The Bitcoin Infinity Show
Bitcoin Around the World with Paco de la India | Bitcoin Infinity Show #204
- Paco's "Run With Bitcoin" journey: Completed a two-year, 40-country world tour in December 2023, funded by the Bitcoin community, to document how Bitcoin functions as money in the Global South and as a hedge against government monetary control.
- Book project progress: Writing an anecdotal book titled "Proof of Work" featuring one story from each of 42 countries visited. Approximately 135 pages completed (halfway through); expected release in 6–8 months. Focuses on practical Bitcoin use rather than theory.
- Current projects: BittAsha (building steel private-key storage in India); Waterfall Fund (nonprofit distributing sats to new Bitcoin projects); Bhartiya Bitcoin (regional-language Bitcoin content in India's 26 constitutional languages); planning a Bitcoin conference in India for November.
- Ordinals and chain spam debate: Paco opposes ordinals and NFTs on Bitcoin, viewing them as spam that harms adoption in developing nations by raising fees. Supports filtration mechanisms (such as BIP110) to remove non-monetary data, though frames it as practical necessity rather than censorship.
- Geopolitical and monetary observations: Discusses India's 2016 demonetization as wealth extraction; rupee devaluation from ₹50/$1 to ₹100/$1; Chinese infrastructure investment as an alternative development model to IMF austerity; El Salvador's transformation via safety improvements and Bitcoin adoption.
- Philosophy and personal reflections: Explores the relationship between money, incentives, and human action; the spiritual, digital, and physical realms; and the importance of storytelling in communication. Advocates for kindness and avoiding personal attacks in Bitcoin debates.