Dirty Coin, Clean Truth | Alana Mediavilla on Bitcoin and Energy

JohnPaul: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Digital Gold Podcast, where innovation meets opportunity in the world of cryptocurrency mining. I’m your host, John Paul Baric, entrepreneur, Bitcoin pioneer, and the CEO of MiningStore, where we specialize in modular data center solutions and driving financial access to Bitcoin mining worldwide.

JohnPaul: Each week, we bring you expert insights. Cutting edge strategies and real world stories from the forefront of Bitcoin mining. Whether you’re a season pro, a curious investor, or someone looking to understand the power of digital gold, this is the podcast for you. Get ready to explore the evolving world of Bitcoin mining from energy innovation to the latest tech market trends, and how to build long-term value in a decentralized economy.

JohnPaul: Let’s dive in and uncover what it takes to mine successfully in the age of digital gold. Welcome back to another episode of The Digital Gold Season two. podcast where we explore the intersection of Bitcoin technology and the visionary shaping our decentralized future. Today we’re diving into [00:01:00] one of the most debated aspects of Bitcoin mining, its impact on energy markets, sustainability, and global narratives.

JohnPaul: Joining us is a powerhouse in storytelling, someone who has captured the discussions through the lens of film. Alana Mediavilla is a multifaceted professional producer, creative director, writer, founder, award winning filmmaker with over a decade of experience, Shaping compelling narratives for Silicon Valley giants, including a tenure at Google, Alina has honed the craft of translating complex innovations into visually striking, thought provoking films that captivate and inspire audiences.

JohnPaul: Her latest documentary Dirty Coin premiered at the Bitcoin Film Festival in Warsaw and took home the best movie award. The film dives deep into Bitcoin mining. It’s proof of work mechanism and it’s evolving role in energy markets. It challenges mainstream narratives and offers a fresh perspective on Bitcoin’s environmental and financial impact.

JohnPaul: Beyond her documentary work, Alana is building Campo Libre, a [00:02:00] media venture focused on pushing the boundaries of storytelling. Her past projects, including Miso Miso and Stranded, a Dirty Coin Short, showcase her ability to blend artistry with investigative depth. Today we’re going to discuss her journey from Silicon Valley to independent filmmaker, her thought on Bitcoin’s role in shaping the future of energy, and what’s next for her in the world of media and technology.

JohnPaul: Alana, welcome to Digital Goal.

Alana: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

JohnPaul: So, explain to me the feeling of taking home the best movie award in Warsaw. Let’s talk about that. That sounds amazing. After all this hard work to be able to receive that recognition. How did that feel?

Alana: Oh my God. It was an emotion filled day.

Alana: Completely. I was not expecting it. Dirty Coin premiered the day before on 4 20 24. And I picked that date because I thought it was a beautiful number. It would be a perfectly palindrome number. The only one for 2024. And I picked that date in January and I didn’t even [00:03:00] pick the date. It was actually the Bitcoin Film Festival happens to be that weekend.

Alana: And Tomek and I were talking about should Dirty Coin premiere there or not. And this was , again, back in January. And we’re looking at April and I’m , yeah, we’ll be done editing it by then. So let’s do it. And it’s for 2024. It’s so perfect. Such a beautiful number. So all right, Tomek, let’s do it.

Alana: And I decided Dirty Coin is going to premiere at the Bitcoin Film Festival, and then we made the film, we edited it. It was the last three months were so expensive, so painful. I was raising while I was directing and editing and it was , Oh my God, it was, I’m paying all the contractors and all the animators and everybody.

Alana: It was so intense, but we got there. And then it just so happens that the having was on for 2024 in. Europe. So we premiered Dirty Coin, a Bitcoin mining documentary on the day of the having [00:04:00] that, as , , we had an idea that it was going to happen between March and April, but the exact day was not really known by anyone.

Alana: And so we wouldn’t have known in January. It was a very serendipitous, , wow moment. Had I been in the US, it would have happened for 1924, but thankfully I was in Europe. And so it was for 2024. And yeah, so we premiered and there were Bitcoiners from all over the world there and to watch the premiere.

Alana: So that was really cool. They were , More than 350 people in the theater. people were just sitting down the stairs and I was so fricking nervous because this was so many minors, so many big corners, so many people. And I was , wow, what a room. , what a room you can’t fool these people.

Alana: these people, they know this industry, they’re in the industry. And so already just premiering it on the day of the having, and then the standup [00:05:00] ovation, that to me was , that was. the biggest award and it was just the energy in the room. I honestly, my knees were , were a wobbly from all of the emotion and all the energy in the room.

Alana: And so the next day when they were announcing the awards, I really hoped I would win one, but I already felt I won, , I premiered on the day of the having, which was for 2024 to a standing ovation. , ah, I’ll never forget that moment. But then when we won Best Movie, and I saw the other movies, and so that’s why I wasn’t sure we were going to win anything, because there were some great movies at the festival that year.

Alana: And I had seen some of the other ones that I’d be , Damn, it’s good stuff.

JohnPaul: So is that internal critic we always have just , Oh, giving us that feedback.

Alana: Yeah, , look at how good all their interviews are. None of them are out of focus at all. , , I’m , completely nitpicking. And, and so anyway, so yeah, so that moment, I’m not, thank you for asking me.

Alana: Nobody’s actually asked me about that moment. That moment, I feel, [00:06:00] I feel I just relived it for a little bit there. It was really special. So then I got up and I was , I was so in shock because I really didn’t think that I was going to win. I thought I was going to win audience. award because my theater was the fullest theater of all the other movies.

Alana: And so I thought , maybe I’ll just get by numbers because there were so many people, but the way that they were voting was through lightning donations. that’s, those were the votes were lightning. And my wallet got capped because I had an Albi wallet and my wallet got, I had a cap on it and I sold for dirty coin and then we couldn’t get more votes.

Alana: And so that was so shitty. And so that, but then we won Best Movie and I was , oh my god I just thought we were, I didn’t even think we would be eligible for Best Movie. So it was just a shocker because I find out my wallet is maxed out because I get an email to everybody’s texting me that they can’t vote for me because the sats keep getting rejected and I’m , I lost the vote.

Alana: And yeah, because I thought it was, that was [00:07:00] the only award that I would be eligible for, just because of the energy in the room. But anyway, but then we got Best Movie, so that was really cool.

JohnPaul: I love it. Thanks for sharing what it felt , because I think that’s so important. At the long end of this venture, of this year long endeavor, be able to just appreciate everyone’s contributions, their votes, their , it’s our bids for support.

JohnPaul: I feel that’s such an amazing feeling that, as a creative, to really feel that appreciation.

Alana: Yes, yes, especially after so many people helped me get there. I had friends that even lent me their apartments in Austin so that I can not have to pay for a hotel while I’m in town for South by Southwest. So, while I was building the film, there were so many kind souls that helped me that didn’t know.

Alana: What the heck? Who they were supporting really yet because they hadn’t seen the film dirty coin was in production for three years. So a lot of people knew me, but they hadn’t really, they didn’t really know what [00:08:00] it was going to all really come. What was dirty coin? , , yeah, a lot of works on dirty coin, but what is it?

Alana: Is it going to actually end up looking , and so, yeah, it was good to get that recognition. And honestly, I got there. Thanks to a wave of. Pull up support all over the world before releasing dirty coin. We released strand in as a proof of concept, which is a short film and I released it for free. All you had to do was screen it.

Alana: In person at your meetup or at your school or at your party, just in person with some friends. And I thought that only a couple of people would be down, but people from all over the world were down, Bitcoin meetups and education groups and blockchain groups and crypto groups and web three groups and film three groups and women in web three groups.

Alana: And so many people showed up to support for stranded. And I feel that’s. In so many ways help pave the way for an appetite for Dirty Coin. , and it’s thanks to so many people. [00:09:00] So yeah, Dirty Coin is really just, it’s the work of many.

JohnPaul: The work of many led by you. And that’s why it’s amazing to see that, that journey.

JohnPaul: I want to hear more about maybe your first film. And not even a film, but your first time creating as maybe a little girl or a teenager or a young adult. And what did you make? Why were you interested in expressing through this medium of video and storytelling behind that type of camera?

Alana: Well, I started with animation.

Alana: I had a, a MacBook, or not a MacBook a, an Imec, the bubbly kind. And I had kid picks. It was an animation software and it was super easy animation. you could make loops, you could, it already had all these different assets that you could put together and you had a timeline. And it got me. And I just, , there was no internet back then, so it was just , if I wanted, I wanted to play on the computer.

Alana: I love the computer, so I would just. Make animations all day long. It was either that or Carmen [00:10:00] Sandiego. Those are the two things that I used to do most on the computer. And I just really enjoyed, , showing it and impressing people. , how you did that? And watching them, , getting adults attention was so Fun for me, because adults are so, they have their mind everywhere else, especially my parents, they were running a small business.

Alana: So to be able to captivate their attention was really cool. And then I kept animating and I kept doing just little projects. And I thought that I was good at marketing. And I guess I was. But because for me, it was , oh, I can capture your attention. And I’m good at that. , I can, , make people, , listen to my message.

Alana: So I’ll sell them something. I guess that’s how I can make money. And so I got into, , art direction for the focus of, , commercial art direction. And I don’t know, I don’t necessarily want to go down completely the whole story, but Being able to tell a story and captivate people’s attention was important for [00:11:00] me and it was in 2020 that I with the world locking down and everything going upside down and I was living in California so I was really receiving the super one end of the spectrum of how the world responded to that that I just really completely burnt out on wanting to sell anything to anyone anymore I was no I’m gonna use This ability to get people to , listen.

Alana: to my work for other messages that have nothing to do with buying anything. And then I stopped doing commercial. I stopped completely advertising that my agency was approaching a million. We were about to hit a million. And I was , , it was a conversation with my mom where I was , well, I’m just going to take the agency to 5 million, but I’m done with this mom.

Alana: And then I’m out of the game. And then she’s , what are you going to do after? I’m , I’m going to make movies, which is what I really want to do is she was , Why do you need to wait for 5 million to make movies? Can’t you just make it now? It was , [00:12:00] honestly, the most, , oh shit, I can quit my job, my job, my business job.

Alana: I can just quit it and I can just. Do something else. Yes, then I fired all my clients and I burned the ships behind me and I decided to work on a film that Oddly enough makes people want to get Bitcoin That was not my intention at all I just wanted to I felt Bitcoin didn’t have a voice mine it doesn’t have marketing right?

Alana: It doesn’t have a division that, , handles how people talk about certain things. It’s just every minor for themselves, however they want to defend themselves in front of whatever camera is in front of them. And I felt that the industry was lacking that, , PR voice. And although I rejected my marketing past, I do have it.

Alana: And it is something I learned how to do is describe and [00:13:00] dismantle something highly technical in a way that a regular person can understand, which is what I did with my corporate work in Silicon Valley. , and so I was , , I’m not going to completely reject my past, I’m going to embrace who I am and I’m going to tackle a subject that isn’t really being tackled properly and I’m going to dismantle it just so that we can change public opinion to a point where we can now have a more literate conversation regarding mining, , it’s not , oh, mining is good to close the book.

JohnPaul: So with a Bitcoin mining film, Bitcoin is very technical. How do you balance the technical aspects of your storytelling with the ideal viewer that you had in mind when you launched the Dirty Coin film? And then also, who was that ideal? Viewer that needed to learn about Bitcoin in your mind and the person that was sitting there watching this film Even before it was made your persona

Alana: the persona.

Alana: I was going for from the beginning was a [00:14:00] technical person that lives in San Francisco that has heard that Bitcoin mining is bad for the environment and They only read one New York Times article about it And that was it. They do feel informed because they read an article. They are a savvy, intelligent person.

Alana: The one thing that they read said that it was really bad. It’s, , all the energy consumption and they didn’t really let, that was it. That was all the attention that they gave it. They filed that file in . This is where Bitcoin is and that’s it. And my idea was, let’s look at that. Let’s really look at what you heard and let’s really understand this industry because this industry, you’re going to legislate against it.

Alana: You’re going to legislate against computers doing math, securing a financial network, uncensorable money. And this is important, whether. You understand this or not yet. This is important for other people in the world, for most people in the world. And yes, for [00:15:00] Americans too, but it’s , we still have the dollar.

Alana: So I have definitely seen other places adopt it much faster and. It’s when I, especially when I work with international people working in Bitcoin is , that’s really where it really comes in super handy is I can just Venmo you, but I can’t just Venmo somebody in South America, or I can just Venmo somebody in Africa.

Alana: So when you start really moving your body around the world and start seeing that not every place is the same, but you still want to carry that modern. Zapping, , I’ll just pay virtually if you still want to carry that, then you need a new mechanism and Bitcoin has become that already. And so that was the persona that I was going for.

Alana: And that persona is not going to start mining. They don’t need to know how to mine. They don’t need to know the algorithm. That persona is not. Maybe they invest in mining. Maybe they buy Bitcoin. Maybe they don’t. Maybe they set to side there. Maybe they see the value in GPUs. [00:16:00] Finally, they understand data centered a little bit better.

Alana: And, , don’t know what people want to do afterwards, but I know for a fact that if they want to learn more. There are more technical videos out there that they can find for free. There’s incredible podcasts that really do more deep dives into what exactly are the machines doing?

Alana: What exactly is hash rate? What’s the difficulty adjustment, all of these things that you have to really get so excited about it, that then you start digging and frankly, that search is so exciting that have a. But my viewer is probably not that person. And if they were that person, then they’re just going to go on YouTube and find those videos and continue going down that rabbit hole.

Alana: So for me, I didn’t want to confuse the person that will not want to continue to look at Bitcoin anymore. I just want them to understand one thing clearly, or at least. One new concept, I wanted them to see a new concept and yeah, [00:17:00] but the intricacies of exactly how everything is working and also some of them, I just didn’t really have the budget to do the animation for, , the Byzantine generals problem.

Alana: I had a killer storyboard for that animation. I did want to explain that. But I just didn’t have the budget and that was the one that I cut. I felt explaining how a landfill works, how I felt the animation that explains how methane collected from a landfill and turned into Bitcoin was the animation that really nobody had done yet versus this.

Alana: Byzantine generals, you can go on YouTube and you can find it. So I opted for doing the thing that I felt wasn’t really done yet. Then I had to kill some darlings, but I’m still happy with the way that it came out.

JohnPaul: I love that you mentioned the Byzantine general problem because that was me in high school.

JohnPaul: Bitcoin’s going to save the world because it solves the Byzantine generals problem. what that was? why that’s important for trust when people are , what are you talking about? Well, you see, there was [00:18:00] these horsemen that attack a castle and everyone attacks and they’re , what are you talking about?

JohnPaul: So that was me as a 16 year old running around in 2013, trying to explain Bitcoin to people. I love that to make it into the film, but that you had that on the storyboard. So. , walk us through the storyboarding process you’ve been doing this for years. How do you visualize not only the abstract concepts you mentioned that maybe you’re not diving deep into, but you’re still highlighting, but also then the whole story of this is Bitcoin mining here and this is Bitcoin mining in this environment out at methane gas.

JohnPaul: Landfill, here’s one at a wind farm. , how did you think about this? Explain to us that process. Are you locking yourself in a room for a week? Is it over a month that you happen? Are you changing it, ripping it up, sticky notes? What is the process of storyboarding?

Alana: So storyboarding was, so not only am I doing, making this film for a person that doesn’t understand Bitcoin, that’s my persona.

Alana: I’m also working with animators that also don’t understand Victorian, so I couldn’t just [00:19:00] tell my animator just animate a person going to the store in this style and they get in the car and this, , I can just give quick, but when it came to this stuff, . They were , what?

Alana: , energy, Bitcoin, mining, , all of these things were subjects that they just were not proficient in. My editor was improficient in Bitcoin. , that’s why I had to grab all the clips because at one point I remember I left him for a week to do a cut and when I came back he pretty much just Put a cut together, a rough cut of how incredible Bitcoin is all over the world.

Alana: And I’m , okay, okay, great. No, we’re not doing this. This is not the film we’re making. There’s already films that. You can go on YouTube. we’re not making a, an expensive YouTube video here. We’re going to really focus on all this research that I did. These are , where we got to go.

Alana: There was a lot of guidance and the, Oh, I do want to thank a bunch of people for the storyboard process. So I would put together the storyboard [00:20:00] and. This was just a lot of Canva shapes and very simple stuff. Then I worked with my illustrator and he would just share his screen and we would have two to three hour workshops where I would explain a shot and then he would illustrate it while we were talking.

Alana: And I would see what he was illustrating and we already had a color palette from the very beginning of the film and actually the poster, we’ve had the poster since we started, so I always had visually what was the style that I was going for. And so at least that helped us in that regard and then I worked with the same illustrator for two and a half years to work on this so he and I were just constantly communicating.

Alana: And every time I would see a good YouTube video, I would send it to him. So now he’s a Bitcoiner, of course. Now he’s , honestly, a proper Bitcoiner. But he didn’t start out that way. And so we would just work on that together. He’s in Poland. My illustrator and my animator are in Poland. [00:21:00] Everything was virtual with them.

Alana: I did then hire a Puerto Rican, a local animator to help me with some of the later stuff that came at the very end. And she too is now a big corner. I swear I’m not trying. I really am not trying to orange pill people anymore, but it just happens. So then after we would storyboard it, I had a couple of friends in the Bitcoin space that super nerds that are my super friends and I would send it to them and I would be , Hey, is this accurate?

Alana: Is this correct? Is this how your machine works? Is this true? And then they would give us any feedback that they had and I sent it to a few different people and Nobody billed me. I zapped some folks because I cared, but nobody billed me for their expertise or their time. Bitcoiners were very generous with their expertise and their time.

Alana: And yeah, and so then we just animated it once the illustrations were ready. But That’s when then we knew we first storyboarded [00:22:00] everything, which is something that I would do differently next time. I just, cause then we didn’t green light all of the storyboards, but we spent a lot of time on all the storyboards.

Alana: So that is one thing, cause then it’s another 40 hours per thing or whatever. So when I was , that’s when I had to kill some darlings. So in the future, I won’t do such polished storyboards before nixing them.

JohnPaul: It sounds , as , every journey we learn, we iterate. We can take in the feedback and it’s so amazing to hear that Bitcoin miners were willing to give you just without any expectation of something else.

JohnPaul: Just , Hey, yeah, that’s how you do a shot 256 hash rate. That’s how the machine communicates with the pool. And then for you to animate it and storyboard it, that’s amazing. Let’s talk about fundraising. You’re building a massive movie. How did that work? What hurdles did you have in convincing investors that another Bitcoin story was needed and what was the high?

JohnPaul: And if you’re willing to share, what was the low of that time and seeing this beautiful vision of [00:23:00] this poster behind you and a virtual world that you’re creating and animating that you want to bring into the world and knowing that it’s going to take real capital to do that. I’d love to hear that journey.

Alana: Well, I was an executive producer at Google, but my role was . A lot, , I would just write what the projects were, what, how much they cost and then they would be approved. Amazing. So when I would talk to my LA executive producer friends or San Francisco executive producer friends, that’s not what they were doing.

Alana: they were financing movies. They were finding capital. It was different. It was a different role. And so I always felt an imposter when I would say I’m an executive producer because it’s , I know in LA terms in the film industry what that means. And. That is not. Truly who I am because I have the golden handcuffs on the whole thing and I’m happy.

Alana: I’m happy. Anyway, so I knew what the role was. I knew what it meant. I knew that it meant fundraising. I knew that it meant and I’m [00:24:00] no stranger to having to sell my services because I’ve had my company for 14 years this year or 14. Quite a while, more than a decade, and I was closing clients on commercials, again, selling them my services as a video producer.

Alana: So I was used to doing proposals and contracts and that stuff from a service exchange perspective. I just had to switch that to, I had this idea. Can you give me money for this idea? Which is again, what I used to do at Google, except. I would be , I had this idea of making Google look good this way.

Alana: Can I please have the money to do so? And then it would be an easy yes. Well, sometimes it was no, by the way, it wasn’t always yes, but it’s basically the same function, but my idea, selling my thing and some documentaries are hard to fund, I called a dirty coin from the beginning and. Either Bitcoiners were turned off by it or no coiners did not care enough about Bitcoin mining to [00:25:00] invest in a Bitcoin mining documentary.

Alana: So, and then Bitcoin was at 69 or something when I started fundraising. Yeah, it got to 69. And then it just started . Plummeting and that was in so I think it was 2022 that is just , and so suddenly the Bitcoiners that were interested in saying the story and that those are the people that knew me because I had been in Bitcoin, but I didn’t go to networking events.

Alana: I wasn’t a Bitcoin influencer, I was on Twitter before, so I wasn’t a part of the cult. I was in Bitcoin, but I wasn’t in the cult. I was just a solo Bitcoiner out in the world that got lucky finding Bitcoin really. And so. I didn’t really have a big network to really fundraise from, but I was lucky enough at the beginning to meet people that had early podcasts and things that they just had me on and discussing the project.

Alana: And booted up a geyser page. It’s a, Kickstarter, but for Bitcoin. [00:26:00] And I would just point people to there and there were In the barest of markets, people would send us 10 bucks, 20 bucks, 30 bucks, a hundred to work on the film. And that’s actually when I started just really using my Bitcoin a lot more because I needed to pay for the services.

Alana: So then I started paying my illustrator for certain milestones in Bitcoin. I started using it to pay cinematographers because now we had enough of a bank that. I eventually didn’t always go down, eventually went up again as well. And we were able to pay for a lot of stuff. And again, this is why my accountant had to learn how to deal with a Bitcoin business and what that means.

Alana: And yeah, , it has been a really long and beautiful, I don’t know. I’m sorry. I lost the train of thought as soon as I thought of my accountant.

JohnPaul: Oh, taxes and accounting. Yes, yes. Yeah, cause

Alana: that’s . 20 stories come to mind. I will say none of them unless you ask, [00:27:00] but no.

JohnPaul: So you’re building this piggy bank.

JohnPaul: You’re doing it through, it sounds , some crowdfunding, a Bitcoin crowdfunding mechanism. And when do you go to that first location to film? Did you go just as just a filming group in, I guess, that first spot? And why that spot? And what operational realities did you realize once you got to the mine?

JohnPaul: , it was way too loud to film inside. Or what happened in that first scene or that first filming session that you remember?

Alana: Well, the first one was here in Puerto Rico and I voted the bill for that one completely. , I voted the bill for the film for the first year on my own just because I had to put my weight behind it.

Alana: I had to really Convey what my idea was. It was the beginning of a bear market. I could feel it in my bones. We started the war with Russia. , it was right after 2020. , it’s a dark time. And I was , I need to build this as much as I can so that I can accurately communicate the vision to other people.

Alana: And [00:28:00] so I stayed local. I stayed in Puerto Rico. There was a minor that I happened to meet here. And he was an OG miner, one of the first large scale miners, his name is Sean Walsh. And , he’s from Redwood City Ventures. So we had a lot in common, also coming from California, moving to Puerto Rico.

Alana: And he was the first person that when I explained to him why I felt the energy component was so important, and that’s why I was making the film, it wasn’t just , don’t pick on Bitcoin. It’s more , bro, we can grow energy infrastructure thanks to Bitcoin mining. So let’s look at that. that, that’s important stuff.

Alana: And so when I explained that to him, that was entirely his passion in life was how can Bitcoin mining really be continued to be that tool. And this was back in 2021 and I knew that he was the interview that I needed to have. He [00:29:00] wasn’t sure if he wanted to be on camera as many miners, especially when I told him the name was dirty coin and that I would ultimately publish whatever I actually saw because Satoshi didn’t pay me to do this.

Alana: It’s my name. I’m the one. Going out there. So ultimately it is a branding decision to call it dirty coin, even though I wasn’t against it. I do believe Bitcoin should stay dirty. But anyway, that’s another story as well. But we filmed that interview and it was thanks to that interview that we filmed here.

Alana: We filmed it with great gear. I hired a local production company that brought all excellent lighting and gear. Cause I also wanted to prove the quality that I wanted the movie to be. I couldn’t start with , Oh, this is a webcam video, but trust me, it’s going to look good. I had to look good.

Alana: And so I’m really happy that I took that bet. Cause that was , I had just left Google. I had, my runway was running dry really quickly and I invested in that. And then I was able to get investment after that. a little [00:30:00] bit, but enough to keep going and then keep pulling that thread. And the first big farm that I went to that wasn’t just somebody that had racks in their houses was in Paraguay.

Alana: And so that was , I just felt I went to one of the ground zero, even though there are several ground zero, so Bitcoin mining around the world, Texas being another one, but one of the epicenters. And that was, Yes, it is. You cannot interview. I did have in the storyboard that I was going to interview somebody inside the container.

Alana: Obviously we couldn’t, we had to do B roll in the container and then do the interview outside.

JohnPaul: I know. I love that. And you mentioned energy. And it is such a fundamental aspect of not only Bitcoin, but human life, human longevity, quality of life. So walk me through this conversation with this first Puerto Rican Bitcoiner.

JohnPaul: You’re convincing him that this project is worth filming and getting on camera for. Why is energy [00:31:00] matter so much to you? And how does that show up in the film?

Alana: Energy matters to me because it is life. Energy is life. , you feel the energy of something alive and you don’t feel the energy of something that is dead.

Alana: And even dead things don’t still have energy, right? this still has atoms. There’s still energy in this, but when you touch something living, you can feel the difference. You can feel the electromagnetic field or something. There is there that you can just Really know that the energy, and I’ve always guided my decisions by vibes or energy.

Alana: , we try to find these words to describe our emotions and our bad energy, good energy. It’s , I don’t even know if we truly understand what we’re saying when we say these words. And I don’t think we need to. It’s good or bad, right? , I don’t know. But energy to me has always been important from that perspective and seeing the growing demand of specifically electricity now when we’re speaking of that [00:32:00] energy or that way that you can consume, how do we consume that energy through electricity?

Alana: , we need to charge our phones, we need to charge our cars, we need to have this modern life requires electricity. And. Even our factories require electricity, we’re at a point of no return as a society. Could we live without it? Yeah, of course we could. We did for a long time, but we’re at a point I feel of no return.

Alana: We have flipped the switch to we are an electrified people and now we just need to keep making electricity because we’re not going back unless there’s another great flood. That’s the subject of a different conversation. But that we need to. Make sure that this thing that we now depend on is available for the next generations.

Alana: And so when I see that I’ve always had an issue on obsessing over the issues of the past, when we have so many issues in the future that we should really be [00:33:00] focused on because this train is going forward and. How are the tracks up ahead? Who cares the condition of the train is now because of the tracks in the past?

Alana: , I get it. I get it. , this is why the train goes , rah, rah, rah, rah, rah, rah, rah. But , where are we going with this train? And so that, to me, is super important. It’s , we are an electrified people now, period. We are driving people towards that. We’re telling people they need to have EVs.

Alana: We’re telling companies that they can only make cars that are powered by electricity. Where is that electricity going to come from when our grids can barely support the needs of today? And we’re also saying no to fossil fuels. The math doesn’t add up. The math isn’t there. So that’s why I feel very passionate about the energy side, the electricity energy side, because I feel we need to I need to, I can’t know this information and not do anything about it.

Alana: I can’t [00:34:00] look at my grandchildren and be , yep, it’s fucked. And I knew it was fucked 50 years ago. And I did nothing, but you see, I was right. No. I want to . Do something about it so that they want to have an electric car. They can have it. I’m also not anti electric car. You can have whatever car you want, but I want there to be an amount of electricity that we can have data centers.

Alana: We can power modern life. We can power the life of the future. And when we look at dirty coin and we see how big these data centers are, I don’t think people truly understand that Bitcoin does actually consume a lot of power and. So do other data centers and it will continue to do more now. Can it do it?

Alana: Great. Can we use it as a tool to finance energy? Yeah. And all of that is happening, whether you it or not. It’s all happening already right now. And that’s what I documented in the film feelings aside, this is occurring, but we need to really look at the future and think, are we ready? And I don’t think that misgendering me is not going to make us ready for the future.

JohnPaul: [00:35:00] You mentioned this, something I’m very passionate about as a Bitcoin miner, the energy space. And in someone listening to this, they’re thinking, what do you mean? I have energy. My phone always works when I plug it into the wall, my outlets always work. And that’s mostly because of my audience is US based.

JohnPaul: But when you are going through the film and you’re showing that because of a Bitcoin mine, These people built a dam or these people built this energy production resource and they built a micro grid. And without that, it’s not economically viable to bring energy to these rural areas across the world that would leapfrog and empower these communities, allowing them to connect to the internet, now connect to the blockchain and have stable, secure working conditions and stable connection to the outside world.

JohnPaul: That is an amazing, I think, undertone that the film really brings. That people don’t see it from the outside Bitcoin data centers, Texas freeze. It’s your fault. You’re Bitcoin miners that the freeze happened and people died. And that’s not the truth. The truth is that [00:36:00] Bitcoin miners are going to use energy when no one needs it.

JohnPaul: And then when everyone needs it, it’s too expensive. For us to use. And that’s the beautiful benefit of it. When you were trying to tell that story, what was important to you when it comes to telling the story of energy to a community and the impact that you mentioned, the benefits of energy as a society level, but what did you see firsthand in a world community and how Bitcoin mining impacted it?

Alana: In telling this story, I wanted to be as specific as possible. And that’s why. Only went with case studies because ultimately that’s been the issue is that we take one case study and we speak in general about the entire industry based on this one case study and I wanted to present a variety of case studies that people are not usually exposed to so that they don’t, it’s not just.

Alana: Bitcoin mining in Africa is helping the Africans. It’s , where in Malawi, where in Bondo, how there, how many houses? that was the [00:37:00] level of detail that I wanted to get down to, because this is in this, I didn’t want it to be in marketing coming from marketing. We don’t give specifics. It’s. The African continent.

Alana: We’re lighting up the continent. We’re going in a different direction, right? Because, yeah, it’s technically true. But I didn’t want to do that with the film. I wanted it to be very specific because if you’ve been in marketing, you can smell the bullshit. , it’s not the entire continent. So that’s, ultimately, it’s BS.

Alana: I wanted it to be authentic. I wanted it to be real. . The things that I was able to see in Finland when I met with the energy and heat director and he, about Bitcoin and mining, and he was, it’s very simple, the machines produce heat, we need the heat. Get the electricity, but we can’t get the heat there because Finland has a district heating network And we lose the energy of the [00:38:00] heat as it gets transported, but electricity goes for longer and so they’re able to then deploy Bitcoin miners and Areas where they can get electricity to but they can’t get heat.

Alana: So they’re decentralizing their heating with These computers with Bitcoin mining. , that’s ingenious. Again, this is why I want to have the conversation. Cause it brings up things , well, what are they using? What heat pumps? I , it actually also helps other industries that are also related.

Alana: And I met a lot of people that at mining conferences that were, I would be , Oh, are you in mining? And they’d be , No, I sell a component that miners use a lot of, and they just happen to, and they always sold it. But now there’s this industry that really needs this particular thing. And now they have a completely new buyer.

Alana: And so it’s. Understanding also all of the industries that are being built around this one industry also speaks to the amount of money [00:39:00] that this industry truly, it truly takes to power this. This isn’t just some guys with some miners in their backyards anymore. This is, although you do have that too, but this is a global money printing Bitcoin mining business.

Alana: So you can only imagine, , there’s everybody in this space.

JohnPaul: And then that’s one of the beautiful things about Bitcoin mining. And I think Film does a good job of showing you, you can be a massive scale miner. You can be a small individual. You can be a city or a town heating your home. You can be a rural community using this to finance your energy infrastructure.

JohnPaul: The fact that you don’t need to find a customer and that Bitcoin is your customer. Is it beautiful because now it’s the physics of money creation of energy usage of a level playing field that really brings anything allows Bitcoin to be accepted by more people and brings joy to me as a small miner that it is possible to build a lifestyle around it, but also to build communities around it.

JohnPaul: And we have 23 plus employees at the mining store. All from local Bitcoin [00:40:00] mines in Iowa, supported from people in the Philippines there that are working for us, to people in Iowa directly there. So it’s just, you see this amazing impact all from this fake digital money made by Satoshi that is such a beautiful invention for the world.

Alana: Yes, yes, yes. I didn’t even know that there were Bitcoin conferences when I was in Bitcoin, let alone Bitcoin mining conferences. And boy, is that fascinating. I’m so happy that DirtyCoin brought me into that because. Just understanding how big this space is and who is in the space. , , this is, it’s proper tech, it’s a proper tech conference.

JohnPaul: And so for you, , what was your most unexpected reaction from the community or the mainstream audiences with this film? what was something you didn’t see coming, but people were . This resonated in this way with me and you were , I never thought about that. That that has that happened to you when you’re presenting the film to others?

Alana: Their reaction has been, I wasn’t expecting such a [00:41:00] positive reaction from the Bitcoin community. Because the Bitcoin community is Savage, savage and I saw that while I was making it the forums, it’s the internet, , and a lot of people are anonymous.

Alana: So it’s savage and at the beginning it was , oh my God, I would get into a telegram group and I would be , hi, I’m doing a Bitcoin mining documentary and I would love to interview Bitcoin miners. So if you would to end the. The name of the documentary is Dirty Coin, and da da da and then I would get , I would get my ass whooped, hand it to me in these chat groups, and then I’d be , okay, fine, well, and then one person would be , I’ll meet, whatever, and I’d meet with them, and then, or another person would be , I met her at a conference, she’s cool, and then it was such a, the first year that I knew that then all eyes were on me, in a way.

Alana: Because it took me three years to, by the time I was done, everybody, because I was such a [00:42:00] , Hi, , I’m a lady in the room. And people are , you’re CIA. You’re , what the, I heard so many things. And so when the movie finally came out, I was , crap, people are going to tear it apart. That was what I was ready for.

Alana: Because I’ve seen really good stuff that Bitcoiners are really mean about and I’m , that’s actually really good. , I love that video. Why would you? Okay, fine. People say dumb stuff. But so yes, so I was really expecting a lot of bad feedback and I was fine and I was ready for it. I was going to take DirtyCoin to a place where I felt happy with it and I felt proud of what I did.

Alana: And I wasn’t really expecting the whole world to agree because the whole world never agrees on anything. I’m not going to aim for that. I’m going to aim for satisfaction only. So yeah, so that was really cool to have people actually my work was great. And in terms of reaction, we did record [00:43:00] reactions at a lot of the different screenings that we did.

Alana: And I was surprised at how many people were so passionate about Bitcoin, so passionate about Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining and how they needed dirty coin to communicate to their family. they were dirty coin is the one thing I’ve been looking for to show my friends and family. I wasn’t so, so not only was I expecting to just not please everybody, I was hoping that some people would it, , and then that was it.

Alana: But to have so many people say You literally made the thing that I have been wanting that floors me every time I hear it. I just heard it last night in a screening that we did in Texas and I got logged on for a live Q& A and he was , dirty coin is what I needed to show my mom and my girlfriend, what I do as a Bitcoin miner.

Alana: And yeah, so it feels really good to be able to create something that people . When [00:44:00] you’re a filmmaker, you’re not making a medicine or you’re not making a vital tool. So you don’t really expect that your work is the one thing that somebody needs in their life, unless it’s, I don’t know, suicide prevention or something.

Alana: I don’t know. I had never really thought of that effect that I could have as a filmmaker. So it makes me really happy that Dirty Queen can do that for so many people that they feel finally, maybe they can be understood, that they can show it to their friends and family. Yeah, I wasn’t expecting that and it leaves me speechless and yet so much to say about just the power of Filmmaking and why it’s so important to have ethical people behind Storytelling because storytelling is it can control so much of human perception and human life I would say when I watched the film in Florida, it was Inspiring you’re sitting there.

JohnPaul: You’re seeing all these other You’re seeing the impact of the work you’re doing. And I think as someone who’s been in this space for a while, you can get maybe disconnected from the bigger [00:45:00] story, the bigger impact and the wide ranging impact that Bitcoin mining has across communities. So for me, it was very inspirational.

JohnPaul: And to your point, , Oh, I can show people this and they’ll understand what I do as someone who dropped out of school. I was always for a part of my time thinking, who am I and how do I explain my role in the world? How do I explain what Bitcoin mining is? Oh, I build data centers. Oh, I build Bitcoin minds.

JohnPaul: , what is it that I do and how does that impact my community? So this film does a great job of, I think, summarizing that. And I’d love to hear if you have any advice for other filmmakers who are tackling any niche or controversial. topics, , a Bitcoin mining and how do when does trust your gut and just say, you mentioned be ethical, make the right decision.

JohnPaul: You seem you came into the film with a view of not having , Oh, I’m going to push that Bitcoin is good, but I’m going to be an investigative journalist and I’m going to look through the eyes of someone who is investigating what is Bitcoin mining actually [00:46:00] versus , that Bloomberg piece hit piece.

Alana: My advice to filmmakers is don’t compromise your integrity ever, ever. I’ve never had to. , I’ve never had to in my entire career. I’ve never had anybody make me do anything that I don’t want to do, and I’ve never done anything that I’m not proud of. So you can live an ethical, fun life that, where you don’t compromise on your values and your integrity to yourself.

Alana: You are your own best friend. So you need to don’t betray yourself. You can’t betray yourself. You need to be true to yourself and everyone else, but especially you. I’m , you are with you until you die. And I don’t know, I have a good relationship with myself and my gut and my feelings and I know where I’m strong at.

Alana: I know where I’m weak at and As I get older, I only myself more than it is because of those moments that I am tried. And my advice to filmmakers is be radically [00:47:00] independent and radically responsible for all of your decisions. Don’t pin it on anyone. you make a decision. You have to live with it.

Alana: A movie is a tattoo for a filmmaker. Every time you make a movie. That movie will come up and be referenced forever. I have seen interviews of directors when they’re 90, and they’re still asking them about movies that they made when they were in their 30s. So your movies as a filmmaker are, they’re yours.

Alana: They have your name on them. Be true to yourself. I don’t care who else has their name on. , I guess that’s the filmmaker I am. There’s all kinds of filmmakers out there, but I don’t bend the knee. I do what I want to do, and whoever wants to come and do it with me can do it with me, and we can do it together, but I won’t sacrifice on the things that I want to do.

Alana: And I also trust people when they want to do their own thing. And that’s part of the reason why I’m also investing in other indie filmmakers now as well as an executive producer. And funding them and letting them try their own thing as well. I also respect other people trying their [00:48:00] thing, but that is because I hope for authenticity.

Alana: And you can only authentically say your story. If I want to say other stories, I’m going to need to let other people tell those stories if they’re going to be told authentically. So I would say to filmmakers, be yourself. Because nobody can do it better. And I know that’s super cliche, but it’s so true.

Alana: I’ve had to embrace my marketing background. I’ve had to embrace my Silicon Valley background. I’ve had, , had I left all of that and just done something about flowers, I don’t think the documentary would have come out as good because I’ve been in tech. For a long time, I did films for Google cloud on data centers.

Alana: I had to embrace my past to create dirty coin. And it is so authentically me because this is what I’ve been, I’ve been working on tech films forever. And so I don’t leave who you are behind because nobody’s going to be able to do it you. So, yeah, so that’s what I would tell filmmakers, especially niche filmmakers, [00:49:00] but also tell them get in the chat groups, even if they call you a spy, get in the chat groups and interact with your community.

Alana: What community is it? How do they communicate? What are they talking about? I think that one of the reasons why Dirty Coin has all of the memes and all of the clips and everything that it has is and that it feels it resonates with minors is because I’ve been with you guys. I’ve been in this community for now four years.

Alana: , I’ve been in the chat groups. I’ve been to your mining operations. I’ve been looking at your videos. You guys sent me content. I’ve been there. So if you’re going to create a film about a community, you better be ready to interact with that community authentically for an extended amount of time.

Alana: If you don’t hanging out with. People from the carnival don’t make a documentary about people for us carnivals. you need to the people there and you need to authentically want to connect. Otherwise, I don’t recommend it because you’re never going to be able to craft [00:50:00] a good story because you don’t want to be there.

Alana: So the story is going to reflect that. So I would say those things. A, trust your gut, and then B, authentically connect with the community that you’re Making a film about or for, and I think we see that authentic voice of you as the director through this dirty coin film, especially the animation. And I’ve never seen animation this in a Bitcoin film.

JohnPaul: And so if you haven’t seen this film, guys, dirty coin, definitely check it out for not only the animation, but that’s how your story started. And I had no idea until I asked that question that your first. Foray into filmmaking was animation and seeing that truth that you’ve held with yourself since as a younger child till now and being able to then present.

JohnPaul: A polished animated film on one of the most, maybe one of those controversial topics out there, one of the biggest impactful topics on energy and the future of life and Bitcoin and energy adoption. So I just want to congratulate you on following that [00:51:00] dream and passion. And we’d to understand and wrap it up with what’s next for you.

JohnPaul: And how do you measure this, the success of the film? Is it adoption? Is it awareness? It’s just sounds it’s already feeling that success there. And I know we all set our own goals for success, but do you have anything that what’s next for you and what would make this a home run and it already is a home run, but what gets it a grand slam?

Alana: Well, first of all, thank you. I appreciate your acknowledgement and I cannot wait to head to Austin and hang out with you and have a beer or a tea or something for sure. So thank you. Cause you’re , you acknowledge very, very authentically. And I appreciate that. What’s next for me is. I am still self distributing DirtyCoin.

Alana: Last year, this has been a journey of much growth. And last year I was expecting to sell DirtyCoin quickly, that it was going to be a, it was going to be a grand slam. Alrighty, out the door. It wasn’t. It was in the community and that’s , it was amazing. But from a HBO set, no [00:52:00] Netflix set. No other production companies were , the film is already completed.

Alana: You should have come to us before you finished it. So, , then we would have been enrolled. And so I just kept getting , no, no, no. Very nice. Now’s I appreciate that. Nobody was a dick about it, but I got a lot of no’s. Ultimately it was just a, no, that forced me to. Get it to the community somehow because the Bitcoin community wanted it the networks didn’t so I wasn’t gonna hold it for Hopefully a network someday wants it screw it if this networks don’t wanna in the Bitcoin community wants it then I’m gonna release it and so We took it to theaters, we took it to different people, screened it all over the world, we did around 500 screenings around the world last year alone.

Alana: It was incredible, we translated the movie to five, four different languages, so we have five languages. We have Brazilian, Portuguese, Spanish, German, French, and English. And honestly, I wouldn’t have Been able to learn as [00:53:00] much about film markets and taking film directly to smaller networks and smaller movie theater chains and smaller licensing opportunities.

Alana: Had I not, I don’t think I would have been able to connect with so many Bitcoiners and so many people around the world and learned so much about being able to, as a filmmaker, get your film in front of the people that want it because. You think you just want HBO, but ultimately they’ll just put it up on their library, and did people watch it?

Alana: Did people it? So in a way, I really love that I can feel the pool of all of the interest of the documentary around the world, and I’ve been able to interface and meet all of these people that are interested in showing Dirty Coin to their communities, and these are really fascinating people that are doing really fascinating things, so It has expanded my network even beyond what working on Dirty Coin did.

Alana: So it has been a wonderful year. I would say for the [00:54:00] moment, and we get rentals every day. So people can rent right now, Dirty Coin on Kinema and we get daily rentals. So that’s really cool. I appreciate everybody that’s going on there to watch it. Cause. Kinema only keeps 10%, so that’s one of the best gigs in town.

Alana: Some of the other platforms, they keep 30 to 50 percent of the rental and they dictate how much the rental is as well. So , I would say it would be great to have one of these big networks be , Hey, here’s a big check. Can we license DirtyCoin for seven years exclusively? I’ll be , alright, cool, yeah.

Alana: But for the moment, we have people all over the world renting it, screening it, inviting me to Q& As, so that works too. I’m happy with the way things are. Yes. I love that. And I’m excited to even show my team the video I was just thinking about that now. Maybe we need to do a team movie night, even though we’re remote, some people can be in person and I will remote and just watch the film together and [00:55:00] then have a conversation about it because it is so impactful and it helps you , as you mentioned.

JohnPaul: Pull yourself out of that, out of the mind and into the impact that mining has on the world, especially when you’re in the weeds every day. You mentioned a little bit of where people can connect with the film. What’s the best way for people to connect with you, connect with watching the film and merge?

JohnPaul: Can you talk a little more about that? And we’ll put it all in the show notes as well.

Alana: Thank you. Well, this goes a little bit into, , the last thing that we’re talking about, which is the distribution. Through Kinema, which is where people can go on right now and rent Dirty Coin or schedule a screening.

Alana: Anybody that wants to do an event or even wants to have the movie available on demand on a page that it has their logo. But our movie, they can make 45 percent off the ticket of that rental. And so one of the reasons why I’ve , I want that route and I, , if Netflix were to come to me or [00:56:00] HBO, I would have to remove it from cinema.

Alana: They would have to have that exclusivity, right? And that’s what they’re paying for. But for the moment, not having that exclusivity means that. Any person that wants to make money promoting Dirty Coin can make money promoting Dirty Coin because through Kinema, they can create their landing page for Dirty Coin that is a place where other people can come and rent it.

Alana: And in fact, they can even pre pay it. if they don’t want to make money and they’re just a big company and they’re just, , an awesome individual that wants to give, they can even pre license a bunch of Dirty Coin rentals. And then give that link to their community so that the community can watch it for free.

Alana: And then every time that it gets watched, it’s just a seat that gets, it’s a license, right? That is a license. So by expanding that business, because it becomes a business, you have to contact people, you have to explain things to them, et cetera. But by igniting that. We are [00:57:00] able to just bring a lot of people up with us where it truly is a rising tide.

Alana: And I really the idea of people that create content, people that have podcasts, onboard them, or the ones that are interested, onboard them to have their own landing site. And then whenever somebody rents, whenever they promote it and somebody rents the film, they get 45 percent from that. If it’s on Netflix and you send people to Netflix, Netflix is not going to pay you.

Alana: No knock on Netflix if they offer me a big check, but from a business perspective, , I feel that this more indie route enables a lot more people to partake in the success. I enjoy seeing how this. It’s, it’s matures and develops. And so far we have a couple of partners that have done it, that have, , partners, they’re not partners.

Alana: You just sign up on their website and everything gets handled. But different people that have joined, that have done it and they’ve been making money and we’ve been making money. [00:58:00] I don’t know. I’m curious about expanding that. I feel wouldn’t it be great to have an awesome success story in that regard where tons of people made money?

Alana: I don’t know. I’ve never even heard about

JohnPaul: that before. It’s amazing. , I’m excited about the idea. I’m , wow, you could. Promote 30 coins. I think one of the key things is getting good content in the hands of the public about an industry this. So it does align incentives. And as , whenever incentives are aligned, there’s growth and there’s opportunity for everyone, which is unique.

JohnPaul: I never even knew that was a thing. So thanks for explaining that.

Alana: Yeah. It’s a new company. They were just featured in Sundance this year. They were there. She did a couple of panels, the CEO of this company, and it’s exactly what independent filmmakers need. she really created the tool that somebody me needs to get to my public and to get my public to them, spread it to their public as well.

Alana: So it’s pretty great. So I feel as the CEO wearing the CEO hat, not the director that [00:59:00] wishes that she could just Fully focus on the next project. I still need to make sure that dirty coin is a financially successful business as the executive producer of the film. So I will continue to market it.

Alana: And money just means people watched it, , and just means that people, it got the, the word got out there. It’s a measure of growth and distribution. So ultimately that is what I want as well. So those incentives, it’s not just the money. It’s definitely because I want people to watch this.

JohnPaul: Exactly.

JohnPaul: It’s the impact and it’s, we know it’s not the money. It’s the Bitcoin that you’re going to get with the money. No, Jeff, that’s an important money.

JohnPaul: But, and so where can people connect with you on Twitter or on LinkedIn? Where do you active on Telegram? Tell us more about that. So people can reach out and maybe schedule a filming in their local area or in their local

Alana: town, Twitter and LinkedIn. I’m on Telegram as well, but Telegram, there’s just so many groups that sometimes it just gets lost in the fold much faster, [01:00:00] but you could contact me on Telegram, but I would say Twitter and LinkedIn, I check those, I don’t get as many DMs on those, so I’ll be able to see that.

JohnPaul: The movie’s URL is dirtycointhemovie. com for anyone listening, and it’ll also be in the show notes, so feel free to look that up. Watch the trailer, see the reactions of people to the film and some of the quotes there, if you’re interested in watching, and then what was the name of the website where they can rent it and watch it and also share it with their audience is that, can you say that again?

Alana: Kinema, it’s cinema, but with a K, but in our website on the top, there’s a banner that says rent it now or something, and that’ll link you to Kinema. So you don’t have to go through Kinema, but we are on their homepage. So if you do go on Kinema, you would see Dirty Coin, but they have a collection of movies and you can basically just rent any of these movies and then that rental goes directly to the filmmaker.

JohnPaul: Is there anything else you want to share with the audience before we wrap up today?

Alana: I would to share that it [01:01:00] is a very special time and I have met a lot of people in the last few years that have taken a risk on their vision and their life, including myself, and none of them regret it. They’re all really happy.

Alana: So if you are listening to this today and you’re thinking there’s your gut is pulling you in a particular direction. I would say listen to your gut and Consider going in that direction sooner rather than later because we all need everybody to really Resonate with who they truly are when your actions reflect what’s inside It is such a powerful thing and we need more powerful People, because there are a lot of powerful people, but they’re not necessarily the nicest.

Alana: We just need more so we can distribute the power around the world. So I suppose it’s a a hippie way of ending it. But I feel you’re a person that you did that, right? You dropped out, you followed your gut and your intuition [01:02:00] and your passion, and you’re a happy person and you’re a person that’s living your truth.

Alana: And that’s just beautiful to see. And so I just really hope to live in a world where more people follow that. And whether it’s beekeeping, Bitcoin mining, mushroom gathering, whatever that is, we need all of it. And the world is downsizing. Corporate America is downsizing. But I think that this is a good opportunity for humanity to Come to their true potential.

JohnPaul: Step into your authentic self. Trust the process, ditch Fiat and buy Bitcoin. There we go.

JohnPaul: Thanks again for making it through a whole nother episode of the digital gold podcast. We’ll see you next [01:03:00] time.