Pierre Simon

A new chapter begins!

Today is my very first day as Director KYC Center at Team EIFFEL!

For those who have followed my journey over the past 14+ years with

and

: don't worry! Both are still alive and well, but my main focus is now 100% shifted toward this exciting new executive role at Team EIFFEL.

Together with an incredible team, I’ll be leading and scaling our new KYC as a Service (KaaS) proposition—building a scalable, outcome-based compliance engine for financial institutions and Wwft-obliged organizations across the Netherlands.

Time to build something big. Let’s go! 💥🙌

The last few months were tough. Between navigating a quiet summer period, facing friction after introducing Bitcoin payments, and getting buried under client delivery, I lost focus on what actually moves the needle: active sales, nurturing relationships, and consistently showing up.

I got so caught up in the day-to-day consulting and academy work that I stopped scheduling regular coffee catch-ups, skipped networking events, and neglected proactive check-ins. When you get too consumed by execution, it's easy to stop growing the business.

Now that the summer holiday season is officially over, the focus is 100% recalibrated: Engage. Sell. Deliver.

Today’s momentum: 🏋️‍♂️ Early morning gym session done 🏢 Back at the desk hitting sales calls & booking appointments 🤝 Client lunch meeting at 12:00 📊 Tracking every touchpoint in a custom CRM I built from scratch

New week, renewed focus, full energy. Let's get to work! 🔄⚡️

Super excited to officially soft-launch the brand new Simon Academy learning platform!

We built this specifically for the community—featuring native npub login, Lightning payments, and a massive curriculum expansion beyond just compliance.

Whether you're building on Bitcoin/Nostr, mastering alternative payment methods, or hardening cybersecurity, it’s all inside one clean dashboard.

Check it out and let me know your thoughts! 🎓

👉 https://simon.academy/index.html

Sneak peek behind the scenes! 📲✨

Been putting in the work refining the new

Learner Portal, and it's finally coming together nicely.

Here’s an early look at what we’ve been building—including native Nostr key integration (npub) right on your profile! 🔑

Inside, we're diving deep into Alternative Payment Methods (APMs)—breaking down everything from SEPA and super-app dynamics (Alipay/WeChat Pay) to Merchant vs. Consumer QR flows (MPM vs. CPM), FX netting, and cross-border risk management.

Understanding how legacy & regional APMs scale is the ultimate cheat code for building smoother, faster sovereign rails like Lightning & ecash.

More modules dropping soon. Stay tuned! 🎓

Thinking back to my recent time in Aruba watching people use local bank apps like Sentoo and Pay.aw.

Everyday consumers don't care about regulatory terminology or backend settlement mechanics—they just want to scan a QR code, hit approve, and move on with their day.

If we want sovereign rails like Lightning and ecash to win global adoption, we don't need to change human behavior. We just need to make the sovereign option 10x smoother, cheaper, and faster for the merchant than their bank app.

(This is actually why I’m currently developing a new short-course series for

focused on alternative payment methods, comparing legacy QR systems vs. sovereign open rails!)

Back home in the Netherlands since Friday! 🇳🇱

It was an emotional week in Aruba saying goodbye to my uncle, but being back on my island re-grounding with family was so deeply needed. 💙

One last observation on the payment front: alongside Sentoo, I also saw Pay.aw out there—another QR payment option. Sentoo itself is actually pretty slick since it's an instant bank transfer, but merchants still pay processing fees.

The biggest hurdle on the island right now isn't consumer adoption—it's government perception. Local regulators and authorities still treat Bitcoin and crypto as high-risk, making adoption an uphill climb.

Lightning (and ecash) remains light-years ahead: open, instant, global, and drastically cheaper for merchants. The local appetite for digital payments is already there—now it's just a matter of shifting mindsets and replacing the legacy banking rails! ⚡️🇦🇼

cc: @BitcoinAruba #Aruba #Bitcoin #LightningNetwork #Payments #CircularEconomy

Pro tip for building a daily passive #Bitcoin yield loop: ⚡️

1️⃣ Start Free or Go Pro on

: Free tier: 21 sats/day (3 missions × 7 sats) with $0 investment. Pro tier: Boosts daily missions to 21 sats each + unlocks 2 bonus missions (like #SatsCipher).

2️⃣ Reinvest: Convert your earned sats into USDB ($1 USDB = $1 USD).

3️⃣ Compound: Hold USDB in your wallet (Xverse Wallet or

) to earn daily BTC yield (starts at just 10 USDB min!).

Zero upfront capital needed to kickstart the engine, but compounding those earnings takes it to the next level! 🍊💊

#Bitcoin #LightningNetwork #USDB #SatsStacking #Nostr

Arrived in Aruba yesterday after my uncle passed away. Good to be back 'home' with family. 💙

Hit the barber today and ran into an old colleague from my Aruban police force days! When it came time to pay, it was cash or a local payment method called Sentoo.

From a user perspective, Sentoo was flawless—scan a QR code, hit a payment link, open the local bank app, and approve. Seamless. But looking at it through a technical and merchant cost lens, Lightning and

still blow it out of the water. ⚡️🥜

Numo Pay would have been an absolute game-changer for this merchant—instant, zero-fee tap-to-pay offline via ecash, backing up directly to

. The island is already comfortable with QR-based instant payments... now we just need to help local shops swap out the legacy banking middleman for sovereign rails! 🇦🇼

cc:

#Aruba #Bitcoin #LightningNetwork #Cashu #BTCPayServer #Payments

Check out this insight from Simon Academy: "Building open learning systems with Nostr identity"

https://simon.academy/articles/building-open-learning-systems-nostr.html

Just got back from a fantastic holiday in beautiful Gran Canaria! Paid for everything using my

debit card, which means indirectly every coffee, meal, and tap was powered by Bitcoin. ⚡️🍊

Back at it today: heading into Amsterdam for a 12 PM lunch meeting with a fellow Bitcoiner &

member, while putting the final touches on the new

website and portal.

We’re getting ready to launch with 3 brand-new, short FREE microlearning courses: 1️⃣ Bitcoin for Business 2️⃣ Nostr for Business 3️⃣ Zapvertising

Really excited about expanding our scope beyond just compliance & risk into actionable business strategy—all laser-focused on accelerating the Bitcoin circular economy! Stay tuned. 🚀 #Bitcoin #CircularEconomy #Nostr #Amsterdam

First time vibe coding from the hotel this morning before hitting the park—pretty damn excited! 🌴🧙‍♂️

Building a Nostr-native onboarding MVP for

. Not fully wrapped up yet, but aiming to launch later today. Check the progress below! 👇

What a wild start to our trip to Aqualand in Gran Canaria yesterday! 🌊☀️

When we pulled into the parking lot, the attendant casually told me in Spanish that I could pay for parking with card, cash, or Bitcoin.

My jaw dropped. I instantly replied, "¡Wow! ¿Puedo pagar con Bitcoin?"

...He laughed and said it was just a joke. Total heartbreak! It would have been incredible to pull up a Lightning invoice right there at the entrance gates. 😅

Most of us on Nostr are already Bitcoiners, but are we actually accepting it in our businesses? It's time to close the loop.

Proud of the practical, merchant-first blueprint I've put together with the team at

. Slide into my DMs to secure your 50% "Sats-only" launch discount code! 🔓🤙

This is absolutely wild.

, just opened up GeoZap to the entire world 🌎🍊

Basically, you can drop sats to Bitcoiners in any city, country, or region on Earth instantly. Zero addresses, zero invoices, zero permission needed.

I just tested it out by targeting Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. There are 4 Bitcoiners on the map there, so at the 10 sat minimum per person, I sent a total of 40 sats.

The coolest part? I paid the QR code seamlessly using my nostr:nprofile1qqsvdc3s5f0260zfwqfkx7lnw77wmqw8ekmqmzq6v0kmzw9s32ngpqcfwuxkginstead of my usual Club Orange app wallet. The interoperability is beautiful. 👇

Just caught the recent @BTCSessions episode on the BIP-110 debate, and the crew hit the nail on the head.

I’m no technical protocol expert, but the core principle here is simple: Bitcoin is sovereign money. Yes, we need to actively use it, spend it, and build a real circular economy—not just quietly hoard it in a vault.

But trying to force-censor what people can write to the blockchain just to block "spam" is the entirely wrong approach. 👇

We all know the value of Zaps on Nostr, but have you heard of the "Send a gift" feature on Facebook? I read through Meta’s official T&Cs for it, and the fine print is a complete joke.

Meta explicitly states that these gifts have "no monetary value" and that they retain "sole discretion" over whether a creator ever gets a dime—all while deducting credit card fees and corporate "bad debt" from the creator's cut. Contrast that with a Zap: actual sovereign money settling peer-to-peer instantly, with zero platform fees or corporate permission required. Web2 forces you to buy centralized database credits and hope an intermediary passes a fraction along, but true value-for-value belongs on open protocols. ⚡

#Nostr #ValueForValue #Zaps #Bitcoin

Not your keys, not your coins. If your Bitcoin is sitting on a centralized exchange or custodial wallet, you are still letting someone else control your life. 🛑

Later this month, I'm opening up our brand-new foundational course at

to teach you exactly how to claim true financial sovereignty and secure your own keys with absolute confidence.

I want action-takers in this cohort. Check out the link and DM me directly to lock in an immediate 50% off coupon when you pay in Sats. Let's build your parallel future today! 👇

Visa, BlackRock, Stripe, and Mastercard teaming up for "Open USD" tells you everything you need to know. The legacy financial system is absolutely terrified of losing control over global settlement pipelines.

They want us running on their rebranded fiat hamster wheel. I’m with

that the big boys are building new digital cages, but we don't have to just sit back and hoard. We have better tools now. 👇

The Bitcoin circular economy is quietly taking root in Spain! 🇪🇸

shows 357 merchants active on the mainland, and the momentum has swept into the Canary Islands with 32 active spots.

Let's look at the breakdown on Gran Canaria... 👇

On top of the world at Pico de las Nieves! 🏔️✨

Standing at the highest peak of the Canary Islands, nearly 2,000 meters above sea level. The view above the clouds is absolutely breathtaking.

☀️🎒☁️

Great job

with the new app—the on- and off-ramping flow is impressive. The current on-chain buy connection is great for an on-ramp, but since the Lightning Network are much better suited for everyday payments, it's the missing piece to truly use bitcoin as money. Any timeline on when a direct buy connection to a Lightning wallet will be available so we have a full loop? 🔄⚡️

Ran across

today—it turns your npub into a functional marketplace in under 5 minutes without touching a server or database. 🤯

Products go straight to your followers' feeds as native notes, and the payments hit your self-custodial Lightning wallet directly.

This is exactly the kind of friction-free tooling we need to support independent merchants across the ecosystem. Have any of you tested this one out yet? 👇

#SovereignBuilder #LightningNetwork #SupportSmallBusiness

Happy Monday from the sun! 🌞 Starting the week with a clear thought on the circular economy:

If we want a parallel ecosystem to succeed, we have to actively build it. That means aggressively supporting the small businesses trading right here on Nostr.

Buying from them, zapping them, promoting their products, liking their posts, and giving them the exposure they deserve. Volume follows attention. 📈

I’m making it a personal priority starting today. Our economic sovereignty depends on closing these loops. Who is joining me? 👇

#Bitcoin #Nostr #CircularEconomy #SupportSmallBusiness

I’ve spent years analyzing legacy financial structures, but analyzing how languages form is just as fascinating. Papiamento is quite literally a decentralized, grassroots protocol for human connection.

The team at Simon Academy is putting together a basic beginner course to give builders the skills to unlock the Dutch Caribbean market. I'll be running the live interactive sessions myself.

Check out the origin story below and DM me if you want a slot. 👇

Just caught up on the 83rd edition of the Weekly Nostr Recap—huge shoutout to

and everyone contributing to this essential newsletter!

Seeing the data laid out is incredible. We aren't just looking at an open social protocol anymore; we are watching a global, sovereign marketplace form right in front of us. From small merchants like Beck & Bulow moving high-quality products purely for Sats, to real-world impact projects raising hundreds of thousands of Sats permissionless like Burgos' initiative.

The analytics show the true velocity of a parallel circular economy in action. The growth is real, the tools are ready, and the builders are here.

If you aren’t reading this weekly update, you're missing the true heartbeat of Nostr. Keep up the phenomenal work! 🤝⚡️

#Nostr #Bitcoin #CircularEconomy #Value4Value

Running businesses since 2010 has taught me that the best ideas are often the simplest. Out here in Gran Canaria, I see small vendors working tirelessly, completely at the mercy of legacy payment fees and slow settlement times.

Back when I started, I had no choice but to accept the legacy tax of credit cards and banks. But today, small businesses on Nostr have a superpower: peer-to-peer Lightning payments.

You don't need a massive corporate structure to take control of your money. You just need the courage to start stepping outside their ecosystem, one transaction at a time.

I’ve never trusted the Saylor approach. True sovereignty isn't born from holding Wall Street debt wrappers like corporate convertible notes or equity proxies like STRK and STRC—it's built by stepping completely outside their ecosystem.

As the

team highlights below, you can earn 3.5% to 6% APY natively on your stable capital using the USDB BTKN token right on the Spark Network, paid out daily in sats straight to your self-custody wallet.

Normally, a regular family in Europe or the US keeps their $5,000+ holiday fund sitting completely idle in a legacy bank savings account. By switching that exact fund to USDB, they generate a steady stream of roughly 24,000 sats a month (~$15.30 USD).

It’s not about making you rich—it’s about velocity. That $15 a month is easily enough to buy a few free rounds of coffee or a family breakfast at a local Bitcoin-accepting merchant. Your core holiday savings remain perfectly fluid and ready to pay for the vacation, while your passive daily yield directly funds the circular economy over Lightning.

📥 DM me if you want to know exactly how to set this up. 🔄⚡️

#bitcoin #circulareconomy #nostr

Want a practical example of how this circular economy actually could work right now? Look at the native stack:

1️⃣ Earn Natively: Spend a few minutes playing puzzle apps like Satsman or tracking your daily steps with sMiles to stack free sats daily. Right now, most people just hoard and stack these sats. But while individual earnings are extremely small, collectively they can create massive purchasing power for merchants if we actually choose to spend them. Every small step makes an immediate difference. 2️⃣ Hold Natively: Keep those earned sats sitting right inside your connected Nostr wallet. 3️⃣ Spend Natively: Find a merchant on Nostr or BTC Maps, and pay directly into their business profile wallet. Right here on Nostr, these direct peer-to-peer payments are just Zaps. ⚡️ 4️⃣ Supply Natively: That merchant then takes those exact satoshis from their revenue and uses them to pay their suppliers or B2B partners in Bitcoin.

The beauty? It’s pure Bitcoin peer-to-peer from end to end. No conversion to fiat, no banking rails, and zero taxable exchange events.

A completely self-contained loop from game to wallet to merchant to supplier. The loop is ready—we just have to break out of the HODL-only mindset and close it. 🔄⚡️

#bitcoin #circulareconomy #nostr #plebs

Let’s be real but optimistic: the Bitcoin "circular economy" is facing a big growth pain—we have a spending problem. 📈🌱

I drive solid traction and earn in the fiat world, but after a year of trying to fully transition, the reality here is clear: like most merchants on Nostr, I'm earning almost nothing in BTC yet. It’s easy for business owners to get impatient!

HODLing is a great savings strategy, but a real parallel system needs velocity. Tiny Zaps are awesome, but supporting each other's actual businesses is what builds a sovereign future.

We have the tech and the community to make this work. If we shift our mindset and start actively buying from each other, this decentralized economy will be unstoppable. Let's do this. 👇 (Continued in comments)

#bitcoin #circulareconomy #nostr #plebs

Elon Musk talks about turning X into a Western "superapp"—an all-in-one platform for chat, media, ID, and global payments. WeChat already mastered this years ago.

But here’s the reality check: Nostr clients like

and

have literally been doing this for a while now.

Through a single cryptographic key pair, a user can instantly access borderless P2P messaging, media sharing, live streaming, decentralized marketplace stores, and lighting-fast global micropayments via native Zaps. It is the ultimate "Everything App," entirely decoupled from corporate control.

So here is my challenge to us: Why are mainstream consumers and merchants still sleepwalking into centralized corporate traps instead of utilizing Nostr fully?

Is it a friction problem? A marketing problem? Or are people just too comfortable trading their data and sovereignty for legacy convenience?

Let's discuss. 👇

#superapp #wechat #elonmusk #nostr #decentralized #bitcoin #sovereigntech

Let’s be honest for a Saturday morning: the Nostr echo chamber has an engagement problem.

My wife posts our Gran Canaria holiday photos on Facebook: 79 likes, 30 comments. I post virtually identical content here on Nostr: 1 or 2 interactions if I’m lucky.

I’m fully committed to the sovereign web, but let's cut the coping—I completely miss the network traction, reach, and vibrant engagement of legacy giants like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Nostr is a brilliant protocol, but as a functional social network, we are barely scratching the surface of true mainstream adoption.

How do we stop talking to ourselves, fix this retention issue, and actually bring the crowd over? (And no, it won’t stop me from posting.) 👇

#nostr #plebs #grownostr #decentralized #socialmedia #bitcoin

Good morning, everyone! ☀️🌴

Happy Friday from sunny Gran Canaria! We've had a brilliant start to the day—I kicked things off with an early morning walk along the rugged south coast, and the kids have already spent hours splashing around and swimming in the pool. 🌊🏊‍♂️

Today, we are packing up the car and heading over to the coastal village of Puerto Rico right here in Gran Canaria (no long-haul flights to the Caribbean for us this time!). We are starting our day at the beautiful Mogan Mall before heading down to explore the marina and enjoy the lively holiday energy of the town together as a family. 🚙🛍️

Hope you all have a fantastic and productive end to your week, and a great weekend ahead! 🍊

#goodmorning #travel #grancanaria #holiday #familytime #plebs

Good morning, everyone! ☀️🏝️

An update from our family holiday here in beautiful Gran Canaria. Yesterday was an absolute blast in Maspalomas. We checked out the iconic lighthouse, walked along the breathtaking sand dunes, did a bit of shopping, and wrapped it up with some amazing Italian food right by the beach. 🌊🇮🇹🍝

Today, we are hitting the road again and heading to Puerto de Mogán—often called the "Venice of the Canary Islands." Can't wait to explore the canals and colorful streets with the wife and kids.

Wishing you all a fantastic and productive day ahead! 🍊

#goodmorning #travel #grancanaria #holiday #familytime #plebs

I’ve had a few people ask me if they can use their Lightning wallets to buy our accredited corporate compliance and DORA training packages at

.

The answer is a resounding YES.

Our automated gateway is still trapped in the legacy system, but we run an OTC concierge service right here in the DMs. Check the note on the Academy profile, drop us your email, and let’s get you certified natively. ⚡🍊

6 AM here in Gran Canaria. The family is still asleep, and I’m watching the beautiful island wake up with a coffee in hand ☕️🏝️

Even on holiday, the Bitcoin network never stops. I’ve been blown away by the active local community here. Just connected with

to talk about the thriving monthly meetups he runs on the island.

Proof that no matter where you travel, you can find your tribe and build real-world connections. If you’re a Bitcoiner in GC or passing through, look him up!

Time to enjoy a few more minutes of quiet before switching back to full-time dad and husband mode for the day 🌊🍊

#bitcoin #travel #circulareconomy #plebs #goodmorning

Happy Friday! ☀️ Bringing you some free stacking tips to kick off the weekend.

Here is the exact blueprint I use to build a self-custodial BTCFi stacking machine entirely hands-free:

1️⃣ Set up a monthly SEPA transfer to

(flawless Euro-to-LN gateway). 2️⃣ Use Bringin's [Buy to wallet] feature to stream sats directly to a static Lightning Address on

. 3️⃣ Swap those sats to USDB natively inside Blitz to generate local volume and unlock higher yield tiers (3.5% up to 6.0% APY). 4️⃣ Watch the Spark network auto-distribute daily Bitcoin rewards directly into your self-custodial vault.

Best part? These earned sats are instantly spendable anywhere Bitcoin is accepted. And since we are accumulating at a low right now, the value of those stacked sats will only go up from here—making this the ultimate maximum-benefit savings vehicle.

Sovereign wealth, optimized yield, zero legacy bank friction.

#Bitcoin #BTCFi #LightningNetwork #Spark #StackingSats

Started using

this morning to track all my runs, walks, rides and hikes.

What a night for the beautiful game! 🇵🇹🐐

Watched the Portugal match last night with my daughter, and man, seeing Ronaldo bag two goals in the World Cup at his age is just unreal. 10 World Cup goals and 145 international goals total now. Absolute machine.

As a former amateur player back in the day, I’m just in awe of that kind of longevity and discipline. Took some notes to share with my U11 girls at training later today—the way he moves off the ball to find space in the box is exactly what we've been practicing!

No matter who you root for, you have to respect greatness. The kids are lucky to grow up watching this. ⚽️ #WorldCup2026 #Ronaldo #CoachingLife #NostrFootball

What a weekend. Celebrated Father’s Day with the ultimate surprise from my family—an indoor skydiving session over in Utrecht! 🪂💨 Absolute rush messing around with terminal velocity physics indoors. Incredible fun. Followed it up with a phenomenal lunch catching up with my wife and kids. Grateful for the downtime and the energy recharge. Ready to crush the week ahead. ☀️💼 #FathersDay #Utrecht #FamilyFirst #ActiveLife #Grateful

The sheer scale of the World Cup is mind-blowing. With tens of millions of passionate fans watching simultaneously, putting on a masterclass on this global stage means the math of public attention moves incredibly fast.

The keepers of both Cabo Verde and Curaçao have completely ignited their Instagram accounts. Vozinha exploded from his baseline straight into the millions of Instagram followers overnight, and our very own Eloy Room rocketed from 95.9K all the way to 1 Million in less than 24 hours, already climbing past 1.1 Million Instagram followers. 🇨🇼🇨🇻🧤

Capturing those kinds of numbers and massive attention loops would be absolutely fantastic on Nostr. Imagine routing that raw global audience traffic away from siloed corporate databases like Instagram and directly onto sovereign, cryptographically signed open protocols where creators and athletes actually own their network. The world is waking up to the talent of the islands, and it's time to onboard them to the open web. 🚀

#EloyRoom #Vozinha #BlueWave #Curaçao #CaboVerde #NostrPlebs #SovereignTech #OpenWeb

I could not be prouder of the Curaçao team. After losing our first match against Germany (zero points, but they scored their first World Cup goal ever!), they just secured their ever first point on the World Cup stage with a grueling 0-0 draw against Ecuador.

Absolute masterclass from Curaçao keeper Eloy Room—fully deserved Man of the Match. 🧤👑

They might be sitting last in this absolute group of death, but the trajectory is up. If they keep getting better and somehow lock in a win next game, there is still a mathematical chance to advance.

No matter what happens next, this squad is already making history. Let's go! 🇨🇼🔥

#Curaçao #WorldCup #EloyRoom #BlueWave #HistoryMade

Dropping a quick personal recommendation for anyone looking to level up their Bitcoin knowledge without falling asleep over a textbook: you have to try out the Satsman app.

I started out on their free tier, but I liked it so much that I upgraded all the way to a paid tier, and now I'm on their Founding Member tier. It completely maximizes my daily earnings and includes their full SBI Intelligence Programme for free.

The app makes learning incredibly easy. You complete short tasks like an "Orange Pill Poll" or "Sats Price Discovery" that take less than 30 seconds per mission. You instantly stack real sats straight to your wallet while playing educational games like SatsCipher and SatsStack.

Because I love this gamified approach, I’ve officially partnered up at

with the team at Satsman to bridge the gap between their app and our deeper training paths. 🤝

Want to try the 30-second missions yourself, or looking at this from a company training angle?

📩 Drop me a DM. Let me know if you want my personal app referral link or the corporate program info, and I'll send it right over!

#Bitcoin #StackSats #SovereignTech #NostrPlebs #SimonAcademy #Satsman

Bon siman! ☀️ Kickstarting the week with some great energy.

Yesterday we had a blast at football training with the girls—running a mini "World Cup" 2v2 tournament that kept everyone sharp and highly competitive. 🏆⚽

The athletic streak continues today as the kids start their school’s avondvierdaagse tonight! That means walking 5 to 10 km every single evening for four days straight. Hoping for beautiful weather and zero blisters for the kids. 🚶‍♂️💨

Let’s make it a productive and active week!

#BonSiman #YouthFootball #Coaching #Avondvierdaagse #ActiveLife

An absolute must-read article dropped by

on the future of financial privacy. 🤫📰

It breaks down exactly why digital eCash is shifting from a theoretical concept into an essential structural tool for sovereign builders.

Huge shoutout to

for pioneering the open protocol tech that makes this level of instant, private, peer-to-peer value transfer a reality. Check out the full breakdown below! 👇

History made! 🇨🇼⚽ Just watched Curaçao play their first-ever World Cup match.

While I am Aruban, my roots run incredibly deep in Curaçao—my grandfather, his father, their siblings, and generations of the Simon family before them all come from the island. Seeing them on the world stage hits very close to home.

Going up against four-time World Champion Germany, everyone wrote the boys off and expected a total blowout. And yes, while the final scoreboard read a tough 7-1 loss, the numbers don't tell the whole story.

Against all odds, the team showed incredible resilience. They didn't just defend—they fought back, broke through, and scored their first-ever World Cup goal. And what a beautiful, unforgettable goal it was! 🙌🔥

It hurts to lose by a big margin, but the experience, the immense pride, and the joy of seeing the flag at the World Cup is massive. A historic day for the family roots! Mi ta orguyoso di boso! 🇨🇼❤️

#Curacao #WorldCup #FamilyRoots #Football #ProudMoment

What a day at the Zeeg Goedhart Tournament over in Alphen aan den Rijn yesterday with my daughter’s team, MO11-1! 🏆⚽

After a slow 0-0 opening match due to some early jitters, we made a quick tactical shift in our lineup. The adjustment changed everything—giving us the exact spark, defensive stability, and forward pressure we needed.

The squad completely turned it around from there, winning the second match 3-1 and dominating the final with a clean 3-0 victory to bring home 1st place! 🥇 Our attack exploded for 6 beautiful goals, while our defensive wall stood rock solid, conceding only a single goal the entire tournament. 🧱🧤

It was also the perfect moment to officially close out the year. We thanked the girls for all their incredible effort and growth this season, and I was incredibly touched to receive some amazing thank-you presents from the team myself. 🎁🧡

The absolute perfect way to finish our U11 season before we move up to the U12 age group next year. Proud coach moment!

The first Nostr edition of the

newsletter is officially live! 🗞️⚡

Diving deep into the hybrid future of Spark and the Lightning Network. Essential reading for anyone interested in how we quietly scale Bitcoin to billions of users.

Shoutout to

for building the tools that make on- and off-ramping, and navigating these financial architectures seamless. Check it out below!👇

This is exactly why I use and support

for creating long-form content on Nostr. ✍️🛡️

In the legacy world, you are always renting your audience, your business, and your digital identity from a centralized corporation that can flip a switch and delete you overnight. Nostr changes the rules of the game entirely.

True digital ownership, decentralized infrastructure, and direct peer-to-peer value. If you are a creator or an entrepreneur and you aren’t building on open protocols yet, it's time to start. What are you waiting for?

Proud to be building in public alongside teams making sovereign tech a reality! 🚀

Calendar is completely packed with back-to-back corporate meetings today, but the absolute highlight of my Wednesday is happening right during lunch break.

Heading over to the school to watch Isabella and her friends crush a Michael Jackson-inspired live performance! 🕺✨ Cannot wait to see that moonwalk.

After that, it's straight back into business mode before switching hats later this evening to coach the youth football team. ⚽🏃‍♂️

Grateful for the flexibility to jump from founder to proud dad, to coach all in a single day. Stay sovereign, everyone! ☕

I’ll be honest: I am not a fan of Michael Saylor's approach. But if you look past the laser-eyes maximalist hype, you have to respect the raw financial engineering he has pulled off.

At his core, Saylor isn't a protocol builder—he’s a master Wall Street operator running an unprecedented corporate arbitrage loop. By exploiting the premium on his company's stock (Strategy Inc.) to relentlessly issue shares, raise debt, and vacuum up spot Bitcoin, he has essentially built a high-performance fiat-to-BTC printing press.

It is hyper-capitalism at its finest, driven entirely by a corporate mandate to maximize shareholder investment value.

But here is the twist: even if you don't like his centralized, custodial approach, he is single-handedly fixing the corporate plumbing for global Bitcoin adoption. By open-sourcing his legal frameworks, launching corporate debt products, and teaching public CFOs how to handle SEC audits, he is laying down the financial tracks that legacy trillions will eventually ride on.

I might not be a fan of the man's ideology, but I can't deny the structural reality: sovereign individuals hold the keys, but Saylor is forcing Wall Street to accept the asset.

The ultimate irony of the Bitcoin space: the network's biggest advocate doesn't use self-custody.

While individual Bitcoiners live by "not your keys, not your coins," a multi-billion-dollar Wall Street giant like Strategy Inc. (MicroStrategy) plays by entirely different rules. For them, true self-custody is a legal and auditing impossibility.

This became explicitly clear last week when Saylor programmatically sold 32 BTC to meet corporate dividend obligations, only to turn right around days later and buy 1,550 BTC using an At-The-Market stock arbitrage engine.

Instead of a private seed phrase, their massive treasury is split across heavily regulated titans like Coinbase Custody, Fidelity Digital Assets, and traditional mega-banks acting as collateral agents. Every single transaction relies on cold storage vaults, complex multi-signature approval rings, and strict regulatory compliance.

Saylor accepts this counterparty risk because it’s the only legal framework that allows a corporate balance sheet to absorb hundreds of thousands of coins. Sovereign individuals hold the keys; institutions hold the audited custody contracts. Both are driving adoption, just on entirely different playing fields.

#Bitcoin #MicroStrategy #Custody #InstitutionalCrypto

Happy Sunday! ☕

I initially checked out Satsman to see if it was just another high-promise, low-value platform cluttering the space. But because I value real Bitcoin education, the architecture caught my attention. It’s pure proof of work.

You spend a few minutes a day completing fun, highly technical educational missions about the protocol. Doing the work is what actually earns you sats—distributed daily. Earning thousands of sats just as a free user is entirely doable in a short amount of time.

The model made so much sense to me that I didn't just stay a free user; I took the leap to become a founder to help scale it. As a founder, the earnings accelerate by at least 3x, plus much more. That's how I've personally stacked over 140,000 sats in a very short period. No marketing fluff, just structured onboarding for the network.

If you want to put in the proof of work and try the free missions out for yourself, drop me a DM and I'll send over access. ⚡

#Bitcoin #ProofOfWork #Satsman #Education

Serious question: Why are so many "hardcore" Bitcoiners still spending 90% of their day screaming into the void on X, feeding Elon’s engagement algorithms, and dealing with shadowbans?

You claim to love censorship-resistant, decentralized protocols for your money, yet you willingly open a corporate app to beg for permission to speak.

If you are still prioritizing Web2 clout over building the sovereign social layer, you aren’t a maximalist—you’re just a hypocrite looking for likes.

The protocol is right here. Why are you still over there?

#Nostr #Bitcoin #Sunday #GrowNostr

Great job to

and the

developers on continuously expanding the fiat list in the Numo app!

Just a minor housekeeping note for the dev team: Currently, the list includes the old Netherlands Antilles Guilder (ANG). The Netherlands Antilles dissolved back in 2010, and the currency has officially been replaced by the Caribbean Guilder (XCG) for Curaçao and Sint Maarten.

Time for a quick ISO code swap in the backend to keep the fiat options perfectly up to date! 🇨🇼

#Cashu #Numo #Bitcoin #UIUX

Just started following

and her content is absolutely fantastic. High-quality, short-form Bitcoin education that anyone can grasp.

If you've ever struggled to explain "hard money" to friends or family, look no further than this 1-minute breakdown. Highly recommend giving her a follow!