:22):
I think most people think of Cancun.
And so I think it sounds like Merida is awesome and definitely want to check it out.
So this is a good opportunity for a lot of people.
But, yeah, thank you to everyone.
Go ahead, Viva.
You got one more thing before we close out the show today?
Yeah, just a quick note. You know, I was in El Salvador about 25 years ago. I was in El Salvador driving through there as the most dangerous country I'd ever been to 25 years ago. And then I was there recently a year ago at the having party with Sean Harris.
(55:57):
and the country had totally turned around, right?
And that's what we're hoping for Latin America and Mexico
and a lot of other countries.
You know, that's the vision.
That's always what we want.
You know, we want countries to be safe,
to be economically healthy, right?
You know, politics is going to be politics, right?
(56:18):
But it was definitely a 25-year difference
of being in El Salvador and just driving through there.
They just said, hey, just don't stop.
Just drive through El Salvador. Don't even stop and eat any pupusas. Just keep going.
And then now going to El Salvador, you know, a year ago, it's totally different.
And that's what we're hoping for. Latin America, not just Mexico, but Cuba, you know, Venezuela.
(56:45):
We have people from Venezuela coming to speak. But for every Latin American country, that's all we want is that the native people are safe,
healthy economy and something that can be fixed, right?
Very cool. Well, yeah, it does take something to build this.
And I think the long game is what it's going to take.
(57:08):
Doesn't happen overnight. So appreciate what you guys are doing. Once again,
thank you for coming on the show and thank you to all of you who listen every
day. We do this every weekday at 10 a.m. Eastern and we'll do this again tomorrow.
Lord willing, 10 a.m.
So please do join us for a fun Friday, Freedom Tech Friday.
I guess, yeah, I hopefully will have some more speakers next week, guest speakers.
(57:38):
And so those will be coming up where we'll be able to announce those soon.
We're just trying to figure out some dates.
Did want to remind everybody, BitcoinVeterans.org, if you need help on your Bitcoin journey,
We'll get you plugged into helpful resources.
And that's all we have for today.
I want to wish you guys once again a wonderful Thursday.
And remember, whatever you do, do not Bitcoin.
(58:06):
It's like taking cough medicine to cure hemorrhoids.
Thanks, everyone.
And Bitcoin veterans, so much honor for all of you guys.
Appreciate you.
All people that use fiat currency as a store of value, we call them we poor.
(58:34):
People that use fiat currency, we call them we poor.
Thank you.
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