We traveled “in bitcoin” before it was a thing.
Me and Rikki started “Bitcoin Explorers“ in El Salvador in 2021, then kept moving: Central America, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Africa. And I’m not saying this to flex. I’m saying it because the timeline is the timeline. The content exist. The story speaks for itself.
Now. El Salvador was an engagement cheat code (and everyone knows it).
The uncomfortable truth: when we posted El Salvador content, everything grew faster. Like… four times as fast.
My tweets got reposted by Bukele. I got 4000 followers in a day for this picture you see here.
Our videos about El Salvador hit 10k views while being shot like amateurs (because we were amateurs). We weren’t filmmakers. We weren’t a production studio. We were just there, documenting what we were seeing with the tools we had in the most honest possible way.
If we wanted, we could’ve turned that into a visibility machine.
We didn’t.
Because we didn’t want the easy path. We didn’t want to go where everyone goes just because it performs. We didn’t want to become a tourism brochure for an algorithm or even worse, a government.
And eventually we had to admit something most people won’t say out loud: realistic reportage takes time, money, and resources. We didn’t have enough of them to keep doing it the way we wanted...properly.
So we stepped back. I found other jobs I'm super happy with and my voice remained independent.
Now let me ask you something. genuinely.
Why do you think so many Bitcoin creators focus on El Salvador? Why do you think so many creators post about it like it’s the only place on Earth where Bitcoin exists?
Because it’s simple:
- Post a beach breakfast and you get quadruple the reposts of a normal post.
- Post a critique? You risk getting dogpiled, losing followers, losing access, losing 'opportunities.
That’s the part people don’t post.
And yes: there are people in the space who will make it personal, who will lean on social pressure, who will remind you that stepping out of line has a cost. I’ve seen and heard enough to know the incentives are real even if nobody wants to say it clearly.
The saddest part is who ends up paying for this illusion: not the insiders. Not the people doing the reposting. Not people who threaten you over tweets.
It’s the people at home:
- liking
- retweeting
- booking flights
- buying tickets
- chasing a “ Bitcoin paradise” that mostly exists in social media posts apart from a few exceptions and small communities
A lot of content creators aren’t documenting reality. They’re documenting what the algorithm and their paycheck rewards.
And at that point… what’s the difference between them and the journalists they love to hate?
Same dynamic:
- follow the narrative
- repeat what powerful people want amplified
- avoid the messy parts
- monetize the attention
Different ecosystem. Same playbook.
We didn’t want to be that. We could’ve milked it. We didn’t. Not because we’re morally superior, spare me that story.
Because it didn’t fit who we are, and it didn’t fit what we wanted to build long-term.
If I’m going to talk about Bitcoin “in the world,” I want it to be real:
- not just the pretty parts
- not just the safe parts
- not just the parts that get you reposted by the right accounts
Reality is complicated. Adoption is uneven. People are people. Politics are politics. Incentives are incentives.
And if your content never shows the trade-offs, the friction, the contradictions… then you’re not educating anyone. You’re doing marketing.
❤️ If you’re new here, read this twice: Bitcoin doesn’t need fairy tales. It needs adults.
It needs people who can handle nuance without turning it into a loyalty test.
So next time you see a creator post a perfect “Bitcoin country” shot, ask yourself:
- What are they not showing?
- What can’t they say without losing access?
- What gets rewarded here. and what gets punished?
The algorithm isn’t truth. It’s the incentive map. And most creators are just following it like obedient little tourists.
