PCR119 - Multi Touch Mixology with Sergio

In this episode QW and Avi touch on the trend of vibe coding, discuss the upcoming Nostr event Nostrbama, "getting on zero" and local orange pilling with Sergio.

Nostrbama : https://nostrbama.com/

Avi Burra's Book 24 : https://www.amazon.com/24-Avi-Burra/dp/B0CN9NRNNB/ref=sr11?crid=27RW9P8JQ4YMV&keywords=avi+burra+24&qid=1700327391&sprefix=avi+burra+24%2Caps%2C122&sr=8-1

Plebchain Radio Shirt - Black and Yellow -https://lightning.store/product/plebchain-radio-black-t-shirt/

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to Pleb Chain Radio, a live show brought to you by Plebs for Plebs, which focuses

(00:08):
on the intersection of NOSTER and Bitcoin protocols.
Join QW and Avi as they run down the weekly news and developments, breaking down the current
thing and the future frontier with the foundation of decentralization, the builders, thinkers,
doers, and plebs.
All right, we are live.
Welcome, gentle plebs, to the lightning-laced airwaves. Today is Thursday, the 3rd of July, and it is episode 119 of Pleb Chain Radio. It is 5.06 p.m. on the east coast of the United States.

(00:46):
At the time of recording, we have a fun show ahead of you today. Sergio, the Bitcoin bartender, joins us to talk about Bitcoin bartending, Nostabama, and much, much more.
And a reminder, folks, if you are listening to this show on Apple or Spotify, first of all, thank you for listening.

(01:09):
But I would urge you to hit pause and switch over to the Fountain Podcasting app where you can earn some sats and support the value for value revolution as you listen.
And while you're there, we would genuinely appreciate it if you hit subscribe and support the show and in turn get access to exclusive bonus episodes.

(01:34):
This show is streamed live on Zap.Stream and any other Nostra client that supports streaming such as Amethyst and Nostra.
And QW, you have been paying attention to Bitcoin and Nostra culture in the last week.
What have you witnessed?
I feel like this is a weekly occurrence, Avi.

(01:56):
Vibe, vibe, vibe.
And there's also a little, I don't know,
it seems like corn's stirring some,
a little bit of friction in the culture on the vibe coating.
And this kind of goes back to what I was saying originally,
kind of, is vibe coating, is it dangerous at times, Avi?

(02:19):
because you you i consider you my ai guru is it time dangerous like your waste time sometimes
um maybe especially the users that are used like trying out your vibe coded app um is it tough to
if the if you have bugs can you easily rebuild your your your vibe coded app um all those

(02:43):
things I think about is kind of uh from my remodeling mind um but I think it's something
I don't know even like Doc I know he's had issues with uh power uh and and you know had a bug had
to rebuild it uh rebuild it rebuild I think he's on his fourth or fifth power uh but it seems like

(03:04):
you know you might get a little over your skis but is it is it necessarily a good thing regardless
to your earlier question
QW about is it dangerous
I don't think it's dangerous
for the most part
and certainly it's not a waste of someone's time
if they're experimenting
with something trying to build an app

(03:25):
I think it's a great time to
play around with that
there's never been a time when non-technical people
could build applications
that sort of worked
what if you make an app
like I think about let's say Floxter
that was just a Nostra app.
And it was, I started using it.
There was bugs.

(03:46):
And, you know, if you have a microphone
and you're like, hey, everyone use this,
that's a lot of time that people will be using it,
thinking it's going to get better.
But then, you know, they spent all that time
and the person developing has just disappeared.
So it's like, it might not be dangerous for you,
but for the time that could be allocated
to actual productivity,

(04:06):
it's one of those kind of weird things.
the gray zone of vibe coding, I'd say.
I will say, I think there are some similarities
between the explosion of vibe-coded apps and meme coins.
At the end of the day, it's buyer beware, right?
If you're buying a meme coin, chances are you're going to get rug pulled.

(04:30):
There is maybe that one meme coin where you'll probably make out like a bandit.
I mean, not you, but...
I was thinking about that, kind of the fine print of check out this app.
And, you know, this is not financial advice type of fine print.
You know, this is a vibe-coded app.
It's known to have lots of bugs.
It probably will be abandoned in two weeks.

(04:53):
You know, just a little disclaimer where you're like, do I want to put my time there?
Just like financial advice, do I want to put my money there?
Because time is money, right?
Anyways, so that's kind of what I was thinking about for Culture Corner.
But there is an event coming up, Bobby.
I don't know if you've heard about it.
And hopefully my guest will actually show up to this.

(05:14):
Our guest, Nostrebama, July 14th through the 17th, Mobile, Alabama.
I'm sure everyone's got Mobile, Alabama on the bucket list.
And what better time to do it than 14th through the 17th?
Secondly, Lake Satoshi, August 1st through 3rd.
I keep saying Central Michigan because that's about the only thing I know about this lake.

(05:39):
But if you're going to go and you're going to camp, you'll find where it is.
Lake Satoshi, August 1st through the 3rd.
And finally, the Upendo block party is back this Saturday.
So I expect massive zaps.
It's essentially a combination of a zap-a-thon and a hash-a-thon.
So it's going to be a fun time.

(06:00):
I'm all in.
and that's in less than 48 hours.
So if you're on Noster, you really can't miss it.
It's going to eat your feed.
So that's it.
Between Vibe coding posts and the Wrigley Appendo block party posts,

(06:21):
Noster is becoming unusable, QW.
I don't know what to tell you.
It's turned into AI video now, too.
Everyone's got their commercials running.
yes for sure and qw for our top zapper roast i was excited about this one avi

(06:41):
the bitcoin bugle it is those dirty dogs of the show
dear friends of the show the bitcoin bugle good evening my fellow roast enjoy yours
let's crank the gain to 11 for last week's micro donor the bitcoin bugle the newsroom that swears

(07:10):
it tumbled through a quantum pothole from another timeline yet still ranks 753rd on twitter's comedy
ladder. These stewards of semi-truth promise thermodynamically sound news. Apparently,
that means judging jokes with a meat thermometer. Yep, medium rare, publish.

(07:37):
Their proud slogan, we think for you, really means they've outsourced fact-checking to the
multiverse, so you never have to open another tab. Every headline is a banana peel on a marble floor,
hilarious, unsafe, and somehow legal. They mine laughs like miners mine blocks, loudly, overclocked,

(08:04):
and occasionally triggering involuntary brown noise across the neighborhood. When lightning tips
roll in, they spray sats like confetti at a clown funeral, then declare the mess content.
So here's your roast, bugle. May your zap buttons stay as sticky as your headlines.

(08:30):
May your ranking never improve, because obscurity is brand equity after all. And
may your thermodynamics keep violating Newton in the most entertaining ways imaginable.
Thanks for keeping us proudly and gloriously misinformed.

(08:54):
That was a very non-compliant roast, Avi.
One tries, QW.
Oh, man.
You know, the thing about these roasts, we really have to make something out of nothing every week.
Because sometimes we don't even know who we're actually roasting.
Especially until like the day before.

(09:15):
So we kind of got to put these things together.
Take all of our angles and make something from nothing.
And that's our sermon today, Avi.
Something from nothing.
The difference between wanting to do something and choosing to do something is the final boss.
listening to your heart is a lot different than acting from your heart passion cannot be replicated

(09:38):
and it very much is proof of work you know there's a thousand excuses that can get in your way
but ultimately that is your our mind your mind deciding what is real true passion builds
commitment when you become committed i wish becomes i can i want becomes i will you know

(09:58):
We've seen a lot of Noster grassroots come up.
And I always say I love the grassroots stuff because it really is driven from passion.
It is someone that said, I have a local scene.
I want to do something.
Maybe you want to do what Noster PHX did.
Maybe you want to do what PubKey does.

(10:22):
I think one of the most logical ones is like a Bitcoin park.
but you have to start somewhere and you know when we did that Nostra PHX it was completely
grassroots when you look at these jack-funded events I mean yeah they're unconferences but
they got headlines they have all the things that you would see from a normal conference that would

(10:43):
draw people in and you know to me it's the passion is where it's local and you know that's from Nostra
PHX culture shock to Nostra Valley, Nostra village, and now Nostra Bama. These aren't events with
headliners and funding from above. These are grassroots, Nostrages scraping to make things

(11:05):
work. And to me, that's the best. That's the best part. Literally scraping, figuring it out.
You try to do a value for value event. It just is what it is. And you literally take nothing
and make it something.
And that's, to me, the most beautiful part
about shows like this today and the events coming up.

(11:27):
So maybe we should bring our guest on
and talk a little bit about making something from nothing.
Welcome to the guests.
Welcome to the PubChain Radio for the first time Sergio Gentlemen I appreciate you having me on here I really appreciate you guys having me on here I been wanting to come on forever Which coffee cup do you have in your hand right now

(11:50):
Oh, it's nothing special.
It's just a tumbler right now.
You know, the afternoon coffees get spilled, so you've got to put them in something safe.
I'm going to just conflate our burning question into a couple ones.
Number one, how many times a week do you actually tan your thighs by the pool?
I work two or three times a week and I try to go to the gym and then go to the pool and then go to work.

(12:14):
So three times a week.
And do you actually tan or you just take a picture of your thighs, post it to Noster and then wrap up?
I try to really just sun my balls and then go to work.
You know, I just take a picture, sun in my balls and that's it.
Vitamin capital D, right?
uh secondly um how many coffee mugs do you have because i think i've seen probably 50

(12:42):
i mean not that many really cute uh let me let me just go to my kitchen and count them
right quick for you there's got to be maybe about a dozen you know give or take
yeah we're talking one two three four five six seven yeah about 14 of them you know they get
at it here and there and they get taken away depending on you know you've got to rotate them

(13:04):
in and out some get you know turned out to pasture if they get too old okay so you actually can let
go of them i can let go of them unlike my wife and her tumblers and that's why i'm drinking from
a tumbler today and i'm sure we all have that problem those of you who have wives there's
there's a collection there's there's the tumblers you've got tumblers you're never gonna get rid of

(13:28):
them. My son's cups now, two-year-old cups, those are a whole other batch. Really, I just use almost
the same cup every day and hand wash it. Hey, but speaking of grassroots movements and something
from nothing, Nostradamus is something from nothing because you're right. Nobody knows about
Mobile. It's not a major destination. There is nothing here. But the great thing about it is that

(13:52):
I have an established community and I'm already a bartender and my wife is a graphic designer
and we have all the moving parts to make this happen.
So we said, why not?
Let's give it a try.
And Avi, where did you meet Sergio?
I believe it was at Nosterville a couple of years back in Nashville.

(14:18):
That's right.
Nosterville 1.0.
We all have the same anniversary.
The Sergio anniversary.
Hey, Sergio, I actually have a real burning question for you.
Not the nonsense QW just asked you.
So you are a bartender.
I am.

(14:40):
And a mixologist on top of that.
So imagine this.
You're at a bar and there is just one customer who is paying handsomely and asks for one last drink.
one last exotic drink
which you proceed to make
you hand it over
they gulp it down

(15:02):
and suddenly collapse
because they've had one too many
on the counter
their phone slips out of their hand
it is actually unlocked
and it
the app that's open
is their bitcoin wallet
with 100 bitcoin in it
what do you do?

(15:23):
I mean he's my new best friend obviously
lock that bitch up and then wake him up
and we're going on a trip.
I hope he likes golfing, you know?
You mean lock him in the basement or lock what up?
In the trunk, because we're going to the airport.

(15:44):
That's what you do.
Also, I already know he has good taste if he came to my bar,
so we're going to get along great.
How long have you been a bartender?
Tell us a little bit about where the hell did Sergio come from.
It's been on 11 years.
You're a character.
You're very charismatic.

(16:04):
You're great.
I mean, even my wife likes you, so that's cool.
You got that going for you.
I mean, that's a plus.
You're a friendly dude that generally has a friendly personality.
Great for bartending.
I'm sure you endure a lot, too.
I started about 11 years ago. I got an opportunity to move here to Alabama. A friend of mine was part

(16:28):
owner of a bar. I'd just gotten out of college. I didn't know what I was going to do.
And he said, you know, do you want to come work for me for a summer? Do you want to bartend? I
said, I don't know how to bartend. He said, you mix a couple of things together. I said,
I think I can handle it. And so I did it. And once I got here, I think I had like 600 bucks in my
name, enough for rent for a couple of months. And I started bartending and I took off with it and I

(16:52):
did volume bartending, which is just two touch drinks for, I would say three or four years
before I got an opportunity to go to the bar that I'm in now, which is the Haberdasher.
And I would consider the Haberdasher to be the pinnacle of bars here in Mobile. There's just
nowhere else to go where you can get this kind of classical cocktail training. You would have to

(17:12):
travel or, you know, go to a school or something, you know, so I was very fortunate to do that.
And I've been at the Hab now for about seven years now. And so, uh, you know, I've been doing
it for quite a while and it takes a long time, you know, it takes a long time to get used to,
um, working with what it is, is templates. You know, everything has a template and you can plug

(17:34):
and play ingredients into that template so that you can do variations of certain cocktails.
Sergio, for those of us who are just blind consumers, as opposed to being on the other
side of the counter, you used a couple of terms that might have gone over many of our heads,
including mine. One was two-touch bartending, and the other was haberdasher. I've heard of

(18:02):
haberdasheries. I thought those were places where people sold hats. That's right.
I'm curious.
The bar got its name because they didn't know what to call it.
And they asked the previous owners, you know, what did this used to be before we put the bar here?
And they said it used to be a haberdashery, a men's accessory warehouse or store.
And so they said, that's what we're going to call it.

(18:23):
We're going to call it the haberdasher.
So that came about.
Two-touch bartending is akin to volume bartending in that you only touch two ingredients.
It's a whiskey soda.
It's a vodka tonic.
tonic. It's a, you know, whatever those two ingredients are, it, it's kind of, um, entry
level bartending. Most anyone can do it if they have fast hands, you know, or ADD and fast hands,

(18:47):
you know, if you can carry a conversation and, uh, you know, service the people, if you will.
So that's, um, and, and that has its place. That's a lot of fun to do that. And you can make a lot of
money doing that because of your, uh, percentage compounded gains there. You know, if, if I sell
someone a $5 beer and they give me $2 and they, and that happens hundreds of times, your percentage

(19:08):
is bigger and you're compounding it to a larger extent. Whereas if I'm making a $13 cocktail and
I get a dollar off of someone, it takes a lot more work and effort to put that cocktail out
and I'm getting less returns, but it's more rewarding in the longterm. There's, you know,
you can be proud of something that you've made. Even it's a low time preference kind of thing.
Right. A cocktail with multiple ingredients that's handcrafted is proof of work as opposed to, I suppose.

(19:38):
It is. And you can you can also help your yourself by batching liquors and juices, saving time that way.
So you don't have to work hard necessarily. If you have 15 ingredients in a drink, you can batch it and make it a two touch drink by batching your juices separately from your liquor and just having the measurements ready to go.

(20:01):
You know, so, you know, you can work smart and not hard in that aspect.
so when were you are you a formally trained mixologist no i had to learn on my own by trial
and error and i was just kind of thrown in and trained on just on the go it was a sink or swim

(20:27):
mentality said either you make it or you don't because everybody who's ever bartended knows they
get that that urge to quit when it gets really hard like you could just quit and go home and not
have to deal with the public. Everybody gets that. But if you push through, that's what counts. You
know, if you just keep doing your job as hard as it can get, because it does get taxing, you know,

(20:48):
on your body and your mind, because you have to deal with so many different personalities.
Not all of them are nice, but you have to be, you know, cordial and nice for customer service sake.
So not always. There are times, you know, where you can you can lash back, but it's not suggested
that you do that as a default, you know?

(21:12):
And how long have you been a bartender?
11 years.
So this was, I mean, you started mining Bitcoin in 2009,
so it was a couple years after that?
Exactly, exactly.
That's right.

(21:32):
He started mining Bitcoin.
on my bitcoin journey started pretty pretty early though but i didn't acquire it until much later
you forget about it you hear about it in the news and then you go oh yeah that's something i'll look
into it and then you forget about it well what what what drew you into it what ultimately
what about you sergio drew you into bitcoin

(21:55):
And unlike a lot of people, you get attracted by the greed, right?
Because you see it go up.
But for me, a lot of it was coming from having been raised in Mexico for 13 years and seeing around 10 or 11 years old when the banks changed the currency, they changed the bills, they took a zero off.

(22:21):
And then they were like, this is now new money.
you know the the day before they did that i paid for my lunch right after the mexican peso crisis
right yeah yeah and uh the lunch lady yeah the basically you know i went up to the lunch lady
trying to give her the old money and she said this doesn't this doesn't work anymore and i said what

(22:44):
are you talking about you you gave me lunch yesterday and i gave you the same thing and
she was like this this doesn't it's just not money anymore and i realized then i was like okay so this
all sham. And it was around 2012 when I was living in California that Max Kaiser was on RT
and he was talking about Bitcoin. I think it reached parity to the dollar and soon went to

(23:05):
$70. And I said, that's historic. That's huge. How do I get my hands on it? Well, I didn't know how.
There was no way to self-custody at the time unless you were, you know, really savvy on how
to do it I don think there was no hardware wallets There was none of that you know and so I forgot about it until about 2017 and right around the time that I moved here to Mobile And when I started working and I moved to Mobile without a bank account or a cell phone or a car and I would just walk to work

(23:37):
It was a couple miles, two or three miles.
And I would do that three or four times a week.
And so since I wasn't paying any insurance, gas, none of that, I opened a bank account.
I downloaded mycelium and they had a Glidera third-party purchasing Bitcoin provider.
And I would just do reoccurring buys whenever I had extra money and had paid my rent.

(24:01):
I'd put all the extra money into Bitcoin and I just sat on it.
And that was the beginning of my Bitcoin journey.
But you're knee-deep in the ethos now.
What is it?
I mean, how does that happen?
It's because it's one thing to look at it like money or an investment.
It's another thing to look at it from a cultural aspect.

(24:24):
I mean, you go all the way down the rabbit hole to sunning your balls.
I mean, yeah, you got to, man.
You got a full send.
And especially, you know, it's funny because before I found Noster, it was a lonely place to be a Bitcoiner in Alabama.
I didn't know where to turn.
There was no one.
People looked at me like I was crazy.

(24:45):
So I just shut up.
Because I was yelling at people, you know, hey, this is going to be, it's going to be the next, you know, it's either everything or it's nothing.
It's either going to swallow the world or it just fizzles into oblivion.
And I think we're on our way to swallowing the world.
And Nostros brought this social layer that I was missing.

(25:08):
And I had quit social media right around COVID.
I got sick of everyone fighting.
I didn't want to see it anymore.
And I just, I got off all of the socials.
And that was one of the best things for my mental health.
The next best thing for my mental health was being able to say good morning on Noster and people replying back and just saying good morning.

(25:32):
You know, have, enjoy your day.
Today's going to be a great day.
It's funny that something that small can change your perspective on how the day's going to go.
but I try to take that to heart and do it every day.
Say good morning, post a picture from where I'm having my coffee,
my sunroomed, which has now become who I am on Nostra, I suppose.

(25:56):
So I guess I'm consistently that guy.
Hell yeah.
And you get a big Nostra adopter, especially the technology side.
I think our very first, beyond just kind of shitposting together,
early, early Noster times. But me and you had a transaction in the DMs. And I sold you a GoPro.

(26:21):
That was one of the first things I've ever sold. Actually, my first thing I've ever sold for Bitcoin,
just peer-to-peer. It was purely peer-to-peer marketplace. And that was pretty sweet. But you
also taking that streaming, you've taken it to the next level through zap.stream.

(26:42):
Oh, yeah, I still have that GoPro, man. I put it on my bicycle.
And that's another thing about you is you've always made Bitcoin money, not just digital gold.
You're always supporting, always using it as currency, because truly, that's the way to unlock
the freedom, in my opinion. And I think you get that. But yeah, talk about that.

(27:08):
I have to agree. And actually, I've gone as far as to, and I did this recently, and I had to tuck
my tail, you know, between my legs and run back. But I ditched my banks and went all in on strike
and bill pay and using my credit cards. But I had to inevitably go back to getting a bank account.

(27:28):
I think I'm too early.
We're going to pull that thread in a second because I wanted to talk to you about that.
And that was a user error.
That was not Strike's fault.
I want to clarify that.
Yeah, well, I want to talk more about that death, but I do want to ask you, how was the ZapDot stream?
Because you're one of the first people streaming on it, like, a lot, I feel like.

(27:51):
I love using new stuff.
I have this, I don't know what it is, but I like to play with new stuff.
And so especially when it comes to technology, I'm not the most technologically savvy person, but I like fucking with stuff, you know, and especially if it's new and exciting and especially if it comes off of Noster.
And I thought to myself, you know, I'm already doing something that people would like to peek into.

(28:15):
I'm bartending.
So why not, you know, let people in and see what I'm doing?
But what do these people in real life think about you when you're over there with your camera set up and you got your Nostra PHX shirt on?
Well, the first thing they ask me is, where can I find you?

(28:36):
They're like, oh, are you on TikTok?
Are you on YouTube?
And I'm like, no, I'm not.
You can go fuck yourself.
You can find me on Nostra.
You've got to love that.
That's great, Sergio.
So the Zap.
Do you still do that, by the way, mixing on Zap.
I do it every Saturday.
I do it every Saturday.

(28:57):
I want it to be as busy as it can be so that I can keep people entertained, even though I don't have that many viewers.
But there's like, you know, a handful that tune in and I appreciate them.
And let's talk about the scene in the Bitcoin scene in Alabama.
You mentioned that for the longest time you were the only one there.
So did that change?
Are there more Bitcoiners there now?

(29:17):
it used to be abysmal to be honest with you obvi but it has come around to where
for better or worse i'm known as the bitcoin guy around here and anytime somebody has a question
they come to me and they're like you know what do i do and i basically tell them because i've made
all the mistakes already you know what not to do and they'll sometimes listen to me sometimes they

(29:38):
won't they'll go into the shitcoin forest and get lost but eventually everybody comes back to bitcoin
You know, in due time, everybody comes back. It's that Sunday come to Jesus moment where you're like, all right, I've messed around. I've lost my ass. I have to get back to sound money.
Yeah, you've spent your time being the tugboat. You've spent your time being the tugboat. Now you're just that that that light that lighthouse. Now people know to come to you.

(30:06):
yeah and uh and to go even further actually on that point i because of nostrobama and because of
being able to set up the btc pay server i realized something recently that i hadn't before i can now
provide the ability for businesses to integrate btc pay server now and so riddler and i are going

(30:31):
to make that our next venture, hopefully, in the near future. So Noserem has opened our eyes to a
lot of other things, a lot of facets that could be applied to places that may not have the best,
you know, I'm not going to say infrastructure, we have everything, but, you know, just the knowledge.
They're lacking direction, but they have to want it, you know. And that's one of the hardest

(30:54):
things about this is people and businesses, they have to want it in order to implement this,
because there is a bit of a learning curve.
You know, it's not easy, but it's worth it.
So you're talking about a white glove type service
where you take BTC Pay, you go to merchants,
and you help them get set up?
I mean, yeah, just basically,

(31:15):
these people have point of sale services.
This is just basically a web app,
and you don't have to self-host.
You know, BTC Pay server can allow you to open a channel
and they can host it for you at a very low cost.
And so the barrier to entry gets lower. It's just that technical difficulty. But if we can get people past that hurdle and just help people get there, I think it would be very beneficial.

(31:39):
And especially once people realize how fast it is and how easy it is to use. And it would be a game changer. And especially in places – I joke around when I say this, but it is somewhat true.
Mobile, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, it's like the third world in a first world country.

(32:00):
You know, the deep south has had its problems, right? We all know. And we're down here and we're
in damn near last in every category, especially education. So I think if we educate people where
it matters the most in money, we could have a slow, you know, rise to get better.

(32:21):
And that's the thing, right? I think there's a bigger opportunity in a more third world type environment where people are acutely aware because of their economic condition that the money is broken or they can be convinced very easily of that.
I mean people feel it. If you ask people, you know, how much are you paying for red meat right now if you go to the store? How much did you pay previous to 2020? What percentage do you think that is? Why do you think that is? You start asking the right questions. They'll start wondering for themselves like, huh, maybe he's got a point, you know? Well, he's driving around a new car. Well, he's going on vacations. It didn't seem to affect him. Why?

(33:02):
you just adopt bitcoin as your denominator everything gets cheaper over the next infinite
amount of time and you know sahaja the other point you're making about you and you said the grinder
uh from from last over right going around uh helping up this these point of sale folks set

(33:23):
up btc pay server you know there is this always this chicken and egg uh question when it comes to
Bitcoin adoption, which is, you know, you ask someone, why don't you use Bitcoin?
Well, nobody accepts Bitcoin.
You go to the merchants and you say, why don't you...
That's such a lame, you know, it's such a lame response.

(33:43):
Right.
And then you ask the merchants...
It's such a lazy response.
But the merchants say, well, because why don't you accept Bitcoin?
Because no one wants to pay in Bitcoin.
So it seems like a chicken and egg.
But they're actually, in my mind, a very simple solution to that.
You get the merchants on board.
Right. You get them to start accepting Bitcoin, you convince them of the value proposition.

(34:04):
And then merchant adoption is what's going to drive consumer adoption because they'll see the option there.
Absolutely. So I think it's a it's a really cool thing that you guys are doing.
Thanks, man. It's been a fun journey. It's going to continue to be a fun journey.
I think this is I'm very excited about Nostravam.

(34:24):
I think it's going to open a lot of doors to help everyone.
and just, you know, a lot of this is just having like-minded people with the same ethos together
to share ideas and make more connections.
And because Bitcoin allows you to be, you know, a digital nomad and we have this grassroots movement,
you can start something from nothing.
You can be non-local.

(34:45):
You don't have to do it locally.
You can be non-local.
You know, you can move around and go and have different meetups.
You know, you can go to Europe.
You can go to, you know, what's that island?
Madeira.
or you can go to Prague or you can go to wherever.
I think that a strong point that local doesn mean down the street It could mean oh something happened in Vegas I a four hour drive I drive there You know it doesn necessarily you know supporting something close enough is just as important as starting something from nothing

(35:22):
yeah man and especially when you hear about things like uh nostril you know and going to
bitcoin park which i consider to be like the mecca the first time that you could go somewhere
and purchase a coffee using lightning which is one of the biggest things people say you're not
gonna purchase coffee with bitcoin are you and it's like what are you talking about i just did

(35:46):
you know and that was one of the one of the the crazy aha moments with lightning and uh and being
at Bitcoin Park and meeting a lot of people that were similar, you know, similarly minded,
same kind of sound money principles as you and, you know, outlook on life. And it, it just clicked.
I was like, oh, okay. If, if you build it, they'll, they'll come, you know, like you can build your

(36:10):
own table. You don't have to go all the way to Nashville. If you have a circle of maybe two,
three, four Bitcoiners, that's all it takes. I would encourage everyone to start a meetup
to your own capability with whatever you have
and build from something.
Because Bitcoiners will travel to go see other Bitcoiners.
I've done it.
I'll continue to do it.

(36:31):
And Sergio, let's not forget Noster's role in all of this.
Chances are you paid for that coffee at Bitcoin Park
with zaps from your shitposts on Noster,
which is an incredible thing if you think about it.
You mentioned purchasing coffee with Bitcoin.
um plebs love coffee chain plebs love good morning protocol uh we definitely have uh something

(36:56):
instilled in us where we start early uh start your day early start the productivity early get
the proof of work in every day hey i've started waking up a lot earlier even if i go to bed late
there's some internal alarm clock inside of me that says hey seven o'clock wake up and and qw
let's not forget that Sergio's profession is nocturnal.
And he's still up there for coffee chain and GM o'clock.

(37:20):
And it's funny because I'm not a night owl.
He goes to bed after his morning coffee.
No, I don't.
Those photos of him sunning his thighs, QW, are when he's fast asleep.
That's him waking up from his nap.

(37:41):
I didn't even take that picture.
That was my wife behind me.
It's his GoPro on his headband.
Oh, man.
So, well, I think take this moment right now to talk about who's involved in this, who locally.

(38:02):
You mentioned the Riddler because I've given him a few shout-outs, too, when I've done this Nostra Bama.
but who else is integral in this building of Nostrebama?
It's really Riddler.
I couldn't have done it with, it takes a team, right?
But without Russ, without Riddler,
I would not have been able to do this, hands down.

(38:25):
I wouldn't have known how to set up the PTC pay server,
set up my own server and do all that.
He's in charge of all the technical stuff.
So I really have to hand it to him.
He's been an integral part in this.
and I mean also my wife because she's a graphic designer and she came up with a t-shirt everybody
knows that if you don't have good merch it's not going to work right you have to have good merch

(38:47):
and Noster has some of the best merch arguably shout out uh light lightning store and juxtapose
shout out shout out to them oh yeah man absolutely that's some of the best merch I think ever I mean
the quality and i i i did see the dog tags uh very well done i appreciate it hey that's not me that

(39:11):
was that was mallory that was my wife you can thank her she's an absolute g at design powerhouse
matter of fact but yeah she's been great and then um funny enough it it kind of all developed
organically it was really by popular demand that this kind of happened and it was only after
meeting up in Nostraville and joking about making a Nostrebama that it became the idea became a

(39:37):
reality. But what really solidified it was when Ainsley Costello's mom emailed me and said, hey,
if you're going to do Nostrebama, please include us. And so it made it so real that I was like,
oh, shit, people actually think I'm going to do this. I kind of have to do it now.
You know, so and then it started by going to my wife and going, you know, can you make me a

(39:59):
t-shirt design if I was going to throw a get together like Nostroville. And she said, sure,
you know, we'll work on it. And it came out so good. I was so excited about it. I was like,
I would just do this for the merch, you know? And then people started coming in like Dank Swoops,
who I did not know was, and I don't know if you guys know, he's a, he's a world record holding

(40:23):
skydiver. Did y'all know that?
This guy's
done so many jumps.
Dank Swoops!
Dank Swoops is a world record
holding skydiver. And so he was
like, hey man, I can get a plane
and we can go skydiving on one of those
days. And I was like, bet. Let's do it.
We can definitely do that.

(40:45):
But that's because
is that because ostriches don't fly?
They just fall?
That's right. Yeah.
I mean, you've got to have a parachute on an ostrich.
Their wings are just not going to hold them.
You could probably connect to an ostrich and do a little dual jump.
Oh, yeah, for sure.

(41:06):
Hit the ground running, too.
Hey, Sergius, what do plebs expect?
What should they expect when they're there?
So Ainsley's playing.
You're going to have some kind of value for value music event?
No, she's actually not.
I didn't get to finish that part of my story, actually.
She wasn't able to make it because she had something in New York that she had to, if I remember correctly, her mother said that she wasn't going to be able to make it.

(41:29):
She had to, you know, unfortunately not be able to make it.
And and I think they're in New York doing something.
But so that that made me a little bit sad.
But, you know, I tried because I didn't know when to throw this.
I had no idea what the dates would be.
And I think I don't know who it was.
They said, just set a date and do it.
And I was like, yeah, let's just not, you know, think about it too, too much.
so that's uh that's what we did we landed on july 15th through the 17th originally it was just going

(41:54):
to be on the 15th and uh i'm really happy to say that i i did get uh derrick ross the president
of nostril to come down and uh also vic is going to come down uh for corny chat ace and eric coming
down and manny me uh and so i have 30 minute blocks for all of those speakers um at the beginning of

(42:15):
of uh nostrabama before we get into the night at seven o'clock we'll start doing some music
and i got a three-piece band brooks hubbard baby spese and joe pizzolato the best musicians that
i personally know that i could get on board and uh i think it's gonna be a really good time
so that's gonna be uh that's gonna be the first day did we lose some qw

(42:39):
uh it's that mobile uh that mobile internet man mobile phone
he's just chiming in from his mobile phone oh man you know alabama internet isn't as good as

(43:00):
the rest of the country.
Bitcoin fixes this.
Man, if we could just, you know.
I told you I'm in the third world of the first world.
Win mesh-tastic, Sergio.
I have the damn device, but let me tell you, I can't flash it because I broke my computer

(43:20):
and I had to send it in.
I spilled water on my computer and I had to send it in.
so the president the president of uh of nostros uh committed to this uh nostrabama
he's committed yeah i got uh you know i got derrick ross i got vic from corny chat i got

(43:40):
ace and eric i got manny me i got a i got some titans coming in man i saw vic doing an advent
calendar to nostrabama uh that's that's pretty pretty amazing he's he's pulling a day off every
day and it's got a little prize in every day. I think yesterday was a little, little elephant
with it, with the message. Yeah, I'm, I'm really, I'm really excited to have those guys down here.

(44:05):
And I really, you know, I want to thank them for, for coming down and entertaining my,
my little meetup that, you know, I hope to make an annual meetup. I really want to continue doing
this every year. Uh, and hopefully we get some traction and, and make it bigger and better
every year. Yeah, the biggest thing
is definitely securing the venue
where it's not going to

(44:27):
take an arm and a leg
to afford it because
a lot of what you can do is
sell goods or bake goods
or someone make some food
and value for value that.
There's a lot of things you can do after you have the venue, right?
Well, see, what you don't know about Alabama
is it's a good old boys kind of territory over here

(44:47):
and I know everybody and every
business owner that has a venue.
And they can just do me the favor of allowing me to use their venues.
Because I bartend for all of them.
So you're getting them for free?
So that's one of the great things.
Yeah, I got it for free.
Well, this is how we roll, man.

(45:09):
I mean, I'm making it happen.
I'm making it happen.
And a lot of people that have contributed and volunteered their time into this,
Of course, when we sit down at the end of this, we're going to zap them fat.
We do appreciate everyone who has put their foot forward and helped us.
I want to say SB and Kijuzi for doing the website and Derek for migrating it onto his server.

(45:35):
Eventually, we'll migrate it onto Riddler's server.
But I couldn't have done this without people's contribution and their volunteering their time and energy.
and that's one of the beautiful things about this community
is you don't really even have to ask.
People will be like, oh, I got a good idea.
I'm just going to hand it over.
You know, like, here you go.
No strings attached, you know,

(45:56):
but you want to reward people that treat you well,
especially because you want to build that,
you know, we hear this web of trust.
You want to keep those people close to you,
you know, because they enable you
to do bigger and better things.
Hopefully.
No, that makes complete sense, Sergio.
So for other plebs who are thinking about doing their own event, Nostra or Bitcoin event of this magnitude, obviously, you know, you went down the real value for value route here by securing the venue with people you bartended for.

(46:30):
You're selling merch.
Is it – so does this mean that you're largely going to cover your costs for Nostra Bama?
No, I'll probably come out at a loss, but it's not going to cost me that much. I would gladly spend any amount of money to get people together who enjoy the experience.

(46:52):
be lucky, but that's not really the point. And I'm also not expecting even next year to be
profitable. But the thing is that you got to start, you got to get the ball rolling,
you know, and not expect immediate results all the time. You know, a lot of people,
they just quit because they're like, oh, you know, I didn't get the expected outcome. It's like,

(47:12):
yeah, well, this time, but nobody starts at something and is perfect. You have to
work out the kinks and you have to, you know, make the mistakes to, to improve on the next time,
you know, like anything. But it's a lot, a lot of what has helped though, is the free venues and
myself being a bartender and not having to pay an outside bartender. So I had all the things in

(47:36):
house to make this happen at a pretty economically, you know, uh, to where we're not spending all that
much you know it's going to be like food um t-shirts were were not even that much comparatively
um the alcohol is i'm gonna do like one free drink and then people can pay in sats

(47:57):
we've built a menu on btc pay server and it's going to be you know the dynamic pricing that
it allows for uh pricing in in dollars with paid foreign sats and i think it might even have the
sat equivalent next to it. I'm not sure. But, you know, we've got all the moving parts and we've put
them all together. I think it's going to be a great time. I think it might be the best meetup

(48:17):
for Nostra yet, dare I say. It's really three events into one event because we have music
the first day. We have a virtual reality room that we have rented out the second day.
And then the third day we're doing skydiving and partying at the Floribama. So it could really be

(48:38):
three events on their own.
And you're not doing any panels or that sort of talks, are you?
I am, actually.
I've reserved two hours, 30-minute blocks, Derek, Vic, Ace and Eric, and Manny Me.
Those are the four speakers that I have.
And I thought it very important to have those because the last time we went to Nostraville

(49:03):
2.0, it was all party, no panels.
And as cool as that was, it's kind of – you kind of have to have the panels because that's the whole point of why we were able to congregate.
The people that are working on Noster are making it available for us to use these things and be able to talk to one another, zap one another, use those side apps, those other things to our advantage.

(49:31):
And I think it's cool that you can get the devs in to talk about the behind the scenes of what they're doing and see why it is that we can use and handle and all this stuff.
I can agree with that.
I think education and experiences can be meshed well.

(49:51):
And that's kind of the mixology of it, right?
Yeah, and it's not going to be mandatory.
If you don't want to come to the talks, you don't have to.
Nobody, you know, I would encourage people to come because, I mean, you know, it'd be kind of rude, but everybody can do whatever they want, you know.
Are you doing anything on Zap.Stream, Toonster, anything utilizing the tools of Noster?

(50:18):
I am going to try to stream it, but that's the last moving part that I have to figure out because I'm going to have my hands full.
are you streaming it from your
mobile phone
listen
I don't want to hear
my spotty internet
you know
objections but yes

(50:41):
I am probably
if I can't find somebody that has a better
a camera
then I'll just have to do it on my own
and use the phone that shitty phone that I've been using
for streaming my damn
my bartending so
That's actually worked out well, though.
I mean, it looks like it's in 4K when I'm watching the bartending.
You know what?

(51:01):
You can't read those credit card numbers, so you've got to give me cred for that.
When I hand those cards over the bar, the quality is not so good that you can see the numbers.
That's an important, you know, tidbit.
Because I thought about that.
I was like, man, this is sensitive information somebody might see.
So how far away from the airport to Mobile is it?

(51:24):
or to the event, I suppose.
25, 30 minutes.
Okay.
And then this event,
it's located somewhere
where there's a decent amount of Airbnbs,
hotels, motels, all that stuff.
Yes, Q-Dub, we have paved roads.
We quit riding donkeys years ago.

(51:44):
All right.
We just got internet last year
and that's why my calls are dropping.
You'll have to forgive me.
No, everything, yeah, it's downtown.
and it's a great spot.
We have an upstairs to the bar that I work at,
which is a mirrored floor plan to the bottom,
and we are only using it as an event space at the moment

(52:05):
because we cannot staff it quite yet.
But it's ready to go.
I mean, this place is awesome.
Noster Valley, what was that setting?
Because I believe that was in College Town.
Yeah.
And I ask this because I'm curious
because some of these settings are just a little different,
different, which is great.
It was a one-day event.

(52:26):
It was actually a five-hour event
that began around noon,
and it was in a brewery.
This is the event in Pennsylvania
last October.
Yeah, and then Nostra PHX Culture Shock
was downtown,
just a few minutes

(52:47):
on the west side of downtown Phoenix
in like a warehouse district.
And then Nostra Village was obviously a pub key.
A lot of these revolvers, some of them are in just the low-hanging fruit of a bar,
because everyone enjoys a bar.
And then others are in just different forums where, you know, you might not have a liquor license,

(53:10):
or you kind of have to play the game there, right?
So, Sergio, anything else about Nostra Bama?
you want the listeners to know about?
And I guess what ultimately inspired you to do it?
You just wanted to kind of light the fire locally?

(53:34):
Honestly, I wanted it because I wanted to make cool merch.
But it turned into much more than that
because I love the Nostra merch.
I a merch whore I bought everything off Lightning Store and Juxtaposition You know I was like I want to go to the events to get the shirts and i was like if i can make a really cool shirt design everything else will fall into place because i have the event space i have the shirt we can print

(53:58):
the everything so um really i mean everyone anyone can come rcps are on formster um you know we've
got about uh 23 confirmed people coming which is plenty it's manageable logistically we can we can
handle that. I think any more would be a little tough, you know, for a three-day event. But yeah,

(54:21):
it's going to be a great time. I really, I've put a lot of effort into this and it's been a group
effort. I couldn't have done it without a lot of these guys. I would, I would really suggest that
everybody try to do a meetup locally and with whatever it is that you can do just to get
like-minded people together. Maybe you might meet, you know, some Bitcoiners that you hit it off with.

(54:44):
I didn't know Riddler before Noster and he was in the same town and he was going to South Alabama
and he came and met me at the bar. And, uh, I was like two or three years ago and now he's like one
of my best friends. So, you know, you never know. You might meet somebody. How long did that cult,
that Nostra PHX shirt, that cream one last.

(55:08):
Oh, dude, I'm such a messy eater.
It has a stain on it now, but I love it.
It's probably after I went to Cancun
when I was eating street tacos.
That's probably, it lasted maybe like two months
before I really, I just ruined it.
That's a tough one too, right?
Because Bitcoin merch, Lightning Store,

(55:30):
I always default to the darker colors
because I have a toddler.
because you want them to last, right? It's cotton. It's thick cotton that's going to last a lot of
washes. It's built strong. And those light colors are, it's tough. It's tough, man. I mean,
and I'm a messy eater. I'm not going to lie. So I can't have white shirts. That's a big no-no.

(55:53):
I want to go back to what you were talking about, about getting on Xero,
because I remember that post you did. And it was a very popular post because you
kind of announced it. I think you said I closed my bank account. I'm getting on zero,
doing everything through strike. Tell me about kind of the wins and losses there.

(56:14):
So the benefits of doing that, the way that you would have to do it, if you had listened to Jack
Mahler's the way that he suggested to do it, would be if you have an established credit line,
you would spend in credit and use the BTC bill pay of strike to pay that credit off.
And you would just move funds from your hardware wall or from wherever, maybe direct deposit from

(56:37):
your, from your, your work into your, your strike and use that as your bank account.
It's in effect, replacing your, your legacy bank account with strike as your bank account,
which is still, you know, it's not self custody. It's not perfect, but it's, it's what we got at
the moment. Okay. These are the railways that we can use where it's not perfect, but it works.

(56:58):
And my, my biggest challenge was honestly a user error on my part, because I was getting rent
deducted on a certain day and I had transferred maybe an hour before that deduction had was going
to be made. And I didn't get the six confirmations in time. And so I couldn't pay my rent. And then

(57:22):
I got charged an extra 50 bucks because I didn't notice. And, you know, they, they hit me with the
fees. And so that was user error that that's not anything to do with, with strike, but that's one
of the things that you wouldn't have to worry about if you just had a regular bank account and
you had your funds in there, right. Is that it just gets taken out whenever and you don't have
to move it because that is your supposed self custody. We all know it's not, but it's their

(57:43):
money. You're just allowing them to hold it for you, I guess. Um, but the, I think the benefits
of doing what I did is it's kind of time in beats timing, right?
The market.
You don't want to time the market.
You just want to spend time in the market.
You don't want to lose sleep over, oh, am I going to trade in and out?

(58:06):
Am I going to buy at this price?
Don't even fucking look at the price.
Just automate it, denominate your life in Bitcoin, and move on.
Don't worry about it.
eventually you'll have so much money you won't even know what to do with it.
You know, you can just live whatever vacation dream style living you want.

(58:26):
I play golf more times a week than, than I, than I work.
I never thought that would be possible.
And it's, it's Bitcoin that's made that possible for me.
So I really, you know, I think it's a cool, cool thing to, to experience firsthand.
And I would suggest if you can, you know, and I know everybody's tolerance for risk or portfolio management is different, but getting 100% Bitcoin changes your life 100%.

(59:00):
So, Sergio, as someone who's tried this before, how long did that experiment last, by the way, the get on zero?
it probably lasted uh i would say four months four or five months and you said it was user era
that sort of you had to back out of it and by the way i'm still doing the same thing i just have

(59:23):
i just still now have a legacy bank account adjacent to the system that i had been using
i'm still using as a as a backup just in case i need to you know deduct ach whatever and i would
have to cash out of my Bitcoin to do that because I hold nearly no dollars. I turn everything into
Bitcoin. So I'm very poor, actually. I'm dollar poor. You know, Avi, I did notice that when you

(59:55):
made that announcement, Bitcoin was at around $108K and then it dropped to about $70K. Were
Are you thinking maybe you're getting on zeroed for a moment?
Or getting to zero.
And by the way, QW sounds like he's in the middle of a torrential downpour.

(01:00:15):
I think...
Dude, so if I can paint this picture, I'm in the forest and I'm under a tent.
I'll send a video of this, but it just started pouring rain.
And I'm just hanging out with the sound.
Oh, it's definitely raining right now and there's thunder.
Dude, I thought it was your shitty mic.
I was like, can't you buy a better microphone, bro?

(01:00:38):
Dude it pretty wicked right now but I here for it I thought your mic was as bad as my internet for a minute there That what I thought it was Well we get very little rain here but yeah yeah you got to escape the heat in Phoenix
That's for sure.
When the summertime comes, it's time to abandon the desert.

(01:01:04):
That is, I can hear the thunder now.
That is something.
So, Sergio, would you...
So, for someone who wants to start off in this,
and let's say they're in their early 20s,
and they're figuring out what to do with their lives,
but they're sold on Bitcoin, right?
But they don't know where to begin.
They want to exit the legacy system,

(01:01:26):
and they want to get to that life, you're saying,
which is playing golf or whatever it is.
They want to do more than they would otherwise.
How would they get started doing that?
Because you need money to stack, to get yourself into that position.
You do need money.

(01:01:48):
And in order to have money and make money, you have to understand what money really is, right?
It's time and energy wrapped up in a unit of account.
You better choose your unit of account wisely because we have one unit of account that's able to be debased by a handful of men in suits in an ivory tower.
Right. And then we have Bitcoin. And so you can now get a job and get a direct deposit into strike.

(01:02:14):
And then after you've accumulated enough money, you can buy a hardware wallet.
I would suggest, you know, a Jade green. It's not going to break the bank. It's like 70 bucks.
You can self custody the majority of your savings. Treat that as your savings in your bank account.
And then you can spend with lightning, try to spend with lightning or credit if you can.

(01:02:36):
If you can't spend with credit, you can still use a bank with a credit or debit card given to you by a central party, and then you can pay that off.
But it's important to park your time and energy in a unit of account that isn't debased 24-7, 365, from here until forever.

(01:02:59):
So for folks who are unfamiliar with the process, you get a fiat credit card, right, Citibank, whatever it is, Bank of America, MasterCard, Visa, or American Express.
How would you connect that to your strike account to pay off the balance?
So under settings and strike, you have the bill pay option. And under that option, it gives you a routing and account number. And it's Cross River Bank. And if you plug those numbers into, let's say, an ACH withdrawal system that you could use under your credit card, or if you're paying rent, I'm sure there's forms that you can fill out to any entity that accepts routing and banking information.

(01:03:43):
You're basically using the established framework that we've always known, but you're subsidizing the unit of account to Bitcoin and they're exchanging that in the background for you.
Got it.
There are tax implications, obviously.
I would suggest you consult your tax professional as to what those implications are in whatever region you're in, but it's an option.

(01:04:03):
Got it. So Strike solves this problem by having, I guess, a facade or a front end which has the routing number and account number, which you can then, when you create your...
It's funny.
It's funny because Strike is the middleman that we need at the moment.
And, you know, companies like Strike are middlemanning where it's like we're living in an alternate dimension compared to normal people.

(01:04:32):
We've already accepted Bitcoin as a unit of account. We have to wait for the big institutions to catch up to us so that we can get rid of the middlemen because they need to start accepting it directly and not having third parties do it.
And I don't know in what time frame that happens, but I know it's going to happen. I can't tell you when, but it has to happen.
Yeah. Much like you would be able to transact with the dollar or the euro or the yen or whatever at the moment. Everybody takes it, right?

(01:05:00):
Well, eventually, you're going to have two set prices in grocery stores.
It's going to be in sats and it's going to be in dollars.
There's going to be a major discount in sats and you're going to have to be – you're going to be forced to go that route because you're not going to want to spend 20, 30, 40 percent more using the dollar.
It would be insane.
I think the next step in the evolution is likely not going to be perfect as well.

(01:05:22):
So right now, we're still in this world of ACH, routing numbers and bank account numbers, right?
but I think the next
it's archaic
that's got to die very very quickly
can't die soon enough
I think the next step in that evolution
if I had to take a guess Sergio
again wouldn't be the perfect solution
of them suddenly saying
hey we're switching to eCash

(01:05:43):
or LNURL
it's probably going to be this
UMA address
universal money address
that the LightSpark guys have come out with
so I think they
at least you get rid of the
routing number and the bank account number, right? That ACH nonsense. And you move to some

(01:06:06):
kind of hybrid lightning model where you have this universal money identifier that looks like an email
address, but it's really light spark infrastructure that's doing some kind of mapping between that and
the rails. And I think maybe the final evolution would be something that's more akin to the world
we're living in today, us, the folks listening to this show.

(01:06:30):
Yeah.
And this also ties into the meetups because, you know, these Bitcoin citadels are not going
to be built for you.
You have to build them.
And these are places where I think it would be, you'd be remiss if you weren't able to
spend in sats at these meetups and start this circular economy at the ground level in a

(01:06:51):
grassroots movement.
you know don't wait around for the the powers that be to tell you what to use just start using it and
and building stuff from the ground up it's going to take a long time it's going to be hard some
people might hate you for it because they don't understand it yet but a lot of people will thank
you in the end i think if you just you know just get people together and start talking about it

(01:07:13):
um there's plenty of examples as to as to you know it working you know as just the fact that
You could pay for coffee at Bitcoin Park.
That's a major win because that's one of the main narratives that you would hear on the news where people would say, you know, the talking heads would say you can't pay for coffee.
With Bitcoin, that's impossible.

(01:07:34):
It like well you know I don see you shaving off any gold to pay for it either Right So Sergio as someone who pushing the Bitcoin as money use case right the circular economies medium of exchange
have you found the current climate challenging? I mean, we've been seeing in the last six to eight

(01:07:55):
months where there's been immense pushback within the Bitcoin community, within certain elements of
the Bitcoin community against the Bitcoin is money use case in favor of Bitcoin is cyber
Manhattan, Bitcoin is digital gold and all of that.
So have you found that challenging as you try to orange pill your community in Alabama?

(01:08:18):
I think that it's better to show people how it works than to try to convince someone that
they should use it.
I think you just say, hey, you know, let me buy your your your ticket for the concert or whatever.
You just pay me back. Oh, but can you pay me back in Bitcoin?
Oh, well, you can actually pay me 10 percent less than the ticket's worth if you do it that way.

(01:08:41):
Even the incentives, you know.
If I if I had houses and I had renters, I'd be like, hey, I'm now taking Bitcoin as an option and your rent's going to be 10 10 percent less.
You think people are going to take that? I would take it.
And so you have to almost present it in a favorable way so that people are at least – it peaks their curiosity and say, well, I could save some money.

(01:09:07):
You have to make it – people are greedy.
There's fear and greed in people.
You can only apply to those two things to markets, right?
So apply – pick at that – nudge that greed out of people.
And it's a dependable motivator.
So is fear, right?
But you don't want to go the fear route.
Nobody wants that.
But it's up to people to offer those solutions. Because right now I think we're living on an island. Like Bitcoiners are on an island where it's – I mean the roads are being built off the island.

(01:09:37):
But like it really does feel somewhat isolated. Like we had a little cyberpunk movement going and now everybody – you're seeing the suits come in, right?
And now all of a sudden they're saying things that the old Bitcoiners used to say and then you're like, this is just a grifter. Like they don't believe what they're saying.
They're just getting likes and views and clicks and attention.

(01:09:59):
You know, I feel like Geraldo Rivera right now in a hurricane, reporting-wise.
It's getting pretty wicked over here.
QW, you are barely audible all the way.
Geraldo Rivera, indeed.

(01:10:20):
It really is an interesting show.
I'm just waiting for the wind.
It sounds like it's a branch of a downpour.
It's pretty wicked, man.
Crazy.
So anything else we've got to look forward to?
Obviously, you're definitely trying to do a repeat.
What's next for Sergio?
Are you going to expand your ZapDot stream catalog?

(01:10:41):
Anything else inspiring you forward?
I couldn't hear a single word you said.
He said, what's next?
I was able to catch that, Sergio.
What's next?
Yeah.
What's next?
Well, I mean, Nostra Bama's what's next.
And then after that, then I have a whole year to plan and think about the next one.

(01:11:03):
But until then, I really just live in a bubble.
I go to work, I go to the gym, I go to the pool and I play golf.
And other than that, I'm on Nostra.
I try to keep it simple, you know.
And you post the cigar photos as well, which I am appreciative of as a fellow connoisseur myself.

(01:11:25):
I love my cigars. My wife hates my cigars, but I love my cigars.
As is usually the case.
I started smoking two years ago, and it's changed so many things.
I love pairing, you know, coffee with them. I love pairing cocktails with them.
I think there's so many different varieties and flavors and binder filler wrapper, you know, mixes that it's a fun world.

(01:11:47):
It's really cool.
And it teaches you to – it's a low time preference thing too.
It teaches you to sit down and chill for about an hour.
It takes about that long to go through a stogie.
And you get to talk to people and just relax.
Slow down a little bit.
You don't have to be go, go, go.
You know, what I love is, yes, when you're with people, you just have these really chill and mellow conversations.

(01:12:09):
I've never seen a fight or an argument between people smoking cigars, right?
You know what I don't see when I go to my cigar bar?
People always on their phone.
You know, you see a lot of people socially, they're always on their phones.
When I'm at a cigar bar, I'm talking to people and they're talking back.
And hardly ever do you see someone glued to their phone.

(01:12:29):
It's amazing.
It is.
It's really cool to see.
It's almost like you're living in the 90s.
Oh, yeah.
Well, hopefully Bitcoin takes us back to good culture.
Maybe that's coming.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Hey, Sergio, appreciate you taking the time here

(01:12:52):
and telling us all about Nostabama, what to expect.
So, folks, if you're listening and if you're around the Mobile, Alabama area,
do make it out to Nostabama.
It is from July 14th to the 17th.
15th. Sergio's going to be the bartender.

(01:13:15):
15th.
July 14th to the 15th. I'm sorry.
My bad.
No, 15th to the 17th.
July 15th to the 17th.
Sergio's going to be the bartender.
There's going to be skydiving. There's going to be
fun guests and panels. There's going to be merch.
There's going to be food. There's going to be
dancing. There's going to be donkeys.
What else did he say, Sergio?

(01:13:35):
Oh, no, wait. There are no donkeys.
There's going to be shitty internet. You can expect that.
we paved the roads last year for you guys
we're rolling out the red carpet
but most importantly Sergio
there are folks who are on the fence
about making it out there
there will be hopeful and freedom loving

(01:13:57):
nostrishes and you can be guaranteed a good time
so once again thank you
thank you Sergio for joining us
and thank you folks in our live audience
and those listening to this.
I hope you're doing it on Fountain.
Thank you for tuning in.
If you appreciate us as much as we appreciate you,

(01:14:19):
please consider hitting the subscribe button on Fountain.
Until next week, gentle plebs, goodbye.