Airdrop #09: @jack turned on Bitcoin tipping! ⚡

Welcome to Arry's Airdrop #09! 
Happy October - this never-ending year in this pandemic seems to be flying by so quickly, and so much has happened already this year. Almost a blur. Personally, it was great to go check out Miami for the Bitcoin conference and see a lot of familiar faces (and meet new ones too). We've continued to build strong relationships with our policy makers here in Cascadia. I've met many new folks I'd call friends as we've been coordinating state by state (from FL to NY to MI to TX to CA and Cascadia), and with federal (especially the Blockchain Association) on better ways to collaborate in the name of blockchain/cryptocurrency advocacy. I created and launched another Blockchain & Crypto Fundamentals course. On the personal front, I'm pregnant with our third boy. Our eldest son started kindergarten and we even moved. I'm grateful for the opportunity to be on this journey with you and hope that we can find ways to support and serve you.

What's my point? Let's not be strangers - please find me in our community Slack channel (it's an open Slack for anyone in the community). Shoot me a reply to this email and let's catch up. Feedback. Suggestions. Random friendly comment. Or just a simple hello. I'd love to hear from you.

​Airdrop #09: @jack turned on Bitcoin tipping! ✨
​A little over a week ago, in case anyone missed it, the tipping feature became enabled on Twitter ✨.

Back in 2018-2019, this was one of those features I was wishing existed (not just on Twitter, but also Uber, grocery stores, gas stations, etc) - and now it does. I even considered going out and building a dApp (decentralized application) focused on the Bitcoin tipping scenario at one point.

Twitter did it and went even further - enabling tipping to connect directly to other services like Venmo, CashApp, and more. A super positive note, Twitter does NOT take any cut of the transaction - they only connect. (Kudos to Twitter for not being yet another greedy middleman in people's transactions.) 

See below for my screen (in-progress) as I went through and setup my mobile profile on Twitter. You can see that the user interface is very simple and easy to follow. Not scary at all.

BTW - If you haven't setup your Bitcoin Strike account yet (the CEO is an OG, Jack Mallers) --- Join Strike and earn $5 (yay!) when you sign up and verify your account using my referral code 0VIFRV: https://invite.strike.me/0VIFRV. Remember, Strike uses the Lightning Network - faster cheaper BTC payments. It's what you'd use to send BTC to El Salvador or any country with Strike enabled, for free. Also remember the NFL football player, Russell Okung who demanded to get his wages paid in Bitcoin? They're doing that using Strike as well. One of the best ways to learn, is to try it out. Or as folks in this space say, "do your own research". 

What's Strike, according to Strike?

"Strike is the easiest way to send, spend, remit, and invest your money. Onboard in seconds and unlock the future of digital payments. Simply link a payment method, deposit funds, and let us take care of the rest. What do people use Strike for? Strike is used to buy and sell bitcoin, tip on the web, send and receive micropayments, remit money, and make payments with friends." 

This interview with @jackmallers is straight □

pic.twitter.com/tYcp2nivNE

— Documenting Bitcoin □ (@DocumentingBTC) October 1, 2021

Why you should care. Here's a couple of reasons:

1. Now anyone, everyone, including the billions of unbanked people in the world, to access one of the best financial solutions of the world, Bitcoin. Did you know, that access to any kind of financial product is one of the biggest indicators of quality of life a person can have? Over 2 billion people don't have access to any of the products we in the U.S. take for granted, every day. 
2. Jack Dorsey, CEO of both tech giants Square and Twitter, is walking the talk, publicly using the influence he has at his fingertips to do so.  He also believes in global financial inclusion and accessibility, especially for underserved communities. We'll see how much of an impact Jack will have in the end. Time will tell. Extremely bullish, he believes Bitcoin will become the native currency of the internet. He is quoted to have said: “Bitcoin changes absolutely everything,” Dorsey said Friday at the Bitcoin 2021 Conference. “I don’t think there is anything more important in my lifetime to work on.”
   In fact, “if I were not at Square or Twitter, I would be working on bitcoin. If [bitcoin] needed more help than Square or Twitter, I would leave them for bitcoin,” he said. “But, I believe both companies have a role to play.”
   
   “Whatever I can do, whatever my companies can do to make [bitcoin] more accessible to everyone is how I’m going to spend the rest of my life,” Dorsey said.
   

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I closed out my Blockchain & Crypto Fundamentals cohort last week - it was bittersweet. I woke up Monday (October 4th) missing the class and holding myself back from writing them today. I wanted to share a couple of key presentations that really influenced me during my journey over the past several years. Actually in fact, I saw these live at the conference Russell Okung (yes the same NFL guy) hosted for us in LA back in 2019: 

• The Legend of Satoshi Nakamoto by Jill Carlson
• Bitcoin is the Ultimate Social Justice by Jimmy Song

Definitely recommend watching those two presentations if you get a chance. Let me know what you think too after you watch them - would love to trade notes.What I've learned is that whether you're excited about the protocols and technology or the cryptocurrencies, it all starts with the fundamentals. Fundamentals are everything to do with the theory, the context, the history and the "why it matters".  

The waitlist has already been filling up quickly for my next "Blockchains & Cryptos Fundamentals" course. Get on the waitlist and get in-the-know. Standby, I'll be releasing a THREE DAY workshop version of this course for those that need an even more compressed and curated course.

COMING UP:

• AMA with decentralized health insurance Decent's CEO, Nick Soman on October 8th, 12-1pm PST
• AMA with Neil Bergquist, CEO of Coinme on October 15th, 12-1pm PST
• AMA with Jesse Proudman of Markara on October 22nd, 12-1pm PST
• More coming up --- stay tuned! 

​In case you didn't know, all AMAs with guests are recorded and posted on our podcast and YouTube show, Windshield Time. Here are the recent AMA videos: 

• Jennifer Mace on Crypto Tax
• Hong Fang, CEO of Okcoin
• Alex Mashinsky, CEO of Celsius
• NFTs with Maggie Xu, CEO of MetaSpace
• Crypto Taxes with Patrick Larsen (ZenLedger)

Coming soon... I have to post the AMA with Jerry David Chan (OG Bitcoiner) and the TaxBit team shortly. Will share links as soon as they are ready.
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Join my weekly AMA , every Friday, 12-1pm PSTBlockchain is a game changer as a powerful alternative technology to what most businesses use today. Cryptocurrencies and other kinds of digital tokens are fascinating. This meetup is all about focusing our time on global impactful topics, not just crypto-fluffery.

Join us if you want to get into real authentic discussions about what really matters in the blockchain space and have some actual FUN while we're at it, via the Blockchain Underground.

See you next week!
– Arry (@ArryinSeattle)