About
this project

Facilitating the learning

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Falling into the Bitcoin rabbit hole is a truly joyful surprise. It combines the bountiful acquisition of sound knowledge with the encounter of a rather unique community:

2017-2022 has seen an explosion of high-quality content published on the Internet. More is coming everyday and it is  taxing to follow! I spent 1000s of hours consuming this material. And I thought it would be great to spare newcomers a fastidious sorting effort by providing them a selection of outstanding content and some guidance to engage in this dense learning process.

They care for society, cherish the family unit, and hold Nature sacred. They favour long term investments respectful of nature over predatory ventures yielding short-term gains. Not quite the picture that the mainstream media is painting to you! You will find out by yourself, bitcoiners shines a light of hope in the rather gloomy tunnel the world is now travelling through. 

Arrival - inspiration

Denis Villeneuve, the Canadian film director  – Dune (2021), Blade Runner 2049 (2017), Arrival (2016), Sicario (2015), Prisoners (2013), Enemy (2013), and Incendies (2010) – designed a real masterpiece with this stunning Sci-Fi film. Timeless landscapes, an entrancing soundtrack, and a plot slowly unfolding, subtly revealing us a delicate, universal an all loving intelligence. 

The movie Arrival (originally titled Premier Contact i.e. first TouchPoint) has been a beautiful source of inspiration for this project. It tells the story of a female linguist and a male mathematician called in emergency to decipher the language of visiting aliens.

It takes them a few touch points with these visitors before they can start assembling the puzzle. The linguist undergoes a cognitive and psychic maturation and as a result and she breaks the code. All around the world experts join forces in awe of the gift this speech represents for mankind. It changes people's worldviews and brings peace.

The parallels between Arrival (one of the most beautiful sci-fi film ever) and our encounter with Bitcoin are profound. As we fall in the rabbit hole, we shockingly realize how little we know about money, this primordial form of speech, of which Bitcoin is the most advanced expression. The deeper we fall, the more our “time preference” changes: we engage in more meaningful activities, letting go of more futile consumption patterns seeking instant gratification.

In Arrival, the main protagonists learn a new, cryptic, language. There are striking similarities with our own learning processes as we discover Bitcoin: it takes multiple touchpoints to start embracing the complexity of the speech; the comprehension of Bitcoin opens up a new paradigm ; and the benefits derived from Bitcoin, individually and collectively are life-changing. Bitcoin is hope!

about me

 As a late teenager I was a mad windsurfer, a Civilization II addict, and a dreamy Bob MarleyBob Dylan, and Pink Floyd listener. I left University with the mind of a (mostly) rational engineer. For a time I fancied Sci-Fi literature, quantum physics pop science books, entertaining the dream of witnessing a proper Kuhn's scientific revolution. I never thought I would see a paradigm shift the magnitude of what Bitcoin is bringing about. Not only is this real, all around us, changing institutions, behaviours, culture and mindsets, but we can all partake in it actively! 

I did a bit of (not enough) proper engineering i.e. building services improving lives durably.  I mostly supported water-related initiatives through research, policy development, training, group facilitation and partnership building. Discovering complex institutional and cultural contexts, analysing ways to improve access to water and sanitation in rural areas or booming slums was all very stimulating. Ground realities challenged my mental maps and I collaborated with people from diverse horizons. 

Yet, working as a programme evaluator, I could witness the generally poor performance of these initiatives. Unpacking the reasons behind this systemic failure, I realized how most institutions are incentivized to align with the agenda of the self-proclaimed  "Aid to Development" sector. An agenda often at odds with the priority needs of the "beneficiary populations". Just as many other decadent institutions, this sector is overly preoccupied by its own survival and growth, and arguably only very moderately concerned by the efficacy and second-order impacts of its action. With this perspective in mind, I increasingly saw myself as a foot soldier of donor organisations aggressively pushing ideologies and programmes of very debatable relevance.   

I long felt like a damned heretic yearning for redemption. Reading Ken Wilber and Rupert  Sheldrake alleviated the pain, but binge-watching Thomas Sowell and Jordan B Peterson is what cemented my resolve to seek an exit. I found the exit on my second touchpoint with Bitcoin, avidly consuming Andreas Antonopoulos' conference videos. It is about supporting the Bitcoinization process. After all, this joint project tangibly addresses the humanitarian, environmental, and socioeconomic development goals at the core of my initial vocation. Now how can I contribute? Well, BTC TouchPoint is my first attempt at adding value. Let me know what you think! I now know that good intentions do not suffice.