Scaling Bitcoin Culture with Amanda Cavaleri - WBD622

Amanda Cavaleri is a Bitcoin entrepreneur and board member of the
Bitcoin Today Coalition. In this wide-ranging interview, we
discuss the upcoming Bitcoin Ski Summit Amanda is organizing, how
Bitcoin can help the United States, whether Bitcoin should be
radical or conservative, the importance of values in Bitcoin
culture, and the promise of Nostr.


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Amanda Cavaleri is a long-time friend of the show, and one of the
most genuine and hard-working people within Bitcoin. Amanda has
numerous interests across Bitcoin, from investments to mining,
from advocacy to education. As a veteran Bitcoiner, Amanda is
able to have a wider perspective on the important value Bitcoin
brings to society beyond its immediate investment potential.


We discussed the unremitting importance of Bitcoin to privacy,
and of privacy to democracy. With the rise of China, having a
tool outside of the purview of the state is becoming increasingly
important. Furthermore, Bitcoin has the potential to support
global economic growth as we transition from the dollar as a
reserve currency: Bitcoin has the potential to be neutral global
money that can enable efficient cross-border payments in an
increasingly multipolar world.


We talked about despite Bitcoin being an apolitical tool, there
is significant work required to get it to resonate within the
Washington bubble. Amanda set out the educational work, network
building and soft permeation of DC being undertaken by the
Bitcoin Today Coalition. This is a slow but vital advocacy
process needed to lessen the risk Bitcoin’s development within
the United States is kneecapped by ignorant legislators.


Finally, we covered the importance of Bitcoin’s culture. Whilst
‘number goes up’ worked to gain rapid interest over previous
cycles, a values-based ideology is showing itself to be critical
in both widening Bitcoin adoption and defending against attacks.
But culture obviously affects the internal workings of Bitcoin as
much as its presentation externally. Therefore, the current
debate around how radical Bitcoin should be may perhaps become a
significant area of debate in the next year.