
About 150,000 blocks ago, I bought burgers for my family with sats at NextBurger in Newport, California. The Orange County Bitcoin Meetup found a hamburger stand that wanted to accept Bitcoin. This attracted Bitcoiners from all over Southern California. People brought their families. Some sat stackers sold wares outside as if it were a Farmer's Market. A couple kids sold some hats. One dude sold pins. I bought one off him. It resembled the OpenDime I use as a keychain. He wore a 21M/infinity hat. We talked about Knut Svanholm books. He asked me, "What do you do for bitcoin?"

"I write a blog," I said. I must have written three articles about Bitcoin back then. I set up a BTCpayServer with LunaNode. My real idea was to write for sats, but I spent more sats on Lunanode than I made. I needed something to sell. 

I had a few shitty ideas but no real business plan. I told Pins about one of these shitty ideas.

"I'm thinking about selling BIP39 raffle tickets, but they're a pain in the ass to cut." See what I mean, bad ideas.

 Pins didn't say it was a bad idea though. I assure you, it was, but Pins gave this advice.

”Maybe you can use a 3D Printer."

I never did it, but I was impressed by how willing he was to help me. That's common in bitcoin. Bitcoiners are incentivized to help other Bitcoiners. The more people that accept Bitcoin at their stores, the bigger the demand for Bitcoin.  The bigger the demand, the more the value of bitcoin soars. That's how I see it anyway.

![backside of pins](https://gitea.marc26z.com/marc/Marc26z/raw/branch/main/BTCPinsPics/20250118_164136.jpg)

I know this is contrarian. Most people brag about how they will *never SODL*,  but that's short-sighted. Time is scarce, you should enjoy life while you can. I believe art enriches my life and brings me joy. People who say they will never sell have a scarcity mindset. Everyone begins this way, so it's not a criticism but rather an observation. Those who refuse to spend bitcoin tend not to be misers living in a van to stack more sats. These people exist, but they are not the people who say they will never spend. Those who will never spend or sell Bitcoin tend to spend fiat like a drunken Sailor(pun intended). Someone once told me he NEVER spends Bitcoin. He also said he spends $30 per month on AI. I spend like 5,000 sats on AI every month. Who is better off, the person who stacks 30,000 sats and spends 5,000 sats or the person who stacks 25,000 sats less by spending fiat every month but never spends bitcoin?

I participate in the circular economy because I consider using Bitcoin as money to be more advantageous for my *savings strategy*. When you earn sats, spend sats, and save sats, you break free from the chains of fiat debasement. Dollars are designed to go down in purchasing power to manipulate the public into spending more. That's why most people have more than one TV, but can't afford a $400 emergency.

When you know $30 worth of Open AI services will likely be worth $433 in 21 years(if we assume Saylor is correct) you evaluate purchases with a different lens. Your shopping habits change. I no longer buy Nike's because they coat 80k-120k sats, but I expect them to look like shredded cheese in six months. I would rather pay 100k sats for a nice pair of hiking shoes. I expect they will last me a few years.

I've had my open dime pin for almost 4 years now and I expect to have it for years to come. It must have cost me about 100k sats. I don't expect it to be worth that much in the future, but you never know. Sometimes, I watch The Antique Road Show on PBS. Some pins, made by famous artists, are worth thousands of dollars. There is a chance collectibles like this will become more valuable, but I'm skeptical of this. I bought this PIN because it sparks joy, as Marie Kondo says.


## Pins I Bought Online

Although I consider these Pins art. I don't view art as an investment. I don't expect to ever sell one of these Pins for $110,000 like that banana duct-taped to a canvas before the artist got the munchies. **I don't want dollars anyway**. That's like a whole coin for a banana. I wouldn't spend 100,000,000 sats for one of these Pins, but BTCPins are not so pretentiously priced.

I recently bought some pins I've been salivating over for months.  I need a better way of displaying them, but here are the pins I recently bought.

### An Awesome Affiliate Link
![BTCPins Nostr Post](https://gitea.marc26z.com/marc/Marc26z/raw/commit/9bb67c5e546f3993db3089cf3403d752196b9294/BTCPinsPics/Screenshot_20250203_112718_Primal.jpg)


BTCPins has a [unique affiliate link](https://btcpins.com/affiliate-signup/).  Provide your lightning address and it will generate an affiliate link for you. These things have been around since the 90s, but what makes this particular link notable is how commissions are paid: In sats on the Bitcoin lightning network.

#### How BTCPins Affiliates Work

![affiliate](https://gitea.marc26z.com/marc/Marc26z/raw/commit/9bb67c5e546f3993db3089cf3403d752196b9294/BTCPinsPics/Screenshot_20250119_054137_Kiwi%20Browser.jpg)

- Navigate to https://btcpins.com/affiliates/
- Enter your lightning address.
- Generate your link
- Share with the world.

So buy a pin or two from BTCPins today using my affiliate link:





Encrypted Link: https://btcpins.com/?aff=ex1GhhNeeU9-PQ1-ZVEkarU9bSnsNyq98Jy_lEUBLmsrWsCqa69PYohMWcCOGK9tK1rAqmuvT2KITFnAjhivbfOajnP3D8A8O09Hi-OY4K8