Everything I’ve ever done, learned, said or listened to. All the decisions I’ve ever made and all the opportunities presented to me, led to this day… this article… this movement.

“I am a Bitcoiner”.

It has fascinated and captured me for the best part of 10 years. It’s exhilarating to be a small part of something so big and profoundly revolutionary.

For the purpose of this article, I will split my life so far into “Pre 2010” and “Post 2010”.

This is my journey from somebody to nobody…

Pre 2010

I was born in Leicestershire, England into a loving middle class family. My parents didn’t divorce, I got on with my little sister, had good friends and excelled at school. Both my parents worked and perpetually sacrificed their own needs to make us happy and provide everything we ever needed, including taking on debt for Birthdays, Christmas’ and for our university education.

My mum discovered the advert in the local paper for my first job (which led to a career in design), and my Dad introduced me to Bitcoin (and sailing). They encouraged me to travel (despite natural anxieties about letting your children go) and always instilled in my mind that “you could achieve anything you put your mind to”.

They also had the best record collection, introduced me to photography in Time Magazine and classic literature like J.D. Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye” and Jack Kerouac’s “On The Road”.

I have always been a thinker… sometimes an over-thinker! 

I’m fascinated by ideas and have always questioned authority and the status quo. I’m comfortable in my own company and found solace in solitude, art and music. I was fascinated by the “Solitude” series by Edward Hopper and the poems by Robert Frost. “The Road Not Taken” was particularly pivotal.

I received a liberal education. 

I wasn’t made to wear a school uniform and we called our teachers by their first names. These were very progressive ideas at the time and raised certain questions about other traditional forms of education and the way we address our peers. It has instilled valuable ethical ideas in me, and enforced the premise of earned respect and equality. But at the time, I just thought it was cool!

In English lessons we listened to The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour whilst reading Shakespeare.

I later went on to study Art, Graphic Design and Media and obtained a degree in Multi-media Design. I learned to play the guitar, was obsessed with the 60’s and subsequently gigged in bands and DJ’d in bars and nightclubs. Throughout my late teens and most of my 20’s I wanted to get “Out of my mind”.

Being on stage with a guitar or behind a pair of decks, inebriated and in the moment with loud music was my freedom, and I chased it every weekend for many years.

My early formative years were spent in the 90’s (the new 60’s!). The ultimate decade of great new music, a true complimentary mashup of many amazing genres and the amalgamation of traditional guitar rock and electronic dance music. I went to school and played football with Tom and Sergio from Kasabian who went on to become massive global rock stars.

Art, Music and alcohol was my escapism… the door that set me free. I lived my life according to musical lyrics, poems and the words of Beatniks which later led me to Meditation, and the concept of transcending thought (becoming nobody).

Despite all this privilege and opportunity, I still sought further escapism from the invisible prison that eluded an official moniker… real freedom.

Post 2010

I didn’t know what I was escaping from! I just knew quite early on that there must be something more?

In 2010 I took a “risk”. I sold everything.

Including my house, my car and everything else that had any value, and on January 3rd 2010 (exactly 1 year after the Genesis block was mined), I left England. Leaving everything I had ever known, including my family and friends, oblivious to the blockchain experiment pumping out bitcoins every 10 minutes.

I started my travels in India, then into South East Asia. Thailand, Vietnam and Laos. Before briefly visiting Singapore and then travelling around Australia in a van and ending up in Fremantle, Western Australia. Life savings gone in less than 6 months!

I had no possessions, no address, I even shaved my hair off before leaving! It was the scariest and most liberating thing I have ever done. The freest I have ever been.

Since then I have been slowly re-accumulating all the weight I had shed in 2010.

One of the surprise benefits of leaving included talking to my parents more! Emailing my dad almost daily about things we probably would never have discussed whilst living in England.

In 2013, I was discussing the wild Bitcoin run to $1200, and the subsequent collapse of Mt Gox with my Dad. I thought I had missed the boat when the price went so high! But Dad (who had read more than me at the time) said he was buying. So I started my research and fell down the rabbit hole! The cat was out of the bag and it would change my life forever. In early 2014 as the price dropped to around $400 I started buying Bitcoin and I have been buying the dips ever since.

I held strong through the uncertain years of 2015 and 2016 as my initial investment suffocated underwater. I received the Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Gold fork airdrops in 2017 and swiftly sold that shit on a dodgy unregulated Chinese exchange with no KYC for more Bitcoin (withdrawals were halted soon after!) I also sat tight through the 2018 bear market after resisting the sale of any of my coins at the $20k top.

I’ve only sold my Sats twice.

Once for a Trezor Hardware wallet (after making a killing on the BCH and BCG forks, I thought I’d better put my babies in cold storage!) and secondly buying Citadel21 zines ;)

Being part of a movement like Bitcoin is amazing… a beautiful peaceful revolution that simply opts out of all the bullshit that left questions in my mind since birth.

All the education and religion, all the social conditioning, all the business and traditional routes to “success”. All the industrial age “boomer” rhetoric of how to live and behave, and who can take part in their exclusive capitalist ideologies.

Fuck all that! 

We are part of the new age and everyone is invited. Bitcoin is THE answer to peaceful self secession and the seed from which a new civilisation will grow.

I’m still chasing the white rabbit, and want to get out of my mind, but these days I’m using different methods and tools. I rarely drink alcohol or coffee anymore and I don’t smoke (opt out of the drugs they deem legal and keep us up, down and suppressed). Instead I choose to swim and meditate. Staying present, conscious and aware (most of the time!) Opening my mind and transcending thought as often as I can. Minimising my life and regaining my time. Treading as lightly on the land as I can along the way.

I continue to ride the wave of curiosity and consciousness, because when I’m on the wave, it’s beautiful and leads me to life changing movements like Bitcoin.

Now, I don’t have to work a 9-5. I’m a freelance designer and videographer. There is no pressure and I choose to take on clients I connect with. Which in turn produces good work. All of which would not have been possible if I didn’t get on that plane.

My flirtations with becoming a DJ in Ibiza or a guitarist in a famous English band didn’t come to fruition and instead led me to where I am now. 2020 is the inflection point. Everything happens for a reason and it all makes sense now… You have to trust the path, but more importantly take the first step on that path.

I’m working towards my final steps of self sovereignty.

Becoming bankless, obtaining a third passport in a friendly/respectful jurisdiction and breaking away from the mainstream mortgage slavery into which I was born… All before the age of 40.

My kids and their kids probably won’t have to work or be forced into the same university treadmill and debt trap that my generation was. We live in the information age, it is no longer a privilege paid for and taught in a condescending top-down structure. It is lateral and available for all. I will teach them how to think critically and to question everything (especially me). Instilling a savings mentality, adopting a low time preference, and putting family first. All the great qualities of the post war generation before 1971. They will benefit from the wisdom of their grandparents, the financial freedom of Bitcoin and perhaps dedicate their lives to giving rather than consuming.

Satoshi and my parents have afforded them the gift of total freedom.

And I am eternally grateful…