Ali Hamam from Tahinis Restaurants: Going on a Bitcoin Standard, Leaving Egypt & Empowering Communities

— Ali Hamam, co-founder of Tahini's Restaurants (London, Ontario), converted all company cash reserves into Bitcoin following MicroStrategy's September 2020 announcement, within days of their decision.

— Tahini's operates three locations with a fourth opening, ~60 employees, and recently shifted to a franchise model with three franchisees preparing to launch in the Greater Toronto Area.

— Ali's family experienced wealth seizure during Egypt's 2011–2013 revolution; capital controls blocked money transfers and currency depreciation destroyed savings, framing Bitcoin as a solution to government financial repression.

— Ali personally went all-in on equities and Bitcoin in March 2020 after selling 75% of stock portfolio pre-crash; he later moved entirely out of GBTC into self-custody Bitcoin and persuaded company partners to adopt a Bitcoin standard.

— Bitcoin solves a critical problem for Muslims who forbid interest (riba) but live in debt-based economies, offering a third option between compromising principles, staying poor through inflation, or becoming full-time investment analysts.

— Tahini's uses a simple framework: Bitcoin is "free, true savings technology that stores wealth across time and space"—free (no subscription, voluntary, censorship-resistant), true (verifiable, auditable), and protected by absolute scarcity and the halving event.

— Business owners with cash balances face erosion from monetary inflation; converting reserves into Bitcoin preserves purchasing power across time if you have conviction in the underlying thesis and can withstand volatility.

— Start with problem identification: Bitcoin only makes sense once you recognize a real problem it solves (capital controls, hyperinflation, interest prohibition, savings erosion). Education must connect problem to solution or adoption stalls.

— For Muslim communities and others in faith-based financial systems, Bitcoin provides an opt-in alternative that neither violates principles nor forces poverty; the key is patience and layered education (books like *The Bitcoin Standard* in your language, then community discussion).