In the years 3 and 4 after Satoshi, Vinicius Kinczel, founder of Palavra de Satoshi, first heard about Bitcoin. At that time, he was delving into the study of liberalism, a political philosophy focused on reducing the size of the State – a concept that had never been mentioned during his schooling. This indicated indoctrination, aiming for Vinicius, like the rest of the population, to go through life without questioning the possibility of reducing centralized power in Brasília and returning it to the citizens. The educational system, in a perverse way, seemed to want to keep the population in ignorance.
However, the internet emerged as a source of light, enabling access to information, and with that, Vinicius discovered the proposal to value the individual over collectivism. While exploring this theme, social media algorithms presented him with the idea of a currency independent of any government.
It was practically love at first sight, in terms of ideology. Vinicius understood Bitcoin for its intrinsic values, not just as an investment opportunity. Of course, the financial aspect also matters – it would be hypocritical to ignore it. Although ideology was predominant, the price of Bitcoin played a crucial role in its social function as money. Vinicius became acquainted with Bitcoin during the historic high of the first halving, and avidly consumed videos by Daniel Fraga, which made the world start to make sense to him.
However, when encountering Bitcoin during this “high,” and without a deep understanding of the technology behind it, such as halving and scarcity, Vinicius focused more on the philosophy of a currency detached from the government, without fully understanding its workings.
At that time, he believed that the solution to social problems lay in reducing the size of the State, not necessarily in the existence of a stateless society. Thus, Vinicius distanced himself a bit from Bitcoin, seeing it in correction. We admit that the idea of money independent of the government seemed very advanced to us; however, faced with the continuous decline in price, we had a short-term impression that Bitcoin could fail and society would not be ready for an existence without the State, with a free currency like Bitcoin.
At that time, we considered that Bitcoin could fail because Vinicius encountered it at a time when its price was constantly falling, leading him to think it could go to zero, especially because he still did not fully understand the technology behind the currency. However, between years 5 and 6 after Satoshi, observing Brazil deteriorating and state power increasing, the idea of simply reducing the size of the State began to seem insufficient. It was when Vinicius, after witnessing these changes and starting to understand the ideological logic of libertarianism, concluded that the only solution would be to seek a society without politicians and without taxes. A more evolved society. Reducing the State was not enough; it was necessary to envision a society completely without the State. It was then that his interest in Bitcoin was renewed.
In the meantime, Vinicius attended a lecture by Fernando Ulrich and Raphael Lima from the Ideias Radicais channel. Interestingly, it was only Vinicius and a few others present at the event. Raphael discussed libertarian philosophy, while Fernando presented his book “Bitcoin, the Money of the Digital Age.” Vinicius left the event excited, holding a copy of the book, despite the low audience. Upon arriving home, he devoured the book in a few days. That feeling of having a completely open mind was incredible and revealing. It was then that Vinicius finally understood the technology behind Bitcoin, as well as its philosophy and economic impact. With this understanding, everything began to make a lot of sense.
Between years 6 and 7 after Satoshi, Vinicius was already immersed in the process of “bitcoinization” at a significant intellectual level. Alongside his intellectual activity, he also devoted himself to music, recording his original compositions in a studio owned by a close friend. Vinicius, who occasionally performed as a musician in local bars, managed to convince this friend, Tiago Suminsky, a capitalist liberalism enthusiast, to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment. He paid 2 bitcoins for the recording of three original songs, a challenging process due to the complexity of acquiring bitcoins through exchanges or P2P, as well as the difficulty of maintaining a wallet and conducting transactions at that time.
Tiago accepted the bitcoins, and a few weeks later, with the appreciation of about 10% of Bitcoin, decided to sell them to realize the profit. They both celebrated the success of the transaction, without imagining that, unfortunately, Tiago would not be present in the future to share this story. He fell victim to a fatal assault during the pandemic, years after converting his bitcoins into tangible profit. The recording of these songs, paid in Bitcoin, could be listed in the Guinness Book as one of the most expensive in history, given the subsequent appreciation of Bitcoin.
At that time, Vinicius also began to assist friends interested in acquiring bitcoins, albeit in modest amounts. The arrival of the historic high following the second halving, in the year 8 after Satoshi, marked a period of intense excitement for Vinicius. Unlike the experience of the first halving, when he encountered Bitcoin at its peak value, this time he was fully involved from the early stages of the process, experiencing closely the growth and appreciation of Bitcoin.
Between years 9 and 10, during the low that followed the historic high of year 8, Vinicius intensified his help to many friends to take advantage of the Bitcoin “promotion,” managing to “save” some people who, thanks to him, invested in the cryptocurrency. It was also during this period, specifically in the year 10 after Satoshi, that the opportunity to participate in an innovative project arose: the “Bitcoineta.” Developed by the team of “LaBitConf” in Argentina and led by Chevi and Ariel, the initiative involved a journey of just over a week between Uruguay and Rio Grande do Sul. During this journey, Vinicius had the chance to talk about Bitcoin on local radios, aboard a customized van that was a true mobile Bitcoin icon. This experience was striking and inspired Vinicius to replicate, in a way, the model adopted by “Bitcoineta.” Motivated by this adventure, he decided to open the YouTube channel called “Palavra de Satoshi,” a theme that will be developed in the next chapter of this blog.
So far, we have presented a summary of Vinicius’s first steps in this fascinating world. In the next chapter, we will explore the beginning of the “Palavra de Satoshi” channel and its contribution to the dissemination of knowledge about Bitcoin.
