Real room. Real Bitcoin. Real signal. Bitcoin Masterclass Cohort V 8th • 9th • 10th October | 2pm 📍 Bitcoiner’s Hub, 38 MCC Road, Calabar Bitcoin Calabar × @TrezorAcademy Only the serious ones show up. You in? eventbrite.com/e/20028309553…

It took 40 years of research to create Bitcoin

What actually happened in Guatemala? The project is called @LakeBitcoin , based in Panajachel, Guatemala, a town on the shores of Lake Atitlán. The idea began around 2021, inspired partly by Bitcoin Beach in El Salvador. Bitcoin Lake officially began its work in Panajachel in January 2022, with three broad goals: educate the community about Bitcoin, build a local Bitcoin circular economy, and use Bitcoin mining as an economic incentive to address environmental waste. Then came Kaboom, the project's small scale waste to energy mining experiment started. In July 2022, the team started a proof of concept using used cooking oil, an old diesel engine and Bitcoin mining machines. So how does the cooking oil become Bitcoin? Restaurants and food businesses produce used cooking oil. Instead of allowing that oil to be dumped into streets, drains or sent to a landfill located above the lake, the project collects it. The oil is then used as fuel for a generator. In some descriptions of the project, the cooking oil is converted into biodiesel first. The resulting fuel is used to produce electricity. That electricity powers Bitcoin ASIC miners. The miners perform the calculations required by Bitcoin's Proof of Work system. When the mining operation successfully participates in finding a valid block, it earns Bitcoin through the network's mining rewards and transaction fees. So the actual chain looks like this: Used cooking oil → fuel → electricity → Bitcoin mining → Bitcoin revenue The environmental connection is the part that comes before the mining. Instead of the cooking oil becoming waste that can enter the local environment, the project gives it an economic value by using it as an energy source. And where does the lake come in? Lake Atitlán has faced environmental problems for years, including waste and wastewater entering its watershed. According to Bitcoin Lake founder Patrick Melder , used cooking oil was one of the waste streams that could eventually find its way into the lake, either through improper disposal or through the local landfill. The project's approach was therefore to create an incentive for people to collect that waste rather than simply throw it away. This is why the project describes itself as a circular economy. The basic idea is: Waste that had little or negative value → becomes energy → energy produces Bitcoin → Bitcoin generates revenue → revenue can support the community and further environmental work. The Bitcoin didn't magically remove pollution from Lake Atitlán. Rather, the economic value created through mining helps make waste collection and energy recovery financially worthwhile. In Guatemala, the question wasn't : "How do we mine Bitcoin?" It became: "What if we use something that is already being wasted to generate energy, and use that energy to mine Bitcoin?" This story shows the heart of Bitcoin and its users around the world. Cheers to @LakeBitcoin for this innovative approach!

On August 11, 2020, Michael Saylor announced his business software company MicroStrategy would become the first public company to buy bitcoin. They bought 21,454 bitcoin for $250 million. Many financial analysts laughed at the idea. The announcement arrived alongside a separate plan to continue buying bitcoin. Both were presented as part of the company’s new capital allocation strategy. That first 21,454 bitcoin purchase is now worth approximately $1,700,000,000 today. Michael Saylor’s company has since become one of the most traded and valuable technology companies in the world.

Out of all my friends I was only able to convince 1 person about Bitcoin. The rest of them are all quite tech savvy but failed to see the importance of it. I've showed them the door but they have to walk through it. How many friends have you been able to convince?