This text is featured in Bitcoin Journal’s “The Main Subject”. Click on right here to get your Annual Bitcoin Journal Subscription.
I all the time discover it humorous when I’m attending a Bitcoin occasion like Bitcoin 2023 — or subsequent yr’s Bitcoin 2024 in Nashville — and a battle fan acknowledges me with a bewildered look of their eyes and asks,
“Cyborg?!…What are YOU doing right here?”
The reply all the time appears apparent to me, “as a result of I’m a Bitcoiner!”
One factor that makes Bitcoin particular is that it’s for everybody and that the extra you perceive it, the extra sure you develop into of its success. Each time I meet somebody and discover out they’re additionally a Bitcoiner, I immediately really feel a reference to them — a way of respect. It’s onerous to clarify to somebody who isn’t concerned in martial arts, however it’s a sense similar to how I really feel round my Muay Thai or Brazilian jujitsu sparring companions. Possibly that is the explanation for the bewildered appears to be like on the convention; I do know we’re each a part of a group of economic freedom warriors. In some ways, Bitcoin jogs my memory loads of martial arts, in that anybody and everybody can profit from collaborating, and the proof-of-work is confirmed within the constructive, life-changing outcomes.
I’ve been combating professionally for 18 years and through that point have gained each championship within the sport of MMA. I’m the present Bellator MMA Champion and former UFC, Invicta FC, and Strikeforce Featherweight Champion which makes me the one “Grand Slam Champion” within the historical past of the game — a title reserved solely for individuals who have gained all 4 main World Championships. Throughout my time as a fighter I noticed the game change dramatically from a “No Holds Barred” spectacle into one of many largest-grossing reside sporting occasions on this planet, entertaining a really international fanbase. While you battle for cash, it is named “prize combating”, with cash being the prize. As a fighter, our careers have very brief incomes intervals the place we now have to hunt the most important “cash fights” in an effort that we can save and make investments that cash into retirement.
MMA is a comparatively new sport. This yr the UFC — the biggest MMA promotion — is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary. A glance again on its transient historical past reveals a tremendous international development charge in reputation and an acceptance that has by no means been witnessed in skilled sports activities earlier than. Whereas the Bitcoin community is lower than half the age of the game of MMA, I see a robust resemblance in how it’s really evolving into a worldwide phenomenon, rapidly turning into frequent tradition and reaching a tipping level the place it’s going to now not be plain.
Early within the historical past of “Final Preventing” there have been few guidelines. With no athletic fee sanctioning the sporting competitors, Congress tried to create legal guidelines that will have banned the game within the U.S. By way of schooling, regulation, and self reform, ultimately audiences acquired to see the game of MMA evolve into what it’s at this time: organized, sanctioned, and comparatively secure for the opponents.
Once I meet fellow Bitcoiners who’re educating themselves concerning the community, advocating for adoption, and even operating their very own node or miners, I have a look at them just like the early pioneers of my sport of MMA. I do know that every of us collectively play an necessary position in serving to strengthen the Bitcoin community, guaranteeing that the true advantages of a decentralized, peer-to-peer trade of worth are by no means compromised.
The primary 30 years of the game of MMA has taught us extra about hand-to-hand fight than the earlier 200 years of martial arts coaching mixed. With the early Type versus Type MMA fights the viewers and practitioners rapidly discovered that regardless of the previous Kung Fu films, there was no “5 touches of loss of life” punch. Over time, we noticed the simplest martial arts get confirmed within the cage, ultimately inflicting opponents to solely give attention to these strategies that have been confirmed to be efficient and invaluable throughout an precise battle.
I see Bitcoin doing to finance what MMA has executed to conventional martial arts. The primary 15 years of Bitcoin has taught us extra concerning the retailer of worth than the primary 150 years of fiat currencies mixed. After you have been “Orange Pilled”, it’s like signing up for “Monetary MMA”. When you perceive how bitcoin is the simplest retailer of worth — confirmed to be probably the most sturdy, moveable, divisible, fungible, scarcest, trustless, censorship-resistant, and universally accepted as a type of cash — you can also make it your monetary focus, figuring out it’s the simplest and invaluable software at saving your worth long run.
BJJ just isn’t karate and Bitcoin just isn’t crypto! As an athlete in MMA, it’s my job to coach in a number of totally different kinds of martial arts. To a novice watching a martial arts class, there may not appear like a lot of a distinction between a karate uniform and a Brazilian jujitsu uniform. Regardless of the same uniforms, the 2 martial arts couldn’t be anymore totally different. One focuses on punches and kicks (karate), whereas the opposite focuses on wrestling and submissions (BJJ). Most individuals don’t perceive that MMA stands for “blended martial arts” and that we use guidelines from Olympic sports activities like boxing (punches), taekwondo (kicks), wrestling (takedowns), and judo (submissions) to compete in hybrid competitors with the objective of proving what’s the simplest system of fight.
Bitcoin just isn’t crypto. Bitcoin is decentralized, digital forex exchanged by means of a peer-to-peer community. It’s open-sourced and permits anybody to take part with no central level of management. Nobody individual or entity is in cost and it proves itself every day as the simplest retailer of worth, block after block, by means of proof of labor. Similar to the strategies used within the sport of MMA, the proof is within the work and the outcomes (rewards). It’s necessary to distinguish between Bitcoin and cryptos with the intention to perceive why Bitcoin is the simplest hybrid system of finance.
If my trade has taught me something it’s that girls are wanted to steer the revolution. Regardless of the primary UFC going down in 1993, it was not till I gained the Strikeforce World Championship in 2009 in opposition to Gina Carano that the game of MMA had a feminine acknowledged as undisputed World Champion. Trying on the sport at this time, it’s superb to see how important girls have been to its general development. Now we see the most important occasions being showcased by high feminine athletes, and we witness coaching services all over the world stuffed with younger, motivated, and hungry girls desirous to show themselves within the sport of MMA.
On the Bitcoin 2023 convention in Miami I acquired the chance to attend the second annual “girls of Bitcoin” brunch hosted by Natalie Brunell, which had over 250 girls from all over the world in attendance. It was inspiring to fulfill so many younger, educated, motivated girls working collectively to make sure the Bitcoin community turns into a type of monetary empowerment for ladies all all over the world. I really feel assured that years from now, as we glance again on the journey of Bitcoin, that the historical past goes to be stuffed with tales of feminine entrepreneurs, builders, and evangelists who have been instrumental within the community’s development and development as a result of Bitcoin is all-inclusive — each race, faith, and intercourse.
In my sport, with the intention to have longevity and success as a fighter, you could perceive the idea of “time choice”. As an athlete, you can’t be out partying, consuming poor meals, and having fun with instant gratification if you’d like long-term success. Success requires us to give attention to successful the small every day objectives with the understanding that each one the trouble is rewarded with a victory come the evening of the battle. I have a look at bitcoin and the observe of stacking sats (DCA) with that very same mindset. When you determine on a Bitcoin technique and also you perceive there’s solely ever going to be 21 million bitcoin obtainable, the idea of delayed gratification and time choice turns into simple to give attention to. Just like successful a championship belt in my sport, the outcomes of all of your onerous work being saved in sound cash goes to be life-changing.
Early within the historical past of the game of “final combating”, it was taken off the air. MMA largely made it by means of this “darkish period” because of a devoted loyal fanbase that spent their time on web boards, and sharing VHS movies of fights to make sure folks continued to get publicity to this creating sport. By no means in 1,000,000 years did I think about myself combating in entrance of fifty,000 followers inside a soccer stadium and promoting hundreds of thousands of pay per views.
The Bitcoin community jogs my memory loads of these early blended martial arts followers who invested their very own time, power, and efforts into the group as a result of they believed within the outcomes. Just like these early years in my sport, there is no such thing as a turning off the web and due to that the Bitcoin community goes to proceed to develop. It’s going to proceed to get stronger, and with it’s going to come the tipping level that may pressure a worldwide acceptance of Bitcoin.
Followers admire my ability, braveness, and focus once I step within the cage to compete in a championship prize battle, however the actuality is they don’t seem to be so totally different from me. The best way I see it, everybody who swallows the orange tablet has already signed the contract for the last word cash battle.
The subsequent time you see your favourite UFC or Bellator MMA fighter at a Bitcoin convention don’t look bewildered. As a substitute give them a heads-up, figuring out you’re each monetary freedom warriors coaching as a part of the Bitcoin community of prized fighters!
This text is featured in Bitcoin Journal’s “The Main Subject”. Click on right here to get your Annual Bitcoin Journal Subscription.
