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Welcome to Local Bitcoiners, a podcast about Bitcoin meetups.

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In this episode, Reid and Rev chat with GC and James from the Jersey City Bitcoin meetup.

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All right, welcome to Local Bitcoiners.

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I'm Rev, Rev Hodel, here with Reid.

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And today we have James and GC from the Jersey City meetup.

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um we're looking at a pretty cool podcast tonight we're going to talk about a lot but i'm going to

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start off by going over the south bend indiana meetup which is the meetup that i run um we run

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that meetup the first thursday of every month at lang lab this next one is on march 4th uh thursday

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march 4th uh at 6 30 p.m and in the last uh recording we did i talked about the february

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meetup and that meetup was a bear market meetup. It definitely had bear market vibes. We had five

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people come and one guy showed up just to buy a Bitcoin miner for me. I showed him how to use the

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Bitcoin miner. I did a little demo. Everyone got to see how that thing worked as a space heater.

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He grabbed that Bitcoin miner and off he went. So I was just left with four of us in total.

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The Bitcoin account, who is my co-organizer of the meetup, was unable to attend. So it was just

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me and a couple other guys. And there was a new person at the meetup who hadn't been messing with

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Bitcoin at all before. And so it was a pretty good example of like how to navigate, not necessarily

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orange pilling somebody, but introducing them to Bitcoin as a concept in general. And this person

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happened to come at it with, she seemed to have like this aptitude towards natural systems and

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farming and stuff, which was perfect for me since I do homesteading. And so I was able to paint

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Bitcoin through this lens of permaculture. And it seemed like, you know, she left with a pretty

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high interest in learning more. Reid, how did your, or I guess, what's the story with your meetup?

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Cool. So as I talked about last episode, so I run the Western Mass Bitcoin meetup.

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So I'll talk about our January meetup for a minute. So we run a Socratic seminar format,

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and so basically what I do is kind of hop from topic to topic.

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I try to keep it to like one slide per topic, but sometimes it goes more,

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and one of the reasons why I do that is because we've got people of kind of all different,

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let's say, Bitcoin experience levels who look at Bitcoin, almost like you were saying.

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There's so many different lenses to look at Bitcoin through, right,

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that I like to be able to kind of hit it from different angles,

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and instead of getting locked in on one topic every month,

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this kind of lets me sort of hop around to maybe some beginner topics.

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We hit some news topics.

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I tend to be, I of course, you know, put together the slides,

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so I bring a little bit of my own flavor.

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So I tend to talk about like mining a lot more than maybe some other people are interested,

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especially up here in Massachusetts where we've got like 36 cent a kilowatt hour electricity,

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which is not super conducive to mining,

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but I was able to do a little bit of a demo of the datum gateway

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that I have set up on my, I think it's, yeah, my umbral node.

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So, yeah, definitely a little bit of bear market vibes,

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mostly just like, you know, I think we did have one new person come,

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and I think she's coming back this time.

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So hopefully we got a new regular.

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so uh gc james you guys want to talk about your meetup for a little bit

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yeah what's up guys this is uh gc from jc jersey city bitcoin meetup and i'm really happy to be on

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the show i i think that the one thing the world needs more than anything else are more bitcoin

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podcasts i'm here for it i'm really excited and i'm just very grateful to to be on the program

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and talk about Jersey City.

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So I can talk a little bit about how our meetup went last time,

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but I really just wanted to mention that we have two a month,

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the second and third Thursday of the month,

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and we'll post our meetup group and our website

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so you guys can find us at JerseyCityBitcoin.com.

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But our next one is going to be the 12th of February,

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which you might miss if this comes out tomorrow,

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and the 19th of February is going to be our Socratic style one.

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So I'll pass it to James.

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Yeah, thanks.

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So James here from the Jersey City Bitcoin Meetup.

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Thank you, Reid and Rev, for having us on.

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It's a pleasure.

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So yeah, as GC said, our meetup, we do two a month.

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We started about three or four years ago, right after COVID,

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doing just the social at the bar kind of thing.

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and there was like a strong appetite for for educational stuff um and and hurdle for us

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is in our area space is a little expensive and bars generally don't you know uh may not want that

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that's you know to rent a room and have like a television and do demos and that kind of thing

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so it's it's been um a long effort up until this point gc really led the charge on finding a space

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and we were able to find something that's economic.

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And just based off of the needs and wants kind of of our community,

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we were able to start getting into educational Socratic seminar type stuff.

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So it's really awesome and exciting to get up into this point.

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And we're excited to continue growing and helping out the community.

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So how many Socratic seminar format ones have you done?

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so we're on to uh next week will be our fourth so we really just started but like anything else

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it takes talking about it over beers for a couple years sometimes for it to formulate so if anyone

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out there is a little bit downtrodden or you've been trying to start it for a while don't worry

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we're right there with you and you kind of just have to start before you're ready

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um i could talk about a lot of best practices there but i really like the educational format

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so yeah break down oh go ahead i was just saying i can't tell you how many times we were

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you know semi a few a few drinks down the hatch um and getting into whatever the flavor of the

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week is in bitcoin um and and and being like oh man like i wish we had a better format to like

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get into the nitty-gritty of it and so we're finally here um yeah so what what is the socratic

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seminar format anyways. What do you guys do for that? Yeah, so I will not beat around the bush.

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I completely ripped off of Reed's format. I downloaded it off the site and I kind of modified

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it for our own. We have our own logo. We have our own best practices. I think that it's really great

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for anyone out there doing a meetup is the first couple of slides is just to go over your general

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guidelines for the club, your rules, you know, scammers, we will not solicit all of the best

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practices. And then we kind of go into the fun stuff. I like to kick it off with a little bit

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of a little bit of Bitcoin price just to draw people in, because let's be honest, everyone

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wants to talk about it. And then we go into like Bitcoin news, a podcast of the month, the Bitcoin

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meme of the month and then we'll do more of a demo or workshop style thing at the end is how

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we've been formatting it yeah I think one of the things that drew me to it so I had been to a couple

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of bit devs and so bit devs they all seem to follow the Socratic seminar format and a couple

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things that drew me to it one you know I had I had done a couple of the formats where you just kind

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to stand up there and you'd be like, okay, I'm going to talk about this topic for like 30 minutes.

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Those are really hard to prepare for. And so doing a Socratic seminar, it just, it makes it a lot

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easier to just kind of break it up. And also it's like the whole point of a Socratic seminar is it's

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a, it's not a person talking at you, right? It's a conversation in the room. So I might introduce

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the topic or something, but then it's like, all right, like, what do you guys think? Like, let's

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talk about this. And so it gets people to engage, right? Instead of just kind of sitting back and

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listening. And I try to even call on some of the new people, or maybe not like the new new people,

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but like the new people that I've gotten to know a little bit. And I'll just try to like draw them

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into the conversation a little bit. I think it's been, we've been doing the Socratic seminar for

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a little over a year, I think. So it's been going pretty well.

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Yeah, that was my first meetup too, going into New York for BitDevs. And I really enjoyed those,

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but it's kind of a pain, even from Jersey City, where we are to get into New York,

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at least for me, it's kind of a whole schlep. And I also just kind of thought like, I mean,

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I'm personally a developer, but even still out of BitDevs, it's just way up here, right?

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And so that's kind of a main reason why I wanted to start a meetup,

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is to kind of bridge that gap or have something right kind of in the middle.

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Yeah, I want to emphasize that the schlep, as James called it, is completely our differentiator.

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A lot of Central Jersey, South Jersey Bitcoiners, we get people drive an hour plus to our meetup because that last leg just over the river into the city is going to be another 45 minutes.

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It's actually insane.

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So, yeah, it's kind of crazy.

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Parking is a mess.

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And just to rewind it back a little bit, I owe James everything because after the 2022 Bitcoin Miami, I was so inspired by meeting Bitcoiners IRL that I was like, I wonder if Jersey City has one.

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And lo and behold, he had just posted on Reddit, hey, come meet up for our third ever meetup or something crazy like that.

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and now we're over 100 members in the telegram and we're getting 20 plus consistent especially

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between you know the two different meetups that we have each month it's easily over 20

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so yeah yeah tell me that so what's what's the journey been like you guys have been doing it

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for a while how did you get started how what was that like and what was the process as you grew

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now it sounds like you're doing two meetups a month, which is pretty awesome.

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How did you end up there?

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Yeah, so right after COVID, I've been interested in Bitcoin for a long time.

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Never really had many Bitcoin friends, a few here and there.

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But through that COVID lockup, which sucked,

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but I was just kind of like talking about Bitcoin constantly to my wife.

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My wife was like, okay, this is great.

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you have a passion i get it but but you need to go out and and find other people to connect with

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so that inspired me to to start the meetup but it wasn't um it wasn't like a direct route i'll say

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i made a twitter um and i started playing around with the idea and there is there's another person

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um um she's she's no she doesn't come to the meetup anymore but her and her husband

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um i won't say her name because whatever but but she reached out to me on the twitter account in

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jersey city bitcoin and she was like hey do you want to start doing meetups locally and that was

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kind of the push i guess i needed to have the first one it's probably just me her and her husband

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um and then we started posting on meetup.com and reddit uh reddit which i've kind of fallen off

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with just because um it wasn't a great place to connect but gc found me through there so

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That's fine.

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But, and then slowly over the years on meetup, initially we were on meetup or maybe it was

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Eventbrite.

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I think you have to pay for meetup.

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So that's why I was hesitant to do that.

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But, but yeah, just through that slowly built up, we first started at one bar.

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And then we came to realize that being close to a train in our area, a lot of people don't

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have cars, was a really big thing.

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So we moved it over to Zeppelin Hall Beer Garden.

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It's a huge beer garden.

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Another thing is like the first place we had that they wanted you to get a table and they wanted you to have one tab and they didn't want any splitting.

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And that was like a big issue. Right. Like it's so for the first couple of meetups, I always was like biting the bullet of a few people kind of dipped and I had to pay for their drinks.

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I was like, whatever. But we've gotten all those things figured out. And I want to shout out.

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I'll just say the first initial of her name, Kay. You know who you are. You inspired me to start the

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meetup. And then since then, we've really kind of embraced the decentralized community format.

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And what's great about that, I was listening to your first podcast and I agreed with a lot of the

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points you were making. Life happens. People want to take vacations. Sometimes it's just cold out

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and maybe you don't want to go outside, right? So I think it's important and I would press for

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anyone who's interested or active in the meetup to embrace that decentralized model, just like

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Bitcoin itself, right? So one day you might move away, you might want to buy a house and have kids

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and whatever, and you want to know that that community will outlive you. So having a partner

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like GC has been, I can't say how much it's done for our community. It's really taken us to the

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next level he's solely responsible for the socratic seminar part of it for years literally just like

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oh you know that would be nice to have but if if we rented a space that would be so much money i

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just kind of stopped there and gc kind of bridged that gap so um i can't say enough good things

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about a decentralized um leadership yeah and just having it the second thursday of the month every

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month we don't even have to show up anymore we've created something we can't stop it's like bitcoin

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You know, people will just show up anyway because they know everyone else is going to be there.

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And so that's really how you build a lasting movement is years of just, hey, we're going to meet up same time, same place.

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Consistency.

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Yeah, I know some meetups in New York, which are a little more at, I don't know what the right word is, but just like different on different dates.

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And I think it's been a really good thing for our community to just have it same day every month.

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so GC how did you get into the fold as far as taking more of a organizational role or leadership

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role did you just start off going to the meetup and then you're like dude I like this so much I

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wanted what can I do more how did that go yeah I guess that was kind of it and I think it's kind of

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like when one person when uh one of the founders and their husband stopped showing up and it was

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just James going every time he missed you know you miss a couple you can't go every single time

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and I think James correct me if I'm wrong but I think it was my idea I didn't even know this was

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a thing other meetups did but to hold it at the same time at the same place and I would go and

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maybe one other person would show up and it just that's kind of how I contributed I think most of

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the club is just being just being there consistently and and then yeah the educational thing we've just

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been trying to do for so long. Reid and Rev, when we went to Nashville last year, I was just

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so inspired by all of the other Bitcoin meetup organizers, how incredible, how many people show

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up, how large of an organization they have and everything they've accomplished. And I was just

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like, we just drink. That was the moment for me where I had to step up my game, I think.

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yeah i could tell you um when i knew i had a partner in crime so to speak is like when gc would

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be getting there early locking down the first table um at the bar because another thing was like

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people would come they'd show up um and another thing is like he'd come with the signage he got

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signs printed jersey city bitcoin were like taking over the bar um so people would come and

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they would like shoot the message to telegram hey i don't know where you guys are actually a little

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funny side story there's a group of swingers that meet at the same bar we do and they put this flower

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on the table and it's orange so sometimes people come up to them and ask them through the bitcoin

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meetup which is kind of hilarious but um but yeah that's when i knew um you know because i would

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talk to people like hey maybe i want to do educational stuff and and it kind of just

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stopped there and gc kind of you know took the ball and ran with it so um you know if you

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go to a meetup right now and you just kind of attend it and you think you want to take the next

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step, I would encourage you to reach out to the organizers, ask them what you can do.

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What's nice about it is it's like, it doesn't fall all on me. It doesn't fall all on GC.

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It's a shared responsibility to build this community. And so it can be overwhelming sometimes

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when you own something, you know, end to end. But, you know, when you have that support,

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it makes it a lot easier. And, you know, there's a lot to benefit. Like, I remember when we were

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first doing the Socratic seminars, a big idea for me in my head was like, this is a great way to

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elevate, you know, people in our community. You might know something, might be very knowledgeable

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on a topic. A common theme I noticed with a lot of people is they want to work in Bitcoin, right?

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They don't have a job in Bitcoin, but they want to work in it.

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And so I think that this is a really good stepping stone to that.

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I think like, well, you had something.

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Go ahead, Reid.

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I was just, I wanted to ask.

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So when you, one of the things, so we also started, you know, just in bars and stuff like that.

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And I think that's pretty common.

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and finding a location when you just need to meet at a bar is like you know it's maybe like a little

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bit of work like you said we hopped around from a few bars to try to find you know oh hey this one's

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a little bit better they got a better room for us and stuff like that but yeah as soon as you

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graduate graduate as soon as you decide that you want to kind of step up your game and start putting

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something on a screen and doing more educational stuff the complexity like of finding a place that

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you like don't have to pay for or that is like not prohibitively expensive uh that's like a just

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a big bar and that held us back for a couple of years until we finally were like we had a meetup

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member come and they offered their like little print shop and we like kind of set up a bunch of

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chairs in there and stuff like that and that worked for a little while um so i'm just wondering what

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your experience was like trying to find a location and how you guys got over those hurdles

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so miserable can i tell you that that was the number one barrier to entry for us too and i

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think going to nashville and and meeting up all the other organizers and hearing them talk about

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it definitely helped i think that james i maybe on like the fifth ever jersey city bitcoin meetup

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we were already brainstorming venues and it just nothing ever came of it and i think it's a

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combination of being afraid to pay for a place that financial commitment uh but two it's it is

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finding the right spot. And obviously, if you have Bitcoiners with a place that's like

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a classroom setting, that's optimal. What worked out for us, so we're actually located

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in this place called the Barrow Mansion So rewind really quickly We were trying to go to a WeWork We were trying to find you know rent a space in all of these places that were like an hour especially in the Jersey City

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New York area. Everything was incredibly expensive. And I lived next to this clubhouse,

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and it was built in the 1830s. I think it was finished in 1837. So pre-Civil War, like huge

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Roman columns in the front of it. Absolutely tremendous clubhouse. I would go there for

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Buddhist meditations a couple of times. And I was just like, this place would be really cool

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for our meetup. And I just never took that next step. And then all I did was I went on the website

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and I emailed them. They got back to us and we pay about $50 an hour. So a hundred dollars for

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the month, which is nothing compared to everything else. So I think that maybe if you're looking on

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those sites that have classrooms, try to avoid that. Try to do what you know in the community.

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You know, if you really know your local area, start there versus going straight to the places that are advertising.

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Because we got a really great rate because there's not a lot of people that host there.

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Yeah, I think Rev, I think you made the point last time right now that they've got all these BTC maps and stuff like that where people might be accepting Bitcoin now.

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You know, that's a great place to start, right?

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If you're looking for a place, hey, if there's a place that accepts Bitcoin, they're probably going to be more likely to be able to have you on as a host.

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Yeah, this place doesn't accept Bitcoin.

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It's like a historic mansion.

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And they even do like AA meetings in the basement.

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But, you know, it seems like, you know, they need the income.

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They need someone to rent space.

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We need a space to rent.

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The rates are almost laughable.

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So it's, I mean, it's just, it's nice to have someone who doesn't quote you an astronomically high price.

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Because like as GC was saying, we were looking at these co-working places.

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And at first the rates weren't like crazy.

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But then we started getting into details of like, all right, what if we have like 15 or 20 people there?

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And we quickly realized like they don't, this isn't going to work.

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And one other thing too, don't let a place not having a screen stop you.

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I got this projector off of Amazon for 70 bucks.

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Incredibly crisp, incredibly crisp.

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Our place has table and chairs already.

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What else do you need?

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It's cozy there.

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So that's another really great best practice too.

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You know, just try to be scrappy.

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and so yeah like these venues and everything they're totally dictated by what's available

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the community that you have access to and like as you saw at nashville there's a whole swath of

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different intentions for what people are looking to get out of when they start a bitcoin meetup

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and so james for you when you got started what were you really looking for did why did you want

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to just did you just want to talk to bitcoiners did you want to get a bitcoin job what was your

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intention when you started the meetup? Yeah, really just to connect with other Bitcoiners,

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to have Bitcoin friends, to meet other people who share, you know, a passion, but it's really like

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so much more than that. Sometimes when I'm telling normies or my wife or whatever,

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who may not understand like, well, why, you know, why are you so gung ho about hanging out with

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Bitcoiners? It's, it's like, it's kind of like meeting someone who likes the same sports team

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or something, right? I know we share, there's going to be so much common shared values.

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If you could visualize a Venn diagram or whatever. With the average Bitcoiner, I just know there's

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going to be much more overlap. We're probably going to have a lower time preference. Bitcoiners

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tend to care about their health. They tend to care less about short-term results and more about

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kind of the long-term. Proof of work is something that commonly is said in this community. But

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I find that Bitcoiners really embrace and embody that spirit. And it's just nice when you meet

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another Bitcoiner, you know you're going to have all this shared overlap of values and that kind

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of thing. So that's really what inspired me to do it. Now, since then, I was a developer at the time.

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right after COVID, I took a coding bootcamp. I ran full speed ahead into development.

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And I was able to land my first job, which was for a big food company, making online ordering

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apps for convenience stores, which was cool. It was a good first experience. But over time,

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seeing people build awesome stuff on Bitcoin, I just wanted to get into that. And since then,

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I have been able to land a gig. Someone literally just reached out on Twitter and said, hey,

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I'm looking for a Bitcoin developer for this lightning thing I'm building. And that's how I

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got started with him. So it's actually amazing. I was looking for jobs at the time. And I don't

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know if anyone out there listening is doing that. I feel for you because LinkedIn sucks.

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but it just kind of fell into my lap.

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Someone reached out on Twitter and gave me, you know, a Bitcoin job.

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So that's just kind of another reason to,

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if you're kind of on the fence about starting a Bitcoin meetup

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and, you know, having a Bitcoin job sounds cool,

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I would encourage you to go for it.

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And so it started off as you kind of just looking to meet like-minded people

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And you didn't necessarily land your Bitcoin job through the meetup.

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But I'm curious if now the meetup's been going on, you said it's so much more than that.

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What has it become?

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The regulars, have they started businesses together?

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Have they started cooperating?

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Are there any cool stories that you guys have from that angle?

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Yeah, I mean, for me, once I came back from Bitcoin Miami, and I really was inspired to join, meet up, meet like minded Bitcoiners, like what James said, I quickly realized after a few of the sessions, listening to some of the most incredible and intelligent people that I've ever met in my life, that this really I did like a flashback.

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This really was like seventh grade U.S. history or European history where I was thinking of Bitcoin meetups as like the New Age Enlightenment salons.

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I don't know if you guys know anything about those, like how there would be diplomats like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson who would go to France and they would sit in and discuss Enlightenment ideas.

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And a bunch of people just sitting around drinking, discussing philosophy, literature, art, science, politics.

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And those small meetups really played such a huge part in the whole enlightenment growth and development of these ideas of people just having these Socratic seminars, debating and talking and networking and growing.

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And that's what we're doing here.

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We have, you know, there's been so many connections that I've made personally.

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I've met some incredible people within the industry and I just love growing and building.

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And another thing for me, this really just makes Bitcoin feel real, right?

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You almost feel like a crazy person when you're reading about it or listening and watching on YouTube videos.

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Maybe it was just because it was COVID, but this was really going to a meetup in person at the turning point of coming out of the pandemic.

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the pandemic really just made Bitcoin feel so real to me. And people don't understand how much

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of a paradigm shift Bitcoin really is. So like we were talking about talking to normies, it really

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just doesn't sync with them. But when you're face to face talking to somebody who gets it,

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that is just such an incredible feeling that nothing else can replicate. There's tons of

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different perspectives, right? We're all listening to the same 50 influencers and going to a Bitcoin

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meet up and meeting 20 new people who each have their own different perspective and they're also

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incredibly intelligent and you realize what's out there it just opens your perspective um and it's

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just such a game changer and of course there's the cliche of having a third space and and really just

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having a place outside of work and home that you can go and and meet and relax um but yeah i could

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i could pop off more but i i'm just very passionate yeah to build on that for a second um

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I very much agree with the third space.

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I'm a bit of a homebody.

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I work from home.

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And so after a day or a week of developing, sometimes the last thing I want to do is go

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to the bar.

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When I was younger and single, maybe, more than maybe, right?

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I was there.

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But these days I really just don't have a strong desire to go out and go to the bar.

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If I'm going out with my wife, that's one thing.

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If I'm meeting a friend, that's another thing.

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But I just don't have that desire.

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it's it's just completely different to like go meet up with bitcoiners and one just like little

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anecdotal things to build on what gc was saying is like recently a lot of our meetups you might

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be mistaken that it's like an ai meetup right just because that's like the flavor of the week

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but um another interesting like shared common ground kind of thing uh that i've observed is

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is when we discuss ai and the future of ai um and you're talking to another bitcoin about it's not

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not even like a question what type of money do you think this AI would prefer right do you think

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it would prefer the money that can be turned on and off that's just a number in a database that

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the the operator of the AI or the bank or the government or the whoever um can just turn off

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or do you think you'd prefer centralized peer-to-peer unstoppable uncensorable cash uh you

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know it's not even a question right um so yeah this is such a cool topic not only what money

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would it prefer, but what infrastructure does it want to build on is really the question, right?

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Like, let's say that the AI has their own crazy economic financial system that only they can

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develop and understand, and we mere humans will never be able to possibly comprehend it. But what

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economic infrastructure are they going to build that on? Some centralized human-made shitcoin? No,

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they're going to build it on Bitcoin. And that is really the unlock of that Bitcoin is not just

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money, but it's also a network and a platform and a whole technology stack that no one really

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understands. And it's just so inspiring. Some of the AI stories with Bitcoin are

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getting a little bit crazy these days. Some of the open claw agents and stuff like that,

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because it's almost not even just like, can this be turned off or not be turned off? It's like,

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hey, I'm going to give this to you. It's now yours, right? Like you have control of it.

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Now go do what you're going to do, you know, AI, robot, or whatever you are.

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And they're able to like almost grasp that like inherently and understand the keys and understand

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how to send it and use it as a tool, right? As a tool to build, as a tool to research,

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as a tool to do perform the tasks that you assign them.

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Yeah, it's really, I mean, it's what money was always meant to be, right?

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I'm looking forward to the time where I can like plug a brand into my car,

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you know, and it can go drive around, you know, be a taxi, collect the Bitcoin.

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It goes right to my wallet, right?

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My car is just working for me because I tell it to.

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And then when it needs an oil change, I don't have to go take drive to the oil change place.

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that can go get the oil change and pay for it itself.

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You know, I imagine this is,

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you need something like Bitcoin for that to be possible

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to like utilize the AI and bridge it into the real world

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and have it like do economic physical tasks

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for you with the robot, right?

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Yeah, and blockchains don't scale

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and centralized databases don't scale,

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but the Lightning Network does.

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And if we're going to have trillions of transactions a second,

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there's no other monetary infrastructure that AIs can use.

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It's just like full stop.

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No, but on the topic of AI,

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I do think that it relates to Bitcoin meetups more generally

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because I don't know if you guys listen to Bitcoin Audible at all,

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but Guy Swan did a read really recently.

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Poe's Laws comes into full flower.

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Did any of you guys listen to that one by chance?

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Not yet.

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it's in my queue actually I haven't heard it yet highly recommend I might spoil it a little bit here

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but the TLDR on this is if you lose the ability to trust anything AI comes in they're creating

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videos they're creating deep fakes they're creating news stories you don't know what's

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real or fake anymore that's now that's here the recent models the nano banana there was another

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one Sora or something recently like you cannot tell what's real and what's fake anymore

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what's going to happen? What are we going to do? If you can't trust a voice, a Zoom call,

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a phone call, you just stop. All of humanity just stops believing what they see on their screens

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and the world gets small again. So now I'm quoting from the actual article.

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You trust what you see with your own eyes. Businesses move to highly protected, verified

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networks. So the real high trust, that's going to be the face-to-face, the IRL, the hands that

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get shaken, the eyes that get looked into, and people once more do business directly with other

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people. And we're social animals. We want to be around each other. We want FaceTime. We want lunch,

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talking, body language, having a drink, communicating over in person. And what does this mean? What does

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this future of we can't trust anything anymore? Don't trust Verify. Going to Bitcoin meetups are

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going to be the only space where you can trust someone to teach you about Bitcoin. There will be

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these webs of trust that we, us, right now are building right before AI fundamentally undermines

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our ability to trust anything on online transactions, right? These friendships, the networking of

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like-minded people, this is going to be the only way to move forward with Bitcoin. And I think that

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That is highly underrated.

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And what you guys are doing with this podcast is especially foundational for building those

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webs of trust in the future.

402
00:35:33,378 --> 00:35:34,278
More meetups.

403
00:35:34,918 --> 00:35:35,838
That's what we want.

404
00:35:36,378 --> 00:35:37,358
I want more meetups.

405
00:35:39,018 --> 00:35:45,678
Well, and so have you noticed any economic activity happening from the relationships that

406
00:35:45,678 --> 00:35:46,438
get built at the meetup?

407
00:35:46,438 --> 00:35:51,158
In my area, in the meetups that I go to, this is like what it's become about, man, is like

408
00:35:51,158 --> 00:35:52,758
how can we build now?

409
00:35:52,758 --> 00:35:56,278
Like we know each other, we trust each other. We know what,

410
00:35:56,278 --> 00:35:59,138
what skills and aptitudes and resources we all have.

411
00:35:59,198 --> 00:36:01,838
Like what can we do with that shit? And we start working together.

412
00:36:05,018 --> 00:36:06,958
Yeah. I mean, there's, there's definitely,

413
00:36:07,418 --> 00:36:14,258
there's definitely that, that type of camaraderie going on.

414
00:36:14,318 --> 00:36:17,258
People are talking about what they're building you know,

415
00:36:17,318 --> 00:36:20,678
cool things that they think would be, you know,

416
00:36:20,678 --> 00:36:29,478
a place for something in the market. We also have, you know, Rob from Bitcoin News. He's a member of

417
00:36:29,478 --> 00:36:36,198
our meetup. Hopefully I didn't dox him, but, but yeah, but like, and he's, he's always, you know,

418
00:36:36,278 --> 00:36:40,258
as a developer, I can always tell him like, oh, you know, I'm thinking about building this cool

419
00:36:40,258 --> 00:36:44,638
thing or, or maybe I even approached him one time, like, you know, I'm a developer, but

420
00:36:44,638 --> 00:36:50,658
it feels like everything cool is already built and I don't know what to build. And he comes

421
00:36:50,658 --> 00:36:55,538
out with like a laundry list of, of things to build and offers, you know, to tweet it from his,

422
00:36:55,618 --> 00:37:04,678
his large account. Um, and so it's just, you're not going to get, um, that, that level of,

423
00:37:04,678 --> 00:37:10,518
of cooperation and, and support. I think maybe with friends you've known for basically your whole

424
00:37:10,518 --> 00:37:14,978
life, but like at a Bitcoin meetup, it's almost like speed running, right? You still have to be

425
00:37:14,978 --> 00:37:18,298
a little hesitant. Like when you just meet somebody, you don't know who they are, what

426
00:37:18,298 --> 00:37:23,598
their attentions are. But after, after a couple meetups, you know, having some beers together,

427
00:37:23,598 --> 00:37:28,058
and if you don't drink, that's cool too, just hanging out, you know, I, back to GC,

428
00:37:28,278 --> 00:37:34,358
sorry to go on a tangent here, but what GC was saying before about like, you know, like bars

429
00:37:34,358 --> 00:37:41,498
and taverns, like America was founded essentially by people meeting in bars and taverns and talking

430
00:37:41,498 --> 00:37:47,938
about new ideas. And so I just think, you know, even if you're not a drinker, I just think it's,

431
00:37:47,938 --> 00:37:50,538
it's like a magical environment.

432
00:37:53,038 --> 00:37:54,758
Yeah, to your point, Rev,

433
00:37:54,858 --> 00:37:56,418
maybe it's just a Northeast thing,

434
00:37:56,538 --> 00:37:58,518
but no one makes syrup here

435
00:37:58,518 --> 00:38:00,098
and no one wants to spend their sats.

436
00:38:00,258 --> 00:38:01,698
And it's highly disappointing

437
00:38:01,698 --> 00:38:04,318
and definitely a point of failure

438
00:38:04,318 --> 00:38:05,818
for us as meetup organizers

439
00:38:05,818 --> 00:38:08,778
that we don't have more circular economies going.

440
00:38:09,238 --> 00:38:11,438
But people here are like accountants

441
00:38:11,438 --> 00:38:12,878
and software developers.

442
00:38:13,198 --> 00:38:17,378
Like it's really hard to sell and share services.

443
00:38:17,938 --> 00:38:23,258
So I think maybe that's just a factor of where we live, but I wish there was more of that.

444
00:38:23,678 --> 00:38:29,138
Although we have had somebody in the Telegram asking for the past few weeks, they want a Bitcoin butcher.

445
00:38:29,618 --> 00:38:37,178
So if you know an awesome butcher out there that accepts Bitcoin, hit us up on JerseyCityBitcoin.com.

446
00:38:37,218 --> 00:38:38,078
We'll buy some steaks.

447
00:38:39,318 --> 00:38:44,358
Well, and you said that people come from an hour or more away a lot of times.

448
00:38:44,358 --> 00:38:51,178
Now, I don't know an hour or more away from Jersey City what you can find, but that's a pretty big range.

449
00:38:51,678 --> 00:38:57,418
And like I travel an hour to two hours, sometimes two and a half hours to a meetup.

450
00:38:57,598 --> 00:39:06,658
But that's because I know I've got a good or service that's valuable to that group and I can get my gas money back at least by selling a thing or two.

451
00:39:06,658 --> 00:39:14,538
and uh so there's a there's a place uh in chicago i think they're calling it uh the bitcoin

452
00:39:14,538 --> 00:39:21,098
collective uh i don't know if i got that right or not but they they're creating like a co-work

453
00:39:21,098 --> 00:39:26,598
space kind of like uh bitcoin park in nashville but the chicago version of it i i think there's

454
00:39:26,598 --> 00:39:32,358
a some a place called the space in denver which is similar and so these kinds of spaces create

455
00:39:32,358 --> 00:39:39,178
gravity for people to come from far away and bring their shit but when you have somebody still willing

456
00:39:39,178 --> 00:39:44,238
to drive an hour or two away it's like what what do they have access to in that area and do we does

457
00:39:44,238 --> 00:39:48,798
do the people at the meetup want that thing because you can buy you can spend your fiat on a thing

458
00:39:48,798 --> 00:39:53,678
like a fancy brewery has some beers that you can't get or i don't know what it could be

459
00:39:53,678 --> 00:39:57,998
um and they go buy that stuff they take the pre-orders and bring it to the meetup and then

460
00:39:57,998 --> 00:40:03,878
and they sell it for sats and they just basically DCA or buy Bitcoin through selling a good or

461
00:40:03,878 --> 00:40:09,818
service to the meetup, which then it moves the sats around and it gets the economy started,

462
00:40:09,818 --> 00:40:14,598
right? The bridge from fiat into the Bitcoin land, into Bitcoin world, whatever.

463
00:40:14,598 --> 00:40:28,718
no yeah uh i i i went to vegas this past uh bitcoin conference in vegas um and another person

464
00:40:28,718 --> 00:40:35,198
from our community was there uh and i didn't have you know i was light on on money like actual fiat

465
00:40:35,198 --> 00:40:40,978
right um and so essentially my option was hit an atm in a casino which is going to rip me off

466
00:40:40,978 --> 00:40:45,258
or ask my friend, hey, do you want to like stack some sats, right?

467
00:40:45,278 --> 00:40:57,576
Because it like you buying Bitcoin It like I using an ATM no fees and we made that happen So that you know it not the traditional idea of like buying stuff or a circular economy or whatever

468
00:40:57,756 --> 00:41:04,896
but it's, it, it served a purpose for all. He was actually up, he had won money in the casino. So

469
00:41:04,896 --> 00:41:09,616
it's like he's taking some of his profits and buying Bitcoin. I'm getting some money to gamble

470
00:41:09,616 --> 00:41:15,836
that, you know, I promptly lost and whatever, but, but it served the purpose and I didn't have to

471
00:41:15,836 --> 00:41:24,816
pay some rent-seeking ATM owner, you know, $10. Have you guys ever played the credit card game

472
00:41:24,816 --> 00:41:28,596
at the restaurant or something with your friends where you go and buy, everyone just like buys

473
00:41:28,596 --> 00:41:32,836
whatever they want. And then you throw all your credit cards into the hat and the one that gets

474
00:41:32,836 --> 00:41:38,276
picked out buys the dinner, right? But if they buy the dinner and you're paying them back sats,

475
00:41:38,316 --> 00:41:41,576
it's like you're the one who wants your card to get picked because now you just stacked a bunch

476
00:41:41,576 --> 00:41:44,216
of KYC free Bitcoin from all your friends locally.

477
00:41:45,036 --> 00:41:46,476
So you guys can do shit like that.

478
00:41:46,756 --> 00:41:50,676
I mean, even cash trades, people, I much prefer,

479
00:41:50,676 --> 00:41:54,376
I avoid selling my Bitcoin back on the exchange.

480
00:41:54,516 --> 00:41:58,336
I want to, if I need fiat, I'm going to go to my local community first.

481
00:41:58,716 --> 00:42:01,056
You know, and there's a lot of people that want the opportunity

482
00:42:01,056 --> 00:42:02,996
to buy Bitcoin with cash.

483
00:42:03,636 --> 00:42:06,176
And so meetups are a great opportunity for those kinds of trades

484
00:42:06,176 --> 00:42:07,016
to start to happen.

485
00:42:07,496 --> 00:42:10,376
Once again, because you built, you spend a lot of time with these people.

486
00:42:10,376 --> 00:42:12,296
We meet up with them month after month for years.

487
00:42:12,796 --> 00:42:17,156
And so there's a high level of trust there where you can feel comfortable going to this.

488
00:42:17,416 --> 00:42:19,716
And you're around a bunch of other people and the trade happens.

489
00:42:19,796 --> 00:42:21,756
You don't have to necessarily do it right in front of everyone.

490
00:42:21,936 --> 00:42:23,376
But you know there's people around.

491
00:42:23,676 --> 00:42:25,276
It feels safe to me.

492
00:42:27,156 --> 00:42:30,016
I have to agree with you.

493
00:42:30,016 --> 00:42:38,436
You know, one thing that I've seen, you know, in our community and others is online impersonation.

494
00:42:38,436 --> 00:42:42,996
Um, so like, yeah, you trust, you know, you trust the people in the community, but how

495
00:42:42,996 --> 00:42:49,536
do you, uh, you know, on the internet, it's not that hard to, to, to make a telegram handle

496
00:42:49,536 --> 00:42:51,556
and make it look like exactly like someone else or whatever.

497
00:42:51,976 --> 00:42:58,896
Um, and so I think that it's probably smarter, um, you know, to do things face to face with

498
00:42:58,896 --> 00:43:04,216
someone you've known for years or months, um, you know, smarter than just using the

499
00:43:04,216 --> 00:43:05,276
internet to source that.

500
00:43:05,276 --> 00:43:34,096
So, yeah, if I could emphasize that point, I think everyone who's running a Bitcoin meetup or will run a Bitcoin meetup, you will face someone getting scammed. And so you have to know how to be prepared. And just being proactive about it. I literally print out sheets of paper and hand them to new members that are drinking meetup. Because if there is a scammer afoot, they know that we're serious and we're educating our community to not fall for their tricks.

501
00:43:34,096 --> 00:43:41,776
and so yeah i can't emphasize that more enough um just make it make it a point to to say it

502
00:43:41,776 --> 00:43:47,936
to put in your handouts uh and just to make it a habit because honestly scams are everywhere it's

503
00:43:47,936 --> 00:43:54,536
not just bitcoin it's ai it's texts it's it's everything so um people should just be aware of

504
00:43:54,536 --> 00:44:02,536
of what ai is now capable of yeah and and it may not even be a member of your community right um

505
00:44:02,536 --> 00:44:17,116
If your meetup grows to a certain size, there's going to be people in God knows what third world country hopping in there, lingering, watching the dynamic, figuring out who to pretend to be.

506
00:44:18,156 --> 00:44:21,516
And, of course, you know, you can also have people in the community doing it, too.

507
00:44:21,616 --> 00:44:22,356
You don't know.

508
00:44:22,976 --> 00:44:24,516
But GC's right.

509
00:44:24,636 --> 00:44:26,716
You need to be vigilant for these things.

510
00:44:26,716 --> 00:44:32,596
you know uh definitely set the tone that um you know we're watching out for this

511
00:44:32,596 --> 00:44:37,156
um we had someone ask and by the way i don't think it was malicious i don't think it was a scam

512
00:44:37,156 --> 00:44:41,216
but i think we had someone ask um you know they wanted to trade stables for bitcoin

513
00:44:41,216 --> 00:44:47,596
and we took a hard line stance on that um and we kicked them out of the group it was weird

514
00:44:47,596 --> 00:44:54,616
it was weird i um are you guys talking in the group chats yeah so they'll come to the meetup

515
00:44:54,616 --> 00:44:58,336
listen around then pretend to be so they'll get in the group chat then they'll pretend to be someone

516
00:44:58,336 --> 00:45:04,236
in the group trap and try and scam them online so we don't we don't know and that's why we've

517
00:45:04,236 --> 00:45:09,016
changed so another best practice that we've learned and you guys can can chime in is that

518
00:45:09,016 --> 00:45:15,596
we only let people in the telegram in person we we're admins to the group you have to scan a qr

519
00:45:15,596 --> 00:45:21,556
code add an actual meetup i have to actually meet you and then know who you are because that way

520
00:45:21,556 --> 00:45:23,256
that that won't happen.

521
00:45:23,776 --> 00:45:26,096
Or who knows if it's someone

522
00:45:26,096 --> 00:45:27,936
who just joins the meetup randomly.

523
00:45:28,476 --> 00:45:31,756
So a good bridge and transition to that is marketing

524
00:45:31,756 --> 00:45:34,476
in that I wish we did a little bit more,

525
00:45:34,816 --> 00:45:38,016
but I kind of like that we're a little bit undercover.

526
00:45:38,836 --> 00:45:41,236
Bitcoiners know that there are Bitcoin meetups

527
00:45:41,236 --> 00:45:45,356
and we don't want to be too loud about it.

528
00:45:45,616 --> 00:45:47,236
I think for the Socratic seminar,

529
00:45:47,516 --> 00:45:50,216
it's important to market to our local community.

530
00:45:50,216 --> 00:45:53,416
but the online just blasting out,

531
00:45:53,516 --> 00:45:55,816
hey, we're Bitcoiners, this is where we are,

532
00:45:56,916 --> 00:45:59,636
it's a fine line to walk.

533
00:46:00,416 --> 00:46:01,076
Yeah, yeah.

534
00:46:01,396 --> 00:46:04,396
Because when Bitcoin is skyrocketing

535
00:46:04,396 --> 00:46:07,376
and even though it's down a little bit now,

536
00:46:07,656 --> 00:46:10,136
it's still $67,000 of Bitcoin, right?

537
00:46:10,396 --> 00:46:12,156
People see that, they see dollar signs.

538
00:46:12,636 --> 00:46:13,896
Not everyone is a good person

539
00:46:13,896 --> 00:46:15,776
and you just need to be watchful.

540
00:46:15,896 --> 00:46:18,216
Like another rule that we kind of have,

541
00:46:18,216 --> 00:46:22,516
It's not like the hardest of rules, but no solicitation, right?

542
00:46:22,596 --> 00:46:26,276
Like if you come to a sarcastic seminar and you talk about something, that's cool.

543
00:46:26,716 --> 00:46:30,356
But I'm not going to have you up on that stage soliciting an investment, right?

544
00:46:30,456 --> 00:46:32,596
If you want to do that on the side, it's cool.

545
00:46:33,036 --> 00:46:35,136
It's kind of like our shitcoin rule, right?

546
00:46:35,196 --> 00:46:36,836
We focus on Bitcoin, no shitcoins.

547
00:46:37,096 --> 00:46:41,536
If someone mentions a shitcoin once or twice, you know, it's fine.

548
00:46:41,956 --> 00:46:43,896
We'll just kind of remind them to refocus.

549
00:46:43,896 --> 00:46:57,836
Yeah, we learned that scammer thing too about the – like we have a Telegram chat for the group and we had impersonators starting to come in and we switched exactly to what you said, GC.

550
00:46:58,556 --> 00:46:59,656
We took it down.

551
00:46:59,776 --> 00:47:11,056
We had our Telegram link posted on like our meetup.com page, took that down and then we kicked out the scammers or whatever and then we haven't had a single problem since.

552
00:47:11,056 --> 00:47:14,856
So I think that's a good thing to keep in mind.

553
00:47:15,716 --> 00:47:21,676
And the other thing I started thinking about, I started thinking about it as I started my meetup.

554
00:47:22,776 --> 00:47:31,176
But I try to remind people every once in a while, like we've talked about, like Bitcoin isn't necessarily the only community that has these types of risks.

555
00:47:31,616 --> 00:47:38,516
I mean, anytime you're going out in person with anything, but especially if it's associated with money, right?

556
00:47:38,516 --> 00:47:40,876
like you said about when the price goes up.

557
00:47:41,396 --> 00:47:44,756
We actually heard some stories in our meetup group

558
00:47:44,756 --> 00:47:47,776
about how this happens to like gamblers.

559
00:47:48,416 --> 00:47:51,996
People will hang out outside the casinos

560
00:47:51,996 --> 00:47:54,976
or outside where you're playing your poker game.

561
00:47:55,296 --> 00:47:56,916
And hey, if they saw you win big

562
00:47:56,916 --> 00:47:58,636
and you're walking out of there,

563
00:47:59,376 --> 00:48:01,776
there's some security things that you should be aware of.

564
00:48:01,916 --> 00:48:04,036
So we try to emphasize security.

565
00:48:04,236 --> 00:48:05,216
Like there are some security,

566
00:48:05,356 --> 00:48:08,456
like some regular just standard kind of OPSEC type things.

567
00:48:08,516 --> 00:48:12,436
that we try to just, not everybody thinks about that when they go to a meetup.

568
00:48:13,716 --> 00:48:19,056
You reminded me of another best practice that I kind of, this was probably a shower thought,

569
00:48:19,416 --> 00:48:25,316
but in order to build up proof of work. So when someone joins your meetup, like they scan the QR

570
00:48:25,316 --> 00:48:30,236
code, if you're a meetup organizer, you should be shooting them a DM and being like, hey, welcome to

571
00:48:30,236 --> 00:48:36,096
the club. Build up a little proof of work so that they don't think that, like when a scammer does

572
00:48:36,096 --> 00:48:41,236
message them, it won't be you because they'll know they'll have no chat history. So building

573
00:48:41,236 --> 00:48:46,976
up a chat history with the people in your group is, is I think something that I've, I've also

574
00:48:46,976 --> 00:48:55,696
learned is good to discern if it's a scammer or not. This is really just a problem with Telegram

575
00:48:55,696 --> 00:49:04,236
from my experience. Yeah. And we've, we've migrated a lot of our chats, our group chats to

576
00:49:04,236 --> 00:49:10,356
signal for that reason. But it's, if you have a good Telegram channel, like the Grand Rapids

577
00:49:10,356 --> 00:49:15,816
meetup Telegram channel is amazing, dude, there's, there's like, 100 to 200 people, I don't know

578
00:49:15,816 --> 00:49:19,656
exactly, but there's a bunch of people in there, they're active. It's like the Bitcoin meetup is

579
00:49:19,656 --> 00:49:23,676
continuing on after the meetup, there's, you know, you're sharing your memes, you're sharing your

580
00:49:23,676 --> 00:49:29,196
links to news stories and podcasts and whatever people are asking questions. It's great. But those

581
00:49:29,196 --> 00:49:33,956
meetups, the Telegram one, like, so you don't want to sacrifice the Telegram one just to switch

582
00:49:33,956 --> 00:49:39,736
over to signal so we've been slowly doing it right encouraging people to try and engage more on signal

583
00:49:39,736 --> 00:49:45,796
um and use the telegram less and it's been working um but it's it's a process we've been

584
00:49:45,796 --> 00:49:54,236
probably trying this transition for over a year now wow yeah we we briefly use something called

585
00:49:54,236 --> 00:50:01,076
like ox chat which is like built on on nostr or nostr um and there was like some pain points there

586
00:50:01,076 --> 00:50:09,656
but it's been probably over a year. It might be a lot better now. But to your point,

587
00:50:10,096 --> 00:50:15,096
you know, it kind of sucks to abandon a chat room that you've been building for years.

588
00:50:15,836 --> 00:50:21,756
I kind of, I don't know, I would just encourage people, you know, to think of Telegram as not

589
00:50:21,756 --> 00:50:27,696
safe. Don't try, like I've known GC for years, but I will, you know, sometimes I'll like double,

590
00:50:27,696 --> 00:50:31,516
triple check that this is the same conversation I've had with him. Recently, there's been this

591
00:50:31,516 --> 00:50:36,596
story going around about people impersonating people who run meetups, I'm sorry, podcasts,

592
00:50:37,136 --> 00:50:42,116
and like sending a malicious Zoom link. And I asked GC today, like, hey, you know these guys,

593
00:50:42,216 --> 00:50:47,936
right? And he's like, yeah. So I don't think you can be too cautious. And like, for example,

594
00:50:47,936 --> 00:50:53,756
there's a number of other telegrams I use for stuff that I like, like BTC pay server or whatever.

595
00:50:53,756 --> 00:50:59,116
And you just got to know that like when you post in there for help, you're going to get impersonators.

596
00:50:59,196 --> 00:51:03,236
A million percent instantly ban them or block them.

597
00:51:03,816 --> 00:51:06,676
You know, don't feel bad about ignoring DMs.

598
00:51:06,756 --> 00:51:09,236
I'll tell people straight up, don't reply in a DM.

599
00:51:09,596 --> 00:51:12,476
Just talk to me here in this chat where we can all sit.

600
00:51:13,776 --> 00:51:23,736
That's one thing that we really encourage is like, you know, like when people DM me and they're asking for shit or asking about, you know, I'm just like, we could just have this conversation in the chat.

601
00:51:23,756 --> 00:51:28,556
we don't have to do this in dm there's no uh information that we need to keep private here

602
00:51:29,116 --> 00:51:35,676
um i'm happy keeping it out in the open and that and so this is it's like you have to educate your uh

603
00:51:36,636 --> 00:51:43,756
your your group about um about telegram if you're going to use telegram and it takes some work but

604
00:51:43,756 --> 00:51:52,796
telegram is really effective i feel like it's a good platform yeah no i i do like it um and if

605
00:51:52,796 --> 00:51:59,596
If anyone listening is, I know we've been talking about scam prevention for a while here.

606
00:52:00,876 --> 00:52:04,616
OPSEC is obviously always a core aspect of Bitcoiners.

607
00:52:04,776 --> 00:52:07,056
And a lot of people don't want to be famous or known.

608
00:52:07,156 --> 00:52:09,016
They just want to be rich and unknown.

609
00:52:09,756 --> 00:52:15,036
And so this was a big point for me as a meetup organizer.

610
00:52:15,656 --> 00:52:16,796
I was going back and forth.

611
00:52:16,896 --> 00:52:18,516
Do I want to jump on a podcast?

612
00:52:18,836 --> 00:52:20,236
Do I want to host a meetup?

613
00:52:20,296 --> 00:52:21,376
Do I want to join regularly?

614
00:52:21,376 --> 00:52:38,356
And I thought about this for a long time and ultimately decided to pursue Bitcoin because there's this one quote that really stands out to me and that it's a ship in the harbor is safe, but that's not what ships are built for.

615
00:52:38,956 --> 00:52:47,736
And it's one of those things like if you want to make a change in the world, if you want to actually contribute and do things like there is there's risk to everything.

616
00:52:47,736 --> 00:52:50,916
But that's what it's all about, man. That's what we're here for.

617
00:52:50,916 --> 00:52:53,016
so it's worth it

618
00:52:53,016 --> 00:52:56,336
oh yeah

619
00:52:56,336 --> 00:52:59,356
because we were talking about platforms

620
00:52:59,356 --> 00:53:00,296
here a minute ago

621
00:53:00,296 --> 00:53:03,376
with Telegram versus Signal

622
00:53:03,376 --> 00:53:04,216
and stuff like that

623
00:53:04,216 --> 00:53:07,396
I know you guys, you were talking about Eventbrite

624
00:53:07,396 --> 00:53:08,576
and you were talking about

625
00:53:08,576 --> 00:53:11,176
some of the other platforms that you've hosted on

626
00:53:11,176 --> 00:53:13,176
I think I saw on your meetup, you guys are on Luma

627
00:53:13,176 --> 00:53:13,596
now

628
00:53:13,596 --> 00:53:17,036
how's that journey been? What's your feedback

629
00:53:17,036 --> 00:53:19,076
like being off of

630
00:53:19,076 --> 00:53:19,776
meetup.com?

631
00:53:20,916 --> 00:53:41,536
So we still try to have all of the main ones because honestly, we get two or three new people from Meetup every month that just find us organically. So having a Meetup, having an Eventbrite, having those things, even if you don't really use them or post them, it's still good because we've had people, I ask every time a new person comes, where did you hear from us?

632
00:53:41,536 --> 00:53:56,116
And a lot of times there's these weird New York groups that just like pull like organically. I don't know if there's an API or something. It probably pulls from Meetup into their platform, you know, so that's really a good way to get discovered, I think.

633
00:53:56,116 --> 00:54:01,396
But I think that PubKey moved to Luma only too.

634
00:54:02,236 --> 00:54:04,276
You might have to fact check me on that.

635
00:54:04,616 --> 00:54:07,096
But Freedom Lab in New York also moved to Luma only.

636
00:54:07,416 --> 00:54:10,256
A lot of these platforms, it's just the UX is great.

637
00:54:11,416 --> 00:54:16,856
I mean, Satlantis obviously is definitely something we could think about using too.

638
00:54:17,336 --> 00:54:20,116
But Luma, we've only had great experiences with.

639
00:54:20,716 --> 00:54:22,236
And I like it a lot.

640
00:54:22,776 --> 00:54:23,456
Plus it's free.

641
00:54:23,456 --> 00:54:31,076
yeah and i think it even will text people to remind them or do push notifications or whatever

642
00:54:31,076 --> 00:54:39,236
so it's just um and i know for myself um when we first got on meetup.com it just like spammed me a

643
00:54:39,236 --> 00:54:43,676
ton of things i probably instantly turned it off so that's probably what end users are doing too

644
00:54:43,676 --> 00:54:51,416
um i remember like very early in the meetup there was um a woman who came which is kind of

645
00:54:51,416 --> 00:54:57,256
you know most people who come are not women we always always happy to have uh more women in

646
00:54:57,256 --> 00:55:02,276
bitcoin at meetups right but one came and i asked her how she heard about us uh and she just found

647
00:55:02,276 --> 00:55:06,656
us on meetup.com and not that this is really relevant but i remember she mentioned she was

648
00:55:06,656 --> 00:55:11,616
like a jehovah's witness i was like man this is just like so interesting like i would never

649
00:55:11,616 --> 00:55:19,476
meet up brought you here and now i get to try to orange pill you um so um you know how the tables

650
00:55:19,476 --> 00:55:25,636
have turned yeah loomis loomis definitely a good platform uh probably the best platform but

651
00:55:25,636 --> 00:55:31,196
i think uh being on all of them has been good for us um and like meetup.com i think you have to pay

652
00:55:31,196 --> 00:55:36,536
um and the guys who run the south jersey bitcoin meetup who regularly come to ours it blows my

653
00:55:36,536 --> 00:55:40,396
mind that they drive over an hour to come but there's there's more that there's three or four

654
00:55:40,396 --> 00:55:45,236
guys that come from south jersey um which is like an hour an hour and a half because you know if

655
00:55:45,236 --> 00:55:47,356
if you don't geographically know New Jersey.

656
00:55:47,596 --> 00:55:51,576
But we work out a little arrangement there.

657
00:55:52,016 --> 00:55:53,376
I made a deal with him.

658
00:55:53,516 --> 00:55:56,336
He pays for meetup.com for some other reason.

659
00:55:56,956 --> 00:55:59,236
And so he pays for us to be on there.

660
00:55:59,696 --> 00:56:02,436
And similarly, some other people in our meetup,

661
00:56:02,436 --> 00:56:05,036
I don't have the Orange Pill app subscription,

662
00:56:05,656 --> 00:56:07,296
but other people in our community do,

663
00:56:07,516 --> 00:56:08,896
and they post on there for us.

664
00:56:08,896 --> 00:56:13,896
So that's kind of a bit of a circular economy as I see it.

665
00:56:15,236 --> 00:56:20,596
you know to to share any platform you may have access to to promote your local meetup even if

666
00:56:20,596 --> 00:56:26,996
you're not you know the person who started or whatever and just always going to bit devs and

667
00:56:26,996 --> 00:56:33,156
shilling jersey city every time where people just know who we are because so going to other meetups

668
00:56:33,156 --> 00:56:39,556
and showing your own is also a great way to get people out yeah i remember when we had like just

669
00:56:39,556 --> 00:56:44,436
kind of started i don't think we had a website yet we only had the meetup.com page uh and i guess

670
00:56:44,436 --> 00:56:48,376
you go around the room, you introduce yourself or you ask a question and they hand you a microphone

671
00:56:48,376 --> 00:56:54,056
or whatever. I think GC had mentioned, you know, the Jersey City meetup. I don't know if I had ever

672
00:56:54,056 --> 00:56:59,616
done it at BitDev's and they pulled up our thing in the room for probably like 50 people. And that

673
00:56:59,616 --> 00:57:03,956
was like silly, but I was like, oh man, it's like a milestone looking back on it, you know?

674
00:57:05,476 --> 00:57:11,776
Yeah. Our number one, it's not even close. Our discoverability, like where new people hear of us,

675
00:57:11,776 --> 00:57:18,256
it's not even close. It's word of mouth. Um, you know, that's, I, yes, definitely. We have had

676
00:57:18,256 --> 00:57:23,036
people come in organically, like who found us on meetup.com or found us on, on other places.

677
00:57:23,376 --> 00:57:28,176
Uh, we've had some people find us from orange pill app. Um, we had a couple of people find us,

678
00:57:28,176 --> 00:57:34,056
um, from Noster. Uh, but you know, it's, those are the exceptions to be honest,

679
00:57:34,056 --> 00:57:39,736
most people it's, it's word of mouth. Um, so before we transition maybe to like the,

680
00:57:39,736 --> 00:57:43,656
the last part of the show here, there was one other thing I wanted to ask you guys about. So I

681
00:57:43,656 --> 00:57:49,696
saw, I was browsing your socials and I saw you guys started like a library or a book sharing

682
00:57:49,696 --> 00:57:54,896
program or something like that. I thought that was like such a good idea. And like, you know,

683
00:57:54,916 --> 00:57:58,776
I've got like all these books behind me, like a bunch of us at the meetup, we all have all these

684
00:57:58,776 --> 00:58:03,816
books. I'd love to hear like, what, like, how are you guys running that? Like, are you just asking

685
00:58:03,816 --> 00:58:10,516
people to bring in books or how does that work? So this was started by one of our members who

686
00:58:10,516 --> 00:58:14,956
literally he just came up with the idea and he was like, hey, I have an idea for the meetup

687
00:58:14,956 --> 00:58:18,436
because I would post in the group. I'd be like, please, if anyone wants to present something,

688
00:58:18,856 --> 00:58:24,856
please, we want you up. And he was like, I have all of the books and I would love to start like

689
00:58:24,856 --> 00:58:31,376
a mini book club. So I have my the book of Satoshi right here, which is his just loaning it for a

690
00:58:31,376 --> 00:58:37,476
month and he's basically the only one doing the library right now where it's like every month you

691
00:58:37,476 --> 00:58:42,616
know just bring the book back and I just thought it was such a cool idea um thanks for bringing that

692
00:58:42,616 --> 00:58:47,796
up yeah I remember when he came up the idea I was like oh you might want to like take a deposit

693
00:58:47,796 --> 00:58:53,736
maybe just like some I know that's what I was thinking too uh but it's gone well so far he

694
00:58:53,736 --> 00:59:00,056
was completely like nah nah it's fine because you know there is that shared um it's just there's

695
00:59:00,056 --> 00:59:01,476
there's just so much, you know,

696
00:59:01,816 --> 00:59:05,656
I'm not going to do someone dirty like that and steal their book.

697
00:59:05,976 --> 00:59:09,776
So it hasn't been a problem and hopefully it continues to go well,

698
00:59:09,936 --> 00:59:12,716
but he's the man. He's the man for doing that. Shout out.

699
00:59:14,116 --> 00:59:16,416
Yeah, that's cool. Plus, I mean, it gives them an excuse.

700
00:59:16,516 --> 00:59:19,256
Like now they have, if they're, if they're worried about stealing your book,

701
00:59:19,276 --> 00:59:22,776
right, they have to come back the next month so they can return it.

702
00:59:23,436 --> 00:59:26,476
Yeah, I know. No, that's, that's a great idea.

703
00:59:27,276 --> 00:59:28,976
Oh, that is a good point.

704
00:59:28,976 --> 00:59:33,216
oh we just give out books to people and then they'll be like oh shoot i have to go to the

705
00:59:33,216 --> 00:59:38,256
meetup to bring it back oh man i didn't even think about i'm writing this one down thanks

706
00:59:38,256 --> 00:59:43,196
reed and i last episode kind of talked about what is the incentive to drive the regulars to keep

707
00:59:43,196 --> 00:59:49,036
coming you know because reed was talking about the the social meetups weren't as popular and

708
00:59:49,036 --> 00:59:54,676
once he switched to education then the people really started to show up and come back and i've

709
00:59:54,676 --> 00:59:58,376
noticed that, you know, people don't come back for one reason or another. So you have to come

710
00:59:58,376 --> 01:00:04,536
up with a reason or, or it's bet the meetup gets so much better when there's all these incentives,

711
01:00:04,536 --> 01:00:12,096
this value that someone gets. Um, and then the, I guess in this instance, the obligation to return

712
01:00:12,096 --> 01:00:19,876
and you have to hang out again. So, um, so I guess with that, um, maybe we'll transition here

713
01:00:19,876 --> 01:00:25,856
to the next part of the show, which is, I guess, first to say, so we are a podcast.

714
01:00:26,176 --> 01:00:33,456
We're streaming on podcasting 2.0 platforms, which means that people can boost us sats or

715
01:00:33,456 --> 01:00:34,216
stream us sats.

716
01:00:35,276 --> 01:00:40,716
And I'm incredibly grateful to the outpouring of support that we got for our first episode.

717
01:00:41,256 --> 01:00:46,296
So thank you so much to everybody who contributed to the show and boosted.

718
01:00:46,296 --> 01:00:54,336
And so we're going to kind of make sure that we always prioritize having some time here at the end to read off some of the boosts.

719
01:00:54,536 --> 01:00:57,416
So I think, Rev, you got those queued up. You want to start reading some of them off?

720
01:00:59,196 --> 01:01:03,516
Yeah. And before I do, she'll the Jersey City meetup again.

721
01:01:03,636 --> 01:01:08,836
Just let us know the details, where you can find it, when it's happening, what's the next one. Let us know.

722
01:01:13,156 --> 01:01:23,534
Jerseycitybitcoin is where you can find us And then we also have a Twitter JerseyCityBitcoin And so stop by

723
01:01:23,594 --> 01:01:24,974
We have a contact form on the website.

724
01:01:24,974 --> 01:01:26,594
The email comes to me.

725
01:01:27,514 --> 01:01:29,054
A few of us run the Twitter.

726
01:01:30,154 --> 01:01:34,474
So just reach out and come out to an event.

727
01:01:34,914 --> 01:01:37,234
Second and third Thursday of the month.

728
01:01:37,634 --> 01:01:40,674
So if I'm looking, Feb and March are the same.

729
01:01:40,674 --> 01:01:46,574
So the 12th, the 19th, and then March is also going to be the 12th and the 19th.

730
01:01:47,214 --> 01:01:48,534
And where are those at?

731
01:01:49,694 --> 01:01:50,694
Good question.

732
01:01:50,834 --> 01:01:55,494
The drinking meetup is at a place called Zeppelin Hall, big German beer garden.

733
01:01:56,634 --> 01:02:02,054
And the Socratic seminar is very close by at the Barrow Mansion.

734
01:02:04,994 --> 01:02:06,154
All right, sweet.

735
01:02:06,154 --> 01:02:13,074
So yeah, if you're near those locations or maybe even an hour to two hours away, check it out.

736
01:02:13,194 --> 01:02:14,574
They got a lot of good shit going on.

737
01:02:14,674 --> 01:02:15,754
It's a great meetup.

738
01:02:16,554 --> 01:02:18,154
So we got some boosts.

739
01:02:19,154 --> 01:02:25,354
And the first one is a good friend comes to a lot of the Michigan meetups, Pleb to Polymath.

740
01:02:25,694 --> 01:02:28,114
And he's talking about the Indianapolis meetup.

741
01:02:28,234 --> 01:02:32,894
So this is the Indianapolis Bitcoin meetup, third Wednesday of the month at a new venue.

742
01:02:33,594 --> 01:02:40,494
It's going to be at Keystone Sports Review on 71st and Keystone, 2-18, 7 and 9 p.m.

743
01:02:40,854 --> 01:02:45,574
That's your usual date of your usual cadence there.

744
01:02:46,414 --> 01:02:50,814
And they have an upstairs area that they'll have.

745
01:02:50,934 --> 01:02:51,434
It's private.

746
01:02:51,554 --> 01:02:53,314
You'll have it to yourselves with its own bar.

747
01:02:54,694 --> 01:02:58,374
And Pleb to Polymath is also talking about his meetup, which is the Marion Bitcoin meetup.

748
01:02:58,374 --> 01:03:03,734
the first Wednesday of each month, 6 to 8 p.m. at Obie's Barbecue in Marion, Indiana.

749
01:03:04,594 --> 01:03:09,354
And so, dude, Pleb to Polymath is like a great example of somebody who just,

750
01:03:09,654 --> 01:03:11,714
I met him at Lake Satoshi a few years ago.

751
01:03:12,494 --> 01:03:14,674
And he wasn't running a meetup.

752
01:03:14,734 --> 01:03:15,454
He wasn't doing anything.

753
01:03:15,454 --> 01:03:18,794
But he's like, dude, I'm starving for interaction with Bitcoin.

754
01:03:19,874 --> 01:03:22,474
And so he started going to the indie meetup.

755
01:03:22,874 --> 01:03:25,954
And then he's like, dude, I don't want to drive so far.

756
01:03:26,114 --> 01:03:28,194
Why don't I just make a meetup in my own town?

757
01:03:28,194 --> 01:03:46,194
And so now he's doing that. And he's still traveling to all these other meetups. And he's participating in the circular economy. He's just a shining example of like, once you get the first meetup under your belt, you start to get that taste of blood, you know, you keep going to more.

758
01:03:46,194 --> 01:03:48,554
the next one is

759
01:03:48,554 --> 01:03:50,694
anonymous and this is for that

760
01:03:50,694 --> 01:03:52,774
the Midwest Bitcoin

761
01:03:52,774 --> 01:03:54,814
Summit it's September

762
01:03:54,814 --> 01:03:56,414
23rd to 24th

763
01:03:56,414 --> 01:03:58,374
it's the largest Bitcoin meetup

764
01:03:58,374 --> 01:04:00,774
for Bitcoin meetups

765
01:04:00,774 --> 01:04:01,934
from all across the Midwest

766
01:04:01,934 --> 01:04:04,714
the Midwest Bitcoin Summit will

767
01:04:04,714 --> 01:04:06,534
host four stages business hall

768
01:04:06,534 --> 01:04:08,054
VIP lounge expo hall

769
01:04:08,054 --> 01:04:10,654
Bitcoin only pure signal get your tickets

770
01:04:10,654 --> 01:04:12,714
there's a link in the boost so if you

771
01:04:12,714 --> 01:04:14,494
guys click on the show

772
01:04:14,494 --> 01:04:20,034
you'll see their boost down there you can find the link um so there's a ton i i had never heard of

773
01:04:20,034 --> 01:04:27,154
this um this conference or whatever the summit and but uh a friend of mine fundamentals was a

774
01:04:27,154 --> 01:04:33,114
speaker on there and i'd noticed that there was a bunch of other uh speakers that i i had met in

775
01:04:33,114 --> 01:04:36,854
person i'm like so i asked fundamentals i was like dude what's the deal with this he's like it's

776
01:04:36,854 --> 01:04:42,214
going to be an amazing conference you should go um so ben workman he's been to the grand rapids

777
01:04:42,214 --> 01:04:47,114
meetup is one of the speakers timothy niemeyer uh from the illinois bitcoin council lincolnland

778
01:04:47,114 --> 01:04:52,554
meetup he's also written a book uh history echoes bitcoin is going to be there uh shane hazel from

779
01:04:52,554 --> 01:04:57,414
bitcoin veterans uh and the bitcoin veterans is like have you guys heard of the bitcoin veterans

780
01:04:57,414 --> 01:04:59,994
yeah i have

781
01:04:59,994 --> 01:05:08,054
they're they're doing like amazing stuff man i i really like what uh bitcoin veterans is doing so

782
01:05:08,054 --> 01:05:09,254
So there's going to be someone from there.

783
01:05:09,494 --> 01:05:11,074
The seed signer is going to be there.

784
01:05:12,154 --> 01:05:16,474
Stacey, who has the Bitcoin Nova podcast.

785
01:05:16,474 --> 01:05:19,174
I just met her at the Elmhurst, Illinois meetup.

786
01:05:20,914 --> 01:05:24,134
And she's doing stuff with Bitcoin Army on Twitter.

787
01:05:24,434 --> 01:05:25,114
She's going to be there.

788
01:05:25,474 --> 01:05:33,574
There's just like the list goes on and on of all these people that I've met in person that are going to be at this Midwest Bitcoin Summit.

789
01:05:33,694 --> 01:05:34,774
But I don't know anything about it.

790
01:05:34,814 --> 01:05:36,414
I've never heard about it until this boost.

791
01:05:37,394 --> 01:05:38,774
I was checking out their website.

792
01:05:39,034 --> 01:05:43,634
It was just, I was kind of blown away at the number of speakers that they had.

793
01:05:44,774 --> 01:05:45,434
I don't know.

794
01:05:45,554 --> 01:05:46,514
I'm not going to lie.

795
01:05:46,714 --> 01:05:53,014
I think I was telling you actually, we had a little conversation about it after the boost came in, but I was like checking out flights.

796
01:05:53,854 --> 01:05:54,134
I don't know.

797
01:05:54,154 --> 01:05:55,094
It sounds like a good time.

798
01:05:56,494 --> 01:05:56,634
Yeah.

799
01:05:56,754 --> 01:05:59,314
Bart and G from Grassroots are going to be there.

800
01:06:01,474 --> 01:06:03,874
Amber Harris from the Michigan Bitcoin console.

801
01:06:03,874 --> 01:06:08,654
Amber Harris is like a super active participant in the meetups here.

802
01:06:08,734 --> 01:06:13,534
She's been to all of them, really trying to make Bitcoin better.

803
01:06:13,674 --> 01:06:17,914
So it just sounds like a lot of people who are really doing stuff.

804
01:06:18,474 --> 01:06:19,914
Brian Hirshfield, that's fundamentals.

805
01:06:20,034 --> 01:06:21,214
He's going to be speaking there.

806
01:06:22,154 --> 01:06:22,754
Tons of people.

807
01:06:22,934 --> 01:06:23,614
It sounds cool.

808
01:06:26,694 --> 01:06:28,954
Okay, so the next one is from Matthew D.

809
01:06:29,474 --> 01:06:32,814
He's from the Ann Arbor meetup in Michigan.

810
01:06:32,814 --> 01:06:38,294
and he's got an arbor meetup will be the last tuesday of the month so every last tuesday of

811
01:06:38,294 --> 01:06:43,334
the month the anarbor meetup happens this next one is going to be february 24th from 6 to 8 p.m

812
01:06:43,334 --> 01:06:51,374
uh at the 4m in ann arbor and he's also i buy soap and tallow from from matthew he's got a

813
01:06:51,374 --> 01:06:58,034
company called white paper soap um and so i get to instead of having to buy from soap miner on

814
01:06:58,034 --> 01:07:03,394
Noster or whatever, I can just go to my local soap guy from Ann Arbor. And he ends up crossing

815
01:07:03,394 --> 01:07:08,994
paths with me at Grand Rapids. So I buy soap and tallow bomb from him. It's great stuff.

816
01:07:09,834 --> 01:07:15,314
The next one is from Mark Cat. And he just said, you guys inspired me to start my meetup again

817
01:07:15,314 --> 01:07:20,354
at a business that actually accepts Bitcoin. And then he asked about, have we used Plectos,

818
01:07:20,754 --> 01:07:25,374
which is Derek Ross's event app? Have you guys heard of Plectos?

819
01:07:25,374 --> 01:07:33,614
i was just yeah i was just checking it out um yeah i hadn't heard of it so that's you know we

820
01:07:33,614 --> 01:07:39,034
were talking a little bit before about event apps right it seems like there is sort of an explosion

821
01:07:39,034 --> 01:07:46,994
of apps that are coming out because meetup.com is not the best and it costs a lot of money so

822
01:07:46,994 --> 01:07:53,974
well i think there's a big dose man is like plectos will be interactive with satlantis

823
01:07:53,974 --> 01:07:58,794
because they're both on Noster and they're using the same NIP, right?

824
01:07:58,874 --> 01:07:59,774
The same events NIP.

825
01:08:00,214 --> 01:08:03,434
And there is another one called Floxter that I've used as well.

826
01:08:03,834 --> 01:08:05,834
But the events all show up on all of them.

827
01:08:06,054 --> 01:08:11,294
So if you create an event on Plectos, it will be available on Satlantis and Floxter.

828
01:08:11,794 --> 01:08:13,134
And that's the cool thing about Noster.

829
01:08:13,474 --> 01:08:14,654
So Plectos is Derek's app.

830
01:08:14,654 --> 01:08:18,914
I think that it's using Noster as a way to market your meetup.

831
01:08:18,994 --> 01:08:23,114
You're going to get like real good, high quality Bitcoiners that come from that.

832
01:08:23,114 --> 01:08:28,114
but there's not it's maybe in a higher population density like you guys are in

833
01:08:28,114 --> 01:08:32,554
it's going to be more useful it sounds like meetup.com has been really useful

834
01:08:32,554 --> 01:08:36,994
because of the high population density whereas meetup.com has been like a waste of money

835
01:08:36,994 --> 01:08:45,774
in my area because it's more rural um but anyways plectos is cool i use it i i can't say that anyone

836
01:08:45,774 --> 01:08:51,834
showed up from it yet but you know why not another place to post right especially if it's going to

837
01:08:51,834 --> 01:08:54,774
start showing up across multiple apps,

838
01:08:55,294 --> 01:08:56,994
you kind of get better bang for your buck.

839
01:08:58,334 --> 01:08:58,734
Yeah.

840
01:08:58,874 --> 01:09:01,654
And Mark, when you do finally start your meetup again,

841
01:09:02,374 --> 01:09:04,234
let us know the boost us again.

842
01:09:04,854 --> 01:09:06,214
And people, you just boost whatever.

843
01:09:06,354 --> 01:09:07,694
You don't boost 21 sats.

844
01:09:07,734 --> 01:09:08,134
I don't care.

845
01:09:08,614 --> 01:09:11,354
Just put a boost in there and we'll read it off.

846
01:09:12,414 --> 01:09:15,434
So we'll boost your meetup once that's going.

847
01:09:15,594 --> 01:09:16,874
We'll let everyone know about it.

848
01:09:17,414 --> 01:09:18,734
The next one's anonymous.

849
01:09:18,734 --> 01:09:25,854
Check out the Columbia, South Carolina Bitcoin Meetup on Saturday, February 21st.

850
01:09:26,034 --> 01:09:30,394
Savage Craft Ale Works, West Columbia, South Carolina.

851
01:09:32,634 --> 01:09:38,434
They meet from 3 to 5 p.m., usually on the rooftop and once a month.

852
01:09:38,694 --> 01:09:40,814
So it should be at that same cadence, third Thursday.

853
01:09:42,894 --> 01:09:44,794
They're no longer on meetup.com.

854
01:09:44,914 --> 01:09:46,254
They don't want to pay the monthly subscription.

855
01:09:46,414 --> 01:09:46,934
I don't blame them.

856
01:09:46,934 --> 01:09:49,174
They're using Luma, so you can find them on Luma.

857
01:09:50,794 --> 01:09:53,094
And so I was going to ask your guys thoughts on Luma,

858
01:09:53,174 --> 01:09:54,254
and I guess you're using it,

859
01:09:54,314 --> 01:09:56,894
so it sounds like a pretty good one to go for as well.

860
01:09:59,714 --> 01:10:00,734
Yeah, I love it.

861
01:10:00,794 --> 01:10:01,974
The UX is great.

862
01:10:02,094 --> 01:10:04,854
It's like the party full for meetups.

863
01:10:05,174 --> 01:10:07,114
And James mentioned before,

864
01:10:07,294 --> 01:10:09,594
even if you don't have the app, you still get the text.

865
01:10:09,594 --> 01:10:12,794
So I just think that the way they figured it out,

866
01:10:13,414 --> 01:10:16,754
the way that push notifications and everything is,

867
01:10:16,934 --> 01:10:27,494
is really slick um yeah no i'm i'm a fan so and this is a way this this boost came in anonymously

868
01:10:27,494 --> 01:10:32,134
and so this a lot of people have had trouble boosting on fountain but they don't want to use

869
01:10:32,134 --> 01:10:37,894
the fountain wallet or whatever um there may be i don't know this is one way you can use fountain

870
01:10:37,894 --> 01:10:44,614
to boost anonymously you click the fountain link um to the show uh you click comment and then you

871
01:10:44,614 --> 01:10:48,494
You click add boost amount, add your comment, and then you pay the lightning invoice.

872
01:10:48,694 --> 01:10:49,954
And so you can boost anonymously.

873
01:10:50,074 --> 01:10:57,694
If you're worried about doxing yourself or whatever, you can boost your meetup anonymously on Fountain by following that process.

874
01:10:58,334 --> 01:11:03,454
You click the link, click the comment, add your boost, add your comment, and now you've boosted it anonymously.

875
01:11:03,454 --> 01:11:07,954
You don't have to worry about doxing anybody or using your own lightning wallet.

876
01:11:08,594 --> 01:11:10,774
Next one comes from wartime.

877
01:11:10,774 --> 01:11:17,794
He just boosted us some emojis, but wartime, this guy is boosting every podcast out there that I listen to, at least.

878
01:11:18,254 --> 01:11:21,794
He's a big value-valuer supporter and Noster lover, so I wanted to give him a shout out.

879
01:11:23,214 --> 01:11:28,014
And so the next one's an Illinois meetup from Tom.

880
01:11:28,414 --> 01:11:31,194
He started the North Chicago Bitcoin meetup in Long Grove.

881
01:11:31,674 --> 01:11:36,374
They meet the first Saturday of each month at Joni's Pizza, 1130 to 2 p.m.

882
01:11:37,034 --> 01:11:39,114
The first meetup was in November 23.

883
01:11:39,694 --> 01:11:40,894
It's grown a lot since then.

884
01:11:41,634 --> 01:11:44,894
He collaborates a lot with the other Illinois people,

885
01:11:45,114 --> 01:11:47,294
the Illinois Bitcoin Council.

886
01:11:48,954 --> 01:11:53,294
And so, yeah, Tom is in a bunch of Signal chats that I'm in.

887
01:11:54,074 --> 01:11:56,714
I haven't made it to that meetup yet because it's in the morning.

888
01:11:56,874 --> 01:11:59,854
I can't get out, but come check it out.

889
01:11:59,914 --> 01:12:01,494
There's a lot of cool stuff going on in Illinois.

890
01:12:01,834 --> 01:12:03,974
Next one comes from SourceNode.

891
01:12:04,854 --> 01:12:07,354
And SourceNode was a person who had trouble boosting on Fountain,

892
01:12:07,354 --> 01:12:09,954
but he hit me up on Noster, so I'll put it in here.

893
01:12:11,094 --> 01:12:15,394
Burgers and Bitcoin meet up at 2 on 2-21

894
01:12:15,394 --> 01:12:18,414
at Steak and Shake in Greenville, South Carolina.

895
01:12:19,654 --> 01:12:21,174
Source Node works with Sovereign.

896
01:12:21,314 --> 01:12:23,634
Have you ever heard of the company Sovereign?

897
01:12:25,094 --> 01:12:25,574
No.

898
01:12:25,814 --> 01:12:26,794
There's a couple.

899
01:12:28,574 --> 01:12:31,594
This is like they spell it weird without an extra E.

900
01:12:31,734 --> 01:12:33,874
There's like one E missing from it or something.

901
01:12:33,874 --> 01:12:40,154
um but they're a company that helps businesses start to accept bitcoin they like hold your hand

902
01:12:40,154 --> 01:12:47,714
and and uh advise you through that process and so um brandon karpelis who goes to the chicago

903
01:12:47,714 --> 01:12:52,714
bit devs meetup he works at sovereign and he's got a really cool podcast called the bitcoin

904
01:12:52,714 --> 01:13:00,974
business podcast um anyways sovereign's all right source node wanted oh go ahead yeah for for

905
01:13:00,974 --> 01:13:10,194
reference so it's s-o-v-r-e-i-g-n dot i-o so sovereign dot i-o yeah they'll get you a business

906
01:13:10,194 --> 01:13:18,514
setup uh accepting bitcoin uh the next one's from otis bitmeyer uh he's thankful for the southwest

907
01:13:18,514 --> 01:13:22,854
west michigan meetup which is the meetup closest to my place the southwest michigan meetup

908
01:13:22,854 --> 01:13:29,434
um that's in benton harbor the third thursday of each month at dwellers co-working space 6 30 p.m

909
01:13:29,434 --> 01:13:35,034
this is a meetup that feels like a lot what you guys were talking about where

910
01:13:35,034 --> 01:13:40,814
it's like you feel like you're in the the the back corner of the bar and you're coming up with

911
01:13:40,814 --> 01:13:45,354
the ideas that are going to like create this is the beginning of the revolution you know

912
01:13:45,354 --> 01:13:51,874
that meetup those kinds of conversations are really what happens there he says he leaves

913
01:13:51,874 --> 01:13:55,334
inspired to continue building the world he wants to see by attending that meetup

914
01:13:55,334 --> 01:14:02,414
and so otis bitmeyer also has this really cool podcast called sound sound coffee um and that's

915
01:14:02,414 --> 01:14:08,134
with fundamentals as well and this is otis bitmeyer sells he roasts coffee and right now he's roasting

916
01:14:08,134 --> 01:14:15,234
coffee with solar power which is fucking cool and um he roasts the coffee and then he sells it in

917
01:14:15,234 --> 01:14:20,534
his coffee club for bitcoin only and he denominates the price in coffee and sats and i've been drinking

918
01:14:20,534 --> 01:14:26,694
that coffee for years, like over a year now. It's the best coffee and I pay in Bitcoin for it every

919
01:14:26,694 --> 01:14:36,254
month. Next one we got is TamTam. This is the first boost for a meetup outside the United States.

920
01:14:36,554 --> 01:14:41,694
Everyone who's not in the USA will promote, we'll talk about your meetup too. We want meetups to

921
01:14:41,694 --> 01:14:47,714
grow everywhere. This one's for Bitcoin Beach Born Mouth every third Thursday of the month.

922
01:14:47,714 --> 01:14:50,674
The next meetup is Thursday, February 19th.

923
01:14:51,254 --> 01:14:56,294
There's going to be a little clinic at the beginning for one-on-one help, learning about Bitcoin.

924
01:14:56,594 --> 01:14:59,314
Then social starts at 7.30 p.m.

925
01:14:59,614 --> 01:15:10,714
It's at the COG Room at Modern Times Restaurant in Chaplin's Bar, 529 Church Street Road, Bournemouth, BH14AG.

926
01:15:11,754 --> 01:15:13,454
That is gobbledygook to me.

927
01:15:13,454 --> 01:15:19,294
But you can find that information once you click on the episode and go read that.

928
01:15:20,634 --> 01:15:22,394
He says, bring your stats to spend.

929
01:15:22,734 --> 01:15:24,114
The venue accepts lightning payments.

930
01:15:24,334 --> 01:15:24,734
Badass.

931
01:15:26,014 --> 01:15:27,474
That sounds like a great meetup.

932
01:15:27,554 --> 01:15:31,674
You can go and pay in Bitcoin and you get some help if you want to learn.

933
01:15:33,474 --> 01:15:39,294
And to round it out, I just want to thank the other people who aren't necessarily promoting a meetup, but sent us a boost.

934
01:15:39,454 --> 01:15:40,954
Thanks to Jer, Shadrack.

935
01:15:41,294 --> 01:15:43,074
Shadrack's got a really cool thing going on.

936
01:15:43,074 --> 01:15:47,654
He's been on a bunch of podcasts recently called A to B where he's trying to take.

937
01:15:49,354 --> 01:15:55,254
We have like a an issue where the Bitcoin meetups are a diaspora, right?

938
01:15:55,494 --> 01:16:02,234
And we're all sort of trying to build a circular economy, but there's not enough people to support a diverse.

939
01:16:02,454 --> 01:16:06,794
It starts off with food because everyone needs food and you can do that in a small area.

940
01:16:06,794 --> 01:16:09,074
But sometimes you produce too much food.

941
01:16:09,274 --> 01:16:12,774
But the people in Indianapolis, they want the food, but they're not producing the food.

942
01:16:12,774 --> 01:16:16,274
So how can we get the food to Indianapolis and still keep it Bitcoin only?

943
01:16:16,774 --> 01:16:29,474
Well, Shadrach's A to B thing is kind of trying to bridge these gaps with creating incentives for people to take goods and service or well goods from one meetup or bubble economy area to another.

944
01:16:30,974 --> 01:16:33,914
Avi Burra from Pleb Chain Radio.

945
01:16:34,494 --> 01:16:36,454
Avi's been doing so much cool stuff.

946
01:16:36,554 --> 01:16:38,534
He's a big Noster dude.

947
01:16:40,374 --> 01:16:41,834
Thanks for the boost, Avi.

948
01:16:41,834 --> 01:16:50,014
kirk nick malister and bullish clips shout out so real quick so bullish also he runs uh a website

949
01:16:50,014 --> 01:16:58,414
take my sats.com and it's so it's a platform for other bitcoin other bitcoiners to post their stuff

950
01:16:58,414 --> 01:17:03,994
for sale um and it's all it's really easy to set up i actually set it up for a couple things that

951
01:17:03,994 --> 01:17:11,334
i make and sell for sats um it's super cheap it's he he runs it it's very uh clean interface

952
01:17:11,334 --> 01:17:13,694
so definitely shout out bullish

953
01:17:13,694 --> 01:17:20,734
dude all the support that we got from this first episode is really encouraging man

954
01:17:20,734 --> 01:17:24,274
there's a lot of you know this is just the beginning

955
01:17:24,274 --> 01:17:26,954
look at how many bitcoin meetups are out there

956
01:17:26,954 --> 01:17:31,034
if you think that there's not a bitcoin meetup in your area there probably is one

957
01:17:31,034 --> 01:17:34,534
you just got to do some digging to find it we're working on trying to make it more accessible

958
01:17:34,534 --> 01:17:37,654
and if there's not you should start one

959
01:17:37,654 --> 01:17:45,834
totally totally agree have you guys ever heard of uh the philly john i think it's called or john

960
01:17:45,834 --> 01:17:52,454
philly uh it's the philly area meetup uh i think evan colutis attends it who makes zeus wallet if

961
01:17:52,454 --> 01:17:57,234
you're familiar with that but um it's a pretty big solid community i've never been but i heard

962
01:17:57,234 --> 01:18:02,294
that they do it in like a big chinese banquet hall place which kind of is just hilarious to me but

963
01:18:02,294 --> 01:18:08,154
if it works it works definitely go to the philly john meetup i don't know the frequency or

964
01:18:08,154 --> 01:18:14,434
cadency if you organize the philly john meetup and you want to let us know send us a boost

965
01:18:14,434 --> 01:18:24,034
this has been such a pleasure guys um the support that was like it's like 17 minutes

966
01:18:24,034 --> 01:18:31,714
of boosts that was incredible you guys are are killing it very honored to be a part of this

967
01:18:31,714 --> 01:18:35,914
movement that you guys are starting. And yeah, just can't thank you enough.

968
01:18:37,094 --> 01:18:41,874
Yeah. Thank you for, it's been a pleasure. Thank you for having us on. It's thank you,

969
01:18:41,874 --> 01:18:46,834
Rev and Reed, you know, connecting about our meetups and discussing it and,

970
01:18:46,874 --> 01:18:54,314
and encouraging others to attend or start their own meetup. It's, you know, this is,

971
01:18:55,354 --> 01:19:01,114
it's great. Yeah. We're just, I think we're, Rev and I, we're just trying to do our small part

972
01:19:01,114 --> 01:19:06,614
here, right? We're trying to get the word out, you know, for one thing, but then also trying to

973
01:19:06,614 --> 01:19:11,034
remind people that, you know, running a Bitcoin meetup, this doesn't have to be rocket science.

974
01:19:11,914 --> 01:19:16,754
It's probably a lot easier than you think to get started. So if there isn't one in your area,

975
01:19:16,754 --> 01:19:22,194
or you've been kind of toying with the idea of starting a meetup, strongly encourage you to do

976
01:19:22,194 --> 01:19:28,574
that. And, you know, hopefully this episode and hearing more about Jersey City, what you guys are

977
01:19:28,574 --> 01:19:32,574
working on, you know, hopefully that'll kind of emphasize to people like all the awesome benefits

978
01:19:32,574 --> 01:19:38,474
that you get out of starting and running a Bitcoin meetup. So yeah, definitely thank you guys for

979
01:19:38,474 --> 01:19:44,094
coming on. I was really glad that we had you guys showing up here for our, to be our first guests.

980
01:19:44,094 --> 01:19:49,974
And yeah, I hope everybody enjoys hearing about, you know, what you guys got going on.

981
01:19:50,234 --> 01:19:53,634
I know I got a lot out of this, so definitely thanks to you guys for coming on.

982
01:19:53,634 --> 01:20:01,234
it's a pleasure um and just one to drive it home um a lot of these things are open source i remember

983
01:20:01,234 --> 01:20:04,314
when we first wanted to do our educational stuff we were like well what are we going to talk about

984
01:20:04,314 --> 01:20:08,814
almost every meetup out there that does educational stuff is open sourcing it so

985
01:20:08,814 --> 01:20:16,174
that's just to really drive it home that you can do this um actually that's a really good point i

986
01:20:16,174 --> 01:20:22,334
wanted to bring it up before when when gc was like oh we we ripped off your slides read um

987
01:20:22,334 --> 01:20:25,254
I mean, you didn't rip them off because I open sourced them all.

988
01:20:25,474 --> 01:20:29,854
So in the show notes, there'll be a link to a GitHub page that I started where I'm trying

989
01:20:29,854 --> 01:20:31,454
to collect as much stuff as I can.

990
01:20:32,494 --> 01:20:33,914
I'm trying to keep it organized.

991
01:20:34,874 --> 01:20:38,014
There's just been a flood of stuff that continues to come in.

992
01:20:38,174 --> 01:20:43,334
So I'm going to be working on hopefully ways to get that organized and make it easier for

993
01:20:43,334 --> 01:20:47,074
people to, if you're looking for a topic to cover at your meetup, you can just kind of

994
01:20:47,074 --> 01:20:52,974
pick one off of a list and see what other people did or, you know, grab, maybe grab a one slide

995
01:20:52,974 --> 01:20:59,694
overview of a topic or something like that. So yeah, check, check, check the link out in the

996
01:20:59,694 --> 01:21:07,514
show notes for that. And I'll be collecting from you guys to all of your meetup. I have your website

997
01:21:07,514 --> 01:21:10,714
and stuff like that, but anything else that you guys want to put in the show notes, just let me

998
01:21:10,714 --> 01:21:10,894
out.

999
01:21:13,154 --> 01:21:14,794
So go find your local

1000
01:21:14,794 --> 01:21:16,834
Bitcoin meetup and if there isn't one

1001
01:21:16,834 --> 01:21:17,654
start one.

1002
01:21:18,714 --> 01:21:20,194
Find your local Bitcoiners.

1003
01:21:21,234 --> 01:21:22,754
Alright. Cheers guys.

1004
01:21:24,114 --> 01:21:24,814
Thank you.

1005
01:21:27,074 --> 01:21:28,774
Episode complete. If you

1006
01:21:28,774 --> 01:21:30,634
run a Bitcoin meetup and want to talk about it here

1007
01:21:30,634 --> 01:21:32,774
reach out. Contact info is in the

1008
01:21:32,774 --> 01:21:34,314
show notes. And as always

1009
01:21:34,314 --> 01:21:36,214
attend your local meetup or start your own.

1010
01:21:36,914 --> 01:21:38,714
Local Bitcoiners are always just one

1011
01:21:38,714 --> 01:21:39,434
meetup away.

1012
01:21:40,714 --> 01:21:41,074
All right.