About The Artist
Spinte8’s meme-game has been on fire lately – brutally honest, contrarian and provocative to the point of incendiary. His takes are literal suckerpunches – no holds barred and nothing is sacred. Anonymity is a key component of his defence and it gives him the ability to weaponise his ideas and express opinions he’d otherwise be reluctant to. This shadowy super memer’s style is relentless, direct and uncompromising – buckle up.
"What do you want to be in life? Do you want to be a victim or do you want to fight for a greater good? I decided not to stand aside but to accept my fate, fight & speak the truth. "
SHADOWY SUPER MEMER
In terms of backstory, all he’ll reveal is that he’s from “a very corrupt country in Eastern Europe”. I get the impression Spinte’s Red Pill Story stems from some vivid negative experiences of politics nationally and perhaps locally. You get the sense he’s witnessed, one way or another, some pretty dark happenings. Unfortunately I’ve got no juicy details for you though – he gives nothing away.
"Watching the corruption & politics in my country, I could see these guys were lying. Whatever they say, we should verify & hold them accountable. It made me sceptical about many things."
He’s worked as a Software Engineer and now freelances, so has an understanding of how the tech works more than most. His moniker ‘Spinte’ comes from the Italian operatic term that means “pushed, pressed or shoved” – as if this role is one he’s been forced into. Like many of us, he lurked on Twitter for some time before emerging only recently from his chrysallis to release his own thoughts and ideas. These seem to be connecting with so many people right now. His values come from to a large part from Bitcoin and low time preference living. He feels it’s better to be sincere, fair and speak the truth – that lying destroys your credibility, and you won’t get that back.
"Cryptography is a weapon, anonymity is a weapon and memes are a weapon. To some degree they complement each other."
RABBIT HOLE STORY
A few years ago Spinte had money to invest, not enough to buy property but enough to assess the investment landscape. He looked at the stock market but realised it meant going through brokers. Even before Bitcoin this flew in the face of his trust model – “How do I know a broker won’t run away with my money? How can I verify that they really do invest the money I give them?” He had the ‘don’t trust verify’ mentality even then.
After discovering Bitcoin, he started to go deeper into how money works and society works. It began a continual process of learning for himself. COVID and the pandemic nudged him to pay attention to Conspiracy Theories for the first time too, simply through natural curiosity whilst in search of truth in a post-truth world.
"I’m not active in my country politically or in Bitcoin. I’m worried about the way society is going. Anonymity is extremely important. In a totalitarian regime, without anonymity, if you speak the truth – you may be persecuted."
MEME COLLECTION
#01
Satoshi creating #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/7W1QHcXqYf
— Spinte.HODL ∞/21M 🍯🦡🌋 "Religious zealot" (@spinte8) July 26, 2021
#03
Be like Billy#BTC #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/67KJD0kCA1
— Spinte.HODL ∞/21M 🍯🦡🌋 "Religious zealot" (@spinte8) July 26, 2021
BITCOIN IS HOPE
For Spinte right now, Bitcoin is the most important thing. He struggles to see an alternative mechanism for humanity to fix itself. It’s no understatement to say the world is in a dark place, a really difficult place at the moment. Everyone on the 21ism team seems, to some degree, to be struggling with their own demons at the moment. The news this month coming out of Greece, France and the UK about vaccination passports, within our own countries and imminent mandatory vaccination for some sectors of work, unsettles many of us. It feels like we’re moving rapidly towards a model of the Chinese Social Credit system. The net is closing in and it can feel terrifying at times.
"We’re already in a dark place but if we end up like China or North Korea what’s the hope for humanity? Bitcoin is the perfect weapon. It’s a peaceful weapon to subvert State tyranny."
“What am I going to say to my kids in 10-20 years when they ask me what I did during these times? That I was a good puppy & paid my taxes? Fuck no! I’m gonna say I did everything I could – that I spoke out. I moved my value from a system that supported tyranny to a system that supported freedom. That’s what I’ll tell them.”
"Mandatory vaccination is proof you’re a slave. If you don’t own your body – you’re a slave. At the moment you don’t own the fruits of your labour – you’re a slave."
In the Second World War, there was the option to run to another country but now we can be tracked almost everywhere. Forced vaccinations are coming. In a year’s time after they’re mandatory, there’ll be a lot less unvaccinated people – maybe only 10%. Look what happened in France when Macron said you can’t enter a pub without proof of vaccination.
"Bitcoin’s decentralisation means there’s no throat to choke. They can’t put all of us in jail at the same time. We’re moving value from tyranny to a freedom based system."
BIBLICAL TIMES
Many of us shy away from Biblical references in relation to Bitcoin, even if we might see similarities in Sound Money’s sweeping implications and potential positive impact on today’s economic and existential crises. Before the pandemic Spinte didn’t pay much attention to the Bible, but now more than ever, he’s seeing arcs of wisdom and perhaps even a direction of travel there – from the ‘mark of the beast’ to hope and ultimately redemption.
"I’ve found a lot of commonalities in the Bible, between Satoshi and Jesus for example. I think God helps us to help ourselves. Perhaps Bitcoin’s a gift so we can help ourselves. Perhaps it’s the very tool we need to fix our future."
Before the pandemic he was an atheist but now he’s revisiting things with an open mind. He regaled me with scientific experiments that prove there’s more to this world – like the double slit experiment where light behaves as a wave or particle depending on whether it’s observed or not. It’s true not only for light, but for atoms – for matter. So if matter isn’t watched, does it really exist? Are we just the Universe experiencing itself? Is the internet’s hive mind a collective consciousness, influenced by all our thoughts and actions?
MEME COLLECTION
#01
— Spinte.HODL ∞/21M 🍯🦡🌋 "Religious zealot" (@spinte8) August 2, 2021
#03
— Spinte.HODL ∞/21M 🍯🦡🌋 "Religious zealot" (@spinte8) August 2, 2021
ALIEN TECH
He’s looking for answers beyond the Bible too and enjoys delving into mythology and alt-archaeology. We discussed early human civilisation and potential interactions between humans and alien technology. Who’s to say higher beings haven’t previously made contact with earlier humans? The tales of Atlantis and undeniable similarities in technology, architecture and art between different ancient civilisations across the globe may suggest evidence of prior ‘contact’.
"Could Bitcoin even be Alien technology? It’s concepts are so revolutionary and fundamentally . . . it was perfect from the start."
We humans usually iterate when we create stuff, we make a phone we make a better phone and so on, but Bitcoin was created almost perfectly from the very beginning. We live in this world thinking top down systems of organisation and control are normal, but organic decentralised systems like mycelium make up some of the largest living networks on Earth. There are other system architectures on which we could model and organise human society and Bitcoin invites that.
We all recognise the remarkable way it’s captured our minds like a virus. That common story of being enraptured by it. It consuming you from dawn till dusk. It’s endless implications and potential to change our societies from the bottom up can be intoxicating. It’s a mission many of us want to contribute towards and accelerate.
THE BATTLE FOR HEARTS & MINDS
The FUD campaign and Information War against Bitcoin has been unprecedented lately. Like myself, Spinte feels the recent mainstream media bashing has seemed very coordinated, perhaps some parties wanted to buy cheaper.
"I’ll buy bitcoin even when it hits $1M because all value that’s kept in a corrupt system that destroys lives is morally wrong."
He’s committed to opting out to Bitcoin’s ‘better’ system, a voluntary system that doesn’t punish users. It rewards you for believing and understanding it. “I will always opt out from a fear based system.”
Maximalists are the white blood cells of Bitcoin and uphold it’s core values. The reason Communism, Fascism and the world we’re in right now arose, is because of consensus that these systems were good, because people thought these paths were good. Bitcoin Toxicity is vital to maintain consensus on our core principles because if we dilute these with bad ideas or socialist ideas, it modifies consensus and could send us astray. Spinte’s memes preach Maximalism.
"Memes are a form of education. If the people understand how money really works, how the system really works – there’ll be a revolution. "
MEME TOOLS & CREATIVE PROCES
Spinte’s a consumer of memes from Bitcoin and allied domains: AnCap, Libertarian, anti-government, taxation or pandemic related memes on Reddit and Twitter. They’re a ripe source of inspiration and he enjoys modifying and adapting some of these to Bitcoin. On the whole he uses free image editing tools like Pixlr or sometimes Photoshop on a laptop. He tries to find the highest impact for his ideas with the lowest input of time.
"When people are open to Bitcoin, they come to it naturally – you can’t force it."
It’s amazing the amount of ideas you can get in a meme. They can make such an impact, particularly through humour. Humour makes that connection between an abstract message and the humanity of the viewer. Without humour, it’s more like a motivational message. Sure that can work but will it go viral? Spinte goes viral.
MEME COLLECTION
#01
#Bitcoin's Lightning Network is removing monetary vampires. pic.twitter.com/VZFmRQgvvG
— Spinte.HODL ∞/21M 🍯🦡🌋 "Religious zealot" (@spinte8) August 3, 2021
#03
— Spinte.HODL ∞/21M 🍯🦡🌋 "Religious zealot" (@spinte8) August 2, 2021
STRONG TOWNS & PRIVATE CITIES
Bitcoiners love having the conversation about where they’ll move to and start Citadels, but recently the discussion seems to have shifted a little to orange pilling people in our own communities and building strong towns and networks locally.
Bitcoin’s a tool to fight oppression. They cannot censor transactions. If you grow a community with Bitcoin, you can trade produce freely with your neighbours, outside of state control. You can also vote with your feet and move to a country that treats you better. In the USA, there’s an option to create private, sovereign cities. We could start private, sovereign cities and communities that covertly transact in Bitcoin. The State will not know about a private city’s internal private economy because they have no oversight over it.
Citadels will most likely need weapons for protection, as criminals don’t care about laws and will get weapons whether it’s legal or not. In Europe, us peasants aren’t allowed weapons – not because it’s safer but because when the state comes for you, because you posted something they didn’t want you posting or you made a transaction they didn’t want you making – they have weapons and you don’t. He thinks this imbalance of violence could be fixed if we have the ability to 3D print effective weapons.
"The main purpose of banning weapons is so you cannot protect yourself from The State."
SECURING FUTURES
As a Software Engineer he’s thought hard about deep cold storage and uses an old laptop installed with Linux and Electrum himself. He’s not into hardware wallets because of the potential risks of fire, water, time, solar flares or EMP. He advises creating private keys on a laptop that’s not connected to the internet, and avoiding $5 wrench attacks by utilising multisig or splitting your seed into multiple geographic locations.
Can you imagine a base monetary system that’s better than Bitcoin? Spinte’s dived deep on this and can’t beat it’s trustless, permissionless, decentralised model. How long do you think you’d wait until something better might come along? Perhaps it’ll never come. Bitcoin can also adapt to new threats that emerge. It’s for the next millennia, not just the next couple of years. This is our future.
"As long as Bitcoin exists, there is hope. We have to fight tyranny because if we don’t, we won’t escape it. Standing aside is not an option. We all have to speak out."
Article by @SelfBankt