Welcome to Local Bitcoiners, a podcast about Bitcoin meetings.
In this episode, Reid and Rev talk with Fun and Mouse from the Philly Suburbs Bitcoin Meetup
and Andrew from Bitcoin Park, Nashville, about Grassroots Bitcoin 2026.
All right, folks, Rev Hodel here. We're back with another Local Bitcoiners.
And so today we're doing a grassroots recap.
We're going to talk about the grassroots event at Bitcoin Park down there in Nashville.
And so we've got Fundamentals joining us tonight.
We'll talk with him.
And then we also have Andrew from the park as well.
But before we get talking to them, I like to tell a little story from my latest Bitcoin adventure.
And this last meetup I went to was actually my meetup in South Bend, Indiana.
And it was pretty cool.
We had a couple new people.
one person from Orange Pill App and then one person that found the meetup just through the
the event the chalkboard in the venue and that's the first time we ever had anyone come from the
chalkboard so that was pretty exciting and so but I was actually I got there a little late and I had
just won this maxi madness bugle tournament and so everyone was excited to talk about that and
since I was late the story had already been told and so then I kind of got I was brought into the
meet up with a little cheer and that was kind of fun. And so, but we ended up talking about a lot
of culturally related Bitcoin stuff. And there were these, since these people were new, they were
more interested in some beginner content. You know, we were kind of in the deep end as far as
they were concerned. And so we realized that we're going to start to switch the model over after this
meetup to go to focus more like Reed's meetup in Western Mass, where we're going to do the
the Socratic seminar style.
So we can kind of make sure
that there's something for everybody
now that we're attracting some new folks.
And it just gets me excited, man.
Weather's getting warmer, spring's here.
Meetup attendance is heating up.
We get new people coming out.
Grassroots just happened.
And so Reed, I think you've got some pretty fun stuff
to share with us as well.
Yeah, I teased it a little bit last time.
I hadn't confirmed it yet.
So last weekend I was able to confirm we got a new venue for our meetup.
And I'm pretty excited about it, to be completely honest.
It's a new local concert venue, like a small concert venue.
And so it's called the Heavy Culture Cooperative.
And their focus is on heavy metal music, like local heavy metal bands, which I think is pretty cool.
They got some cool style going on.
But inside, so inside there's a bar in one room and then you kind of go through the door and you're in like this small concert venue.
So there's a stage and for us, like they have a projector and a screen that we can use for the Socratic seminars.
They didn't have any chairs, folding chairs because it's a concert venue.
And so I wrestled up some, I went on Facebook Marketplace and got 15 folding chairs and donated them to the venue.
so that way we'll have chairs when we get there and they'll be able to use them.
But it's really cool.
They actually have a really cool ownership model.
Like they have, it's like the employees are co-owners.
The artists who perform there are co-owners.
And then community members, for just a $250 donation,
a community member can become a co-owner.
And so that's how they advertise it, is that it's like employees, artists, and fans
all can be co-owners of this cooperative.
So yeah, so I'm pretty excited about it.
And we're already getting big ambitions here
about what this type of venue might mean for us.
We're thinking about possibly hosting some regional events,
possibly hosting, maybe using this concert venue
to venture into the value for value music type scene.
We'll see if maybe that's something
that could be in the cards.
So we've got all kinds of big dreams for this place.
But for right now, our next meetup is this coming weekend.
So April 12th, 6 p.m.
That's in East Stampton, Massachusetts.
So yeah, after we get the first one in the books,
my next goal is to lock down.
I want to get them to commit to all our meetups
for the rest of the year.
So I've got all the dates.
I just need them to confirm that they'll give us the place.
So I'm pretty excited about it.
but I want to kind of kick it over here to our guests.
So why don't we start with Mr. Fundamentals.
Thanks for coming on.
And I know that you host your own meetup,
I think down in Pennsylvania.
Why don't you tell us about your meetup?
Okie dokie.
Guests might know this is probably the longest I've ever not talked on a
podcast.
That was an eternity.
I'm actually curious before I go into this,
I'm curious about your venue.
You're saying it's like a theater? It's like a theater where it's that kind of concert venue?
It's small. So the building itself is actually kind of a historical building, not in like a big grandiose type way.
It's like the old, old high school. And then that got turned into, it was like a municipal building for a while.
So like it was the high school back in like 1900, like that time frame.
Okay. And then it got turned into like some sort of a municipal building, like all through like the 50s and 60s. And then they kind of outgrew that. And so then it's been a whole bunch of miscellaneous things and it was like abandoned for a little while. Like most recently, it was a massage school.
and so they took this place over
you know and renovated it
and did a whole bunch of sound proofing
and stuff like that
and created this so they have this bar area
and then this
it's just it's basically a big room
that they did a bunch of work to
they turned it into a concert space
I'm guessing like most DA floor
that's right
yeah there's no seats
I can show you some pictures
Yeah, it'd be cool. I was picturing you guys like, you know, so when I started my meetup, I had one idea actually that I wanted it to be and I haven't fulfilled on it to this day. And mostly it's because the venue I ended up getting just wasn't suitable. It didn't have presentation space.
But I wanted my, you know, maybe this is from like my standup background, but like I wanted my meetup to be like an open mic where people would come in, not to not to do comedy, but to do show and tell type.
Like, here's what I'm working on.
Here's what I'm building.
And it's not even like I'm building a company.
It's like I set up a cold card this past month and I just want to show you guys that I did that.
That I did that.
And I wanted that.
Like, I kind of wanted that kind of culture in my town and in my meetup.
You know, we already like you guys know, we already have like a big presentation meetup, you know, in Philly called Bitcoin John.
And, you know, there's a, you know, we have Lancaster, we have Central PA, Allentown, forgetting, forgetting some northern Delaware.
But, you know, so I thought it would be cool to have people come in already expecting to show something, you know,
Like maybe that wouldn't have happened the first time and the second time, but, you know, maybe by the third time people would come in with that expectation or enough people, you know, maybe two or three people that wanted to spend 20 minutes sharing what they're working on.
That never came to fruition because of the venue.
So I'm always so interested, you know, so always so interested in hearing about these types of venues where you can have a state where it's actually designed for presentations.
and not because I want to sit and do the news.
I don't, I mean, I have a problem with it.
It's just, you know, the news is a pain.
So any of you guys who do meetups that have the news,
you should thank your organizer because that is a pain.
Something I have started to understand that job.
It's a pain.
And so you should thank whoever does that.
But so I wasn't looking to do the news,
more like just looking to create, you know,
I want people to share themselves, you know, just,
Like whatever it is.
And beyond Telegram, beyond like, you know, beyond the Telegram where people are kind of just parroting what podcasts they're listening to and what they're upset about, you know.
So that's still a bit of a dream of mine.
And just the venue I got was so good for every other, like it had every other attribute, like parking.
It's got like a world-class beer selection, like unbelievable.
And it's got like, you know, okay food.
You know, normally if you got really good beer, it means you have shitty food.
Usually that's my experience.
And or if it's you really good food, you have like, you know, average beer.
This place has like, like okay food, really good beer, like incredible.
Free parking and enough seating, you know, enough seating for everybody.
So I just kind of accepted it.
You know, so it is.
So anyway, that's my fail.
That's like my big fail for my meetup.
Like I've never done that.
How long have you been at that venue?
Three years.
So maybe what I would do is start a second meetup.
Like if I found the presentation space, I'd probably start a second one that does this.
You know, and maybe some subset of people that really want that would go to it.
I would consider that the real one.
Do you call that like a workshop or some, what do you call it?
Just hands-on type of meetup?
I feel, I don't, I like open mic, you know, Bitcoin open mic.
Is that what you call it on your meetup page?
On mine?
No.
That's what I would call it if I was doing it.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
So right now I just do a hangout and I like that.
Everybody likes it.
But.
It does like, you know, it definitely lacks the, like it lacks the energy of when you show up to a meetup and there's an S9 on the table and there's all these trinkets.
And I would probably guess in Southwest Michigan, there's all kinds of stuff being sold.
You know, it lacks that.
It definitely lacks that energy.
Right.
It's another thing I regret slightly about the way I've, just the way my meetup has evolved, is it hasn't really evolved into much of a marketplace.
And, you know, like many of us order a coffee from Otis, but it comes to our house.
We don't do that kind of business at the meetup.
We just come to the meetup, drink beer, talk and hang out and maybe go out for a bite afterwards.
Yeah, venue is just extremely consistently one of the biggest challenges.
And it's part of the reason why I'm so excited that I finally found this place.
This will be our fourth venue.
If you don't count some of the random bars that we did in the early days, it's our fourth.
Hopefully, it will be our fourth solid, consistent venue.
By far, this is hands down better than anything else we've had.
But speaking of venues, you can find a venue, you know, or you can have Bitcoin Park, which is a whole different strategy in and of itself.
So, Andrew, why don't you tell us, you know, introduce yourself a little bit and why don't you tell us about Bitcoin Park in Nashville?
Yeah, yeah, Andrew here.
This is actually my second podcast I've ever been on, Bitcoin podcast.
so number two the first one hasn't even come out yet which uh it's a long lead or lag time
uh it was one we filmed in el salvador in uh january so still checking to see when that'll
come out but may this might be the first one that comes out which will be exciting
all right um but yeah great to be on um and yeah just hosted grassroots bitcoin which which was a
lot of fun. My first experience like that and being with all the grassroots organizers,
you just get so much energy. It's like, these are the people that are making it happen.
This is real Bitcoin growth and adoption. Everybody in the room that really spreads it.
So it was just awesome to host that experience at Bitcoin Park. Just a little bit about me. So I
I just came on to Bitcoin Park, left my fiat job last year.
And just, yeah, fun doing Bitcoin stuff all the time now.
What were you doing?
Do you mind if I ask?
Yeah, yeah.
I was working in biotech for the last five years.
I was in a sales role.
Well, a sales role for this company.
They did remote-controlled research labs.
it's called Emerald Cloud Lab was the name of the company.
Yeah, selling to pharmaceutical companies
and that was just a drag.
So yeah, Bitcoin is way better.
So anyway, yeah, Bitcoin Park now
and really we just create a community space for Bitcoiners.
And we host, I'd say, five to ten meetups a month, all different types, including summits as well.
And we just really lay the groundwork in the organization for the meetup leaders to shine there.
So a lot of our meetup organizers are our members and great people that really want to do this stuff and take the reins on leading a meetup.
So we just have the space there.
We manage the space.
We make it just the place for Bitcoiners to learn, build, collaborate and grow together and really just pushing Bitcoin adoption forward.
So over the last, I guess, over five years now, I'm just obsessed with Bitcoin.
So great place to be.
And then, yeah, just hosting these meetups and working with the meetup organizers.
The number one thing is just making sure you're energized to host your meetups.
so uh we anybody someone uh at the park was like i really want to host this philosophy and ai
meetup and he was like all about it he he uh came up with um this whole um program for how it will
run he was looking at how other uh organizers are going to do this and uh yeah he's he's excited to
get it going. So that's going to pop up at the end of April. Philosophy for freedom in the age of AI,
it'll be called. So that's some of our AI meetups we're starting to run. We have our normal
bit devs. We have our Bitcoin 101, our Bitcoin 102. We're starting up a mining Mondays,
which will be April 20th. So just spinning them out as fast as we can, which is a lot of fun.
well I don't know if this is an anomaly but I so I've been a Bitcoin park twice and I went the
first time I went I went to the first Nosterville and that was like talk about energy there was some
crazy energy at that time and then the second time was grassroots last year and I felt the same thing
just this hum this buzz at the place and so I don't know if this is just um if it's like this
at every event.
It sounds like this is what you guys are trying to achieve.
But at the same time, I feel like as the guy who's always in that,
it can be exhausting too.
No, I just love throwing, having these,
just throwing a great experience.
It's awesome.
I actually love just being like the guy that's like hustling behind the scenes.
I actually don't like to be the guy on the stage or doing anything.
I like to be behind the scenes, making it like turning the right knobs, making sure the music is playing at the right time, the coolers are packed, and just making sure it's a great vibe, which is a lot of fun.
And yeah, listening to everybody, I wish I was able to listen to more of the lightning talks.
I was managing outside and inside, watching to see when the food would come in, making sure everything's organized.
But yeah, from just little things I've heard, like even hosting a meetup on a Sunday like Reed, that's a great idea.
And even little things like, that's why I was asking you, Brian, is like, what are you calling your meetup?
Because even naming what you call it is important.
So little things like that.
I just changed the name of my meetup.
By the way, you guys really were incredible.
Andrew, you were incredible.
Personally, I can't thank you enough for the attention to detail.
There was the podcast that you just were so good.
Everything was great.
But, like, I have to say I felt really so much generosity from the people at Bitcoin Park.
So thank you for that.
And you really did, like, I felt it.
I have to think people I talked to all felt it.
It's a special experience.
Yeah, and it comes back to the energy.
It's like if that gives you energy, you're just going to keep giving the energy out.
So all of us on our team are just energized to do this stuff, which is awesome.
Yeah, I've decided to cut back on my Bitcoin travel, so to speak.
and because there's so many different events
and so many great options to choose from
and every year I'm kind of like,
oh man, I could choose from all these different types
of experiences I haven't had before
and it's like, yeah, but I mean,
I'm definitely not crossing grassroots off the list.
So this year was my third grassroots
and as far as I know, I'm coming back next year.
It's, you know, to me, it's the event
of the year.
That's the event that I look forward to the most for sure.
And this one did not disappoint.
Yeah, and we already started brainstorming some more ideas over that dinner.
So, yeah, it's all – we're already thinking about the next one.
So, yeah.
Hell yeah.
Might as well just look at the dates too and mark your first week in April.
Sweet.
it's up there and i think it's hard for an event to get into lake satoshi category of like
yeah but i think this may this may be there for me i'm it might be one of those
must do every year it was i had a great time was that your first brian yeah that was my first i
you know i've been doing this for three years and i remember the first year i set the meetup up like
a week before grassroots.
And I remember being told like, oh, you can go down, but you know,
it's too late to handle that.
And then for some reason, the, whatever, last year, I don't know.
It didn't, it didn't get on my radar.
This year I wanted to go.
And like, I just, for some reason,
I feel like I'm at a crossroads with my meetup.
I think that's why, you know, and maybe it's like,
everybody has a point where they hit, I think, a meetup organizer where they either crash out
or they just crossroads and have to figure out sort of what to do. And I think the most
interesting thing about grassroots that I like is that like I was, so I was at the John last night
and I was given some reflections on the thing. And like, I don't think I ever spend 30 consecutive
of seconds thinking about my meetup.
You know, I just, it's like I go, I have a good time.
We are on the telegram all the time, but I don't like think about it.
I don't think about pedically what I want to do with it or anything like that.
And, you know, I found myself in a chair for like two days thinking about nothing but that.
And I am at a crossroads because, you know, like I'm not a fan of the venue.
I'm not sure even what really what we're doing.
You know, if my meetup hears this, I won't be a surprise, you know, we're just going to keep going.
It doesn't really matter.
But like it's but I really got to think about what I might want to do, you know, like something might actually change.
And, you know, like it like it's it's you had to be sitting in a chair with nothing else to do with a bunch of like with a bunch of people doing it better than you talking about it to get their ideas.
Yeah, I brought my notebook. That was one thing I learned from the last year. I was like, oh, damn, I wish I freaking brought a notebook or something to write down all these awesome ideas that people are spewing. So this year, I literally, I bought a notebook that would fit like in my back pocket, just so I could always have as soon as you know, because it's not even just like, during the presentations, you know, you'll be talking out at dinner, and someone's like, Oh, something, something, my meetup. And I'm like, Oh, my God, Oh, my God, I have to do that. That's such a great idea.
And so I was jotting down notes like the whole week.
It was awesome.
Was anyone marketing stuff?
Was anyone wheeling and dealing during grassroots?
Did you sell some books?
No, I wasn't trying to sell.
I gave, oh, I sold one to read.
But I wasn't really there trying to sell books.
I was promoting magic internet math pretty heavily.
and the reality is the lot of meetup organizers are educators it's just like the kind of person
that decides they want to start a meetup even if they not working in education they have it inside of them right and that why they do it right You have this need and desire And you know usually if you in the Bitcoin space long enough you probably either make something educational right
And so a large amount of the people that were at grassroots
were educators that I was talking to.
So you know what I mean?
Like, it just occurred to me, yeah, dude,
I should be sharing what I'm doing.
and let's see if there's an opportunity to collaborate and help each other.
Yeah, you did a great job with that live.
I don't know, even this is recorded, we've never done a live rip before,
but to do a live rip in person, that's a whole other ball of whack.
So I thought you guys did a really good job.
And for your efforts, I'll only speak for myself here,
but I've been listening to your pod more frequently.
And I think I just got to the episode
where it was just you
and you were kind of talking about
all the different stuff you have.
I did not realize you had so many resources.
So I started to browse around a little bit
and you're right.
That's the first thing I was thinking of is
how can I incorporate some of this into my meetup?
Because you're creating all this educational content
and that's what I would like to deliver.
And so I'm just, I'm going to keep browsing and see if I can find a good fit for the meetup.
Yeah, I appreciate that.
It's, you know, I, I thought about with my meetup, I proposed it to some people that I would show up to my meetup an hour early and do what's called office hours, which means like, that's what a math, like what a math teacher would have.
And so like, you could literally bring me any, it'll be like a tutoring center.
Like you just come, I'm going to be there an hour early.
If you want math help, just come and I'll do it.
Like, honestly, that is literally like that's.
I want to do that so badly, like I like I want somebody to come asking for help so much so that I could have the experience of sitting down and doing this with them.
I want the reps and, you know, I want the culture to exist.
So that's like my only idea I had for my meetup is come early and we'll work on some math.
No one's taken me up on it.
So I've had like one person ask for help with Bitcoin transactions, which is cool.
So like that, that was fun.
And I'm working on a book on that right now.
It's a complete guide to Bitcoin transactions, like every byte and like what it all means.
So coming soon to Magic Internet Math Academy.
All right.
Whenever there's somebody that is new to Bitcoin that arrives at a meetup, that's the best thing.
And it's probably the same with teaching math too.
It's like, oh, yeah, yeah, let me teach you.
Yeah, and it's all as a meetup organizer.
So, you know, it's funny.
I was asking myself, did I, like, abuse the conference by asking them to do this podcast?
Was it just like a –
No, no, that was more than welcome.
Yeah, yeah.
No, that was –
Well, I appreciate that because I think actually as a meetup organizer,
I, at least all of the ones I know, have, do have something in common, which is we all want our people to be verifying their Bitcoin.
Like, and that's what it's all, like, whether it's math or whether it's transactions, understanding what you're looking at when you see a bit, you know, when you see your own transactions or, you know, when your Bitcoin reconciles to an address.
You can think through that that actually is a validating thing, right?
I feel like that's something that organizers have in common, even if they're whatever level they are.
We desire that for the people in our meetup, I would think.
So one of the other things I think you mentioned a second ago when, you know, when beginners show up.
So one of the big things, so I actually, for all the meetups that I, like I've been doing the Socratic seminar thing for a little while. Before that I was, I did some topics here and there, but I've never actually done like a Bitcoin 101 or like a beginners to Bitcoin or something like that.
we do like my meetup it does have a lot of beginners like a lot of the people who show up
love or new people are like they're they don't come with a huge background of of bitcoin experience
or like they haven't been listening to 40 hours bitcoin podcasts a week they're new and so they
come looking for advice to figure out how to learn and stuff like that and um that's all great but
I've never actually catered a full event just to those people.
And so, you know, there was a whole workshop at this, at GraphSuits, dedicated to the Bitcoin
101s.
And you guys, right, Andrew, you guys have, are regularly occurring Bitcoin 101, right?
Yeah, those are every other month.
This, our next Thursday will be 102, which is actually going to be a cool one on non-KYC
Bitcoin.
So that's more hands-on.
You're a little bit deeper.
So every other month, 101, 102 rotate.
Trying to find the timing of that is key.
It's because, yeah, it's like you're not going to host a 101.
You guys as organizers only have so much bandwidth
and it's like you got to pick and choose.
Well, are you going to host a hangout meetup this week
or are you going to host a workshop meetup this week
or are you going to host a 101?
And then most of the time they just end up
just being drinking beers at a bar, which is good because then you can have people asking
questions and then people sit next to each other. But yeah, themes really helps a lot too.
Yeah, I'd like to get to the point where I'd throw one. I feel like I'd feel bad if I replaced
my meetup with it. Because then our regular attendees, I feel like, would still be expecting
like the normal scheduled content,
but I'd like to throw like a bonus meetup out there.
Like, I don't know if I'd have the bandwidth
to do that like every month,
but maybe every once in a while,
a couple of times a year,
maybe run a Bitcoin 101,
try to get some new people in the door.
In Grand Rapids, we do a,
go ahead fundamentals.
Sorry, I was going to,
when my meetup launched,
I tried to do a 101 at that first one.
And it wasn't me.
I have a friend, he won't mind if I name him, but his name is Paul Zahner.
And I don't know, Carl, if you met him at Lake Satoshi.
He was up at Lake Satoshi last year.
He hosts a Zoom every Thursday.
And he hosts, you know, usually, I don't know, Carl, if you've ever been on it,
but, like, I invite people on all the time.
And it's usually us hanging.
But he does it for the sole purpose that if any new person actually shows up,
he has an incredible six-slide presentation
that he's been doing for probably nine years.
And he's the guy, like, I begged him to do it for my first meetup.
And it's like, you don't have to go on his Zoom,
but he would hand, like, he'll give you his deck.
He'll give it to you.
And I would just say a Zoom call for a 101 is not a bad idea
in terms of it's probably a good venue for that.
When I tried to do it, this is part of like my hatred for the venue
started on day one because like they wouldn't turn the music down.
They wouldn't even turn it down at all.
I couldn't believe how uncooperative the venue was being with me.
And so, you know, Zoom's not a bad idea.
And it's funny.
He logs on every Thursday, like no matter what, just in case somebody comes looking for that presentation.
And it maybe happens twice a year.
How does he get that out, the message out?
That's a.
I really don't know.
So he he ran the local meetup.
And it when it it sort of was ready to die.
And that's when I started mine and I we rolled his into mine.
So he's like, you know, he's a leader and he's an educator and he's really, you know,
really good at this, but the deck is pretty evergreen,
and I'm sure you'd be happy to give it to you.
So, you know, you have to do a lot of work in creating.
And I mean, anyone can five-code a deck now,
but, like, it's very good and thoughtful, you know.
It goes through, like, you know,
why is Honest Wagner's baseball card worth so much, you know,
and, like, things like that.
So I wasn't, I went to Big, or Grashert's,
not this year, but last year.
And it was amazing, dude.
And there was like so much like epic stuff that happened
and like a bunch of cool connections got made from that event.
And so I'm wondering like what were the highlights this year?
Was there like any epic stories?
I got serious FOMO.
I have no idea.
I feel like I totally missed out.
Apparently the biggest story I was in the bathroom for and I missed it.
But I came back and there was a running joke
that everybody kept making the entire time
and I didn't get it, but it was about how everybody should delete Orange Bill app.
Maybe one of you guys who was actually there can explain this.
I think, Andrew, you weren't in the room either, right?
I feel like Joshua wasn't in there.
Yeah, I was running around outside.
Yeah, so it's all on me.
Oh, man, that was epic.
So part of the reason why, the rant itself was great
and very actually informative and educational.
And the reason why it kept coming up was just because it was just really funny, the context of the whole thing, because, you know, we've been going all morning.
I think this one was maybe early in the afternoon.
And, you know, we're just going one meetup after another.
And every meetup gets kind of like five minutes to, you know, the stage is yours for five minutes.
Talk about your meetup.
Talk about what you've learned.
You know, you're in a room full of Bitcoin meetup organizers.
Is there anything you want to let people know?
and so you know everybody's going through everybody's got slides it was you know a few
people didn't have slides you know it wasn't necessary um but you know we get to this one
individual and uh it's like okay all right you know everybody turn off the cameras
turn i don't want to be recorded you know all this stuff which again is fine bitcoin park was
accommodating and he's you know turning the cameras out of the way and he proceeds to not
even mention what meetup he's from. Like, you know, I think some of us kind of knew like what
meetup he was, but maybe not everybody. He decides he's going to use his entire five minute block
to talk about how Orange Pill app is tracking your locations at all times. It's like such a huge
privacy vulnerability. And then, you know, literally for five minutes going on and on,
way deep down in the weeds and the technical, how this works. And then, you know, Rod's sitting
there with the little timer, you know, cause everybody's got five minutes and the timer goes
off and he just is like, okay, that's it. Just walks back, walks back to his seat. And so, and
Rod is like, are you kidding me? Like that was your, that was it. That was like your whole
presentation. So it kind of came up a few times after that. It was just, it was just kind of an
epic, you know, he took the stage
and he had a message he wanted to deliver
and boy did he deliver it.
There's no doubt about that.
And I heard that really brought
everyone together a lot.
It did. For sure.
Those who were there. I mean, this is a
highly intelligent guy.
I got to spend a good amount of time with him
in the hotel and
I definitely would
again, I didn't hear it
but like I got, I asked
him about it and he, you know, I got the
got the down low, I guess, you know, I get to do this.
This guy, you know, so, but, you know, it's the whole,
I can imagine the whole thing, how it looked.
Okay.
It's just sort of hilarious.
You know, this guy gives zero fucks.
Absolutely.
Everything about his presentation of himself communicates,
I give zero fucks.
And the only other one.
Dinner.
towards the end was awesome.
And I learned about steak,
a lot about steak that night.
Were you at the dinner at the closing night, Brian?
We went to 21.
No, no.
Made it there.
It was a good dinner.
But yeah, we were at the whole table,
ordered ribeyes.
We were about to get ribeyes cut with canola oil.
and always ask your chef or your waiter how they prepare it
because most of the time it'll be olive oil,
which will be cut with canola oil.
So thankfully we intercepted that
where this guy made an ask to the waiter and our waitress
and he found out that it was indeed going to be cut with canola oil.
and uh yeah caught that early are you kidding like after after what we had the night before
and that you're gonna now like sit down and douse canola oil in a freaking robot yeah so thankfully
we all just said everyone get butter steaks um and the whole table enjoyed uh some very good
butter steaks um so always ask how it's prepared because most of the time it won't be butter
It'll most likely be olive oil and it'll most likely be cut with canola.
Nice.
I did the tourist thing after that night we did.
I went out with my wife.
We went to Hattie's.
Okay.
Downtown?
Yeah, downtown.
We saw a bunch of guys from the conference there.
That was a moment I was actually a little depressed.
I get this like anytime I'm in a situation, anytime I'm in a conference like that,
and it ends.
Like, there's a period of time where I have, like, genuine, like,
I'm not going to call it clinical depression, but I'm kind of sad.
I have these feelings, you know?
I got these upset feelings that I miss.
I really just miss it.
And it was so nice to see these guys roll in while I was just sitting there
with my wife, you know?
And then we went to Rudy's.
That's a jazz club in Nashville.
Incredible.
The whole thing was incredible.
Yeah.
The only other.
The only other semi-viral moment of grassroots that sticks out to me was we did spark some serious debate about if Bitcoin is for everyone or if Bitcoin is for anyone.
And this came, so Bitcoin is for anyone is an event that's coming up.
I think it's May 22nd, May 23rd.
And upon its introduction, it was immediately met with, oh, I believe you're mistaken, sir.
because Bitcoin is for anyone, not for everyone.
And so, yeah, everybody for the rest of the time,
we were all kind of going back and forth about if Bitcoin is for everyone
or if Bitcoin is for anyone.
So that was another thing that I think I'll remember from this one.
I have to say the best joke of the conference was he is,
So he has this game called Mission Bitcoin, and he had a bunch of them.
And you know the joke?
I had to, like, rewind it in my head because I wanted to be able to communicate this because I loved it.
It was so good where he basically, you know, he was like, what did he say?
He said it was a million seller.
He said it was the one.
And everyone was, even myself, I was like, oh, really?
He's like, yeah, I got a million of them in my seller.
yeah he nailed that one
that tickled me and he nailed it
he said it perfectly it was funny
it was perfect
you know I have his game
Mission Bitcoin
and it's
enjoyable to play
my kids like it
it gets a thumbs up for my kids
I didn't take one but I'm sure
he'll be at Lake Satoshi
those games all are awesome
And I realized I need to play more of those.
I need to put them out in the park more, actually.
Those are good.
A game night meetup would be a fun one.
You know, Carl and I have worked on a game.
And so I only say that to say that I have the utmost respect for anyone who got a game into production.
because you know you can you can dork around with a great idea for a long time but when you
you actually make it and so like that joke even though he like you know he had a big vision and
made made a million of these games dude getting that game into production is uh very very impressive
that's all what's your game what what's uh is it two are you able to disclose anything
well yeah actually it's been a long time since we since we thought much about it it's one of those
things that has a lot of life for a little bit of time and then everyone just works on
on their life so the game we the game was called uh citadel and i think the slogan was um
many will play um none like many will play none will win or something like that the idea was not
The idea is that it's like a card game and every like turn you're facing disaster.
And the idea is you use some combination of cooperation and strategy to build a citadel and survive all of these horrific risks that are coming down the pike.
And, you know, basically it's like if you find yourself homeless and then you get hit with a disaster, you're dead and you're out of the game.
But then the idea was that people would start pulling resources together and building Citadels together.
And, you know, we would eventually, if this thing got out in the wild, we would actually discover the strategies for, you know, for navigating a perilous world like this as Bitcoiners.
And that was like the sort of the idea and the hope.
Just, you know, waiting for a spark of energy to come back to it.
it's a little bit on the
the way I always thought about it man was that
it was like this
we were just going to release this concept out
there with this broad
scope of possibilities not knowing
how it could be broken
and then letting people play it
and break the game and then we'd
iterate from there
and that's like
to gamify something like that is like
to gamify the strategy and how
you would actually build a Citadel or a
And so when you gamify stuff like these real world, I mean, sports are a good example, right?
To gamify war or whatever, to gamify battle.
And so you could gamify Citadel building strategy, right?
And we would learn it together through the process of iterating through the game.
But it's like we were talking about, it's hard to do that.
It takes some time and we've gone through spurts of working on it.
and then it's on the table right now, just kind of in the back burner.
Yeah, like me and the other originator were working on it for a while
and then it died out and then Carl came in and we were like,
yes, this thing's totally going to happen.
Carl's here.
And, you know, he's had his fill and then we've had some other people come in, right?
But that's why, dude, getting a game like that,
getting a game off the ground and into production is like mad respect.
Like the energy it takes is extraordinary.
And these are a lot.
Probably.
It has to be the biggest thing.
What's that?
User adoption probably has to be a huge thing.
You have to have such a strong vision that people are going to actually try and play it.
Like if you've ever played HODL up, there's a billion pieces in that game.
I just can imagine the amount of work that Scott, those guys did.
And in getting it all done, it's remarkable.
And again, these are the kind of people that come to grassroots, right?
A lot of guys, my first meetup organizer from the old, we call it the OG filling meetup.
It was a filling meetup before the John, but he made a game and it was starting to get off the ground.
And then he sort of disappeared.
But I feel like, you know, meetup organizers tend to have games, right?
Maybe it's that they view their meetup as a place to play the games.
but you know i think there's a there seems to be a high frequency selection uh selection there
well i enjoyed seeing everyone play the games out on the front patio that that was cool
seeing yeah so awesome yeah multiple people yeah just playing yeah that was awesome
i think that i think that the meetup organizers consciously or subconsciously understand that like
playing games is an important way to learn, you know, and it's an important way to propagate
culture. When you're a meetup organizer, that's pretty much the goal, right, is to propagate
Bitcoin culture and to connect and unify more Bitcoiners together. So like, it sounds like
grassroots is an event where it's like, all these meetup organizers come from all over the country,
the world and they share that those those that knowledge that they've got and that collectively
in this one potent event like strengthens bitcoin meetup culture across the world what
what were like what kind of stuff was were people sharing with each other
um what were the big like aha this is a really cool idea for a meetup moments that came out of it
well I've got my notes
I jotted some stuff down
it's stuff that I want to do for my meetup
so this is like super selfish
so one of the things
that I thought was cool
was we were talking about in one of the sessions
I think it was on the second day
maybe it was in the workshop
I don't remember what the workshop was called
but anyway we started talking about
how to get
feedback on your meetup.
And somebody said,
just run a poll.
And I was like,
oh shoot.
Like,
you know,
cause I started,
I switched off of our telegram and into an email format because I don know our Telegram group kind of died And I was getting actually better engagement from the emails
And so that's something I want to do is try to figure out how to get, like send out a poll, like even just after the meetup.
Like just hand out, like on your way out here, grab this QR code.
And, you know, which here's the topics that we ran.
You know, what did you guys think?
Like were these ones good?
Was this one not as good?
give them a place to fill in you know hey it would have been cool if you did maybe another
meetup you can do this other topic um just try to get them while it's fresh i thought that was
kind of a cool idea another thing that i saw there was somebody there from um like the bitcoin
student network or something like that and um actually one of the reasons why i started the
process of turning our meetup into a 5013c which is you know kind of a lift um we weren't
necessarily doing it because we thought we could like raise a bunch of money or something like that
because I highly doubt that that's going to happen. However, I thought it would be really good
because we have a ton of colleges and universities right in our local area. If I could start going to
these universities and be more than just, you know, a guy who's like doing these meetups,
if I can come saying, hey, you know, I'm the president of the, you know, the Bitcoin,
the Western Mass Bitcoin meetup.
And we're a 5013C registered.
We obviously know what we're doing.
And hey, can I talk to your students?
Like, give me, can I have five minutes
at the end of a lecture?
Or, you know, can you let kids know
that this is something that exists
and that we're looking for people to help out
and we're looking for people who want to learn
and that, you know, we're available.
So I was very interested in trying to hook up
with that person afterwards.
I don't know. I mean, those are a few of the notes that I had jotted down.
I had some other, one of them I actually already did, which was to incorporate a BTC Maps page into our Meetup website.
It comes zoomed in on our local area.
And then as people's square terminals get turned on or people in our area start accepting Bitcoin, they'll pop up in the map automatically.
So that was kind of a, that was like a weekend vibe code.
that I added to our meetups website.
But I like the idea of a website.
It's another thing I never thought to do at all,
but like pretty good way to just sort of, you know,
dictate content that.
And this is way, like,
maybe I don't have a presentation space to do the news,
but I might show stories that I want seen on the website.
It's a really good idea.
And it's like so ridiculous that I never thought to do it.
You know?
Well, up until recently, it was a giant pain in the ass.
Like that's why, you know, we didn't really, we actually did,
we paid money to have someone make us like a decent looking website.
You know, and then six months later, I can do it in like 20 minutes,
you know, with one of these clots or whatever.
So I ended up, I mean, I just redid the whole thing like myself
in like four hours with the help of an agent
who knows how to code these things.
And now it feels like every time I just get an idea,
I'm like, oh, shit, that'd be so easy to add to the,
you know, I don't know how to actually add it.
But, you know, my agent knows how to do it.
So five minutes before I did my lightning thing.
By the way, I didn't, I mean, I don't know.
Maybe this is feedback.
I didn't know, I didn't know we were doing,
I just didn't know that's how this went.
But it's cool.
I was glad to go do it.
But five minutes before,
I didn't have slides, right?
And I didn't feel bad or anything about it.
I just didn't have them.
But I basically just made a bunch of slides five minutes before.
And I thought about it.
I'm like, they would have been passable.
You know, I decided not to use them.
It's like, okay, this will just be my thing.
Me and Orange Pell App guy.
You know, be the no slides guy.
But it is like, yeah, you're right.
It's wild.
Like there's no barriers now to essentially communicating to a lot of people.
Right.
There's no barriers now.
Yeah.
So actually, so speaking about preparing for the lightning round presentations, I mean, that was something like I'd like to hear.
One thing we haven't really talked a ton about yet.
I sort of want to hear something more of the nitty gritty behind the scenes stuff about how you guys prepared for grassroots.
it's like one of the things like with those lightning presentations like at first i think it
was jack was was collecting all the but before that rod's idea was just oh everyone's just going
to come up and plug in their laptops like directly into the i was like i immediately was like i'm
just going to email you my presentation now because that is never going to work so um but
you know you guys are dealing with you know that was one tiny little detail and a whole sea of
things that you guys are dealing with so you know how did it go preparing for that like how long did
it take you to prepare for that like have you been thinking about that for months or how did it long
did it take that for grassers to come together yeah yeah so it's I mean we're working on a bunch
of summits and meetups all throughout the year um so it's basically um we're well we get we get the
date on the calendar once we get the date on the calendar then then we just start planning for it
so we probably got chose the date on the calendar um back half of last year maybe
i don't know the specific time maybe uh november december we we found the date
um then the biggest thing is just getting the message out there um thankfully we have
telegram chats and signal chats from previous years.
So we can say that it's happening there.
So, and then before all of that,
we have to get all the landing pages in place.
So that's all the pre-summit work that goes into it.
So it's got to get the meetup page up,
got to get our Google form up.
At first we had type form and you guys saw,
we made a switch midway through.
So did type form to Google form.
And then, yeah, so letting everyone know it's happening.
Well, that is like a really interesting aspect
of the event itself that I didn't really think about
was is that like, this is a very niche audience, right?
Meetup organizers.
So how do you connect with enough
like meetup organizers out there?
And so it sounds like it kind of snowballs each year where there's more and more people that kind of know about it and through the grassroots, they hear about it.
Are you having to turn people away at this point or is it still just right?
No, no, it's just right.
I mean, we can tell who are good organizers or not.
Some people that just spun up a meetup, we can tell, or they have a shitcoin or crypto meetup.
That's easy.
Yeah, so we can see who's coming in.
Most people we just welcome right in.
Most are from previous years.
There's some new people like Brian.
Brian, how do you hear about it?
Did, uh, were you in?
I remember when I first started my meetup,
like I was saying, it was like so close to the event that I just,
and it was actually my, the OG,
the OG Philly meetup organizer who was telling me,
cause he was going, I think he was first year.
Um, and then, uh, yeah, I mean, we, there's a guy there, you know,
one of, um, one of my meetup attendees is a member of Bitcoin.
Mm-hmm.
He knows. Shout out you.
I already screwed this up once.
I even spelled his name.
I believe it's you.
No, because that's interesting.
I think it really does just spread through grassroots.
And then we want to give back to the meetup community as well.
So I know we gave out a bunch of meetup
or imagine if tickets to meetup organizers last year.
We're going to do that again this year.
So just we support the network that supports us and makes it happen.
So it's like I think that's where it comes.
And then Rod and Matt Odell have just been all about grassroots from day one.
I think Odell was saying that this is the most important summit we do,
which, yeah, after going to it this year and being a part of it,
I completely agree.
It's number one.
Well, do you think that Rod likes grassroots more than the telehash, though?
He's got to love the telehash.
After hitting that Bitcoin, man.
After hitting that block.
I'm sure he loved it, yeah, when he hit the block.
And he peaked there.
now it's
yeah
you gotta hope you hit another block
well yeah that's special
too that's another
that's another grassroots
movement of tinkers
in the mining space
so that's
that's just my point right
grassroots is so good that it's like right up there
with the telehash hitting a block
it's
a special event it's like powerful
man
it really
I'm sorry
sorry Carl
okay well
okay
so
because you just made me think
you know
you
you made
you sparked a thought
and I think it's
just interesting
the lead
you know
there's
there's clearly leadership
in
Bitcoin Park
you know
my observation
and I don't think I'm alone
you know
culture
culture has
been moving
a lot
Really in the last two years.
I think, you know, I think you go to a meetup two years ago, there's always going to be an S9 there that someone's going to take apart.
Mining was big.
And like you had maybe what I just call web culture, right, where we were all reading the same books and listening to the same podcasts and complaining, starting to complain that it's all getting old and tired and people to varying degrees agreeing with that.
But the culture seems, you know, like in my eyes has shifted and I think it's interesting.
And I feel like I just wonder where everybody is with that.
You know, like it used to be, and even like three years ago, I was so hardcore, no shit
coiners ever getting near my meetup, right?
That like, I actually think I traumatized the people in my meetup.
Like anybody comes in here, like say talking about a shit coin, they all just destroy this, this, they'll, they'll just destroy the person and they'll like to the point where they'll never come back.
Yeah.
Well, it, it got to the point where it's like, do you ever like, you know, you like raise a pit bull and then you're like, wait, I kind of, I got a bit of a monster on my hands.
You know, like, so for example, I did a podcast episode on Monero, Carl hated it.
I got a lot of hate just for doing it.
And, you know, I think it's cool.
And I was like, you know, I guess my point, my point here is I think there was a period of purity testing among plebs that has sort of passed through the last couple of years.
And, you know, it's one of those things where I think the only place you can really, really beat purity tests in culture is in live meat space.
like online it gets so toxic and impossible and people just dig up receipts and don't accept that
people evolve and change but like in real life people are evolving and changing and you know
people are you know it's like i'm not uh you know i'm not down for this social contract
where i have to like meet everybody's purity tests and i think those people are the ones that
evolving the fastest and the best potentially through what's happening now.
Right.
Which is, I don't know.
I feel like we're in a weird time, you know, we're certainly in a weird time where the
prices, you know, you typically used to rely on the price to maybe, you know, drive engagement
and the meetups, you know, we're, we're, we're in this time where it's like all the, all
the conversations that we've been having are getting a little stale.
All the cope is a little stale, right.
We're like swimming in plebs lop.
and it's a big challenge I feel like to lead.
It's a challenge to lead in this environment.
I'm just like wondering if other, you know,
like if you guys feel that in Nashville
in terms of the tone you guys are trying to set,
like that's definitely there for me
and the tone I'm trying to set.
I don't know, Brian,
you might not be invited back next year.
No, I'm just messing with you.
But no, our motto is, yeah, you can take your shit coins elsewhere.
This is just for Bitcoin and freedom tech at Bitcoin Park.
So we have adopted, we've been playing with our AI.
That's our way of having fun.
Yeah, but other than that, we just keep on the mission.
So the mission's the boss at Bitcoin Park.
That's the leadership and just supporting and accelerating that adoption of Bitcoin and Freedom Tech.
I couldn't have a shitcoin in my meetup if I wanted to.
So, oh, so here's a story.
There was a second meetup that popped up in my town.
A second Bitcoin meetup that started showing up on Orange Pill app.
And really, I decided to go to it.
And, you know, it was a Bitcoin meetup that was perfectly fine.
It was perfectly fine with shitcoins.
and I actually, you know, I went there.
I enjoyed it.
They were cool people, and it was a good time.
But the leader of that meetup was like he wanted to merge the meetups.
I'm like, you and I both know that's never going to happen.
You and I both know that nobody in here is allowed on the other end of the street.
Like my meetup will not tolerate it.
It was just one of those things that it's just very interesting to see how this evolves
because the other thing, maybe we're dancing around it.
I'm glad this didn't come up in grassroots, and I don't allow it anymore in my meetup.
But, you know, fork talk, I guess.
This is where I guess to hit it more on the nose is you have people that will go so far to not ever have to breathe the same air as a shitcoiner that they're willing to, you know, they're willing to, you know, do some damage in the Bitcoin space, let's just say.
So like that's something that I'm conscious of.
And I know that every once in a while I get somebody that wants to DDoS my meetup with this shit.
But like, you know, it's a leadership challenge.
So we had, it's almost kind of unbelievable, but we had a true shitcoiner redemption story in my meetup.
So way early on, this was like we only had like six meetups maybe.
And so, you know, I'm still trying to get people in the door.
Like, we didn't have too many people.
And so this guy comes, and that's all he wants to talk about.
And, like, I, look, I'm kind of a patient guy, right?
And I'm not, I'm really there to educate him about why he's so wrong.
Like, every argument that he's putting up, I'm just putting up the opposite side.
And we just drove him out.
He actually came to a second meetup.
And he was still going on.
And I, you know, my patience started wearing thin.
And I kind of started taking the gloves off a little bit and being like, dude, this is a Bitcoin meetup.
You realize that?
And that was it.
And so then he was gone.
And he like never came back.
Like two years goes by.
And this guy comes back to the meetup.
And he goes, I have to tell you, you were 100% right about everything.
I don't do any shitcoin stuff anymore at all.
Done completely.
I'm Bitcoin only.
I'm like, holy shit.
I can't believe you actually came back.
A true shitcoin redemption story.
I feel like those are pretty rare.
I feel like a lot of them,
if you get burned out of the shitcoins,
it just turns you off to the whole industry.
So I was glad that we were able to...
And now he's come to every meetup since then.
Every meetup he's there.
He's one of our number one contributors.
It's awesome. That's, that's beautiful, right? It's like that only happens because you do the work you do. It creates space for somebody to come and, and have that happen.
yeah it's like you need to if you get any sense of that you have to retrain them and or and re
reteach them and it it's a lot of hard work and energy to to teach their or to help them with
their original bias that they have um one thing that i found funny we we met these koreans that
were running a Bitcoin meetup in El Salvador.
So we did the Bitcoin Circular Economy Summit
in El Salvador in January,
which is awesome, by the way.
So Roman was putting that on at Bitcoin Beach.
And these Koreans that were running their local meetup,
they, in their Discord channel,
if they get any sense that somebody is into shitcoins
or not into Bitcoin,
they put them in their own group chat or in their own uh group of the the discord or telegram
whatever app they're using and then they have to study everything about bitcoin and they get all
the material in that one isolated group chat and in order to come back with the rest of the people
they uh they have to have to pass yeah they're in the penalty box which i thought was awesome
And it's like, we got to go even harder there on that stuff.
Because we just, in our Discord, if we find somebody shilling or doing that stuff,
we just block them or kick them, which, yeah.
I feel like the name of the game really is trying to shake the bugs out of the woodwork.
You know, there's Bitcoiners around.
You got to figure out how to find them.
You know, there's a lot of Bitcoiners that don't,
Like a lot of the people that come to the meetups in my area do not participate in Noster and Twitter and any of that shit.
They're just out there.
And their only connection to Bitcoin is the meetups and some other, you know, something where we're not at the group chat that we're not in.
Right.
And so I think have you have you noticed like Bitcoin Park creating gravity shake kind of drawing these people out, people showing up being like, hey, I'm local here.
and I came here because I heard about this Bitcoin Park thing.
Yeah, yeah.
Most people aren't even really that into Bitcoin
or don't really know fully what it is.
A lot of people, you have to even show them what a wallet is
or they're just starting to hear about Bitcoin.
So it's like, yeah.
And then I don't know even how they look it up.
It's like they search Bitcoin or crypto on their Meetup app
and that probably is their route.
Or people are just looking to connect these days.
It's like people just want to go out somewhere.
Maybe the free pizza draws it in.
But yeah.
Yeah.
So you sparked another thought inside of me.
And this is something I hatched a plan
with one of the guys at the meetup.
So here's something I neglected to mention.
And I really regret not mentioning.
The meetup of meetups?
No. So there is, okay, my meetup.
At your meetup, okay.
There's a little company that is headquartered in my town called Vanguard.
And I've always had these dreams that like some guy in the mailroom is going to come to my meetup and then just start going crazy, orange.
Like literally one out of every 10 people that live in my town works for Vanguard.
Something like that.
Like you can see the parking tags in their car.
Like it's ubiquitous.
They all, somewhere along the line, they all, they all seem to work, work for them.
And like, there's literally nothing I would love more than to find a way to get some of these people to come to my meetup.
To the point where I would let them talk about shit coins if I had to.
Like, you know, first for a small time in the pocket.
But like, so that's because I feel like that would actually make a difference.
yeah just being out there in the community and and being the bitcoin guy of the community is huge
i know that's one big thing that rod owns is like he is like completely integrated into the nashville
local community he knows everybody and then he brings people to the park and then hosts round
tables with local leaders.
That's something that's
really clutch.
I could see it. He's like the mayor.
Yeah, he speaks
to the Bitcoin retards
and then also to
the retarded politicians.
Yeah.
So he bridges the gap.
I need to do...
One of the main reasons
I started my meetup in my town is because I
wanted a place for people I talk
to to send.
And, you know, when I talk to them about Bitcoin, like, you know, you know, want to learn more, come to my meetup.
And I've had some degree of participation there, but that's something I probably want to focus more on.
Dude, I do that all the time.
I was just getting hay today I had to go get some emergency hay to feed my sheep And while I was picking up the hay they wanted cash right But I was like hey what do you think about Bitcoin
And they're like, ah, and I was like, well, you know, you don't have to take the Bitcoin today.
But I run the South Bend, Indiana meetup.
It's right down the road, you know, I'll let you know and I'll be in touch.
And they're like, oh, okay.
And that's how you do it, right?
You just kind of bring them to the meetup.
You can't orange pill them on the spot and get them to take your Bitcoin.
You got to bring them in.
So it sounds like Rod's bringing them in.
Fundamentals, you got to work on bringing them in, huh?
You're right.
I'm waiting to hear a podcast where somebody says their origin story was a hay transaction.
It will happen.
I'll make it happen.
so um i think we're about the point in the uh in the recording here that we'll probably start
switching over to start talking about some boosts uh from our last episode but um and maybe while
rev pulls that up on his phone i'll speak for a minute here and and you know you know maybe
maybe there's some other podcasters listening who have a podcast and are also on nostr
we put together or I guess I put together vibe coded so to speak a our own custom boost bot
and so one of the things that happens is if you boost the show from fountain or from any
podcasting 2.0 app those sets end up on my lightning node and from my lightning node
I can pull that data off of my node and post it as an astronaut and we can do things we can do
cool things like we can tag the person who sent it um if they did it through fountain at least
because we can get their end pub from there and um it ends up creating kind of a cool thing where
we now have like this mega thread of all the boosts that we get across all the different
podcast episodes and they all come in in kind of chronological order and it's cool because you get
tagged in the note and it gets it lets everybody know that we have this nostor account that you can
interact with and stuff. So, um, plus it makes our job easier because it organizes all the boosts
for us and, um, it doesn't truncate the notes like they happens in fountain quite a bit. So,
um, so yeah, I just like to advertise that a little bit, but Rev, you got those things
queued up or what? I got the boost queued up, but before I want to read the boosts,
I want to talk about the key takeaways.
I think for me, I'll start.
The key takeaway is that the grassroots event is like,
it represents the energy that Bitcoin Park is trying to create, right?
Trying to draw this.
Like when you're there, you feel this buzz.
And I think that buzz comes from the actual impact.
This is very impactful.
When you trade the best practices amongst each other from meetup organizers
and propagate it, the meetups just get hardened and hardened and hardened.
The whole thing gets stronger.
And I think that feeling is palpable there,
that you're like actually participating in this.
You know, you're making it happen.
And so I got that vibe.
Fundamentals, what did you think?
I mean, yeah.
I mean, it's, you know, you just made me think of something else too, which is so like, yeah, there's such a unity.
Running a meetup is a unifying experience.
And it's like everybody goes through the same things.
We care that people come.
We care that they learn.
We care they learn the right way.
And it's a real grind.
But it's like one of those like labors of love we all have.
I was also thinking Bitcoin Park should have a similar conference for love of the game podcasters.
It's a very like who are on a similar mission to educate.
And, you know, I'm not saying go do that.
I'm drawing an analogy to I think it's just something similar that I feel when I am with my fellow podcasters, which happens at some of these conferences as well.
It's like, you know, when I met Reed and we like crossed the Venn diagram twice because now I understand him as a podcaster and a meetup organizer.
And I would recommend all these meetup organizers start podcasts.
I'm not joking.
Like they should they should do that.
I think it's first of all, I think it's one of the ways I maintain order in my podcast.
I think that people don't want me talking shit about and complaining about them on my podcast.
You know, but besides the fact, it's like, it's putting yourself out, putting yourself out there.
And that's the most effective people that I met.
I'm not saying they had podcasts or not, but they're good at putting themselves out there.
They don't, you know, they get a microphone and they don't hesitate to share themselves.
And there's very little in between themselves and the person they're communicating with.
and that was it was a pleasure to be around that for two days so yes I was like depressed the second
it ended yeah my uh I think my key takeaway at least from grassroots is maybe similar to last
year which is it really starts to make me appreciate you know the power that can come
from just a little bit of communication, right?
Let's like, we're all, we are very decentralized
and that is our superpower.
You know, however, it really moves the needle
when you can come together specifically in person.
And that's because that's what we do at the meetups, right?
We're always preaching how coming together in person
hits different and you're able to look somebody in the eye
and you can take what they're saying, you know, not just more seriously,
you can kind of understand where they're coming from.
And I think getting all those meetup organizers in one place
and getting to hear everybody tell all the stuff that they're doing,
you know, not only does it give every other meetup organizer
all these great ideas, it's also like just hugely motivating
like as a Bitcoin meetup organizer, especially we're kind of in like
this weird bear market and like, I don't know, maybe some places have meetup numbers that
aren't going super well.
Coming together and watching the energy in that room, it really, it's just a huge, a huge
boost.
So that, you know, that's one of the reasons why I always am going to make sure that I
try to make, you know, grassroots Bitcoin one of my main destinations that I'm willing
to travel to.
Yeah, and I'll just close it out by just saying, yeah, we're all on the same mission too. And this brings us all together. And we're those revolutionaries in a tavern that are trying to just fight for freedom and Bitcoin. And it's awesome.
So it's like bringing everyone together, sharing ideas.
That just compounds on each other.
And then we get the network grows.
And yeah, that's how we win.
So it was awesome.
Yeah.
They're like nonviolent militias.
That's what I feel like we are.
We're militia leaders.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
We're exercising our freedom to the fullest extent.
All right.
So I'm going to get started with the boosts.
And we got Matthew D.
Matthew D has been boosting every episode.
Thanks a lot, Matthew D.
And he says, Tuesday, April 21st, 5.30 p.m., Lansing Builders Exchange.
I'll be talking about why fiat money ruins the environment and how Bitcoin fixes this.
Well, also, Matthew D, I get my soap from Matthew D.
He's got White Paper Soap Company.
Check it out.
next we got Stacy
sorry I assume he's a Lake Satoshi attendee
yes yes
you're not allowed to wash
your body in the lake
with anything other than Matthew D's soap
at Lake Satoshi
that's just how it goes
forward to seeing you Matthew D
look forward to seeing you this year
next we got a boost from Stacy
she says
great episode
loving the Bitcoin meetup farmers market
And so Stacy has got a podcast called The Bitcoin Nova, and she attends a meetup that I frequently attend.
And so it's cool that Stacy's coming in and saying what's up.
Check out Bitcoin Nova podcast.
Next, we got God's Death, and he says, thank you, gentlemen.
Well, thank you, God's Death.
You've been hitting us up every episode.
Appreciate it, man.
By the way, God's Death is in my meetup.
He's one of my meetup attendees.
There you go.
Small world.
I did not know that.
We'll probably meet you in person someday, God's death.
Next we got Dan Wedge.
He says, pure signal.
This needs to be in your first 10 hours, 40 HPW.
All right.
Pressure's on.
We got to deliver.
Wedge, we're there for you, man.
Thanks, dude.
Next we got Bitcoin Gym.
Great idea for a pod.
Inspiring.
And I appreciate that.
You know, that's the whole goal is to inspire more people to go to the meetups and start meetups and start thinking about meetups as another layer to Bitcoin culture.
We're a diaspora.
We need to bring the small groups together and connect with each other regionally.
And I'll just say, so for that one, so for that boost, that was from back on episode one.
so another cool thing right
so yes
these are all coming in
from different episodes
so yeah
so if you boost
any of the episodes
we're going to read it
on the next show
and since I
I got you to pause
for a second
you skipped over one
right after Matthew D
was Boomer
Boomer boosted
Boomer
another great episode
to all Canadian
Bitcoin meetup organizers
Toanne
from 256 Heat is trying to get in contact
with all the meetups from Windsor and Ottawa.
He's hoping to do a tour, sell his newest home miner,
send me a DM for more information,
or to get in contact with...
Twain?
His name's Twan, and he's a great guy.
I got to know him in Canada last October.
Boomer's one of my best friends in the space.
Great meetup organizer.
Runs the Ottawa...
the Ottawa meetup.
I think they meet twice a month.
And these are incredible people.
Boomer was on episode three.
Yeah, yeah.
And so Tuan is in all these minor chats.
He's in all these minor group chats I'm in.
And that dude shares pictures of his setups,
and they're beautiful.
I'm, like, envious of what that dude can accomplish.
And so, yeah, Tuan is definitely the dude to go to
if you want to get hooked up with some sick stuff.
Sorry.
So double-check me because this might just be a Noster thing
where it didn't load all of the boosts in order or something,
like the comments in order.
I don't know.
I don't see that boost.
We'll keep going.
Perfect.
Yep.
Are you sure you don't block Boomer on Noster?
No, definitely not.
No, Boomer's got a new podcast too.
the 49th parallel with business and business guy.
I've been digging that dude.
That's a,
that's an interesting show.
Good entropy in your 40 hours per week.
Check it out.
Finally took the advice and started a podcast.
He needed to.
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
Next we got tigs.
Tigs is a corny chat homie.
And he says,
great stuff.
Don't stop this awesome train.
and that was from the Jersey Meetup show, episode two.
What number is this?
What number podcast?
This will be number six.
Yeah, this is number six, gotcha.
Next we got Shadrach A to B.
Shadrach is doing a new thing with the Veritas Paznia Radio Network.
I don't know what the frequency is, but he's doing a new show over there.
You should check it out.
I should check out his episode with Gigi.
He's just a great banger with Gigi over in Madeira.
No Solutions Podcast, right?
Yep.
Yeah, check that out.
He's such a key person, by the way, in all of, I feel like, our meetup culture.
And the stuff he's working on is going to make meetup culture
like 20x better.
Yeah, he's like a spider spinning a web,
connecting with his little connections,
all of this stuff everywhere.
He just goes all around and he's like,
you didn't know about these people over here.
You should know about these people.
It's great.
Thank you, Shadrack.
Next, we got Otis Bittmeier.
He says,
Augie is an inspiration for pioneers
building on the intellectual Silk Road.
The Southwest Michigan meetup occurs third Thursday of each month at Dwellers Co-Working Space in Benton Harbor, Michigan.
Join Rev. Hodel and me and a bunch of other quality humans in our quest to build our little corner of the meshedal through inspiring conversations, trade of goods and services, and collective cooperation.
And that was from the most recent episode with Augie, episode five.
can I just say
one of the
like remember I said that
it felt so welcoming
at Bitcoin Park
just seeing Otis Bittmeier
post it note
on the iced coffee urn
it made me feel so good
and I texted
sent it to Otis
I was like how great is that
you know
and it was just beautiful
we do save all of Otis's notes
that he gives
so I appreciate it
love the coffee
love the notes
Yeah, so Otis is...
We have Sound Coffee podcast with the last episode we had was with Reed and Rev.
Yeah, if you want to hear us hang out some more,
talk about coffee and cool stuff like that.
I mean, if you're a meetup at Ficcinato, we talked a lot.
I mean, I'd say that is loaded with deep cuts on meetups.
It's a bonus episode.
Anyways, so we got this one.
Oh, so Jordy just says first, thanks for the show.
But Jordy's going to have another boost that's later on
that's got some really important information.
Next, we got Jim Seifert.
Finally getting around to listening to your show.
Good stuff.
Thanks, Jim.
Jim is a Noster, homie.
Jim hangs out on Noster.
Look for Jim Seifert on Noster.
Next, we got We All Eat.
Oh, man.
The good old homie, We All Eat.
He says, LFG, get out and go to your local meetup.
Find a meetup when you travel.
Can't wait to see a fellow's at Lake Satoshi in a few months.
And neither can I, man.
I can't wait to see We All Eat at Lake Satoshi.
Hell yeah.
You know, just incidentally, my kids after Lake Satoshi last year,
they said their two favorite people were We All Eat and Bubba.
Like, wow.
So can't wait to see you, buddy.
Okay, now we got Jordy again, and this is the good boost.
He says, check out my Bitcoin events map.
I'm keeping track of not only the Bitcoin conferences,
there are other directories going on the same,
but also Bitcoin meetups.
I'm aggregating everything I find on Meetup, Luma, Telegram, Signal,
Setslantis, own websites, et cetera.
Anyone can submit their event if it's not there, and I'll validate them to avoid spam.
If you're curious to see what's going on in the world, check it out at btceventsmap.com.
And so, Jordy was at grassroots, right?
Yep, he was. All the way from Barcelona, yeah.
Yeah, he ended up staying the weekend, which was awesome.
I picked him up from the airport.
I don't even know why.
I just got a feeling from the signal group.
I was like, I'll pick you up.
Spending time with him was one of the highlights of actually my trip.
My wife and I got, I think because he stayed,
and my wife and I stayed a couple extra days,
and so we were all still in the hotel.
You know, getting to know him was definitely a highlight.
Yeah, he's got some really awesome stuff going on in Spain.
I think it's Barcelona, but it sounds like he's involved in more than just Barcelona.
And they have a ton of cool stuff going on.
And plus, he's working on this Atlantis sort of project.
So he was a great addition to grassroots this year.
I had a really good time hanging out with him too.
He had told me that Luma is a Solana product.
and that's one of the reasons that's like one of their big missions
is to get people off of Luma.
I think Pogge just switched to Luma.
We're going to have to let them know that.
Yeah, we did.
I had dinner with Shams last night.
Gotcha.
There are reasons why people can use it.
It's just, you know, so it's going to be a tough road.
Well, in the meantime, you can skip all of it
and just find everything in one place at btceventsmap.com.
Thanks, Jordy.
All right, we got Stacy again.
She says, BoostBot megathread.
How cool is that?
Love your podcast, learning so much.
Well, thanks again, Stacy.
And the BoostBot megathread is pretty cool
because I'm on it right now reading all the boosts.
They're all here, except for one, except for Boomer's boost.
I guess it almost works.
It was on mine.
I'm on the same thread.
on my computer.
So I saw,
I saw his booth.
Okay.
So I boosted the show.
And I said,
Augie's living the local Bitcoiner dream.
The more I talk with him,
the more I learn.
He's got such a diverse set of knowledge,
skills,
relationships,
and products.
He's trying it all.
And he's tying it all together with local Bitcoin cultures app.
And yeah,
I just wanted to thank Augie for coming on.
And if you hadn't listened to episode five,
check it out.
We talk all about the,
the,
The integration of circular economies, how meetups can succeed into this integration of circular economies and start cross-aggregating with other meetups in the region.
I love Augie, and I know that wasn't him boosting, but people should try to get to know him.
and so we've got uh just two more
and this one is from bitcoin is for everyone it's uh from may 22nd to may 23rd
2026 uh the portland group has six meetups a month come check us out and so yeah eric
is doing six meetups a month in Portland
in addition to this conference, which is insane.
And then he's got another one right after that.
Bitcoin is for everyone, May 22nd to May 23rd, 2026.
Join us for the largest Bitcoin-only conference
on the West Coast.
Bitcoin is for everyone, May 22nd to May 23rd.
Pizza Day weekend in Portland, Oregon.
Bitcoinisforeveryone.com.
Use this discount code.
Noster Insider for 21% off.
There you go, guys.
That's a steep discount.
So check it out.
Like I said, I said it on the last episode.
He boosted the last two.
It really looked like an awesome conference from what I saw from last year.
And I would assume it's going to be great again this year.
Dude, it's got to be hard being a Bitcoiner in Portland, Oregon.
And, I mean, it was great meeting him at the conference.
Great getting to know him.
But I have extra respect for people who really hunker down in enemy territory.
Six meetups a month in Portland is remarkable.
Kicking ass.
Building culture.
Well, that's all the boost.
Thanks, everyone.
We really appreciate it.
So now we've got the boost bot.
You can boost value for value on any podcasting 2.0 app.
It doesn't just have to be Fountain.
And when you do, it will also broadcast your note onto Noster through our end pubs.
So you're going to get immediate presence for your meetups.
I think the minimum on fountains, like 100 sats, you know, it doesn't cost a lot.
It's just the proof of work to participate and showcase that we got meetups going on everywhere.
Reed, you got anything else before we close it out?
Yeah, I'll just, you know, say, you know, we really encourage specifically meetup organizers, right?
Like, you know, this is a great chance for you to get in the habit of, you know, it's another way to get the word out about your about your meetup.
And, you know, it's you can get the amount of stats is not important.
We just want to get the message out there that you got a meetup coming up and we want to hear what you got going on.
So I think I we roll in the outro.
But, you know, if you do run a meetup, you know, reach out to us.
We'd love to have you on the pod.
How about you?
You got anything else?
Roll the outro.