“Why oil? Why classic technique for a subject that exists in code?” Anik Malcolm’s answer: proof of human. The small irregularities. The warmth. The thing that makes the image intrinsically human instead of just printed. He tried a graphic version. It was colder. More austere. Oil carries something the machine can’t. Clip from Episode 13: https://youtu.be/Uq8f4HcZYQg

Newsletter Issue #20 is out. Plebs already own 80% of Bitcoin. Institutions dominate its use. That gap is a choice, not a rigging. Inside this week: → Hodlers Are Not Enough. New Substack piece on BIP-110, Adam Back, and the composition question. → Bitcoin Was Never Supposed to Be an Investment. Companion piece. → Episode 13 of Share Your Bitcoin Journey with painter Anik Malcolm from central Italy. 900 hours on canvas. 21 million beads. One cube. → Six weeks to Bitcoin Arts Park at the Midwest Bitcoin Summit in Columbus, Ohio. → Q3 grants close September 1. $500 to $2,000 in sats per artist. Read it, share it, forward it to a working artist. https://bitcoin-for-the-arts.beehiiv.com/p/bitcoin-for-the-arts-issue-20

Hodlers are not enough. BIP-110 stalled after two blocks. Adam Back was right about the reason: economic users control the protocol through the market — not nodes with no economic weight. The problem is that “economic user” has slowly been narrowed to mean exchanges, custodians, and large treasuries. The rest of us — the people who already own most of the Bitcoin — are treated as mostly irrelevant. Holding sats preserves value. Using them creates influence. Paying artists in Bitcoin is not just patronage. It is one of the few remaining ways ordinary people can still become real economic participants on the network. New piece from Bitcoin For The Arts: https://bitcoinforthearts.substack.com/p/hodlers-are-not-enough

New long-form essay from Bitcoin For The Arts. Bitcoin Was Never Supposed to Be an Investment. Every well-meaning "how to invest in Bitcoin" post shares the same broken framing. The correction to bad Bitcoin advice is always better Bitcoin investment advice. That is the entire problem. Fiat is a ruler that will not sit still. The entire investment industry exists because of that one design choice. If the ruler sat still, none of it would need to exist. Bitcoin is a ruler that sits still. The essay makes the full argument: what money is supposed to do, the pathology of fiat, why Satoshi priced Bitcoin in dollars anyway as a bridge for human psychology, the current Wall Street absorption threat, and why artists specifically are the corrective. The ruler stopped moving. Look at the world through it. Everything else follows. Read: https://bitcoinforthearts.substack.com/p/bitcoin-was-never-supposed-to-be #Bitcoin #Nostr #V4V #BitcoinForTheArts #SoundMoney

Bitcoin For The Arts, Issue #19 is out. The Bitcoin Arts Park lineup for the Midwest Bitcoin Summit is named: · Ainsley Costello + Short North Stage on Wednesday, September 23 · Andy Burghardt + Short North Stage interns + Lindey Magee's book reading on Thursday, September 24 · Shipwreck Shawn's paintings across both days · Proof of Print's live Bitcoin mining feed on the monitor Plus a new Substack essay on our founder's origin story (Two Weeks Before Capitol College), a new featured artist story with @nogoodkid, and Share Your Bitcoin Journey now on Apple, Spotify, and via our Podcasting 2.0 RSS feed with Value-4-Value Lightning splits to the show. Read: https://bitcoin-for-the-arts.beehiiv.com/p/bitcoin-for-the-arts-issue-19 #Bitcoin #Nostr #V4V #BitcoinForTheArts #MidwestBitcoinSummit

New episode of Share Your Bitcoin Journey just dropped. , the British author, editor, and ghostwriter behind Totally Human Writer, sits down with Bitcoin For The Arts for a full conversation on writing, fiction, and community as the tools that actually change minds. Philip is the co-editor of 21 Futures: Tales from the Timechain, the world's first Bitcoin fiction anthology, released by Konsensus Network in December 2023 and presented at Bitcoin Atlantis in 2024. He is the author of seven books in his own name. And he is the driving force behind the Gran Canaria Bitcoin community and its "Proof of Walk" gatherings. Highlights from the conversation: * Leaving a London marketing career in 2011 and teaching English across Latin America, Asia, and Spain * Publishing the first book of short fiction in 2018 * The coaching client whose book about "something called Bitcoin" changed everything * Founding Totally Human Writer as the deliberate opposite of AI-generated content * Editing 21 Futures with Knut Svanholm, Ioni Appelberg, and Niko Laamanen * Bitcoin Atlantis 2024, and the anthology becoming a Konsensus Network imprint * Expanding from Bitcoin fiction to the wider freedom-fiction universe * Three million LinkedIn impressions on writing tips for Bitcoin founders * Life on a Bitcoin standard as a resident of a Spanish island * Advice for writers looking to work in the Bitcoin space professionally Watch: https://youtu.be/c--KiT8r8iI #Bitcoin #Nostr #BitcoinForTheArts #BFTA #21Futures #SoundMoney #V4V #Writer #Art #BitcoinArt

on the moment it clicked: “It’s very easy to swallow all of the lies that you’re fed… ‘Oh, it’s this war. Oh, it’s the energy crisis. Oh, it’s the climate.’ It’s always some temporary issue rather than a group of unelected officials pushing a button and deciding to print more money. That was the moment I thought, ‘I’m gonna look into this.’” He hasn’t stopped reading since. #Bitcoin #ShareYourBitcoinJourney #BitcoinForTheArts

Speaker announcement. BFTA founder Dion Wilson will be speaking at the Midwest Bitcoin Summit 2026. September 23–24. Greater Columbus Convention Center, Columbus, Ohio. Two days on Bitcoin, energy, mining, technology, policy, business, and the revitalization of the Midwest. Bitcoin For The Arts will be on the ground with Bitcoin Arts Park, our activation featuring artist stories, a Dirty Coin community screening, a homeschool book reading of Bitcoin: A Treasure to HODL, and the working artists building culture on a Bitcoin standard. Come find us. Tickets and full lineup: https://midwestbtc.com #Bitcoin #Nostr #MidwestBitcoinSummit #BitcoinForTheArts

Bitcoin Arts Park is eight weeks away. At the Midwest Bitcoin Summit (Sept 23–24, Columbus), Bitcoin for the Arts is building its own dedicated cultural space — film, music, visual art, and a live children’s book reading with Lindey Magee. Dion will be speaking on the main stage both days. We’re looking for: • Volunteers • Sponsors • Sats contributions • Homeschool groups for the book reading All the details are in Issue #18: https://bitcoin-for-the-arts.beehiiv.com/p/bitcoin-for-the-arts-issue-18 If this mission resonates, now is a good time to step in. #Bitcoin #ShareYourBitcoinJourney #BitcoinForTheArts

We will make it happen at some point!

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