A few weeks ago, I walked into a coffee shop and saw the Square logo on the point of sale device.

So I asked to pay with Bitcoin.

Not because I thought it would change the world. Not because I was trying to prove a point.

I just wanted to see what would happen.

The payment itself took seconds, but the conversation that followed lasted much longer. The owner got curious and started asking questions. The other two employees chimed in. Bitcoin went from abstract to tangible simply because I wanted a double shot of espresso.

This experience shifted my perspective on spending bitcoin through third parties like Square. Previously, I figured if the merchant isn’t actually holding the sats, I’ll just use a credit card.

But seeing the owner’s curiosity and the fruitful conversation that followed changed my mind.

I brought this up with Adam Simecka, founder of Manna Wallet, on the latest episode of the We Are Satoshi Podcast.

One of Adam’s core beliefs is that Bitcoin adoption doesn’t happen when people buy Bitcoin. It happens when they use it.

It’s a simple idea, but so many bitcoin holders don’t grasp it.

A lot of us spend hours discussing adoption, scaling, Lightning, self-custody, stablecoins, and the future of money. But sometimes the best way to understand where Bitcoin is headed is to stop theorizing and actually use it.

Whether you agree with Adam’s conclusions or not, this conversation made me think differently about what adoption really looks like.

Check out the full episode and subscribe on YouTube!

That was the question I kept coming back to at Bitcoin Is for Everyone in Portland.

Is bitcoin actually for everyone?

Or is it slowly becoming another tool for the rich to get richer?

It’s a fair question.

We see BlackRock buying bitcoin. We see Michael Saylor and public companies stacking. We see Wall Street building products around bitcoin. We see ETFs, IRAs, custody platforms, and financial institutions all trying to find their place in this new system.

And at the same time, we’re at a grassroots Bitcoin conference called Bitcoin Is for Everyone.

So how do we square that circle?

I asked that question to a few different people throughout the event, and the answers were simple but powerful.

Bitcoin is for everyone because inflation impacts everyone. Censorship impacts everyone. Centralization of money impacts everyone.

Even if you don’t own bitcoin yet, you still live inside a monetary system that affects your time, your energy, your savings, your health, your family, and your future.

You don’t need permission. You don’t need to be an accredited investor. You don’t need to know the right people. You don’t need to live in the right country.

You can simply choose better money.

I spoke with builders working at the intersection of Bitcoin and healthcare, people thinking deeply about health savings accounts, retirement accounts, tax advantages, and how bitcoin can become a long-term savings tool for real human needs.

That part really stood out to me.

And if we’re serious about building a better future, we can’t only think about bitcoin as something we hold. We have to think about how it changes the way we live.

Another big theme was self-custody.

This is where Bitcoin forces you to grow up.

Traditional finance teaches us to outsource responsibility. Give your money to the bank. Give your retirement to the institution. Trust the advisor. Trust the custodian. Trust the system.

Bitcoin gives you another option.

You can hold your own keys, run a node, and learn how the system works.

You can take responsibility.

That doesn’t mean everyone has to do everything perfectly on day one. There are tradeoffs. But the point is that bitcoin gives you the choice.

That choice does not exist in the traditional system.

One of the conversations that hit me hardest was around Wall Street coming into Bitcoin.

A lot of bitcoiners are uncomfortable with it.

I get it.

There’s something strange about watching the same institutions that benefited from the fiat system now build products around bitcoin.

But the reality is simple: they’re here. They’re not going away.

And maybe that’s not a sign that bitcoin has failed.

Maybe it’s a sign that bitcoin is working.

The old system is being forced to respond to the new one.

That doesn’t mean we hand them our keys.

That doesn’t mean we stop caring about sovereignty.

That doesn’t mean we turn bitcoin into another paper asset trapped inside the same broken system.

Because bitcoin is not only for Wall Street, corporations and the wealthy. 

Bitcoin is not only for people who got in early.

Bitcoin is for the person trying to protect their savings from inflation.

It’s for the family sending remittances across borders.

It’s for the merchant tired of paying unnecessary fees.

It’s for the artist trying to fund their work.

It’s for the builder who sees a problem and decides to create a solution.

That’s what I love about these in-person Bitcoin events.

Online, it’s easy to get stuck in arguments.

In person, you meet the humans building the future.

And you remember that bitcoin adoption is not some abstract thing happening on a chart.

That’s the part I want to focus on.

Bitcoin may be for everyone, but that doesn’t mean everyone will automatically understand it.

And after spending time in Portland with the people building, teaching, creating, and using bitcoin, I’m more convinced than ever:

Bitcoin is still for everyone.

But only if we keep doing the work.

WE ARE SATOSHI episode 54 is out now.

Bitcoiners love to say: “Bitcoin is freedom money.”

But here’s the uncomfortable question:

Can Bitcoin really be freedom money if using it exposes your entire financial life?

Bitcoin gives people a monetary network that no government, bank, or company can control. It is scarce, borderless, permissionless, and open to anyone with an internet connection.

But Bitcoin is not private by default.

The base chain is public. Every transaction lives forever. Every UTXO leaves a trail. And as surveillance tools, AI, exchange KYC databases, and chain analysis companies improve, the privacy mistakes people make today may become much more dangerous tomorrow.

This matter because money is not just a number in an app.

Money reveals all… where you go, who you support, what you believe, who you do business with, what causes you fund, what communities you belong to, and how much personal sovereignty you actually have.

A world where every payment is monitored is not freedom. It is financial surveillance with better branding.

This is why the Bitcoin privacy debate is not a niche topic for paranoid cypherpunks. It is not a side quest. It is not “altcoin talk.” It is fundamental to whether Bitcoin can function as real peer-to-peer electronic cash.

If Bitcoin becomes nothing more than an ETF asset held by custodians, then the system wins.

They do not need to “kill” Bitcoin. They just need to domesticate it.

Privacy is what allows Bitcoin to act as freedom money.

Without privacy, people self-censor. Merchants become afraid. Builders get targeted. Users become easier to deplatform, surveil, tax, blacklist, or intimidate.

And yes, this is where some Bitcoiners get uncomfortable.

Because if we are honest, Monero has forced the conversation. Privacy-by-default matters. UX matters. Tools that work for normal people matter.

That does not mean Bitcoin has failed. It means Bitcoiners need to stop pretending the privacy problem does not exist.

Lightning, CoinJoin, PayJoin, Silent Payments, self-custody, peer-to-peer acquisition, running your own node, and better wallet design all matter. So does defending the people building privacy tools.

It’s time to let go of the tribalism and re-orient around the real mission: improving human freedom.

Bitcoin is a tool. A powerful one. Maybe the most important monetary tool humanity has ever had.

But if we want Bitcoin to be more than digital gold in a brokerage account, we have to fight for its ability to be used privately, permissionlessly, and peer-to-peer.

Full episode with Seth for Privacy @ We Are Satoshi podcast and YouTube channel.

We are all born creative.

The fiat/education system slowly trains it out of us… and by the time we are fully “educated,” we’ve lost touch with that creative spirit.

We’ve been taught to follow, not to explore.

To memorize, not to imagine. To stay inside the lines instead of questioning why the lines exist at all.

But it’s still there… Dormant. Waiting.

Waiting for you to pick up the pen. To try something new. To create without worrying if it’s “good enough.”

Creativity isn’t about being an artist.

It’s about how you think. How you solve problems. How you choose to live your life.

Bitcoin woke that part of me back up.

It forces you to question everything. And once you start questioning…you start creating again.

So if you feel disconnected from that part of yourself — you didn’t lose it. You just stopped using it.

Start small. Start messy. Just start.

Your creative spirit is still there.

If this resonates, listen to the recent episode of We Are Satoshi:

After we learn about bitcoin- we listen to enough podcasts and read enough books- the question becomes, “How can I do more to allocate my time and energy into this new system?” In this talk (Adopting Bitcoin 2025 in El Salvador) I share a few lessons and themes I’ve found in my own quest to answer this question.

For most of my life, I didn’t think of myself as “creative.” Raised in the fiat system, I came out of school believing creativity was reserved for artists. I was the business-minded, logical, pragmatic type — or so I thought. What I didn’t understand then was that creativity is an inherent part of being human.

After college, I picked up a camera with the dream of making documentary films. But that chapter didn’t last long. I had a few rough experiences in the film industry and figured trading time for money was never going to lead to the life I want. I gave up on filmmaking.

Fast forward and bitcoin brought me back towards creating, podcasting and filmmaking. I am currently making a documentary film, Build on Bitcoin, documenting Bulgaria’s grassroots Bitcoin communities in the world. What I experienced there completely transformed how I think about bitcoin adoption. I traveled the country meeting the people building on bitcoin: a guy building a DIY lightning ATM for his local café, a couple writing a children’s book about inflation, a teacher using robotics to subtly introduce Bitcoin ideas to kids, and farmers mining with excess solar because the grid doesn’t support their needs.

None of them waited for permission. None of them worried about scale. They simply saw a problem, applied their creativity, and built something meaningful. This is what permissionless work looks like in the real world — and it’s what the future of Bitcoin actually depends on.

The more time I spend with these builders, the more I see the connection between creativity and freedom. Fiat suppresses creativity by design. It pushes us toward predictable paths, standardized thinking, and safe careers. Bitcoin gives us back the sovereignty to choose how we spend our time and energy. But with that sovereignty comes responsibility.

And that’s where creativity comes in. Creativity to design your life intentionally, turning vision into action. It’s about building something that didn’t exist before — whether that’s a film, a business, a meetup, or simply a better version of yourself.

Bitcoin doesn’t need spectators. It needs contributors. If you feel that pull toward building something, trust it. Follow it. You don’t need permission, you just need to do the proof of work.

Full presentation:

WE ARE ALL SATOSHI!