It's ironic that "Another Brick in the Wall" was the #1 song when I was born 45 years ago today. I wouldn't be a bitcoiner if my journey hadn't included rejecting public school indoctrination. Fulfillment in life comes from being your own man - not a cog in the machine.

45 years old today, and in the best shape of my life. Feels good. 💪 Going to enjoy a slice of cake for the first time in 15 years. Think I've earned it. 🍰 Special birthday wishes to my boy Satoshi, who turns 50! 🎉

GM 4,AM crew 🌛

See you at btc++ in May, Austin!

Beefsteak Nashville 2024 was extra special when my daughters & I served baklava together. @awayslice

Haven't been on Nostr much lately. TBH, I'm not much of a fan of the experience on existing Android apps, so I just haven't been using it. I'm ok waiting a bit and coming back to see how the apps change and grow. GM ✌️☀️

I'm not religious. There is no combination of words in the English language that you can use to convince me otherwise. Sometimes, though, I wish there was. To admit anything else would be a lie. Christianity is on the rise amongst bitcoiners, and I sometimes think of my own experiences with religion because of this. I grew up in America with the Greek Orthodox church. I was an alter boy, and I went to Greek school after normal school. We were taught Greek culture, religious topics, language, etc. The church was my social center. More than that, it was an aesthetically pleasing place. The Byzantine iconography. The smells of incense. The feel of the pews. The beautiful hymns chanted in Greek. The taste of the Eucharist. As a youth & young adult, the divine liturgy was an experience for the senses. I wanted to believe. The idea of a greater power watching over us is very powerful. It gives a man purpose. Alas, I could not believe. I do not believe. It's not me. True believers show up every Sunday, but there are also the ones present for the social aspects. It's what they grew up with. They go through the motions, live their lives as decent humans, but are likely too afraid to confront their beliefs. I couldn't respect myself if I did this. I can't be inauthentic to myself and to the true believers in attendance. Being honest with myself meant leaving the church. It was like denouncing the club, removing myself from a social circle that was the foundation for much of my life. It left a space that I've done my best to fill. I think the world would be a better place if everyone lived by the general teachings of Jesus. If we were kind to others. Love your neighbor, forgive people, and all that. This is decent human behavior. I try to live my life this way, but it is not easy. This post isn't a cry for help. Deep down, I'm not trying to be convinced. Much like my journey with the carnivore diet, and diet in general, only my own experiences will convince me. I remain unconvinced. I'm glad some of you are true believers, and I wish you peace and happiness on your spiritual journies. 🧡

How were bitcoiners orange pilled before books and podcasts? The white paper, mostly. I tried reading it in 2011, but found it too technical and boring. Yup.😂 So what worked? A bitcoin-only auction site called Bitmit. A place where I could sell baklava in 2012 with minimal fees. I had a website at the time, but I also had listings on eBay & Etsy for extra exposure. The listing + PayPal fees sucked, so I sold at a markup to make up the difference. BitMit allowed me to sell my baklava at a discount while taking home higher profits. Not bad, but it didn't stop there! I could then flip the bitcoin on LocalBitcoins at a slight markup, earning profit on my profit! Profitception! 🤯 I was an idiot in hindsight, of course. Had I known then what I know now I would have HODLed every sat, but that's not the point. These experiences taught me the true value of Bitcoin, and it had nothing to do with a fiat price. People were willing to pay over spot for something permissionless, with low fee transactions, that entities like PayPal couldn't stop. I never could have gleaned this from the white paper. By mid-2012, I saw that this was something to hold on to. I decided to move off the fiat standard, and on to the Bitcoin standard. That's exactly what I did before the end of the year. And it truly started 13 years ago today. Thanks, Bitmit. ✌️

I will always be a Class of 2011 bitcoiner at heart. I came here looking for an alternative to the dollar, and immediately recognized the potential. I stayed for digital gold, which was easy to grasp. I was already using gold & silver as savings & money long before Bitcoin existed. Wall Street, billionaire investors, nation state Bitcoin adoption - none of this excites or inspires me. I draw inspiration from normal people using Bitcoin to pull themselves out of debt, or to escape government tyranny. People who use better money to work around the existing systems that hold them down. I'm glad there are people who think about the much bigger picture, but that's me. Forever a #Bitcoin pleb. 🧡

When you set out on your #Bitcoin journey, did you ever imagine you'd be so right in such a big way? Friends, family, and strangers all said you were making a mistake. That you were taking on too much risk. Putting too much faith into something new that would probably fail. Yet you persevered. You took the time to learn as much as you could. You dealt with the pains of price drops, months of sideways, company failures, government crackdowns. You refused to break. You earned this victory. ✌️ Enjoy these moments, friends. 🧡

There is no "I told you so." There is only, "I wish you listened." Grats to those of you who did. $100k is an incredible moment in #Bitcoin history, and I feel fortunate to be a part of this with all of you. 🧡✌️

I'm done with the carnivore diet. 🐄 I defeated carb addiction, and boosted my testosterone with lifestyle changes, in 5 months. Long read: I'm currently 5 months into a cut, working on reducing body fat. Before that, I ate a carnivore diet for 5 years, paleo/keto since 2011. I agreed to add 60g of carbs pre-workout at the start of my cut, per my trainer. Also 1g protein/lb body weight, with fat for the remaining calories. Carb addiction is something I battled my entire life. Moderation was impossible for me - the cravings were the worst! Keto and carnivore diets can be lifesaving for people with this issue. That said, I still couldn't lose stubborn body fat, so I was willing to make changes. The cut was going great initially, but my energy levels dropped off a couple months in. I felt like a zombie. I knew at some point it could happen, and I know hormones are impacted by a cut. I had blood work done pre-cut, and my total testosterone was 575ng/dL. Normal for a mid-40s man, and I always felt great & healthy. No complaints! 10 weeks later: total T dropped to 205 ng/dL. 😲 My body was telling me something needed to change. For the first time in nearly 15 years, I switched to a high carb diet. I started eating 165g carbs per day, timed around pre & post workout meals. My weight skyrocketed ~10lbs, even with only 1885 calories/day. Most of that was likely water weight, but my workouts at the gym started progressing at crazy levels, likely because of increased muscle growth. Even so, it felt bad seeing that scale number shoot up when I'm trying to *lose* weight. I rolled with it, understanding that body recomposition can take many months. By the end of November I felt incredible. Energy through the roof, huge mood improvements, etc. The carbs were working! So I decided to get more blood work done. The results? Total testosterone jumped to 1005 ng/dL. Free testosterone 205.2 pg/mL. 🤯 This...WAS a surprise, to say the least. WOW! My long break from carbs helped overcome the addiction and cravings. For the first time I can moderate these foods with ease. This is the biggest win so far, and I've had a lot of W's recently. My perfect diet down the road (post-cut), will still be heavy on beef, but also foods like fruit & honey. Never processed garbage. It took a long time to fix this issue, but it's real growth to be able to have a healthy relationship with carbs. I still have a ways to reach my current goal, and lots of building to do after that, but I thought I'd share this interesting development. Can't say I expected my total T to drop 50%, and then nearly 5x within a few months, like it was the #Bitcoin price chart. 😂 (FYI: all blood work took place early AM in a fasting state)

I want to elaborate on the idea that Bitcoin holders "got lucky." I hear it every bull market, and I don't think the people saying it truly understand what it means to HODL. From the outside, it might look like we stumbled into the right thing at the right time and just coasted to where we are. But the truth is very different. When I got into bitcoin, most people either didn’t know what it was, or thought it was a joke. I worked in the industry for 5 years, until 2018, earning and spending in btc because I believed in its potential--not because it was easy. During that time, I lived through price crashes of 50%, 70%, even 90%. No one said I was lucky during those times. The ones who cared asked if I was going to be ok. 🧡 I’ve seen my net worth skyrocket one year & plummet the next, sometimes in weeks. I’ve endured extended bear markets where the price barely moved, and optimism was hard to come by. I’ve sat through YEARS of sideways markets, where it felt like progress was at a standstill, and doubt crept in constantly. To stay all-in through that takes more than luck. It takes conviction, because when the price is crashing, and everyone is saying bitcoin is dead, you have to believe in what you're doing enough to keep going. It takes resilience, because the psychological toll of watching everything you’ve built shrink overnight isn’t easy to bear. It takes patience, because nothing about bitcoin’s growth is smooth or predictable—it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Most importantly, it takes a deep understanding of why you're there in the first place. Being motivated by personal freedom, not fiat gains. Luck might help someone make a quick buck, but it doesn’t keep you invested during the dark days when it feels like the world is against you. Those years of volatility weren’t easy, but they’re also what gave me the perspective, discipline, and belief to stay the course. So, no—it wasn’t just luck. It was a choice, made again and again, through the highs and the lows. It's a choice bitcoiners continue to make each day. And when you look at the other options, you realize there is no better choice. Bitcoin is the best hope for our future. But sure, we got lucky. 🙄

My biggest takeaway seeing Bitcoin rise from $5 to ~$100k: People of the world want voluntary money. Government fiat is the past. A broken system backed by force and coercion. Bitcoin is the way forward, and more are realizing this every day. The future looks bright. 🌞

GM🌞 Still spending every day walking, working hard, and eating right. Yesterday I hit a new pull-up personal best with six in a row at the end of a workout. Not bad, considering I could barely do one at the start of summer. Keep grinding ✌️

My dad ran a diner for 35+ years, and my mom spent 30+ years working an administrative job at a hospital. I grew up middle class, a child of Greek immigrants. My dad retired 2015, my mom 2019. In 2013, I gave my mom some Bitcoin for money that I owed her. She said she'd hold. I made sure she would by keeping custody of it. 😂 They started DCAing small amounts of BTC in 2016 and never stopped. I have years worth of texts from my mom proudly proclaiming she bought the dip! The few sats they managed to save outperformed my mom's 401k by miles. Now they live where they always wanted to, and just built an extension on their modest home. They wanted more room for when their grandkids visit. 🧡 It couldn't have happened without Bitcoin. It feels good to know I was there for the people who took care of me.

"$85k #Bitcoin? You just got lucky!" Yeah, lucky we didn't listen to you.

To all the naysayers who insist voting to Free Ross is a waste of time since Trump won't ever do it - wanna bet? I'll donate 25M sats to @OpenSats if Trump wins and doesn't Free Ross. Anyone want to take the other side of this bet?

I understand why someone wouldn't want to vote. I haven't voted since Ron Paul ran in 2008. It's better to focus your time and energy on things you can change vs something like the federal government. I get it. We're led to believe that the current election is the most important time in history, and that we, as individuals, hold the power over how the nation will progress through the next 4 years. I don't necessarily buy all that. But I'm still going to show up and vote for Trump tomorrow. We have the opportunity to help free Ross Ulbricht. We have a candidate that is clearly pro-Bitcoin, not that #Bitcoin should need politicians to succeed. We even have the possibility of Ron Paul being a part of all this.🤞 I'll waste a few minutes of my day tomorrow doing what tiny bit I can to "help." Let's bring Ross home. #FreeRossDayOne

November marks 13 years since I began my #Bitcoin journey. I'm still amazed at how far we've come in such a short period of time! Pace yourself. Stay humble. Keep learning, especially from your mistakes. That's the best advice I can offer. Here's to the next 13 years. ✌️