If Time is Money, ₿ Careful How You Spend It

For the past few weeks, the news has been dominatedby politics. We’ve covered Trump’s first week in office, Elon and DOGE’s audit of Fort Knox, and of course the recent Executive Order establishing a US ‘Strategic Bitcoin Reserve’.

Thankfully this week, we’ve finally had some reprieve. We aren’t waiting on any more government announcements, and the political circus has moved on, leaving us to “play with our Bitcoins” in relative peace.

So, it’s back to business as usual, at least for the time being. The Bitcoin ‘influenzas’ have gone back to discussing Bitcoin’s price, pedalling their theories as to what caused the recent dip (which none of them predicted), and we find ourselves returning to more palatable levels of background noise.

What the past few weeks showed us is that politics and the Bitcoin price have something in common. Paying attention to either is an almost exclusively passive experience, and talking about them is as dull as talking about the weather.

Both are unpredictable, and neither of them exist within our sphere of control.

And there’s a risk to focusing on things outside of your control. It makes you passive, inactive and leads to stagnation. Instead of pursuing your own objectives and working on things you can control, you become a spectator, trapped in a cycle of endless media commentary, full of nothing more than hype and speculation.

A modern-day equivalent of Rome’s ‘bread and circuses.’

Getting caught up in these types of distraction is not a good use of our time. Not when Bitcoin gives us the opportunity to live and work on our own terms, build our own strategic reserves, and finally have a chance at securing true financial freedom.

This is no time to be indulging in political commentary or ‘candle gazing’. This paradigm shift has created an opportunity larger than any generation in history has ever seen. But the opportunity only exists for those willing to fully embrace it.

The world is changing, and if you want to succeed, you need to adapt.

‍

The Bitcoin ‘Attention Trap’

In the early days of Bitcoin there were far fewer distractions. There were no shitcoins, no VCs, no ‘influencers’ and certainly no politicians. Before Bitcoin went mainstream the community was made up almost exclusively of cypherpunks and libertarians who just wanted to explore Bitcoin’s capabilities and understand it better.

And there was no ambiguity about Bitcoin’s true purpose.

This created an environment of almost pure signal with very little noise. If you were lucky enough to discover Bitcoin early, it was far easier than it is now to find good quality information to increase your skills and knowledge.

This is in stark contrast to today. People are still creating incredible and useful Bitcoin content, but unlike the early days, it’s now surrounded by a carnival of bullshit that makes it much harder to find pure signal.

This noise comes from a variety of sources, each of them desperate to farm your attention.

You have altcoin and blockchain scammers trying to lure the uninitiated into dodgy investments. Trading ‘gurus’ drawing lines on charts making price predictions that are frequently wide of the mark. And who could forget the market commentators suckling at the teat of Elon’s monetisation program who spend a lot of time speaking, but say very little.

This new environment is much more difficult to navigate. Even if you do manage to avoid the perils of shitcoinery, your next challenge is avoiding the ‘Bitcoin attention trap’.

Engagement farmers are eager to capitalise on your love of Bitcoin by serving you a constant stream of ‘Bitcoin content’. The problem is, as the years have rolled by, the quality of this content has plummeted faster than the price of Ethereum.

Bitcoin influencers, save a few exceptions, rarely provide much signal these days. They are unlikely to teach you anything useful about UTXOs, security best practices, improving your privacy, or how to get better at using Bitcoin.

Instead, most Bitcoin content today resembles junk food. Instantly gratifying but containing very little nutrition. Influencers everywhere are busy providing daily updates on ETF inflows and outflows, simping for politicians, and clapping like seals every time someone else buys some Bitcoin.

Worse still, a lot of content now actively promotes a fiat mindset, suggesting you buy Bitcoin proxies, use Bitcoin banks and custodians, and leverage your Bitcoin by using it as collateral for fiat loans or earning yield.

Each of which are a fast way to destroy your privacy, introduce unnecessary counterparty risk, and increase the risk of losing your Bitcoin.

What Bitcoin influencers rarely provide today is useful, actionable information that can help you improve your skills, become more sovereign and increase your freedom. Instead you’re far more likely to be met with half-baked fairytale ‘scenarios’ based on absolutely nothing:

Getting 3 million views on a post like this probably earns Plan B a nice little payout, but he will have been the only one who benefited from such drivel.

‍

A More Compelling Scenario

Consuming this type of content is a terrible investment of your time. During the greatest wealth transfer in history your attention should be focussed squarely on securing your wealth, developing new skills, and preparing for your future.

With that in mind, we’d like to propose a slightly more interesting scenario than the one shared by Plan B. One that will actually benefit YOU!

Month 1: You clean up your social feeds and stop listening to the hopium dealers. Break your addiction to endless macro podcasts that regurgitate the same content from a slightly different angle and commit to finding pure Bitcoin signal.

Month 2: Learn the skills to properly self-custody your Bitcoin. Learn how to secure critical data, use open-source software and hardware wallets, send air-gapped transactions and run your own node to enhance your privacy.

Month 3: Go deeper still. Understand how to verify software, learn UTXO management, inheritance planning, advanced privacy techniques and how to encrypt and back-up your files.

Month 4: Start investing in your cybersecurity. Learn how to configure your own DNS, operate open-source VPNs and secure your network. Set up a privacy phone, get a non-KYC sim, and protect yourself from constant mass surveillance.

Month 5: Ditch windows and start learning Linux to increase your security and privacy even further. Experiment with sovereign computing and start getting more comfortable with more advanced Bitcoin skills like multi sig and coinjoins.

Month 6: Start learning about jurisdictional arbitrage and exploring Plan-B residency options. Make your lifestyle as mobile as your wealth and provide your family with security through optionality.

MONTH 7 ONWARDS: Look back at how far you’ve come. You’re now more capable, more sovereign and more knowledgeable than 99% of the influencers that you chose to ignore. By going on this path you’ve opened up countless new options for you and your family and protected their interests for decades to come.

Being a passive observer and keeping up with all the ‘breaking news’ will only get you so far. If you truly want to succeed in Bitcoin, then this is the path you need to follow.

If time is money, spend it on something that will give you a return.

‍

Spend Your Time The Bitcoin Way

According to estimates, fewer than 3% of people in the world own Bitcoin. Of those, the number of people holding their UTXOs in self-custody is probably fewer than 50 million, or 1% of the population.

But how many people go further than this? How many people transact via their own node using air gapped hardware wallets and open-source software wallets? How many know how to use advanced privacy tools, manage their UTXOs, and have developed robust inheritance plans? How many run a privacy phone and have secured their devices using the best open-source cybersecurity tools?

Very few.

Taking these steps would put you amongst a group of people that probably represent less than 0.01% of the population. You’d be one of a very small group of people who has taken every necessary step to prepare properly for what’s to come.

The great news is that we can teach you these skills in no time at all. Long before we know the outcome of everyone’s ‘2028 price prediction’, you could reach this level of knowledge and set your life on an entirely new trajectory.

When you’re ready to become exceptional and join the 0.01% then book a free 30-minuteconsultation with one of our experts and we’ll take the path less travelled together.