This is an opinion editorial by Obiwan Satoshi, a professional pickleball player.
Fiat money has birthed a fiat world. Fiat food, fiat jobs… and fiat athletes. In this article, I introduce ideas about what it means to be a Bitcoin athlete — an archetype that I seek to embody in my professional pickleball career and a template for the 21st century professional athlete.
Fiat Athletes Vs. Bitcoin Athletes
Fiat athletes compete to earn fiat money. They store their time and energy (aka, their wealth) in manipulated money that steals from them, they trust companies not to censor them and they often live high time preference lifestyles.
Bitcoin athletes are a new breed of elite, professional athletes. Bitcoin athletes store their wealth in sound money that protects them from theft, they leverage decentralized protocols like Nostr to create uncensorable, peer-to-peer relationships with their fans, they embody Bitcoin values and they live a low time preference lifestyle.
Fiat athletes build digital identities on platforms created by companies that have the ability to censor what they say and that divide them from their fans. Bitcoin athletes build digital identities on open-source protocols that can’t censor what they say. These protocols enable Bitcoin athletes to connect directly with their fans.
Fiat athletes trust banks to hold their money and leak energy with every exchange between fiat currencies when traveling to different countries. Bitcoin athletes hold their own money and conserve energy by using global money when traveling to compete.
Fiat athletes trust politicians to maintain monetary integrity. Bitcoin athletes run nodes and verify that the monetary policy of Bitcoin is enforcing a 21 million supply cap.
Fiat athletes live fiat lifestyles and propagate fiat values to their fans. Bitcoin athletes live Bitcoin lifestyles and propagate the values of the Bitcoin protocol to their fans — the values of truth, freedom and personal responsibility.
Fiat athletes live at the mercy of banks and politicians who control their money and the companies who control their financial sponsorship. Bitcoin athletes are sovereign and without masters. Their money is governed by mathematics and they are directly supported by their fans, who zap them sats at the speed of light.
Fiat athletes are motivated by fame and fiat riches. Bitcoin athletes are motivated by the mission to spread financial literacy to 8 billion people on earth and unlock unprecedented peace and human flourishing. Bitcoin athletes play for a purpose beyond money. They’re playing to save the money.
Fiat athletes use centralized money, centralized social media and centralized sponsorship models. They have relationships with intermediaries (banks, platforms and companies) that have the power to censor or control them if they don’t tow the line. Bitcoin athletes use decentralized money, decentralized social media and decentralized sponsorship models. They use protocols in order to restore direct relationships with their fans and reduce (or eliminate) their reliance on banks, platforms and companies.
Winning With Bitcoin
I believe a Bitcoin world will forge Bitcoin athletes, this new type of professional athlete who is financially energized directly by their fans, lives in alignment with values of the Bitcoin protocol and uses their influence to improve financial literacy and fix the money. The elite athlete of the 21st century will build their career on Bitcoin and be powered by the Lightning Network.
As a professional pickleball player, I’m on a mission to demonstrate this new template myself. I seek to master my sport by testing myself against the best pickleball players in the world and I play for Bitcoin.
Part of my mission as a Bitcoin athlete is to help fiat athletes make the jump over to a Bitcoin world, to help them understand Bitcoin and secure their bits of information in cyberspace (property, identity, data, etc.) with encrypted energy. That process often begins with me sending them 21 sats after a game so they can experience the magic of Bitcoin firsthand and then helping them set up a Nostr account so that fans can directly support them financially.
I believe the professional athletes of the 21st century will be powered by Bitcoin. They will connect directly with their fans with zaps and will store their life energy in scarce, digital, encrypted money. They will run nodes, share proof of work and connect with fans on Nostr. They will be uncensorable, unstoppable and sovereign in their quest to financially support their careers.
This is a guest post by Obiwan Satoshi. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
