Sam Kimbrow & Asanoha on Bitcoin Culture, Norms & Free Thinking | The Movement of Art w/ Yonat Vaks Ep. 1

Music

Welcome to the Movement of Art podcast, and I'm your host, Yonat Vax.

And in this podcast, we're going to do deep dives every time with different

artists or thinkers or builders in the space and talk about art and culture and

Bitcoin and how they connect what ideas and thoughts we have

around them. And every time we're just going to talk about different topics

with different people in the space. So before we start with our amazing

guest today, I just want to shout out to the Bitcoin

Art magazine. So this podcast is in collaboration with the Bitcoin Art magazine.

If you still haven't seen it or purchased a coffee, please go to the Bitcoin Art

magazine site. The magazine is incredible. It has really, really

the, the, well, I forgot the word now. Anyway, the magazine has

all of your favorite Bitcoin artists. It's super beautifully printed.

And I am positive that it's going to become a super high valued collectible.

So go check it out. And this podcast is also going to be part of the Bitcoin

Art broadcast along with Asanoa's Bitcoin Art podcast that is deep dives

with different artists in the space. So I am super excited because today

is the very first episode. And we're going to talk about Bitcoin

culture. Is it a thing? What is it? Who makes the rules?

Are there any rules? And just see if it's a thing

before we start talking about different aspects of it. So we have today Asanoa

from the Bitcoin Art magazine who is also an artist.

There he is. He's going to tell us about his projects, about his art.

And we have Sam from Scarcity who is also an artist.

And yeah, so let's start. Asanoa, you want to start. Tell us who you are.

What's the Bitcoin Art magazine? How did you get here?

Thank you, Yana. Ah, I am, my name is Asanoa and I'm a Bitcoin artist.

I've been making Bitcoin art for around four years now, maybe a little bit more.

And this last year I started the Bitcoin Art magazine, which as far as I know

is the world's first Bitcoin Art magazine. Hasn't been contested, the claim

hasn't been contested yet. Or at least not officially. I have not, nobody

has produced anything similar to what we're doing. And it's a dedicated

periodical publication focusing on and showcasing and featuring

Bitcoin artists around the world. So Yana is featured in the magazine and

we are organizing an upcoming gallery at the space in Denver with Scarcity

right now. So shout out Sam and Scarcity and their whole crew.

And yeah, just happy to be here and I'm excited for this to be a platform to

help share, represent and amplify the voice of Bitcoin artists, the world over.

Okay, cool. And Sam, tell us about yourself and Scarcity.

I have me on here. I am Sam, I'm the general manager of Scarcity.

Going into my third year there, he mentioned I was an artist before,

kind of that's how I found my way through Scarcity was

playing around with some counter party projects and stuff through

doing some Bitcoin art of my own, some little disc projects against, you know,

major NFTs space that's time and have then found my group and my friends and

yeah, so I've represented both of these artists and their art and

auctions and stuff for a few years now. We're really closely with both of them

as well as a lot of the artists in the space and collectors

just bridging that gap and finding their, you know, whether it be

collectibles or art for their spaces or homes or gifts or all sorts of

it's just that personality of connecting that artist personality with the

collector personality and meshing it all together and what that means.

And how is that? That's interesting. Like the artist personality and a collector

personality? It is very interesting. Is there a thing? Is that a thing?

I mean, I mean, in general.

I mean, a little bit. You definitely, you know, you obviously get

collectors that fall in love with a specific artist story and you'll see that

over and over and bid tables whether it be a Pepe Nardo piece or an

Osano piece or Bitcoin trading cards collectors, like, you know,

I guess one of the very first questions that you're asking and this is like

does Bitcoin culture exist? And yes, absolutely.

We have our own languages and our own rituals. We go to conferences and we

like seek out people that are like-minded and collectors really what I found

in this space specifically is collectors love a proof of work story.

They love why that art piece came about what the story behind it is.

They really want to connect with the artist and the connection with the artist

proves to be sometimes stronger than their actual connection to the piece.

And so I do think that those personalities sometimes, and I think that the Bitcoin artist

are so accessible that it allows that by where else do you really, you know,

I'm sure yes, people were like friends with Andy Warhol and things like that.

But you can literally hop on a telegram chat at any point right now

and get a hold of these artists and talk to them about their vision and

their ability to like want to collab and it's become a accessible, tight-knit community

that's not really hard to break into those still. Like, we're very-

everybody's very accepting and wants to, again, collaborate or share techniques and story is

that, yeah, so I think that those personalities do come out as much as sometimes we

don't claim that they do. I think that you can definitely tell different people and how they

like fit together. Yeah, it's interesting. Like, I was thinking of, I was thinking a lot about this

before, you know, before this episode and I was going to maybe we'll go back to that later

to do like a definition of what culture is because I love definitions and like researching things.

But and this was like one of the things I thought of

to talk about later, but since we've started, it's like it's, it's so interesting to think,

is there like a Bitcoin culture that when you start getting into the space, you kind of learn

it because most cultures, that's how they work, right? You kind of are born into culture and you

start learning it. So here it's like, is it, is it something you learn or is it something that

you come with and just it kind of like connected people with like-minded values and and ideas and

just kind of like that they had them already, but we're we're just like connecting together

around this. So because I think that that thing that like accessibility, yeah, part of it is that

it's still very small and hopefully it won't change when it grows. But there still is that like

peer-to-peer nature, right? Just like just like in Bitcoin, it's still, you know, the fact I guess

in like the traditional art world, if sometimes you don't even know who the collector is, right?

Because it goes through the third party of the gallery or the art dealer or whatever. And here

kind of like the peer-to-peer nature is also in interactions.

Yeah, I think it's really, I think it's really interesting the whole concept of a Bitcoin culture.

And I think what you just said is very valid part of it and that is there is something unique

that's happening here that I think has existed in similar, you know, ways and different versions

in the past and currently out there in the world, but there's something here that's really kind

of extra special. And as far as Bitcoin culture in its entirety, I still have a little bit of mixed,

I feel like it's still to be seen in some ways because there's the question of once Bitcoin reaches

level of hyper Bitcoinization and mainstream adoption, well, there still be a culture, can there be

a culture around something, you know, as decentralized and fungible as Bitcoin? And I don't know,

I mean, personally, I think so other people claim not like saying, you know, is there a dollar culture?

And without arguing the semantics of what, what, you know, makes a culture and so forth, I would

say that definitively there is sub-cultures around Bitcoin and there's pockets that have culture

and there is a conference culture and there is an art culture and there is internet culture

and so it would make sense that there is a Bitcoin culture. Is it totally definable? No, I don't

think so. I think that it's amorphous in certain ways and I think it probably changes

between different groups and pockets working around Bitcoin, whether you're talking to developers

or the artists like us here or maybe, you know, Wall Street financiers or organizing conferences

and then all of these kind of sub-cultures overlap and you do have like an overarching Bitcoin culture,

but then there's also people that I think don't engage in anything that maybe would be considered

Bitcoin culture beyond just a holding and investing in some Bitcoin, you know, so it's a very

interesting conversation to offer. Yeah, it's really interesting to see like because I mean,

I know people that have Bitcoin that aren't like that don't go to conferences, they're not on

eggs, they're not a master, they just like live their lives and they have Bitcoin and sometimes I

you know, like I show them my art or I just show them art in general or even say things like

HODL and they're like what the hell are you talking about and because we're so in this like we know

it feels I think maybe and maybe right maybe it's the art culture or the conference culture because

it is different than then maybe you know the the more I don't know finance side or but there's like

there's words, there's phrases, there's things that you know even 21 as as a as a meme as a number

or as something people like talk about I'm I'm pretty sure that people that aren't in like deep

into this space maybe don't even think about it as a thing so yeah I was I looked at like if we go

back to the definite let me see if I can share my screen do you see it yes

yes so so the definition of culture is culture is a concept that encompasses the social behavior

institutions and norms found in human societies as well as the knowledge beliefs arts laws

customs capabilities attitudes and habits of the individuals in these groups so so yeah it's

interesting I wonder like I really connect to what you're saying about like subcultures that maybe

um yeah because there's like I don't know if you look at even even like sub subcultures right

like the like Bitcoin trading cards that's like a culture right it's like um

um

it's also a group it also has its habits its words it's you know the things that it goes around

so maybe it's more a little bit about bit coiners are generally people that tend to seek out

some kind of culture and whether that is again they fall into one of these subcultures of

you know a conference goer who goes to all of them and like that's their you know bad like they

have all of the badgers hundreds of of of lanyards from all of the different conferences that

you've attended you've got artists you've got devs you've got you know and then of course we

just fracture that you know into so many different things everybody like kind of you know get

their own personal ideas like just like any human would but I do think that like they're as they

found in subculture of people that probably go against the grain have always gone against like

mainstream on any mainstream system um people that are a little bit don't tell me what to do um

people that are highly creative people that want privacy and want freedom and want

the ability to do those things without other people telling them how that should be

created and so and naturally when you have a bunch of those people they are going to

form groups and you know sometimes yep there's definitely like crossover and then sometimes

those subcultures you know then we have culture wars and then they're all fighting against each

other on you know what does that actually look like and you can do this and you can't do that and

uh you know obviously we're all still humans but I think you do have a group of people that

on if you were to like dumb it down to like three things they would actually probably all be

the same things that people are searching for freedom, privacy that self sovereignty to just live

your life. Without the tyrannical state forcing you to use their infinitely printable money

I uh you know something interesting that I just kind of thought about with this is

it's almost maybe like there's I mean there's clearly very strong parts of Bitcoin that are

you know undeniably a strong form of culture and at the same time you can interact with Bitcoin

without engaging in any of what one would call Bitcoin culture and that's kind of amazing and beautiful

and a testament to the power of Bitcoin in that it it has a strong culture and yet you can still

participate and enjoy the benefits of freedom money without engaging in the culture at all

which I think is is unique in some ways as far as things go in this world so that's kind of cool

to think about you know and it and it truly is a testament to Bitcoin is whatever you know kind of

whatever you want it to be or whatever any of us wants it to be so yeah I think it's also it's

like one of the fundamental things about it and sometimes um sometimes that's forgotten in you know

if we talk about like the core um you know Bitcoin cultures or values that maybe a lot of people share

or talk about um and you know sound like what you're saying before that sometimes it gets to what

you should or shouldn't do and that is it's kind of sometimes it's it's on one hot on one side kind of

like the core of the culture because people say oh this is what this is how Bitcoin or should be

and this is how a Bitcoin or shouldn't be but on the other hand it's like well the whole point is

you should or shouldn't be anything right you can it's it's it's open to everyone so

so that's it's it's like an interesting thing of like what's the role of the of Bitcoin culture

in all of this because I think it's super important because you know it's a way especially with

art and like the visual parts or the books or or the podcasts it's like a way to to talk about what

this is apart from um you know apart from money or or what the ideas of it or what the ideas

of freedom or what it enables right because a lot of people don't understand it and if you

you know we we get caught in in our little echo chamber of people that get it and people that

understand people that go to conferences but it's just a really really small percentage of the world

in the end of if we want everyone to be using this if you want everyone to know what this is right and

I think you know this the culture that has grown around it if it's if it's art if it's trading cards if

it's pop key if it's pop ups if it's meet meetups you know it's it's like it's like a way to

to talk about it and to get people to know about it as well on a different way in a in a way that

you know most people if you explain how it works they don't care especially especially I think in like

you know I think I think in like third world countries or countries where inflation is really big

or you don't have access to um to to to be able to save your money or or you know people get it

right away I find it's easier to explain it to someone from a country like that than from a country

where you have credit cards and banks and and and other solutions and it's like so okay

why like it's just an investment that goes up and down like that's all they hear about it and

and with I think with what we're calling culture at least how I just how I see it it's like a way

to to talk about the other things as well the why yeah I think that there's something to be said as

well too on the even on the in the developmental coding side of things that there has been in many

ways the reason bitcoin hasn't been compromised in in entirety so far and has made it this far

is because of the cultural choices and decisions of the people who run bitcoin nodes and the minors

as well the people who participate in the network and you can see a great example of a more

high-time preference fiat-based culture in something like Ethereum or Solano and that why would

someone create something like that if not ultimately from a cultural influence you know and and

that that there is something important about all of these ideas and beliefs in freedom and sovereignty

and in low-time preference and in permissionlessness and in decentralization and

because it's at the end of the day what version of the code do you choose to run or what you know

blockchain network do you choose to participate with and I think those decisions could be

attributed to cultural influence right which ties back into what you're saying is very

said earlier about people finding bitcoin I think both of you have said it you know finding

bitcoin and you kind of find a community of people who share the same values and so forth so

as much as gone I found it interesting and not that you you know say that you

find it easier to like explain it to people in different cultures in different you know walks of

life than just maybe a typical American using it as like a financial system but that's kind of how

you know a lot of my backstory like I am very thankful for clubhouse days of bitcoin and being

able to just sit and hear all of these different stories from people in Nigeria and people in

Tonga and like all of these different places that the bitcoin is freedom tech that enables them to

take care of their families and break out of systems and you know I often if I like I find myself

you know especially I'm a mom of five and that play groups and play dates and stuff all the time

and people always asking like what do you do and you kind of get into that weird like awkward okay

like how much of this am I going to explain and all that and one of the pieces I go back to quite a

bit is cryptography these borderless and like the rotating like seed words on a border that enables

people to just have 12 to 24 words and be able to be anywhere and that is you know that is one

art piece that other people who may not understand kind of get it very quick and it's like the video is

great the story is great and you know when you talk about like art and culture being that way to

like orange filled people another you know work that we all say but they're like what do you mean

about orange filled people but a lot of us are just evangelists and trying to expand our group

and expand those like free thinkers that we find outside and other systems and be like oh you

should meet my other friends um you know so being able to yeah use art in a way to like explain

systems that people just may not get because they just have never had to experience that ever

and all that they do see is you know maybe read it maybe crypto twitter maybe it's just like a bunch of

people talking and screeching and like yelling at each other that they don't get um art pieces and

artists really provide a different perspective on that and I think that it that's a very

strong way for a lot of people to kind of get what we're doing I couldn't agree more

yeah yeah for sure I think it um yeah I'm just trying to think of all kinds of pieces that

that tell you know I mean even even like pieces like the Silk Road that a lot of artists have done

you know I think for most people like the Silk Road is this like drug you know shady whatever

black market thing like I'm people that are outside of the space you know and then you see artwork

that's about it and you're like well why is someone like you know doing something you know making art

about this shady thing right and and it's like well no what what was it really about you know what

what were what were they trying to do there so it's kind of um yeah it's kind of like this this

pathway to to start talking about these things and and even what you say you know like orange pill and

and you know I know it's interesting what what you said before of how you know like

certain things that define Bitcoin in a way like change the culture around it right it's like

or Sam you said before that people appreciate like artists with proof of work it's not it like I

feel that it comes from that it's like words that we've taken from that or things that we've learned

from that and we're kind of saying we're kind of like taking it into our lives and then the art is

different um because it has you know not I'm not I don't think that there is no proof of work in the

regular art world um I think there are amazing artists but I think in this space it's probably

all of them if or 95 percent right it's like a more um in encompassing thing about about the

art or about writing or about you know just the way people um look at things because I think also

it's like it's like you say like artists and collect or or people that have like Bitcoin

business it's like what's valued as well right like the proof of work the peer to peer the

yeah like all of these things that that are innate and how Bitcoin is are kind of like translated

into the culture or at least the culture that we're you know maybe it's the people that are

that are trying to bring out these ideas with art or with books or with other things that's

that's like the values they're talking about I guess maybe that's like a good I don't know

do you think what do you guys think do you think that's a way to maybe look at it

absolutely and I think that there's a lot of authors and a lot of writers that have written a lot

of books about Bitcoin and the act in and of itself of writing about a subject matter is a cultural

activity I think and then we're you know there's a there's an artistic artistic endeavor to

conceptualize the same concepts in a artistic format you know or in the form of a picture or a

painting or a drawing and that's a that's a cultural activity and so there's definitely

a lot of undeniable cultural activity happening around Bitcoin that's been invaluable to

adoption of Bitcoin and to explaining it to other people so I couldn't yeah yeah I feel like

that's a very it's a very important and an apt part of it I mean even the even the you know

even the culture around stock markets and of people who are finance financiers finance

folk traders Wall Street people you know there's culture around that and so

but it's a lot of times that culture like you both have said isn't as relatable to a lot of the

I guess the plebs out there in the world oftentimes and and that's where I think you know writing

and art and so forth kind of have a special a special place and convey a special message and convey

feelings on the matter that are there's more emotion and bold and more I guess hope in some ways

as opposed to the sort of you know I guess the more sterile analytical finance or even technical

side of things yeah it's I mean it's important I think to have those emotional you know connections

and I think that like you know as we dissect the word like culture and stuff again that like I

think probably a lot of us share a lot of emotional connections that we may not even like realize

because most of us have come to Bitcoin and some sort of like similar way to whether that be

some sort of financial crisis or some sort of rabbit hole moment or like everybody's had this

you know another saying you get Bitcoin at the price you deserve but everybody has this like

enlightening moment with Bitcoin too where they realize that this could change their life

in some way and that like moment of enlightenment is whether it means something different to us know

out or to me or to like whatever it happened we all get to share that one moment where we like

get it and then there's like there's generally a shift of like once you get it there is a little

bit of socialization process like there is that rabbit hole phase where you get hooked on the

books and the podcast and like finding your people and listening to the stories and like getting

deeper and then you start to meet up with people and you know so there is even in all of those

little subcultures there's very much like a mind shift that happens that on like a very

emotional human level that we all get to share and they're like oh what was that moment for you

and even though it may not be the same like you get to still relate to that deeply profound shift

of mindset. Well let's do that what was that moment for you? I think that moment for me honestly

again was a lot of clubhouse. I very much like grew up I mean not grew up I'm elder millennial

like I very tech all the time you know all the AOLs babies growing my spade like so as Bitcoin came

out naturally I knew what it was like I mean very like tapped into that space but also

understood the culture at the time probably well I didn't understand like let's be clear like

there was just still very much on the surface for me it I don't know a lot of like just

bro type people that I didn't necessarily like want to listen to lots of I don't know it just

seemed very immature in the very beginning to me so it was really like obviously COVID times

happened that's just a huge like mindset shift culturally for almost all people clubhouse again

time spending like hours listening to so many different people from so many different walks of

life from like the finance side of it to people like that are actually using this to like

sin remittance as back home to friends and family. Tonga had a volcano that erupted and my

husband immediately like sprang into action with a bunch of Bitcoiners and developed a plan to

parachute radios into a nation and so like just the ability of like all of these people that if we

still break it down to like subcultures of like yeah you might be a dove and you might be an artist

and you might be you know node runner and that's all you care about they're still like a very strong

humanity with those people and we got like really into black Bitcoin billionaires at the time

and nausea Roberts and throwing like camps to teach these kids and again Tonga like they are

using Bitcoin to like fund wells for like drinking water and all of these just strong humanitarian

efforts that to me like I just care deeply about people and that's why I think I'm good at my job

I lie yes I love the art and yes I love the culture but I love the people and I love their

stories and I love what Bitcoin as freedom tech allows them to do and to create and to help one

another and that was like that was it for me like hearing that this is something that really

drastically changes many people's lives outside of like watching a chart was that like and then

I sold and then of course just naturally have like found people through those all those channels

and people cross paths and now again wow that's a beautiful story and yours and so on oh I'd

love to hear more about the the parachuting radios into Tonga stories I would say it was

you know when asking this question it's interesting because I it really I suppose it really

was cultural activity that brought me to my final aha moment initially I had been paid for some

work in Bitcoin and I I just I treated it as money and I spent it basically and unfortunately

because it was a little while back and then I was kind of in and out but I just saw it as

I think yeah probably similar to a stock of some kind you know and I didn't I didn't have that

at home and I fully understand that I just unfortunately didn't research it or study it enough

or like nothing caught me enough to like really pull me in until COVID I think which was

you know a very unfortunate time and I think I felt for the first time the I don't know I guess

the violence of the state and I felt it encroach upon my freedoms in my life and I was making art

at the time and a friend of mine said you need to oh I had actually shown her introduced her to

Bitcoin previously and she had studied it a little bit more than I had and it found herself on

Bitcoin Twitter and then in 2021 she told me you got to take a look at this and check out this

artwork they're making this Bitcoin art and I hadn't seen any Bitcoin art before that

seen NFTs and stuff but I hadn't seen like actual real physical you know Bitcoin art and

that got me super inspired so I would say you know and then I started reading more Bitcoin material

and writing and podcasts listening to the Sailor series you know Robert Breedlove and reading

their GG's articles and kind of tapped into the to the art space and big shout out to Scare City

for auctioning my first piece of Bitcoin art ever met ever made a few of my first pieces of Bitcoin

art ever made and it was the cultural activity of making art and of writing that really led me to

that aha moment so I would have to contribute my more fully rocking Bitcoin and my aha moment

to cultural activities that people were doing in the space 100% and before that it really was just a

stock of some kind to me so you know and that's that's interesting now that I think about that

about how I wonder how many people are out there that kind of like we were saying before

it interact with Bitcoin or they hold some Bitcoin and you know what's it take to unlock the

full more deeper understanding I don't think anybody will ever fully understand Bitcoin but the

more deeper understanding of it and it and it seems like it is the cultural activities in the

subcultures around Bitcoin that help humans and other people unlock that and take it you know

give someone an understanding of it beyond just an investment vehicle

yeah for sure I I I really believe that because I think again depending on where

where you are in the world and what kind of you know government you're under although I think

the way things are going we're all heading towards the same kind of thing so maybe more people will

understand it hopefully not but whether they like it or not but yeah I think again in these like

countries where you have more freedom I'm going to say more freedom than others

people have a hard time understanding it and and and it is these like meetups and when you get

you know it's like it's like you know what you're saying Sam that you meet other people and then

people you know do these initiatives or just talk about what it means beyond this like you know my

story was also kind of I heard about it in in 2017 there was there was a hack here of like hospitals

and the gas company and it was all over the news that you know they hacked all the data and they

wanted Bitcoin and it was like you know what's this Bitcoin thing and you know I was on Twitter

at the time but not very active and I started like looking on Twitter and and what really really caught

my eye wasn't necessarily like the explanation it was just it was all memes because I started to

to like I remember listening to a lot of like the Andreas putt videos so he's one of the people that

really like orange pilled me and I think a lot of people but then Twitter was like because it was

just like the bull market of 2017 that was starting and it was just memes and memes and memes and

memes and I I don't come from like I I don't come from like internet culture that much I was

you know I wasn't artists before but I wasn't using social media that much and it just

shocked me like how you can talk about an idea that's overfound in such I like you know

with memes with just like you know funny and how it spreads right how it how how you know

how through through through through laughter or through stupid things like ideas spread right

so I also think that's like a big part of of Bitcoin culture or I don't know if it just connects to

like internet culture in that in that place that it also helps like spread that idea

yeah do you have like any people in this space that were you know that they're there that were more

you know that helped orange pill you or was it more people around you

I just the question to both of you if there's people in this way like writers or artists or

or just yeah go ahead I personally I I am not a big podcaster I am not a I didn't actually listen to

a lot of talks I don't want to just sit here and like claim that clubhouse was the best all the time

but I am like totally a clubhouse like promoter at this point but it was actually just a ton of

real people to be honest you know Lamar Jackson or not Lamar Jackson Lamar Wilson is was the founder

of the Black Bitcoin billionaires at the time and just created a space where like all of these like

just regular thought leaders again that were not even thought leaders like just people working

on projects again like my friend Courtney she goes to Africa and they build wells with Bitcoin and

Togo and that is they have built multiple wells over the last few years and she's just a regular

person and I would have just never I mean yes maybe I would have met her at some point in my life

but there was just this large concentration of people that just wanted to tell their story and

like what they were doing and so you know that led to me meeting Brad Mills and then Brad starting

projects and then you know doing art and stuff through there and so there's just kind of like

everybody kind of starts to kind of know each other and there's still web of people but

I and then of course I would yes like art wise artists you know cryptography

it get huge clubhouse or like you I like I would he would just be sitting there like working on

his projects and talking through projects um Becca and Rob started anchor watch on clubhouse like

all of us just listening to like what the problems were and what the insurance was and like all

of these different things that were just like people doing things and it just very became it's

just very clear that like you can just do things like you can like have an idea and you can just do it

and there's people out there that will support you with it or help you through think through things

and not everything has to be um as cutthroat so for me personally it wasn't a big talking head

it was just um normal people that now I tend to like a geek out over like when meeting at conferences

that like they probably played a bigger role in my life than they know and they're just regular

you know it's just awesome how I hang out at conferences like oh that guy would like

like an actual artist you know like he is an artist and but yeah it's just it's just a regular

people and the accessibility to like hearing all of these incredible stories that Bitcoin enables

nice yeah I I would say that I would say it very similar uh it's interesting I Bitcoin

I feel like Bitcoin Clubhouse was for a lot of us it was Bitcoin Twitter and then there was I

wonder what the what the like I wonder there's going to be now probably a vast of people that are

like Bitcoin Noster my friend introduced me to Bitcoin Noster and it's it's fun it's fun hearing

you talk about Clubhouse um I've never been on Clubhouse one time so I'm like there's it's a whole

mother world but definitely Bitcoin Twitter um was I think for I'll call myself class of 21

because that's when I really kind of got into Bitcoin although I had been introduced to it a bit

before that um yeah I mean the other plebs and just other people in the space just doing things

I definitely have some people that I'll shout out like doggie um you know Robert Breedlove

Alex van der Spetsky Knutstein home uh there was a handful of people and articles that I read

and I there was some podcasts I never did oh you know um I don't know if I've ever been the 40 HPW

you know 40 hours per week podcaster but or listener but um I'm trying to be a 40 HPW

podcaster now no I um but some of the articles out there there's uh Bitcoiners are the remnant

uh by Alex van der Spetsky and then there's the tyranny of time scarcity uh it's some call

something like that that's by Robert Breedlove it's just an article on medium

and of course like Bitcoin is time and some other written pieces by Dyrgigi

and uh that that we're very very pivotal to my understanding Bitcoin and you know it's a

orn to fully orangepilling me to really throwing me down the rabbit hole and there was you know

some of ioni appleburg guys swan and knutstein homes videos were were pretty I would say

in influential for me so yeah but I think the art most of all it gave me

I'm not a coder or a trader or I've never been a I'm technically inclined but I've never

I don't I wouldn't say that I was a heavy internet culture you know participant so

for me finding a way to interact and be part of Bitcoin the art was just monumental for that

and was just it just it gave me a way to interact and be part of Bitcoin and the help push Bitcoin

adoption and it you know gave me a home in Bitcoin as a more creative type and so that was

you know most most influential of all was all the artists um many of which scarcity has

you know hold auctions for and it was a a way for me a reason for me to go to conferences

and participate in the art gallery which often scarcity is the one hosting um that

had most of the conferences out there so that's been you know then I think a really a big

big shout out to scarcity yeah for sure I think scarcity is one of the big uh

yeah it's one of the probably one of the biggest promoters and enablers of art of Bitcoin art and

artist yeah I remember when when it when it started and like the first auctions and um yeah it was

like uh it was like um yeah for sure a place that that let a lot of artists continue doing this

for for for years now probably Sam do you want to tell us like what's the the pivot and scarcity the

new the new line yeah so I mean for the longest time um you know our focus has been the coin art

and collectibles that's been in our tagline um just keeping on that same thing just expand

in a little bit um kind of the same thing that you're talking about here like there's a lot of people

that use Bitcoin for freedom for freedom tag or um being a freedom fighter of some sort of some

cause so we're just broadening a little bit um and you know we just finished a John McVea collection um

so just kind of trying to make sure that we again still recognize that Bitcoin is a tool and

yes there is a strong presence of Bitcoin art but that Bitcoin art can mean a lot of things to other

people whether that is um you know paintings sculptures we've done book launches you know meme artifacts

all sorts of things that have had a little bit of a broader reach than just an artist selling art

for Bitcoin um so again we just want to focus on you know with we did with Ross last year um again

John McVea we've had the Charlie Shroom collection we've had like these figures that have played some

role in the history of these again these great ideas these self sovereignty freedom privacy and

many of them may be used to Bitcoin as some form of tool to enable their lives in some way um and we

just want to be able to make sure that those things are still highlighted um we've now got the

freedom funds counter on website that actually shows how much um of these auctions have been donated

to places like human rights foundation or um the health any foundation ALS like all of these

different things that Bitcoiners themselves find worthy to care about we want to be able to support

them and their missions and how is that are you going to do like more collections or um

like what's the idea like how is that happening so right now um you know just

honest honestly open up conversations on having a lot more ability of like

uh a little bit of just a broader curatorial process on you know a and and really pushing

any of those charity things that we can find um right now really focusing on getting a collection

together for the samurai deaths um you know finding just keeping a pulse on again those

stories that might be out there that we don't realize because it's not what's popular on Twitter

at the moment um of other things that might be going on or violations that might be happening in

people's lives or you know all sort all sorts of things that we don't want to get you know to

political or any sort of you know what freedom means to a specific person or group because

as you've said there's many people that have a very different

the the spectrum of freedom is different from many people um but Bitcoin allows that to be

a level playing field for a lot of people so um and then right right now it's also just focusing

on the fact that we now also are having that freedom fun counter anybody that um chooses to

auction with us has the ability on their submission forms automatically donate a percentage of

whatever they want to whoever they want and that'll automatically go into our counter there as well

whatever that um charity or fund maybe I think that's so I think that's really wonderful this

this kind of I feel like you guys have always been like like you said you know what like

you've already been doing that in a in in in many ways at times and opening it up more now

intentionally I think because of a fantastic idea I think it's a great idea for Bitcoin adoption

and then also for the Bitcoin art space and adoption of the Bitcoin art space is broadening

that a bit because there's a lot of people out there that might you know a John McAfee collection

might catch their attention and you know kind of bring them over over to scare city and you know

and then they kind of maybe get their eyes on another collection that some some artists are doing

so I think that's a you know I feel like we get pretty we're pretty uh echo chamber siloed

seems to happen quite often in the Bitcoin space it's probably because of

the concept and the understanding of Bitcoin is and it isn't in an easy process to truly

understand Bitcoin there's quite a like catharsis one must go through of accepting understanding

realizing understanding and accepting that like so much of what we've been told and been taught

in life is just an outright lie and nor is very um malevolent and actually sinister and so it's

it's difficult I think for a lot of people to accept that and so I wonder if that contributes to

it um I guess that's kind of a side tangent but Bitcoin and Bitcoin art and movements and subcultures

within Bitcoin getting siloed or echo chamber or becoming an echo chamber and so I think

what you guys are doing is really awesome opening that up more and is good for humanity you know

so I love that you have the integration there to direct funds to good causes

yeah for sure and and and and putting these people um you know talking about what they're doing and

um because I think in in general people are getting more and more afraid to speak up and

and and to go you know against everything that's happening and and I think by saying no we're

going to give a platform to the people who who you know are risking their lives um

you know even and and they shouldn't be right that it's not just and it's not okay and

and you know it's to say something about what's happening um what's happening in the world and how

you know and how how Bitcoin can you know that there's that Bitcoin fixes this or and I don't

think Bitcoin is going to fix all the problems of the world um I think that's you know work humans

are often going to have some um some problems a lot probably um but it does fix a lot of other

things um so yeah so I think it's really important to highlight the people that are um

yeah the samurai devs or the people that are that are they're really fighting for

fighting and getting like I think everyone is fighting in a way right like just

making art just having you know just having Bitcoin in the end is part of that

um but yeah there's people who are like paying a price I'm going to say not fighting um yeah so

I know you want to tell us like the Bitcoin art magazine a little bit like what's your plans

with that and yeah yeah absolutely uh Sam I wanted to ask will you give us the details on the

the samurai devs auction that you're doing I think Chris actually reached out to me

and I'm gonna it looks like possibly help with some shirt designs here but will you give us

the download on the what the what the whole plan is I think it's a bit more um I can get give you

a little high level plan works are still coming out but yeah um goal is bit block boom um it's

going to be a prime time it's great conference high signal um and trying to see if we can you know

make a statement there with all of the artists um we are in talks with the families and

Jeff too um just to make sure that you know everything is respectful and you know just again

that human element that I like to focus on um but all we're doing it we're just asking artists

that would like to participate again you'll be able to just use that freedom counter that we've

got um we're just asking you to donate to donate any percentage of your artwork uh

percent it's completely up to you whether that is five percent whether that's 95 percent um

anything that is donated um is all going directly to them um and so we're gonna kind of keep it

pretty broad it doesn't have to be necessarily samurai themed artworks um we're just asking that

if you want to participate that you donate a percentage of that to them and so hopefully we'll be

able to send them some nice funds you know obviously they've got legal defense and like

the list keeps going on and on um you've got two families that are pretty shaken up right now

so um anything that we can do again where I talked about that yet you yes you might have subcultures

from all over the place but I think one thing that kind of always kind of brings us back together

they you are still like very human at heart and people still want to be like oh man that could be

me like that could like that that could be me at any point with my art or with my coding or with

anything that I'm saying um we're all just like you know it seems that one it seems sometimes

we're all just very close to being a next target um and so I think that there is a lot of bravery

in being able to say more opinions and stick with your conviction so um we're going to transport them

during that. I that's that's awesome I'm I'm really excited and and I'm envisioning it being

very successful um this auction and other ones to come after this and I absolutely love the

yeah I just I love that I feel like um that's also really great just for for collectors and

bitters and I know it feels good when part of the funds or something are going towards a good cause

and so I couldn't agree yeah I couldn't agree more as far as all the samurai stuff you know make

of it from whatever angle that you will the bottom line is you know it's but we're we're I think

you're not said it earlier we're all living under some tyranny of some sort the planet over just

varying degrees and in different ways so you want to tell us about about your about the magazine

yeah I um you know we called it Bitcoin art magazine because that was the most obvious thing

and I have had thoughts though of at some point potentially maybe I don't know about maybe

rebranding or maybe just opening it up a bit more to more freedom you know Bitcoin aligned

subject matter and art works um all sharing you know themes of sovereignty and so forth but maybe

that at some point we'll see what the magazine kind of similar to what scarcity is doing right now

and opening it up to you know artwork that's complementary to the values and at least our values

of what Bitcoin is so currently we're just focusing on physical Bitcoin artwork really an emphasis on

physical I think maybe we'll do you know you know digital is maybe we'll feature digital artwork at

some point there's definitely a lot of artwork that's digitally assisted but we are going to do our

you know we're pretty strong in our conviction to not platform NFTs and to not platform obviously

any shit coins or anything that would be an antithetical to Bitcoin and what Bitcoin is so

currently just focusing on physical and also no AI so you know I don't I don't want to say we'll

never feature anything that's made with AI because there is some beautiful AI creations out there

but for the most part it's just absolute slop and I have no desire to interact and gauge or

trying curate or sift through it anyway whatsoever and you know there's uh you know I don't know

I I just I appreciate the humanity of physical artwork and so that's what we're focusing on

and probably will always be our main focus um I don't you know I will be featuring some I think

films other books I don't want to just silo it to you know quote unquote physical fine art I think that

visual art visual art the street art out there there is good project happening um in other places

in much lesser privileged places um so you know we want to include some of that as well and

you know there's um yeah so we'll see right now it's all it's all for the most part physical art we've

got in the current genesis edition we've got a um we've got an article by Dustin Watchman who did

some street art in the Philippines after the hurricane there um okay cool talking about that

volcano eruption Sam I think you said in Tonga made me think of Dustin's time out in the

Philippines but a great article on him out there and just helping them rebuild and spreading

Bitcoin adoption got a bunch of local stores to accept Bitcoin and did some Bitcoin murals

uh we have a article about or from Philip Charter about his experience at Bitcoin Film Fest 25

we have a short story from Delio Para um and yeah so including you know including anything artistic

or creative that's currently directly themed around Bitcoin and yeah in the near future maybe

we will include some artworks that are that we feel like are aligned but maybe that aren't

entirely Bitcoin centric so yeah it's been good yeah well like uh going I think no I think there's

a lot of like artworks that you know that that speak about freedom and and and liberty and what that

means um or kind of like all kinds of things that are connected to Bitcoin they're not specifically

about it but I think there's such a broad you know base of things you can talk about

and art is like you know books are art and music is art and art you know yeah I think you can

take it to so many places absolutely sure so it's very it's very exciting it's been it's been

stressful it's yeah full heck of a lot more but I thought it would be uh but it's a labor of love

and it's been good and the magazine's out and we have the base magazine or the standard issue which

is limited edition of 1700 and 20 we decided to just cap it that's what we did on our first print run

and we're just going to cap it at that uh we may print more of the standard issue

edition that we do in the future I don't want to box ourselves in and leave us room to grow if

there's the demand and then we have a gold foil cover edition that's limited edition of 210 it's

same as the genesis edition standard issue but it's got gold foil text and title and gold foil on

the artwork on the back which is just black on black on the I don't know if you can see that there

on the genesis edition 1720 so those are available on the website and then I'm working on the

books right now we have two editions of books ones uh they're both hardcover fine art books

the one is a limited edition of 121 and the other is a patron's edition of 21

patron's edition is actually sold out huge shout out to all of our patrons and to everybody who's

ordered a magazine and we're not sure if we're going to do the same four options for edition one

but I think we will I kind of like it because it gives a price point for everybody if you're just the

pleb who you know maybe you don't have a lot of money to spend on art or you know I guess uh

you know you know super into collecting art or collectibles then just grab one of the standard

copies they're still limited and so they'll probably technically they're still a collectible but

it's not an affordable price point and then if you're uh you know if you're well off and you want

to support the project or you're a big collector grab one of our patron's editions or somewhere in

between so currently that's kind of the idea here um you're definitely Sam inspiring me to think of

what sort of you know maybe it might it might be cool to doing some percentage of funds to a

a good cause of all of our sale or something so I'm gonna have to talk to the team and think about

that but you're inspiring me with what you guys are doing over at Scars City right now

well I just got to show your magazines out just a little bit more and I know you're not

at the beginning as well but like even like I like it's hard to describe and it's hard to like

show in pictures like how great of a quality of magazine it really is it like my kids even said

it has new book smell like it's not an magazine that you're just going to find at you know a Barnes

and Noble Rock like this is a very high quality it's very thick it like the pages like I feel like

I own all of these pieces of artwork even owning just like a small magazine and so

even what you're saying is like the base model is a extremely amazing piece of work so you didn't

phenomenal on this thank you I got to shout out my team uh and shout out to Annabelle Baza

who helped me do the final polish and and helped me with the final print on the magazine here so

it's yeah I you know I it makes me really happy to hear that and that's that's what I was going for

I wasn't sure if we were gonna if we were gonna hit it but you know I it sounds like we we have so

you know I don't I think it's more of an art that it is it's more of an art we called the Bitcoin

Art magazine because that was just most obvious thing for explaining it to people it needed

as little explanation as possible that is exactly what it is but it's really more of like an art

journal I feel like and that is my intention moving forward to keep it even the you know standard

base issue or the yeah like the the main run issue to keep it just as high quality as possible

I don't I'm not a fan of stuff and so anything that I own I want you know I like I like it to be

of a nice quality if I'm gonna spend my sats on it or take the time to have the stuff in my

life you know we collect things so quickly in these human experiences and I don't you know nobody

needs a bunch of you know nobody needs extra junk so something that you can you know keep on your

coffee table or put in your bookshelf and you know if you move or something you want to take it with

you because it's nice I want to get mine well I think it's it's not still hasn't arrived but

okay because I'm pretty sure I send yours yeah yeah yeah yeah no I think you did I think I got

out yeah yeah I want to start out you're not yeah if anybody's listening to this and you don't

know who you're not is go to you're not box.com that's you're not y-o-n-a-t-v-a-k-s that's v-a-k-s.com you're

not box.com and check out you're not's artwork you're not is a multi multimedia multimedia artist but

you're not's oil paintings are really special and we feature you're not in the Genesis edition

of Bitcoin art magazine of course and so definitely go check out you're not swerving thank you

all right well thank you both of you for being here was really fun and yeah I hope to do

well not hope I you're invited to more episodes both of you this is going to be like each time

just talking to to different artists people in the space writers thinkers and just talk about

different parts of like Bitcoin art and culture yeah so thank you so much for your time thank you

for what you do and is there anything else you feel like saying that you haven't said

thanks for hosting thanks for just opening the conversation I think it's important to continue

talking about it especially in you know whatever market it is like I pick an animal at this point

like I don't know but yeah it's important to just keep on having these conversations with each other

and you never know what like this conversation sparks in somebody else and not how we keep that

culture going and we keep new artists it's like you know you never know who's going to be like oh yeah

I have something that I have used Bitcoin for that I didn't think was actually Bitcoin art but

you know what maybe it is and it's allowed me to be more free in some way and I need to share my

story with somebody and we're here and I'll tell it yes real Bitcoiners are always in a honey

badger market because we don't give a fuck what the price is doing now I love bear markets much more

to be honest like they're they're like that's when you see people that's when people build that's

when people you know there's no noise there's no like prices going up noise it's just like the real

that's how I feel like it's like the real it's a time people build and concentrate and there's

real conversations so I think it's a good time to start these conversations yeah and it's somebody

posted on Twitter I can't remember who it was just I think I saw it yesterday but just a chart of

the every four-year cycle or every year cycle the lows of Bitcoin and we're like this is what

you know this is what you measure Bitcoin price by and I just thought that was so cool and it's you

know ascending you know chart of numbers at the low of each of each year or of each cycle and I'm

like that's just so perfect a way to explain it to people or to show to people or to think about it

and you know it's it's not it's not the you know parable like hyped up top that's that what is what

we're watching we're watching what is the the low of every year every cycle and that's the real

progression of what the value of Bitcoin is and you know so don't get caught up in the price action

I know thank you you know not for for putting this together I'm really excited to do more of these

I think it's really important us sitting here talking hanging out there's no other space there's

no other currently that I know of audio platform or channel doing what we're doing right now

so there's a whole lot to talk about you know a whole lot we talk about the fun stuff yeah

you know or for a lot of people I think this is the signal and you know this is you know this is

important for us to be doing for Bitcoin and for the Bitcoin art space so

thank you all right okay so thank you all for joining and we will see you next time

peace out you guys