Hi, I'm Ov1 Kenobi, Grey Jedi, Bitcoin Standard Bearer 👋

About me 👋

I was born to become a native Bitcoiner, and I have been now for almost ten years. My teenage parents, who never finished high school, taught me to do my own research. Their gift to me was to admit their own limitations and to stress that all humans, and institutions, are fallible. I discovered that "Don't trust, verify" was mandatory in this world, after a childhood medical malpractice lawsuit revealed the failures of the doctors, lawyers, bankers, and government tasked to protect me from them all.

The lawsuit settlement led to my becoming a trust fund teenager, whereby I learned that trusts were the ideal asset protection vehicle and that reputational trust was the most important capital one could accumulate. Briefly having more money than I knew how to spend, I quickly learned that money itself was a form of trust; yet having an overabundance of it made it difficult to know whom I could really trust. Experience taught me quickly about the importance of aligned incentives and the moral hazards that often corrupt even the best of us.

More doubt crept in when I took a "Macroeconomics” summer course at my community college in 1989. I knew the law of physics states that energy can’t be created, nor destroyed. And here they were teaching that the measuring stick of value in the economy, so-called 'money', was somehow created through fractional reserve banking, but that the money needed to repay the interest charged for issuing the debt that created our monopolized paper/digital IOUs was never created.

Then, when reading the income tax codes for myself, I discovered that nearly ALL my elders and my 'peers' had been self-identifying as “tax payers,” voluntarily complying with an annual ritual of humiliation of indentured servitude, perpetuating the standardized manipulation/deception of income taxation.

While still a teen, I saw the inherent corruption built into the fiat banking system. The truth of the Cantillon Effect was blatantly as obvious as the “Emperor’s New Robe” as the privileged siegnorage enjoyed by those closest to the money spigot is ignored. I recognized the moral hazard that couldn't be avoided when monopolized counterfeiting was exercised by the few who were "more equal than others", to quote a famous pig from the allegory about the human farming going on.

What seemed the only reasonable choice to me was to follow John Galt's advice and stop contributing my life energy to fueling the motor that ran a corrupted monetary system.

Rather than farm fiat, I farmed knowledge about meeting my own daily basic needs without requiring crayola currency forms of monopoly money. Barter, and barter/time based local currencies became my systems of value exchange. I discovered the essence of the entrepreneurial endeavor by evolving from independently selling/delivering food, flowers, furniture, and even auto parts, delivering everything but people from place to place. My Value for Value offerings evolved into massage therapy and natural building, and eventually permaculture design/build services for off-grid homesteaders and residential contracting for mainstream and green building clients.

My childhood health issues had taught me that health can’t be purchased once lost. Our health is beyond price in value and must be maintained through long term discipline and preventative care of our internal and external environment. This led to my becoming a vegan, discovering the transformative power of fasting, boycotting cars to bicycle everywhere I went in Austin, TX, and discovering some gifted teachers of Tai Chi Chuan, Chi Kung, and Hatha/Tantra/Ashtanga Yoga. Each of these practices taught me to seal the leaks in my 'Chi/Prana/Mana', cultivate daily, while continuously polishing my mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual 'windows' in my doors of perception.

Every one of those cultivation practices, from water fasting to veganism and more recently paleo/keto and "dry" fasting, from Tai Chi Chuan to Permaculture food forests, taught me the importance of letting time work for you. Combined with understanding all too well the extreme corruption of our monetary system and the people who run it, my championing the importance of Bitcoin to humanity as a freedom technology became a natural life path.

I earned my first Bitcoin by helping a peer buy bitcoin from another peer in a face to face cash transaction.

All combined, decades of being on the lunatic fringe, as a bicycling, bartering massage therapist Vegan Tai Chi player living in the grey market, back street, cash economies prepared me to recognize the significance, the inevitability, and the gift of power that Bitcoin's discovery had brought to the world. Pattern Language Design, Tai Chi Chuan principles/practices and Permaculture food forest cultivation had taught me to plan over decades, not over months. I also learned to not hurry and to trust the process of good design to play out as good ideas cannot be stopped by any amount of force. Having been studying math, traditional, and sacred geometry, I recognized the potential of the pattern language design of the invisible structures Satoshi Nakamoto had birthed into the world for us. I was lucky enough to hear about Bitcoin in September of 2013, so when a 22 yr old relative of my wife made $150K in a single month when one of Bitcoin's major spikes in USD pricing ran up to ~$1,200, I began doing my own research.

This led to my initial run down the rabbit hole and my becoming orange pilled, then orange pilling a retired massage client of mine. My instinctual understanding and natural predilection as an investigator of new technologies (I'm a designer/builder, I love tools and what they let us build), let me earn my 1st whole BTC in January of 2014, but to this day I've no idea when, how, or for how much I sold it for to pay my monthly bills. Unlike most ever have, and likely many ever will, I led him immediately to 1st Class Bitcoin Citizenship, purchasing his 1st 5.5 BTC with cash and earned my 1 BTC commission by helping him properly self custody his keys on his own self hosted full QT node. But a savings technology like bitcoin ONLY benefits those with savings to set aside untouched for years.

It was about 3 1/2 yrs later, in August of 2017, when that 1st orange pilled friend reached back out to me for help in recovering his bitcoin. He gave access to every phone and computer he could find, but I couldn't find the recovery file. When he moved a couple weeks later he found an old desktop on a shelf in his garage that he'd forgotten about. I managed to find a .dat file that contained the recovery data, but it took me another two weeks to find anyone that could even understand my question, let alone answer it. When the husband of a trusted hair client offered to help, late on a Friday night I emailed him that file as an attachment, and about 15 minutes later my friend's 4.5 BTC, at the time worth about $24k USD, landed on my phone with almost zero cost or delays in transaction fees for this sweep transaction.

Knowing how long a bank funded payment would've taken and how much it would've cost in fees, this blew my mind. Considering my friend had already nearly 5x'd his money by holding and forgetting about it for just under 4 years, I was blown away by what I saw was now possible.

I immediately began testing out every wallet and exchange I could find out about, while diving deep into learning how to upgrade my cyber security protocols, increase privacy while using this publicly viewable asset, and how to protect against compliance risks. Over the next few months, by the end of 2017, I became a fully committed Bitcoin Standard Bearer, as I knew the oncoming War on Cash meant the end of my entire grey market, private, peer to peer, cash-based lifestyle.

I felt like I had more to offer the Bitcoin ecosystem than merely participating as a speculative trader riding its volatility waves in a very stressful occupation. This led me to begin doing my due diligence, deepening and broadening my research, and organizing it into what became my Bitcoin Standard Bearer's How-to guide, that I self published on Amazon as "The Tao of Bitcoin Banking, a how-to guide for sailing the crypto seas". Since then, I've gone to, and stayed at nearly $0 USD, living almost entirely on a Bitcoin Standard, still without ever having 'bought' any bitcoin, I merely earn my sats now by training my peers on the tools, the hazards, and the recommended security protocols for creating and operating our self-sovereign Bitcoin Banking arrangements.

I own almost no-things, I steward some tools under my controlled custody physically, contractually, digitally, and virtually. I use these tools to contribute value to my peers, having nothing that can be taken from me sets me free, being of service makes me happy, wherever I lay my head is home, no matter where I roam.

Currently:

Over the last few years, I've been focused on the developments in using the Lightning Network protocols with bitcoin, and more recently Nostr, as decentralized communication protocol for communicating value, art, and knowledge., Seeing all this now coming together to create a perfect LN/Nostr Zap storm has lit a fire under my feet and in my heart!

I'm most excited about Bitcoin evolving from a 'savings technology' into an 'earning technology' that empowers individual Creators in every field, working in every medium. Having spent most of my adult life in the Austin, TX, the Live Music Capital of the World, I recognize the many challenges faced by live performers and the venues that host them, so have been committed for years now to sharing this message of hope, with first the live music industry, then the live sporting industries. Doing my part to best initiate the ‘suddenly’ moment of hyperbitcoinization all Bitcoin Standard Bearers are looking forward to and which we consider an inevitability.

What's your spirit animal/star sign?

I'm a Leo, born in the Year of the Dog, formerly a vegetarian lone wolf, that's now paleo feasting on Shepherd's pie, not Sheeple. I invite other Wolves to shed their 'sheeple costume' to run free, hunting sats as a pack.

My roles & skills 🦄

My technical writing and interpreting skills have become highly evolved over the last half dozen years. My experience as a General Contractor has taught me to determine the most state-of-the-art tools and materials currently available. It’s also educated me on how to design and build using a self-written pattern language dictionary. My Tour Guide / BaaSL role has evolved into Player/Coach, crafting a ‘playbook,’ curating a ‘gear shed,’ and recruiting top talent at each position on the roster that will be needed to create our Satoshi Citadels.

How can you help others?

With years of experience living on the Bitcoin Standard, and decades of experience in relevant fields, I've curated a Bitcoin Banking toolbox that now includes literally hundreds of 'tools' for inclusion in our Satoshis Toolbox, that I freely share with anyone that texts me an email address to Vida.page/ov1. The small satoshi fee acts as a pre-req anti-spamming solution that only lets Bitcoiners with LN sats on the platform reach me directly for this information. I understand and know how to speak the jargon and verify the work of the sub-contractor specialists working on everything from communication to cyber-security, from settlement/clearance to custody, and from credit to compliance, with countertop operations bringing all these concerns into a cohesive package.

I advise individuals and business owners on achieving functional privacy, with real world assets, using psuedo-anonymous compartmentalized, special-purpose Bitcoin Trust vehicles, AND learning how to use satoshis privately. Re-anonymizing KYC'd UTXOs has been of keen personal interest, along with making myself tax- and litigation-proof by controlling real assets without doxxing myself.

But making use of the streaming micropayments solutions has been holding my passionate attention over the last few years. Especially after the way artists and venues were kicked to the curb over the last few years, it’s a long-overdue phenomenon whose time has come.

I'm always glad to help jump start the journey of my peers into this realm by acting as a Bitcoin Tour Guide and a trainer for individuals and businesses interested in learning Bitcoin-as-a-Second-Language of value. Helping new-coiner tourists evolve into residents, then 1st Class Citizens, and eventually Owning Class Creators, has become my personal calling. I’m excited to serve entrepreneurial-minded individuals.

What I'm currently working on 🧑‍💻

My focus for years now has been, and continues to be, launching a Bitcoin Onboarding Concierge startup that initially serves Musicians, Venue Owners, Tech Staff, and Audience Members by leading them down the appropriate Quests for their desired level of game play in the realm of Bitcoin.

Every Bitcoin conference I've attended for years stresses the importance of education, yet most Bitcoin educational materials have been focused on either advanced coding or tool-building curriculum. The beginner-level content is largely focused on how to store it and why we need to do so. To combat the sea of misinformation perpetuated by the mainstream media, we can do much to not only close the gap in public knowledge, but to inspire no-coiner creators and their promoters to get on board the Ark quickly and with their own ambassadorial enthusiasm, by educating them in how to use the array of LN streaming and payment tools that will benefit and excite them.

The problem my Bitcoin Onboarding Concierge startup is designed to solve is bridging the knowledge gap from beginner to expert. Helping intermediate-level players in the entrepreneurial game is essential for Bitcoin Value for Value to take hold on the world stage. Currently, we're all attempting to DIY our own Bitcoin Value for Value architecture, without having any blueprints, hardware stores, or 'pattern language recipes' guiding the use of our tools, materials, and blueprints.

The irony of the most secure, standardized, incorruptible currency on the planet becoming a wild west of protocols is becoming less and less funny. Because new social and monetary Bitcoin apps are constantly being brought to market now, and new ways to integrate them are constantly emerging, there is no standardization of all these protocols and how to use them.

I’m one of few who actually has a pulse on all of these apps. I test and use all of them myself as soon as they are introduced. That’s why I’ve written the ebook (constantly updated) laying them and their uses all out in one place.

As such, my focus has been on curating, organizing, and distributing the content that a Bitcoin Librarian/Concierge/Customer Service Agent will need in order to issue marching orders to those who don't have the time, attention, or resources to spare in getting themselves, their business operations, their employees, and customers up to speed on the ever-evolving Bitcoin ecosystem. Doing their own research at this point is too little/ too late to not get rekt when this tidal wave breaks on the shores of the legacy monetary realm.

What can the BOLT.FUN community help you with right now?

My gift and calling is to create through the written word, but many these days consume their content in audio and video form. Helping translate my words into instructional video and audio files, capturing content in these mediums, and then managing to break through the static noise of the "crypto/blockchain" distractions is what I most need help with.

I also need a coding, design, and implementation team. The Nostr Hackathon has me inspired to craft a means of creating self-sovereign, self-programmed 'bearer instruments' in the form of a card that not only sends, receives, and/or signs onto our online accounts, but also acts as a form of physical Multi-Factor Authentication NFC tap-signer device. Key management security that's airgapped and protected by both something we have and something we know, with recovery and private key replacement, will be essential to bringing both Bitcoin and Nostr into mass adoption. Programming these NFC cards/badges/dongles, and authenticating and time stamping the data on them through inscriptions and perhaps Slashtags, is a specialized skill others will be better suited for.

Creating and maintaining order in our daily two way satstreaming of value for value calls for the creation of not just payment/receiving cards, but also integrated communications and account control in the form of a Bitcoiner Passport. To this effect, my LN MPoWer Mint™ Stream Card , by combining the NFC, Bitcoin, Lightning Network, and Nostr protocols into a tangible asset. It allows the bearer to not only communicate and share content permissionlessly with peers worldwide, but also to receive programmed payments in the form of LN sats streaming to and from peers worldwide, as more sats are earned from the the Patrons of their art/s.This becomes a convenient tool for exchanging text, audio, photos, videos, and LN sats through self sovereign Nostr broadcast clouds sparking Zaps continuously in both directions.

This is, I believe, the most simple and elegant solution to help Creators, and ultimately all of us, integrate the flow of LN sats in our everyday lives and migrate to living on the Bitcoin Standard.

**Help with audio, video, graphics, web design, and funding for paying all these subcontractors will be greatly appreciated.**I’m sure you will agree that there's simply not enough time before the tidal wave breaks on shore for me to craft this Ark myself and train everyone on how to get on board as Bitcoin Standard Bearers.

What most in the Bitcoin education space are missing is that no-coiners without capital need to learn how to earn the daily sats they’re stacking, that using these LN, V4V, and Nostr tools strategically can create freedom that fills our sail with hope as our number of sats in our wallets' HODLings are charged up through our Lightning Rods atop our Nostr'd masts. This LN MPoWer Mint card is created as merely one of many lifeboat motors protocols are providing, a curated jump start to getting a satstreaming motor running. Safely handling multiple satstreaming vehicles, while not crashing them when in use, instead coordinating them into a swarm of cyber-hornets, and not getting them stolen when parked, is something I truly believe every human on Earth will need to learn over the coming years. Or they’ll face perpetual indentured servitude for generations to come, as the boot of CBDCs holds their faces in the mud. So my Bitcoin Onboarding Concierge startup will be an essential education resource that itself create an avalanches payments cascading as more Satstreaming Service Administrators are orange pilled, onboarded, and trained.

We now have the opportunity, and arguably a moral duty, to educate the masses that finally began to feel shaken by the lockdowns in 2020, the current bank collapses in March 2023, and the ongoing inflation hitting everyone’s fiat wallets. And believe it or not, my experience has shown that our best inroads are with the growing legion of “lunatics no longer on the fringes” as homesteaders, preppers, lightworkers, coaches, empaths, champions of music, art, and creative content, because they’ve been society’s underdogs more than any other sector. They were the first industry casualties in 2020, and so many of them were the first to awaken to the Agenda and look around for alternative means of income and ways of living, while still using their gifts to make a living. They are weary of the establishment and hungry for this.

Let’s not keep them waiting. As many are natural performers and influencers with great knowledge and skills to share, they will be our best ambassadors once they are orange pilled 1st Class Citizens, and especially as Owning Class Creators.

Sailing the Satoshi Seas under a Bitcoin Banner