You're The Voice | by Efrat Fenigson - Ep. 21: André Loja - A New Reality & Bitcoin Atlantis

Episode Date: February 17, 2024

My guest today is André Loja, the visionary behind the upcoming Bitcoin Atlantis conference and the Free Madeira initiative. We discussed the amazing Bitcoin Atlantis festival coming up in Madeira in 2 weeks, Andre’s journey into Bitcoin, Bitcoin adoption in Madeira and the risk of CBDCs. André revealed some of the conference’s program, surprises, and the many satellite events. We also discussed the supportive nature of the Bitcoin community, and how to create a better, different reality these days, amidst degradation of principles and morals in society. We touched on the educational gap in understanding the bigger picture and the root cause of societal problems. Get a ticket to Bitcoin Atlantis (and meet me!) using my 10% discount code: EFRAT ⁠https://bitcoinatlantis.com/⁠ -- MY TAKEAWAYS -- ► Bitcoin adoption in Madeira is driven by a grassroots movement and the support of the local government. ► CBDCs may not pose a significant competition to Bitcoin, as Bitcoin's decentralized nature and global reach cannot be easily replicated. ► The Bitcoin Atlantis conference offers a comprehensive program with multiple stages, workshops, and satellite events, providing a platform for education, networking, and celebration of Bitcoin. ► The Bitcoin community is known for its friendliness, helpfulness, and willingness to collaborate, creating a unique and supportive environment. -- LINKS -- André’s ⁠Twitter⁠ | Bitcoin Atlantis ⁠Twitter⁠ & ⁠Website⁠ | FREE Madeira ⁠Twitter⁠ & ⁠Website⁠ Efrat's Twitter:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://twitter.com/efenigson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Efrat's Telegram:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://t.me/efenigson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Watch/listen on all platforms:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://linktr.ee/yourethevoice⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Support Efrat's work:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.buymeacoffee.com/efenigson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Support Efrat with Bitcoin:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://geyser.fund/project/efenigson⁠⁠⁠ ► If you got value, please like, comment, share, subscribe and support my work. Thank you! -- SPONSORS -- ►► Get your TREZOR wallet & accessories, with a 5% discount, using my code at checkout (get my discount code from the latest episode - yep, you’ll have to watch it): ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://affil.trezor.io/SHUn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  -- CHAPTERS -- 00:00 Coming Up 01:35 Introduction    04:25 Andre’s Journey into Bitcoin 07:35 Kids & Bitcoin 11:45 Madeira Adopting Bitcoin & Differences from El Salvador  19:00 #CBDCs & Bitcoin 25:45 The Bitcoin Atlantis Conference 38:00 The Bitcoin Community 41:50 Degradation of Principles & Morals  45:00 Creating a Better Reality with Bitcoin 46:10 Bridging the Knowledge Gap Through Education 47:40 “Talking Heads” Panel at Bitcoin Atlantis & A Message of Hope 49:10 Invitation to Madeira

I'm old enough to see a true degradation of principles. Principles. Of... Morals. Yeah. Everything's collapsing. Yes. Everything's a mess.

People are disturbed. People are not mentally sane for the most part. And I don't think people realize that. People are living in the moment and watching the news and reacting, but not thinking in a low time frame about the future about their kids about how they want society to be democracy is going really bad it has to collapse somehow and the more people we can take into this bright orange future this other reality a more sane reality back to first principles back to family life i just i'm just worried about my family my you know let's take

it back to reality less tiktok more family life take all that noise out of people's brains yeah and let's try and communicate better and what better tool to communicate than an information technology like bitcoin that's all well that's that's the only thing we need a fair equalizer for the world that doesn't extract value from people's lives and let them you know let them lead their families and community lives you know in a more proper way hello andre thanks for joining me on an episode of you're the voice hello afrat how are you good to be here i'm good i'm very good good weather oh it's getting crazy by the day it's two weeks to go uh but everything's set up

but this is the you know the the it's actually where everything starts to happen you know the all the months of preparation uh led to this two weeks now of full craziness putting putting every everything up um but yeah it's looking really good you're in crunch time you're definitely in crunch time now yes so yeah it's it's hard and i wish you good luck in the next two weeks because it's going to be even more difficult as you go i need it a little bit yes let's start with a quick intro so andre loja a serial entrepreneur father of four and the visionary behind the upcoming bitcoin atlantis conference just around the corner where i have the pleasure of participating participating as a speaker so thanks for having me um me and another

160 people how many more now more uh i don't know the last count honestly but i think it's over 180 now more or less plus the other people that are helping in the workshop areas you know alan bits maker bits well we'll discuss all of that i guess we'll discuss all of them so wait wait with that So not only that Andre is the force behind this groundbreaking event, but Andre is also the driving force behind the Free Madeira initiative. As a dedicated Bitcoiner and publisher translator of Bitcoin literature, he took on the extraordinary mission of orange peeling the president of the beautiful Portuguese island of Madeira about a year and a half ago, which is where Andre lives, right? Yes. Yeah. Is there anything that I've missed about your background?

Can you share more? Well, at least after Orange Building, I guess. But yeah, we are very fortunate right now to have all of this happening here. It wasn't only me, of course. There was a lot of, you know, a series of little things that happened in the last few years that made this happen. and I was very fortunate that that you know little series of small things led to this huge conference that is taking place now in two weeks that I think it's the epitome of everything that we're working for here at Trima data and let

distinction on on both entities so Bitcoin Atlantis is organized by Madera, which is a non-profit in the base of this all, with the big aim of adoption and education of Bitcoin here in our archipelago. Madera is comprised of two islands. And yeah, Free Madera is a long-term project. We aim to help with the education of everyone around us, from business to individuals to you know, public entities, lobbying the government, you know, influencing as much as you can on this new, amazing open source technology

that we truly believe in. So when, let me stop you here for a second. When did you get into Bitcoin and why? Well, I did the usual path. You know, I started getting interested in crypto at the time. And, you know, I was, you know, badly influenced by the narratives of those who know less as anyone else at the time. You know, I remember, I don't know exactly, 2016, 2017. And, you know, I started getting into all those narratives about smart computers and, you know, ICOs and all that stupid stuff.

so i paid my tuition as we usually say to come out on the other and a complete bitcoin maxi and you know getting rid of all the nonsense and when you say nonsense you're talking about other crypto coins just so people understand yes because in the end when you truly understand it then you dig deep uh you understand that it's all noise um there's no value at all on you know 99.9 percent of those crypto projects um and you you know people say that you get into bitcoin because number go up technology you know because it's getting up in value and you want to make some money and whatever but when you truly understand it actually that mindset goes away and you understand that it's this amazing open source technology that was discovered for the good of

humanity and your your mindset changes completely i'm not the same person i was a few years ago at all yep and um nowadays i don't even care about the price of bitcoin usually of course you follow it you know you're interested it's it's part of the success of the of the of the network of the technology and so on it's almost like a measure measuring stick i guess for for what's happening in the network yes that's not that's not the most important at all and uh and actually i'm a better person now or i truly believe i'm a better person now because now i'm truly focused on on trying to be better for my family for my community for for my island And especially, that's why we did Frima D'Ara in the end.

I have four kids, as you mentioned. And as Greg Foss put it, it's for the kids. And it is. In fact, it is. Because when you truly understand what's happening here, you start fighting for them and for a better world, for a better future for everyone. Yeah.

And in the age where they get it, you also explain it to them. I explained it to my son. He got it. and now he's got a Trezor wallet and now he's asking me to send him money all the time. I'm not sure I've done the right thing, but I want to see my money grow. That's what he cares about now.

But that's good, you know, like the savings. How shall I put it? Even my little kids, my oldest one is nine. My youngest is four. They are all in a row. Now, of course, because I'm addicted, right? bitcoin infects your mind so it's all over me and my family and everything that surrounds me so they know and they're always you know making fun i go i go in the car

listening to podcasts right yeah and they are like oh they all they only hear the english words bitcoin bitcoin bitcoin and they go over the school saying you know they have a wallet and they're saving for their future so it's it's a very nice it's a very nice mindset for themselves as well and and the good positioning for them instead of just you know spending money on the sweets you know exactly and it's unusual for kids to talk like that or think like that which is very cool i think in the conference you're gonna have something for for families and kids as well right Absolutely. You know, being a father of four and traveling to other conferences as I did in the past, you know, we immediately wanted, when we were designing what we wanted to do and make of this conference, we decided from the start to make it almost like a vacation to Madara. it's already a very good destination already a great place to visit anyway yep so we decided

you know we are in the middle of the Atlantic it's not the easiest place to get to although we have a lot of connections to all over Europe and even the United States and so on but it's not like a you know a major city in the middle of Europe for example so we decided well let's let's make it not only very very interesting of course on the technical part and the conversations and everything but let's try to make it um a bigger bouquet and offer a lot of satellite events you know interesting stuff for the families bring the wives bring the kids make it family friendly and i think we did it i think a lot of it's so good to see a lot of people are saying they're going to bring the wives for the first time the kids you know we created a kids block as we call

of an area inside the venue just for kids what are they gonna do there oh many many things and we had the help of great people like uh it's separated in two areas uh one for one to six years old and from six to sixteen uh one from six of course it's more you know toddler activities they're gonna have face paintings games stories you know the sort yeah uh fathers and mothers can leave the kid for a bit to watch a conversation there will be nannies there they can come in of course and play with them and you know of course bitcoin related paintings and all the all the sorts um and on the more older area uh you know it's it's it's a full schedule they have a stage they have a stage of its own yeah they have a stage of its own we had great help from a lot

of people frankie scott and mallory from chamory uh bitco and his wife uh nathan day daniel prince and the kids so uh coach carbon and they're gonna have the stage they're gonna have workshops chocolate workshops lightning piggies guys are gonna be here uh they kind of have a lot of physical activities and games and there's tennis tennis table tennis football a lot of games with balls and they have a lot of activities there for the kids which is going to be amazing super okay so let's i'm taking you back before we touch more on the conference we'll come back to it take me to madera in general what does it mean that madera today is supporting bitcoin i know you started this process with the president about a year and a half ago and i know it's quite

different from el salvador for example and so let's talk about what it means and what does it look like in the day-to-day in madera when you know merchants or or businesses are accepting this is very interesting to clear uh because there was a lot of confusion since since the moment the president went to miami in i think in 22 and he made the announcement that madera was adopting bitcoin which is actually the wrong wording a lot of people thought we were adopting as a legal tender which is just not possible at all right um what he meant was adopting in in the embracing kind of way like i support the initiative yes but let's make it clear the i think the president understands and it's part of a overall strategy for madera itself that i'll

explain uh but free madera is a independent organization we are a non-profit apolitical we are not connected to the government we don't have government funding not at all uh we are supported by the sponsors by the donations by the community and we are a bottoms-up initiative for the education of bitcoin overall of course bitcoin touches a lot of stuff and from energy to education to remittances to to businesses to so we are working on a lot of different things in that area uh but in the end we are an independent organization um but we appreciate the support of course it's better to have the support of course people in the positions of power that understand that this is an important technology to to support than not you know it's it would be

another fight and you know every jurisdiction has his own trade-offs as well we are in europe we are a community entity in europe so we are a semi-autonomous region of portugal what this means is we have our own president and our own government but we are not fully independent we have a connection to the portuguese government and a lot of strict rules on what we can do and what we cannot do and of course the big big matters we don't have a lot of power like taxes and definitely a lot legal tender um you know defense uh stuff like that like the major nationality uh so we we decide on we have a lot of leeway to create our own regulations in a lot of education all the other areas but there's a very strict rules on what we can and cannot do

uh so it was never really on the equation that bitcoin was was going to be legal tender here in madera not at all um and the president sees it more uh so madera was very it is very touristic still um a big part of the economy is supported on the tourism sector and especially after covid i think the president and the government overall understood that it would be you know smart not to diversify a little bit of the economy of Madeira, not be so dependent on tourism. So they started betting big on supporting

startups, new technologies from every part of the economy, not only cryptocurrencies. I always give the same examples. They created a cluster for

sea-related startups, for example. We are surrounded by see it made sense so they created a cluster they're inviting startups to do their work here so they're supporting it um they did we have the the international business center that also serves as support because there are some tax advantages and so on to incorporate the business this year they are creating the new hospital and there will be a whole section for a science related the startups as well on health-related technologies. And the president sees that as another harm of that strategy.

He sees Bitcoin as, you know, as I was saying before we started, he has a saying that I really like, you cannot stop wind with your fingers. So this is happening. The new generations are using it. There's no, you know, we should embrace it. We should understand it. We should support it.

And in our view, that's great. And that's already great in itself, that he understands that. I don't think he's fully orange-pilled. No time for that as well. But he understands that Madeira needs to be in the forefront of this adoption. And so he appreciates the effort and he supports us, which is great. Which is great. And if we know that Bitcoin is a grassroots movement

and more and more people in Madeira will learn about it through Free Madeira and through the conference and through the willingness of the government, then more people will use it, adopt it, and then it will become a reality more and more. And that's the goal. So I think that's a perfect path to take. That's the path. I think it will be the path in most countries

because most countries are not going to go the El Salvador way. Absolutely. I don't know of many politicians that will be embracing a new currency as a legal tender that is out of their control. It's a very unique case in El Salvador. And it's actually part of the ethos, right? I don't even...

Although I love what Bukele is doing, right? He led by example. He was very brave in doing it. Yeah. But in the end, we are, as a libertarian myself and an admirer of the free markets that are more efficient than a lot of the socialism that we see around us nowadays.

I believe that the best money should win on a free market. So let the market decide. Let's not impose from the top down. Yeah, same. Robert Bridlove was telling me the same thing when I had a chat with him. He said, you know, I'm definitely all four countries adopting Bitcoin, but I'm not in favor of legal tenders in the concept of it

because we shouldn't be coercing people to use a certain currency just like we don't want to coerce anything else on them. We want to give them the freedom to choose. In a way, you can even argue that it wasn't good in a way because it's part of the central decision and enforcing that we are fighting. Yes. although the decision was in our favor and we like it it's not like the ethos is not good that it's not the way to do it i'm with you i'm with you 100 so yeah let let the best currency win right

yes let the best money win okay so um okay we talked a bit about free madera um let's talk about about cbdc the central bank digital currencies we know that the european central bank is preparing to roll out cbdc in europe christine lagarde the head of the ecb is coming out every few weeks and updating us on their progress which is going very well obviously according to their plans and they're getting more and more advanced with it lately i've seen a white paper from the german government about the technical requirements product requirements of cbdc they're in real advanced stages of i think they all have the systems in place already they're just waiting for the right excuse to launch them they may create this excuse they this excuse may may be created naturally and

and organically who knows but it's happening that's for sure and in a place where we have bitcoin already adopted by some of the uh population some of the public do you think that the introduction of CBDCs is going to be a competition for them? Do you think they're going to get it like in a place like Madeira, where there is already some awareness for Bitcoin or for different money? Do you think they're going to understand the difference between CBDC or the digital euro that's coming up and Bitcoin? That's from the public point of view. And from the government point of view do you think your president is then going to reject bitcoin when that happens i don't have answers for you straight answer for you it's really hard you know

honestly i haven't been following actually those developments of the cbdc's of course we know about it you know i'm i think i know more about that from the memes on twitter than anything else um i'm not you know i think they'll do what they'll they'll do right uh i'm very much of the positive mind that bitcoin is have i'm building my own reality and um i am you know of course we are biased in our perspective with i i believe i'm doing good and the community here believes it's doing good for those around us that still don't get it that's one of our goals Right. And we are building it. And we think that, you know, one by one, the most people that we can bring in and protect in a way from those things that will happen, the better, you know, as far as, you know, let's make it real. you know let's be real uh the president here has limited powers on that you know he's under the

the main portuguese government and especially under the eu and the bureaucrats of brussels yeah so if they really want to enforce something all over europe they will uh if the president is going to reject bitcoin well if he if it does happen but i don't know let them do it yeah they are not people are not going to stop using it because of that that's one of the things they don't really understand that's one of the big problems with this all enforcing of this new technology that they don't really understand that they cannot stop it exactly they can slow it down i guess with a lot of you know of course you know let's go hardcore yeah penal what's the name doing going restrictions enforcing and fines and

yeah mandates restrictions whatever but in the end i can still use in a way that they don't really understand it on a peer-to-peer basis with everyone i want around me and around the world so it's just again the president you cannot stop wind with your hands and they are trying with one finger like it doesn't make any sense um and you can there are some things that you can just you know laugh honestly and you know and move on and keep building because it'll be what it'll be we'll be here to to to do our own thing and of course we don't want to do anything illegal we are a public entity and now i'm talking about freeman out of course so we will have to comply with the business rules and whatever but that doesn't mean we are not an education uh you know

agency in the end they're not gonna put us in jail for educating people right so you know so you know do do what they do uh you know i i really i'm gonna be a bit hardcore i really don't care good we're doing our own thing no that's exactly what i'm saying when once people get bitcoin you know it's coming there's nothing we can do to stop it and we can just work on preparing ourselves best as as possible by moving to other systems building our own systems you know we don't need to fight we can go even i know your audience is not the most hardcore understanding the technicalities some of them aren't right yes but we can go even like you know if you want to go really hardcore bitcoin is just information how are they going to stop

information that it doesn't make any sense at all i can bring bitcoin in my head uh wherever i go and as knut puts it we are our own bitcoin which is really really interesting and mind-blowing for those who don't understand um but it's true and i can keep bitcoin in me uh because it's just information i can access my bitcoin with just information true that's truly unstoppable and they don't understand the technology and honestly i think the the legislators and even i'm i'm putting away that they're doing this by malice just by ignorance yes um they don't understand it maybe one day you know it's it's a long-term thing it's not going to happen from one day to the other yep and uh people should start uh learning about it if they aren't but after

listening to my podcast for so many episodes i'm sure they are already looking into bitcoin it's not possible that they aren't my last two episodes by the way were with max and stacy and before that with robert bridlove so you know if you continue listening it means you know much better speakers than i am oh shut up shut up okay let's talk about the conference about bitcoin atlantis so i um you said more than 180 maybe speakers 5 000 people are gonna come right well we don't know if we're gonna get to 5 000 that was a big aim uh but we're gonna have thousands for sure a few thousands which is amazing you know it's it's amazing it's a very big conference and it's kind of a weekly festival starting march 1st to march 3rd but the days before and after with a lot of

satellite events uh basically running the whole week and so many good things the conference itself is three days right and yes and by the way if you want to still get a ticket you can on the website and you can use my 10 discount code um i checked it's working you can go to the website and buy a ticket and verify no i mean you you can meet me if you want to come but you can also meet amazing freedom lovers and bitcoiners there the people are just amazing so what was the first inspiration for the conference andre well it actually starts as everything in my life it us is just to do with this crazy idea that then evolved into this monster um we have a great advisory board it's a pattern with you that small things start and then become monsters

well it's a person with me to just evolve my ideas quickly and grandiosely as my wife would It's crazy, Bob. I love it. But we have a very, an amazing advisory board at Frimadera. People like Jeff Booth and Samson Mao and Gigi and Max Sillebrand. You name it. So many. Knut, Daniel, Greg Foss, Larry Leopard, Troy Cross.

Many people helping us and advising us. It's great. And at one point, we started the Frimadera project. and at one point we were having a weekly meeting and I dropped the idea of doing a conference here. But in my head, it would be something really small. I was just hoping to get the advisory board over to continue with the conversations with government,

you know, public entities, private stakeholders, the energy company, you know, keep the movement. But then because of that advisory board, some big names started confirming. And at one point, you know, I'm not the kind of guy to do something lighter, so if you, you know, I just, my God, now we have Jack Dorsey

and Michael Saylor confirmed. This is a great opportunity, so let's just, let's go big. Let's do it properly. So that's when I decided, okay, let's go all in. Let's do this. Let's try to make the best conference that we can.

And it all started, you know, like a snowball growing, and now we have this amazing week with I would say even more than 200 speakers because you have to include the workshop guys and everything that's happening

and yeah we got it on the stadium it's an amazing it's a soccer stadium? oh my god look at that you're gonna find you're gonna find this in the website I'm gonna start getting stomach aches

I'm speaking there we have a main stage in the pitch facing the sittings of the stadium and then everything happens around on a big ring outside the stadium wow we have an open source stage we have a book corner with the stage of its own you know author talks book signings art gallery curated by fractal encrypt full of great things he's going to show up his latest sculpture here we have an exhibition hall that inside the exhibition hall there are three different rooms uh one of them is managed by my first bitcoin looking glass and amity edge full of with a full schedule of workshops learning classes everything there's one room managed by btc sessions yeah full of workshops

as well fed is doing some workshops as well we're gonna have the fed federation set up for every yet in the, uh, we have an Ellen bits maker, bits room as well for more Akerspace kind of thing matters by Ben arc. We're gonna have the seed signer, seed hammer guys with us as well. I mentioned the kids block. We're gonna have the gaming lounge, the Atlantic bazaar, the food court with great food as well. Uh, and foods and drinks and, you know, Madera wine and white wine

from Madera and, you know, great things. We're going to have the Wolf Lounge for the VIPs with a bar of its own as well and the Pleb Lounge and the commentary booth and the lightning and the photo booth. And there's so many things happening on the venue. Music? Music, especially on the satellite events. So we created a lot of satellite events.

It all starts on Wednesday, the 27th, with the golf tournament in Santa Serra Golf Course, which is amazing above the clouds with great views wow um and then there's a lot of there's a lot of events also by different partners like um my first bitcoin is doing a whole day of an conference uh that's on the 29th uh we have bitbox doing stuff we are trezor doing stuff and this is different you know different stuff happening all around uh but more related network as well i'm going women's the women's branch yes um will happen on the 29th as well in the morning yes uh we have the welcome to bitcoin that's a full day 100 in portuguese on a different venue for those who are starting

okay it's being managed by the community the set of bitcoin and 21 portuguese community and it's a full day of schedule and workshops on the 29th we have on the 29th as well the rise of atlantis which is a vc pitch for startups with a big set of judges it's being managed by martel fox from layer for talent um we have parties a lot of parties going on so on the 29th there will already be the first party with Valerie Love and DJ Watzel on Bitcoin Bark Affairs, we were calling

it. We have the speakers reception as well on the 29th and then the big event starts on the 1st of course so a full day of programming on all the stages and at night we have the special meetup in the

Design Center which is going to be amazing as well a very cool location and a big party and we'll have roger 9000 and satoshi rakamoto where a few bitcoiners will rock some tunes there it's going to be great as well and then on the second at night we have the big big thing for us at least i think it's the best satellite event we have which is the music festival the hatless music festival and on quinta magnolia which is a beautiful park by the main venue and it's just basically a cool

very cool place to be where there's going to be food and drinks as well and an amazing headline by Theo Katzmann, this amazing artist from the States that is part of Wolfpack and it's going to be a great time. Any favorite sessions that you have?

Any favorite? Favorite sessions, I mean a panel or a talk or anything that you want to recommend people to... We're going to publish the agenda this weekend, Monday at the most. It was very hard to fit everything, so I apologize that we're putting it last minute, 15 days to go,

but it is what it is, you know. Oh, and you're going to see. It's really hard to pick one because there are so many talks in three different stages. It's crazy. I think the worst thing is people won't be able to see everything at the same time. For sure.

but let me you know it doesn't stop there on sunday we have the mega pleb dinner also to close it up then we're gonna have the famous um the the meat on skewer it's gonna be great as well and and it doesn't stop on the on the fourth on sunday on sorry monday we still have the atlantic football football cup by coach carbon it's more for families and kids it's gonna be really cool and it starts with a lot oh on the mornings of the event there's also the alfini seaside one uh every morning um and on the fourth we have the pleb walk and the alfini mountain run as well there's a and the boat trip and the and the film festival we have a film festival on monday i don't think people people will have to come prepared and energized to be everywhere at the

same time wow wow we need to work on quantum physics techniques in order to multiply to different places at the same time maybe maybe jeff can help there yeah i'm gonna interview him I'll ask you that. On the last block, on the main stage, we divided the programming in different blocks. Great people helping us. It starts with the press and pitch block, intro to Bitcoin.

That's on the website already. Go there and check it out. And then Daniel Preece is managing one of the blocks as well. We have Alex Gladstein managing another block. Troy Cross with the energy block. Myself with Madeira block. and Jeff Booth to finalize with the hyper-Bitcoinization block or how the world could look on the other side.

Yeah. And they will have amazing conversations there. I'm sure. I think they'll maybe talk about quantum there. Yes, I won't be surprised. Probably. Yes, probably. Okay, amazing.

Can people use their Bitcoin in the conference? Absolutely. Lightning? Yes, of course. every attendee will have a Bolt card on the goodie bag at the entrance

and they can use the Bolt card basically as a cashless system for payments inside the venue all the vendors will accept Lightning payments all of them we have our own Bitcoinized POS machines actually I can show I can show it off

amazing yes I love it So it's like a chargeable card? Yes. I charge it through my wallet? Through your wallet, or we're going to have a place inside the venue where you can go and pop it up. But you can use Fiat as well if you want to, but we prefer this.

Yeah, we like this. Much better. Yeah. We're going to have an ATM machine as well with Lightning, so you can charge, withdraw, just play around with it. um and on the atlas music festival also uh on the satellite events also you can play with lightning so everyone amazing buy food drinks love it feel if i think people will complain i think people complain that we're ruining their set stack during this yes for sure spend and

replace guys but you know those are the things that i'm willing to use my sets on yeah if i'm going to a conference and you know i'm helping the all the different uh vendors to make a living and with those bitcoins for sure bring it on okay so last question since i joined the bitcoin community i find on the most part that people are very friendly very welcoming very helpful which is not very common in every community that i've been a part of and um And, you know, I've been in tech for 20 years like you. I was an entrepreneur, but I was a marketeer and chief marketing officer. So I've worked with many entrepreneurs and startups and a lot of people in different communities.

But this community feels different to me. And I'm interested to hear from you your view about the Bitcoin community. What do you think is different from other communities around the world and why is it so? That's a good question. And actually, all of this happened in my life because of that. Exactly. Because of the community. Yeah, because people were so friendly and helpful.

You know, you mentioned in the beginning that I started with publishing. Yes. And those little steps that, you know, I started in publishing because I wanted to translate the best Bitcoin books to Portuguese. And this all started because I sent a Twitter message, this guy from nowhere, from an island in the middle of the Atlantic that knew nobody, sent a message to Jeff Booth asking if I could translate his book to Portuguese

because his book is amazing, as we all know. And he said yes. Of course, why not? And that was the beginning, the little step that grew into a lot of steps because there I started the relationship, I started meeting Jeff, Daniel, Samson, other people around the community. And then when the president came, we already knew them.

And it was a series of steps and chain events that led to this. But at every point in time, from the biggest, most deep influencer of all to the smallest pleb somewhere, they were all, sorry for cursing, let's fucking go. Yeah. We'll help. We'll do it. will do so and that was amazing and when the community sees that you're doing something good they come out and help you asking nothing in return it's amazing to see it's it's it's nothing i ever saw experienced before honestly and i i experienced the same thing i everyone's speaking

to me at the eye level they don't know me i approach them they're like sure bring it on and let's do stuff together and i'm so surprised which is really amazing because it's taking me all over the world before i know it like this whole year 2024 i'm gonna be in so many different places around the world because of great people like i guess you didn't imagine you were going to madara one year ago no and alex vetsky was like you gotta come to madera and he made the connection between us and then mark moss with el salvador and max and stacy and like everyone is it's all happening and it's just unreal i'm seriously shocked about how friendly people are you can imagine no no why do you think that is because of the adoption of bitcoin everyone wants

this to succeed i think so it's it's a simple thing uh as soon as you understand it when there's that really big light bulb moment in your head yes and it's not about the money and not about making money anymore and it's all about making a better world because it seems not niche or naive to say it but it's really you then suddenly your mindset changes a lot and you just want to contribute the most as you can and when you see other people around you with the same mindset let's go let's do this let's you know we're all working to make the same reality happen faster i guess yes although it's a long process still but you know we're all working with a low time frame to make it happen and reality so i love it thank you it's beautiful

it's beautiful it's me it's so heartwarming um i'm just always so grateful for meeting all these people and being around such incredible visionaries like everyone has the same vision and it's not a tomorrow morning thing it's a long-term thing and it's really changed things in the world and we know how fucked up our world is so it's crazier by the day yeah you know where i come from it's you can feel the shit show every day all day well i'm not gonna put up to your standard because we know our things are there um but even around us even around me and people you know in europe people are in europe and in the united states on the on the western world right people are a bit spoiled and privileged because they think they are you know separated

from all that mess yes but even around me i'm not an old guy i am 43 years old but i'm old enough to see a true degradation i put it uh principles principles of of morals yeah everything's collapsing yes um everything's a mess people are disturbed people are not mentally sane for the most part and i don't think people realize that people are living in the moment and watching the news and reacting yes but not thinking in a low time frame about the future about their kids about how they want society to be democracy is going really bad or sane reality back to first principles back to family life back i don't want to sound too white wing or conservate conservatory or whatever you call it in english i don't know we don't care about labels so much yeah we don't

i just i'm just worried about my family my you know let's take it back to reality let's tiktok more family life bring it bring it bring it down i take all that noise out of people's brains and let's try and communicate better. And what better tool to communicate than an information technology like Bitcoin? That's the only thing we need. A fair equalizer for the world that doesn't extract value from people's lives

and let them lead their families and community lives in a more proper way. 1,000%. Right. Everything you said is spot on. And people here and in many other war-ridden places around the world are suffering from economics and the financial situation without having any clue how to beat it. They don't know what to do to make their lives better. And they're receiving every day more news and more news about how more expensive stuff is becoming and about how more taxes they need to pay now to fund the wars and everything that's happening. It's happening here. It's happening, you know, right next to me with my neighbors in Gaza and finishing their lives, sometimes because of the consequences of the financial situation, but sometimes because directly because of the wars and what they are bringing about.

And since I came into Bitcoin a couple of years ago and started learning how you can really create your reality and a different alternative reality with a different type of money that will not force you to be violent or to take stuff off of people and to actively contribute to the growth of this movement, you are becoming a better person and you are discovering that your money is not in anyone else's hands but in your hands and it's such an amazing power and once people get that they become so much more relaxed and they drop absolutely they drop the levels of violence very very quickly right and i believe that the problem is there's a big big gap on understanding the true originator factor of all those layers of stupid nonsense that happened above it and create this all real factors. They find a lot of excuses, a lot of other stuff that is not real.

Correct. Or it is real because of this manipulation of the base money or this technology, which is the most important technology for human flourishing which is money yes and the exchange of value between people and they don't understand that all the other consequences happen because of this it's a major major gap in understanding that's where what we're here for and in the end that's what free madari exists and why all the other communities around the world exist um and we're just part of that big growing flower bouquet around the world that is embracing more and more people every day

Yeah. And, you know, I thank you for doing what you're doing. And this is why I've dedicated my life now to doing that, to educate people about problems of the world, but then the solutions that are out there and speaking with people like you and others can help me to educate them and try and overcome this gap so that they understand the root cause, as you said, is oftentimes the money and the system and the way it's designed. and once you learn it and understand it you can take action so you know this is why we're doing what we're doing i'm going to be on a panel called talking heads with other people that are you know reporters or podcasters that that's what they're doing essentially they're teaching people how to go into this new world and why it's important to do it they're going to be some amazing people with me on the panel uh john valis nico moran natalie brunel and and myself and i'm so privileged to be on that panel so you know if we can talk about how we can make a difference not just in the sick media world today but also in the education of people and what it what it's

going to bring about that's going to be a fantastic conversation for me to be part of so it will and thank you for telling me yeah my pleasure and andre thank you so much for setting this up for setting um free madera for you know letting your plans start small and grow big because then things like that happen so thanks for doing that's how it happens in nature right it all it's all it all starts with a little seed so if if it's if it's um if it's got the right true spark then it grows yes it survives and thank you so much for having that spark do you want to add anything normally i finish with like a message of hope or anything else you want to add

well I think this was a message of hope this last correct you know just an invite come to Madara you know enjoy the week even if it's not for the conference you know visit anyway on another date

but that is a great place to have some vacations at least but if you can come at the conference time it's going to be a great week um great great conversations on on the venue i'm so excited to go to bitcoin atlantis.com there's going to be more and more information there we're going to publish the full schedule really soon yep and yeah come and visit where can people find you

andre and follow you well i usually i just use twitter uh you can find me at my name i'm not very psyop oriented that's a sheep long gone it's just my name andre loge at andre loge and you can follow both projects at bitcoin atlantis and at freemadera.org um and we have the website and the newsletter and everything else so it's really easy to reach out if you want to super cool thank you so much for your time andre it was such a lovely conversation to have thank you effort and see you soon see you soon dear In the year 2024, the sunken city of Atlantis will return. The first Bitcoin conference on the Atlantic Ocean.

From March 1st to the 3rd, we are going to transform the stadium to a Bitcoin stadium. Jack Dorsey, Michael Saylor, Jack Mellors and many, many more Bitcoiners are joining Bitcoin Atlantis. Copyright © 2020, New Thinking Allowed Foundation