Bitcoin Latam Report
Hosted by Maciej Cepnik, a Canadian who moved to Mexico and is a Bitcoin entrepreneur, this show features English-language interviews with Bitcoin founders, builders, and operators across the entire Latin American region. From Mexico City to Buenos Aires, we dig into how Bitcoin is used for payments, remittances, mining, and regulation, along with the hard lessons, tactics, and opportunities shaping the LatAm ecosystem.
Bitcoin Latam Report
#EP15 Tomek Kołodziejczuk on Freedom, Libertarianism, Prospera, and the Bitcoin District
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In the 15th episode of the Bitcoin Latam Report, Maciej Cepnik speaks with Tomek Kowodziejczuk, a longtime Bitcoiner, founder of the Bitcoin FilmFest in Warsaw, and now a builder in Prospera, the freedom-oriented special economic zone in Roatán, Honduras.
They discuss why Tomek left Poland for Prospera, the philosophical roots of Bitcoin and libertarianism, and why he sees Bitcoin as a tool for freedom rather than an end in itself. They also break down how Prospera works in practice, why it may be the most Bitcoin-friendly jurisdiction in the world, and how the Bitcoin District aims to turn Roatán into a real Bitcoin hub through events, retreats, startup activity, and long-term circular economy building.
Timestamps:
00:51 – Intro: Tomek’s background and move to Prospera
03:04 – Bitcoin Film Fest, culture, and libertarian roots
06:34 – Atlas Shrugged, free cities, and the appeal of Prospera
10:23 – Why freedom matters more than Bitcoin itself
13:58 – Why Prospera is one of the most promising freedom experiments today
22:33 – How Prospera works: governance, taxes, and legal structure
27:53 – Why biotech and Bitcoin companies are drawn to Prospera
29:45 – Is Prospera the most Bitcoin-friendly jurisdiction in the world?
31:46– Building the Bitcoin District in Roatán
39:56 – The challenge of bringing Bitcoin to the local population
48:59 – Why the world may need many more “Prosperas”
Check out the Bitcoin District: thebitcoindistrict.com
Buy your tickets for the 2026 edition of the Bitcoin Film Fest: bitcoinfilmfest.com
Follow Tomek on X: @itsTomekK
Follow The Bitcoin District Prospera on X: @BitcoinProspera
Follow The Bitcoin Filmfest on X: @bitcoinfilmfest
Follow Maciej Cepnik on X: @CepnikMaciej
Follow Aureo on X: @AureoBitcoin
Buy Bitcoin in Mexico: aureobitcoin.com
Subscribe so you don’t miss upcoming episodes featuring incredible Bitcoin and Latin American entrepreneurs.
Welcome to the Bitcoin Latam Report. Today I have with me Tomek Kowodjecuk, a Bitcoiner friend uh that I have known a long time now, also a Polish uh person like me. And uh something we have in common is that both of our names are really hard to pronounce, so I'm guessing you also have that trouble uh quite a lot. How are you doing, Tomek and welcome to the podcast?
SPEAKER_02Our names are easy, and yours is a league, a league easier, I I think. Uh Zepnik, uh, thank you for inviting. Uh I'm happy to to chat with you. Yes, indeed. Uh I'm happy to know that there are there is Polish diaspora living in Latin America, like you in Mexico, me in Honduras, and we uh connect over Bitcoin. Uh we are personally also friends. I'm always happy to know how how your business developments go. And uh again, happy to be here. Thank you for the invite.
SPEAKER_00Perfect, Tomek. So tell me, where are you and what made you move to that beautiful place, the beautiful background you have uh behind you?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, the background maybe is not even properly represented by uh web camera in my laptop, and the light is maybe uh not giving it uh justice, but it's strong sun over here in uh Prospera, where I am, and Prospera is a free zone uh private city on the Caribbean island Ruatan. So it's on the Caribbean city, island that belongs to Honduras. So technically, I'm in a country Honduras, but in a special jurisdiction built uh by people who love freedom that is called Prospera.
SPEAKER_00Perfect. So before we dive in into Prospera and Honduras and what are you doing here, can you tell us a bit what is your background in terms of Bitcoin? Uh, you have been doing awesome work in Poland with the Bitcoin Film Festival. I personally attended uh two times or three times already, and it's one of my favorite cofferes. I really love that you're mixing culture with Bitcoin. So maybe you can just tell us about your old life before uh moving to paradise.
SPEAKER_02It's still the same life. Uh thank you for uh recognition. Yes, uh, I organized Bitcoin communities in Poland since many years, and out of our 21 Bitcoin Maxi Group, uh emerged the idea uh and then full functioning project called Bitcoin Film Fest, which is uh film festival, the one event that you attend, but in general a center for Bitcoin culture, specifically movies, cinema, short form videos, documentaries, AI now. So we are trying to become center, we are uh center of Bitcoin cinema, but more than uh everything, it's the annual event that happens in Warsaw, which is well, it's not a conference, it's a festival of Bitcoin culture centered around films with very good uh community of uh artists and attendees spending four days right in the center of Europe. So for the fourth, for the fourth time we are meeting in June, June 4 to 7. We will watch movies, we will rate movies, listen to live music, concerts, go to visit Warsaw and enjoy the time among good people. Yeah, I have experienced uh community building, events organizing for many years. Since many years I've been an entrepreneurial libertarian activist. Um I guess um I participated and uh coordinated multiple projects, mostly in Poland. And now, since uh over six months, uh I live um in Honduras. I moved to this island in Central America because it's one of the most exciting libertarian projects that I've been following for years. You know, we cannot uh change. I mean, I've been trying to change for years the mindset of my community of Polish citizens. We've been trying to change many activists. We try to change the world in an educational way, in political way, but I I eventually figure that it's not very much working. And the countries that already have are occupied by their own institutional mafia will not give their power voluntarily. And such a hack for governance is uh tried over here in Honduras. Group of libertarians with some international capital negotiated creation of a special economic zone with the government of Honduras, and it's technically they created one of the most liberal jurisdictions in the world. And Prospera exists here for four or five years, and it's already trying to become tax haven, regulatory haven, but also a hub for entrepreneurs and bitcoiners as well. That's why I joined here to step up their Bitcoin game a bit.
SPEAKER_00That's great. So you also had the chance to visit us here at La Casa de Satoshi in Mexico because you were invited as part of the speakers for the Radical Exchange Summit. Is that like a subject that was already spoken at that conference, Prospera and these economic zones? Is that what brought you here? Like when did you decide to say, like, okay, fuck this, fuck Poland? Uh, I'm I'm going to to Honduras uh pursuing this libertarian dream.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, in fact, uh I visited Mexico during Radical Innovation Summit, which was which is an annual conference organized by free market-leaning international NGOs and libertarian activists. And I'm surprised how not maybe not surprised, but it's definitely visible that the topic of Bitcoin at especially technological libertarian summit is more prevalent. But among Bitcoin conferences and as well there, the topic of jurisdictional arbitrage, of tax optimization, of finding your place in the world for your life, or maybe for Citadel, which is also your secure and private life, is becoming more prevalent. Because I guess the world every year needs such places even more. But I was uh tempted to check this out, check such projects out since I since being a teenager and I when I read Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand uh presented artistically her concept of a free society where entrepreneurs instead of fighting their own structures of power, they migrate to a hidden valley. Here we have a Caribbean island where they can live with a minimal interference of organic organized force or organized crime, which most of governments are. So, since uh being inspired by Ayn Rand, and I consider myself an Ayn Rand uh Ayn Rand follower and fan, since then I've been following such projects, and there have been maybe dozen around the world of such uh free societies, free cities, and Prosperize the most advanced of them. This is a real business uh slash political act project that actually succeeds. So I'm very happy that eventually I stepped my feet there and I could uh connect the two worlds that fascinate me: the ideas of radical freedom and Bitcoin, and they manifest over here.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I read also Atlas Struck, that took me maybe three months to read. It's a really powerful and beautiful book, but it's it's really a big brick, but it's really worth it, uh, I think for every Bitcoiner to read that.
SPEAKER_02I'm surprised that it's not so often recommended for Bitcoiners as the top book to read. Like people, I love sovereign individual, I love Bitcoin standard, but after some time we could step up into a more philosophical realm, more artistic realm. And definitely Ayn Rand is uh one of the most clear writers and one of the best propagandists, where she puts very, very logical, coherent, rational ideas into inspirational stories. Uh, if for some of you Atlas Shruct is maybe too long because it's a huge book, I recommend checking Antem. Antem is a short story, it's like 1984, however, it was written 10 years earlier than uh Orwell wrote 1984 and happens in a bit different times where people lost the concept of individualism. Aye, it's a short, short book, one and a half hour, but it's so inspiring, and I think it's the best gateway drug to Ayn Rand.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and also, you know, when you read uh, for example, Atlas Rock, as you said, like people are being recommended more technical Bitcoin books. But when you read Iron Rand, you really feel the world around you, it's really happening, the same kind of stuff that is described in a book, but in a fiction story. So it's really fascinating to see that it's basically almost like a tutorial of what is happening and what should you do.
SPEAKER_02It's not only the inspiration, let me inspiration part, and that's also why I put much focus in my life and in my activism for art, uh, to art. That's why we organize Bitcoin Film Festival, because the art is your spiritual fuel to do things. You can maybe understand how blockchain works and and like what is the peer-to-peer transaction. But if you don't have internal fire, if you don't have a moral goal, thing that you consider good ahead of you, then really there is no spiritual fuel, there is no like mental power to do things, and this is what art provides. And we get not only educated by uh movies, bitcoin films so far are mostly educating, but more and more of them become artistic and they are inspiring. However, in the case of Ayn Rand, I mean, moreover, I think what Bitcoin space is missing is that too many of us, and I'm talking like Bitcoin maxi subculture, take Bitcoin as an axiom almost. They come from Bitcoin is great assumption and they grow their mindset out of it. Ah, Bitcoin is great, so I wear an orange t-shirt, so we so I don't like uh shit coins, and we like minimal government because of freedom. I think that it's much healthier to think about Bitcoin, to implement it in your life, and to be convinced that activism in this realm is something good, is to build philosophical grounds into why Bitcoin is good and to have Bitcoin as a conclusion. And for me, also, Bitcoin is not the end point. I'm not Bitcoin absolute, I can be Bitcoin maximalist, but I'm not absolutist, and I uh think that Bitcoin must be the only great money in the world. If there would be a better money, I would be for better money. If there would be a money that's also like self-cast oddly, could transmit uh you know value from my head to your head without internet infrastructure, it would be probably technologically better. It's not possible now. I want great money because I want freedom, and I want freedom also, not absolutely, like absolutely. I want freedom because I want life. I want things good in my life, and I believe that my life and life of people around me is better when our mind is not constrained by force when we are free. Bitcoin is the conclusion. I'm not not doing this podcast because I'm for Bitcoin. I'm for Bitcoin because I'm for freedom and not for freedom, not also absolutely. I'm for freedom because I'm for life. And such things can be concluded when we build our convictions on some philosophical foundations. And I think that Ayn Rand puts it very clearly, and she also lays the foundations for such philosophical thinking. That's why that's my end word on recommending uh reading Ayn Rand.
SPEAKER_00Perfect. Yeah, no, a really passionate speech. I really also believe uh liberty is the most important thing, and that's why you know it's what basically the reason why I moved to Mexico because I wasn't feeling free in Canada, especially during you know the COVID times. That was horrible. So you probably you know feel the same or you were expecting the same. So you commented that you you you feel like from all the economic zones and the special zones that you live in right now, Prospera is the one that is the most successful, in your opinion, and you have a lot of experience in this. So maybe you can give a background of the history of Prospera and why do you think at that moment it's one of the most promising uh projects in that regard?
SPEAKER_02It's the most successful, it's not the most successful, but it's the most promising. It's better to put it this way. Success is still in the making, and I can say that after like five years of this project being on the ground in working, we are early, similar to Bitcoin, but it's also seems like we are on a very good path. And it uh it would be hard to imagine faster and more sustainable growth. Um, so this is a very promising project. This is most possibly the most liberal that's what I said, the most free jurisdiction in the world. There is other startup cities or special economic zones which are successful. Dubai is a success story, Hong Kong should a success story. However, those were yes, designed as business hubs, but they were not designed as a citadel of freedom, where people with a libertarian mindset can go to and can build their life and integrate with the local life of Honduras in a perfect climate. So I think that it's a I don't want to put big words like it's a big moment in history, but it's very possible that we are living through it's just not super visible yet, that we are living through a paradigm shift in to how society should be organized and governed, right? Humanity for multiple years, uh, we had like mostly the concept of there is a king, sometimes it was the king's power was coming from God, sometimes from the later on from people, and there was like a structure and hierarchy of power. Those at the top had more rights, we had kingdoms and monarchies, then transformed into liberal democracies. But we are coming back with some projects like praxis, like Balagis Network State, like Prospera, those ideas that pop up from Einland Atlas Shrugged that we are reinventing the ancient Greek idea of police, of a city-state, or uh of a very efficient territorial structure, urban place, city, with a quite small scale. So it's easy to adapt, it's easy to talk with the government, it's very flexible, it's looking for technological advantage. And building this new paradigm of maybe maybe a structure of power is not necessary to govern people. Maybe we should build platforms of governance without platforms of power, like today liberal democracies turned into, and we are going into even worse directions. So that's also intention of founders of Prospera. That's uh looks like it's also a goal of people that come here, that we eventually want a free world. And Prospera may become as success as Dubai and have like lots of startups uh registered here and that pay 0% tax. But real success will be if other countries in the world will look at look at this. Well, look what Honduras did. They open like this little zone, they give them a little legal autonomy, and they have like three times economic output that our mainland Honduras. Maybe that their mainland, maybe we should open such special social economic zone in our in our place. It's a it's a direction of decentralization of power. Of, you know, I've since reading uh libertarian writers, I was also dreaming of Europe of thousand Liechtensteins. And looks like also if we disperse points of power, if we scale them down, not only individual person will matter more, but most probably also because of competition between those little prosperous little towns, multiple small states, competition for citizens, for income, attracting other people with freedom, eventually the world also will go towards, hey, let's give our citizens more freedom, rather than, hey, let's take more land from our neighbor. That was a paradigm for the previous thousand years.
SPEAKER_00It's uh it's really interesting subject because at the same time you're saying we we're experimenting a big uh shift in general, because you know, history works in cycles, so once empires uh get too big, they crumble because they get too inefficient, uh, they lose the power. That's what happened that's what's happening with the US uh slowly. Uh, but at the same time, for example, the US are pursuing kind of retraction strategy of outside of the world and they push, for example, more monro doctrine in Latin America. So they intervene in Venezuela, they intervene and they they talk about taking the Panama Canal. You know, they want to expand the power where they can maintain it for at least the next decades. So, how do you think this is being balanced out with this you know this world, this dream of having this multiple small cities? Is that compatible? Do you think like what do you think about these opposing forces in general?
SPEAKER_02Well, it's a topic for larger discussion, right? Uh I don't know what will happen. I'm not sure if history comes in cycles, especially now. Probably many cycles are broken since like society is so much different, the information flows so much differently, the economy is so much differently structured than say 500 or 300 years ago. That I'm not sure if really the cycles of imperias have to happen and cycle back. About the America reshaping their sphere of influence and focusing more on this continent here. Yes, it's visible. Yes, I don't want to rate it yet, but it's visible that American influence is stronger here in Honduras. They had some influence uh over electoral campaign. Basically, Trump designated who he supports as the presidential candidate, and this guy won. On the note, he was also the president that was the most supportive of uh Special Economic Zone in Honduras. And the party that created Special Economic Zone won the recent elections. So it's a side effect. Yes, it's it's better for Prospera, that it's not anymore in a conflict with local government in Honduras, which was the case for the previous two, four years, that it has a bit of American umbrella because it's a Prospera is an American company that operates in Honduras, of course, with international ownership, but after all, it's a business registered in USA. So I feel like it's time for Central America. You know, the bad bunny performance at Super Bowl. It looks like your podcast, it's also a good symptom of this. That uh it's time for Latins, it's time for Central America. I see also lots of potential here. Yes, on the big scale picture, you have what happens, you know, we have big state America, and here we have a dream of small states. It's hard to say. I don't know where the world is going, whether culturally we are ready for such decentralization, but practically we need definitely such projects as Prospera. And most probably it's still better than such things are happening under the influence of the United States than under the influence of uh China counterpower.
SPEAKER_00Uh I really appreciate that you compared uh my podcast with the same phenomenon as uh Bad Bunny uh singing in Spanish at the uh at the Super Bowl. That's uh thank you for that. Uh I have more like a technical question now. So, you know, how does a structure like that, like uh Prospera, doesn't fall into the trap of slowly adding rules and uh restrictions? And I I think it's hard for a government to not add rules over time. So is there ways, in your opinion, that you can limit as much as possible the bureaucracy and all this stuff that will eventually maybe not make it as attractive as before?
SPEAKER_02Okay, good question. What Prospera exactly is around 2013, Honduras government put into their constitution the institution of Z, Zone of Economic Deployment, of Economic Development and Employment. Those are special economic zones. There were a few of them, four of them created Kino Honduras, and one of them is basically a separate municipality, a separate region of each administrative region within the country, which criminal law of Honduras applies, but the civil law is up to the operator of this special economic zone. And in the case of Prospera, the operator is an American company run by people who love freedom, and they designed this special economic zone to become a Hong Kong of the Caribbean, a future city. So Prospera, as operator of this municipality, they become and they really try to become only the platform of governance where their rights and obligations are to uh register citizens, uh, register uh ownership of property like land, tax collection, conflict resolution, and managing the uh the agreements with government and eventually international agreements. Whoever comes to Prospera uh or register their business, they can enjoy only 5% of personal income tax, 1% of corporate income tax, there is 2.5% VAT, there is no capital gains tax, there is no inheritance tax. So it's almost a tax haven, maybe not 0%, not specifically tax haven, but it's a regulatory haven. Because anyone who registers a company, he can basically choose which regulatory framework from all countries around the world applies to him, which basically makes it a platform of governance where you can choose which regulation applies to you, plus you can you have a few other prospera regulatory frameworks which are very the most libertarian leaning in the world. So it's a almost fully functional jurisdiction which is under the protection of Honduras. It already has around 2,500 uh virtual residents and around 400 physical residents, also around 400 um companies uh so far after four years registering Prospera. And your question was uh okay, I explained more or less to have a context. Your question was about can you remind me?
SPEAKER_00How do you not fall into the trap of you know you have this structure, it works well, but then there's more people coming, there's more people on the road.
SPEAKER_02When you register as uh when you uh apply and register for Prospera residency, which is a separate and from Honduras residency, don't mix uh them two. One doesn't grant the other, and and vice versa. You sign agreement with Prospera, every citizen signs agreement uh of coexistence. And this contract basically says what current law applies to you and it should apply to you through your lifetime. So the Prospera cannot basically is contractually bind, not to increase any regulations on you.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_02So this is this is contract. Structurally obliged to promise, right? Usually countries they don't give any any, you don't, you cannot opt-in. You are basically when you are born in a country, you are born into these regulations, and nobody promises you what next government might vote in and what next regulations will be given up on you. So structurally, it's designed as opt-in, opt-out system with contractual agreements between US citizen and also platform, operator of governance in this special economic zone.
SPEAKER_00So it's more as if you're interacting with the service provider or company more than a state. Is that a good comparison, you would say?
SPEAKER_02Yes, it's very good comparison. And when Prospera somehow sometimes tries to sell themselves or explain themselves in a one-pitch what they are, and they try to be at the first such company that provides governance as a service. So there are like platforms where you pay annually for software as a service, and Plattura is a platform where you pay in taxes for governance, for administration of your being here or paying taxes, running your business, and basically all of the job that uh they are doing to be fully functional jurisdiction. Uh, there is no other country in the world where you can sign in, sign out, pay a subscription fee, and be legally protected.
SPEAKER_00Interesting. You know, concretely, because I know, for example, I think AquaWallet has their HQ in Prospera, and there's other Bitcoin companies, crypto companies that have established like a presence there, at least legally. I know there's some medical stuff. You know, if you want like experimental treatments, I heard there's something like that. Can you do you have a better view of what's happening and what kind of companies are exploring at this extra liberty to conduct business or to do research? How does it work?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, basically you can register a company of any type over here. And if there is no obstacle in form of maybe if you want to establish a big insurance company, it will be hard for you to find big insurance partners from around the world or set up a big bank account. Um there are still there is still it's not an end product yet. There is still a lack of certain business institutions, business agencies, or uh or trade companies or cooperatives that make running business easy. So not everything is everything every company will enjoy the benefits of being here. The biggest the biggest industries that give so far regulatory advantage in Prospera over other countries are biotech. And the probably majority of startups, companies registered in Prospera are from biotech longevity world because there is no FDA here, and the processes of testing some treatments or drugs is just much easier and cheaper. Before you uh go to market with certain drug, you can test it here. And there are some stem cells therapies uh here in Ruatan from companies that are registered in Prospera. There are some uh gene therapies and some experimental treatments are provided here. The second such industry, which is opening quite recently here, is uh Bitcoin. Cross product seems to me and objectively when you look at some facts, as the most Bitcoin-friendly jurisdiction in the world. Because not only you can Bitcoin is official currency here, but Bitcoin is also a unit of account. So, unlike Salvador, Salvador since a year, you cannot pay taxes anymore in Bitcoin. The businesses don't have to, as they used to, accept the Bitcoin when the merch when the client wants to pay them in Bitcoin. Adoption is on the level I know in Salvador, maybe 5% of people actively have haven't used wallet. And here in Prospera, you can pay taxes in Bitcoin, you can denominate your income as a business, income and cost in Bitcoin. So Bitcoin is officially effectively a unit of account. Nowhere in the world you can legally run your operate your business, calculate your profit in Bitcoin, and then pay taxes based on your Bitcoin profit. Even previously in Salvador, you had to calculate your run your books in dollars, denominate in dollars, and then maybe pay in Bitcoin. Now you cannot even pay in Bitcoin anymore. While in Prospera, you can totally run your books in Bitcoin. Bitcoin is officially in the account. In Prospera, within the city, everywhere you can pay in Bitcoin. Uh around 15% of the economy runs on Bitcoin, and definitely more than majority than 50% of residents use Bitcoin actively. Prospera government government, people let the leadership of Prospera gets orange peeled. Every month they understand Bitcoin more, and you can talk to them privately. And there is no other public country in the world where you can have such close access to leadership, to lawmakers, and among them there is such a high understanding of what Bitcoin is. They realize it and they want to have more Bitcoin, less crypto companies over here. They want to have more activism, more people like you asking about Prospera, more Bitcoiners coming, registering their business or moving their life, as I did over here. For these objective reasons, it's simply the most Bitcoin-friendly jurisdiction in the world. Maybe today we don't have yet a circular economy here. On Rotan, there is like maybe 50, 60 businesses that, thanks to Amit H, the biggest Bitcoin company probably today in Prospera, that these merchants were on boarded. But it's not as Bitcoin is not circulating yet. There is not, I don't know if there is many places in the world except for cyberspace where Bitcoin circulates. We have a community of Bitcoiners. There is maybe on the island, there is uh few bitcoiners which are not active, they're like dormant, but they are happy to come to meetups and discuss perfect conditions to build the Bitcoin ecosystem here, to bring more Bitcoiners to check it, how it looks for their lives, uh, how what is the business ecosystem? That's what we are doing with Bitcoin District. So my initiative is called Bitcoin District Prospera. I'm partnering with the city to help them build Bitcoin ecosystem. And we are already doing events, we are doing retreats, we are doing some conferences and hackathons. We are bringing some Bitcoiners uh to restart their life in in Ruattan. We can help with uh some real estate deals. There is, it's a it's basically a beautiful, uh beautiful island with uh nice jungles and beaches and lots of diving. It's a perfect place for to be a citadel. Bitcoin teams come here for retreats, sometimes guests from cruise ships because it's uh Ruattan is Caribbean cruise ship capital. Those those travelers are asked about they asked actively about Bitcoin, they come to Bitcoin Center here. We have a huge hub by Amit H called Bitcoin Center. So, really the perfect conditions to have a Bitcoin island. And uh, I think we need a few more years. People will talk more when they realize what's happening here.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so you kind of responded to my question without me asking, and I can confirm I've been to Ruatan uh thanks to the team retreat of Bitrefill like two years ago. And uh, of course, we visited the Amit H the Bitcoin center that was there, so it's really amazing, and for sure the the island is beautiful, and of course, I think it attracts slowly Bitcoiners from all over the world, including you, right? So, what do you personally want to do in Ruatan and where do you think you can contribute the most? Do you have any plans? Do you have any projects uh you know to advance Bitcoin adoption or also anything else that you want to talk about?
SPEAKER_02Now, personally, this place feels like me, especially in this stage of my life. I was more than happy to relocate from Poland. As much as I love uh my country and we organize Bitcoin Film Fest there every year, next in June. As much as I also needed some more sun and some life next to the ocean among interesting people, and Prospera is definitely one of the biggest utility today of Prospera, except for being regulatory haven to launch your business, is already a hub for interesting people, businesses, startups coming through. Everybody has some builders' mindset, everybody is looking for some ways to exit the fiat system. So, my initiative Bitcoin District, and you can check it on the bit the bitcoindistrict.com, is helping such bitcoiners to exit the fiat system and establish uh that in RuTan, as well as Bitcoin businesses. And we already mentioned there is uh over a dozen Bitcoin companies. Bitcoin FilmFace is registered here, but also Amit H, yes, Gentry that runs uh um AquaWallet uh has also a company here: Blink, Bitvocation, Blitz, Debify. There is uh there is uh almost 15 uh companies that maybe do not have their headquarters here, but uh one of their uh subsidiary companies is registered here for various reasons. For me, living on a Caribbean island in such a hub among multiple Bitcoiners where I can see lots of potential in the island, in Ratan Island, is growing. I see potential in the region. I was not super satisfied with uh multiple tensions uh that uh are growing uh in Europe, uh especially on the east side. Political, geopolitical, uh, demographical, structural. Here I see that this region is on the rise, and especially this project uh of Prospera. So with the Bitcoin district, we organize retreats, for example. There is a whole scope of uh things that uh we do, but so far we organized two retreats for 20, 30 bitcoiners, uh COSI and conferences. It's a series of workshops, but also with tourism and sport activities that uh last seven to ten days. And the next one is at the end of April. So at the bitcoindistrict.com you can find our events list. The big event coming in March. We are organizing Bitcoin games with over two bitcoins in price. Games.thebitcoin district.com. We organize tournaments in poker, chain duel, Mario Kart, ping pong, rock, paper, scissors, and in the form of Olympics, we added them. We add points to attendees. We expect around 100 attendees to compete for over two bitcoin in prices. This is in March. I love to experiment with unique formats of events, as you know, Curious Film Festival, Curious uh Bitcoin Games Olympics. In however, in August with Pleblab from Austin. It's not public info yet, but very soon you will uh have uh sign-ups uh online and we will brag about it. With Pleblab, we're organizing a Bitcoin Vibe Camp. It will be a boot camp with hackathon around uh AI and vibe coding, also connected with visiting of this beautiful island and exploring trying their life in Prospera. You know, Prospera, I cannot move the camera maybe too much, but it's uh it's also physically interesting place. It's a high tower with a pool on top of the hill in the jungle. You can see this is like where most of the stuff are being built now. So trying to live in Prospera is already an experience, and we are happy to uh help to anyone interested. But yes, the end goal is to build a proper Bitcoin ecosystem here with a real estate project. We have our own Bitcoin beach. There is still jungle there, but we are raising money to start a first residential complex. So we are on the goal to build within two, three years a functional Bitcoin ecosystem with circular economy, with a program for startup incubation and some vehicle which we might call a proto-venture fund. And we already have some interest from Bitcoin Capital to be deployed here and help businesses uh start their venture and grow here. So if anyone is interested, Bitcoin Prospera on Twitter or theBitcoin District.com. We are especially looking for partners. And the same happens in Prospera. Prospera as a city is not yet looking ultimately for end users, for people to move in, and because it's not an end product yet. Same, same with uh with us, and same with uh focus of partners within Prospera, that we are looking for bridges for people who would like to come here and build, who for people who are community leaders, who run their businesses, who would help us build a city because it's uh super early and it's full of opportunities.
SPEAKER_00Awesome. Yeah, I think with your energy and with your uh creativity, it's gonna go way faster. Apart from uh trying to attract international Bitcoiners, and obviously, this is really important to bring capital, to bring tourists, so you know there's more visibility. Is there have you seen any interest coming from the local population? Not necessarily from the island population, but maybe from mainland uh Honduras visiting people, you know, Hondurian citizens getting interested in this project, or is it mostly foreigners for now? And are you trying to involve the local population somehow? Just curious. Uh, what's the relationship?
SPEAKER_02Yes, we are trying, but this is uh the job and experience of Amit H. Uh Dusan Ariana and their team with Bitcoin Center, they are on the ground since almost three years, and they already did a good job with orange peeling, some of the leaders, one school director, one uh village leader. However, as some of you maybe have experienced, it's always difficult to uh get local population anywhere, same as in Poland, and get them organically interested. You can give them people signs, you can inspire them, show them examples, organize a good meetup, have a good vibe, uh, get people to see, oh, this is a nice guy's doing this Bitcoin. This must be interesting, and get them interested on their own. Because if you try to push into people's heads some ideas, they automatically try to put themselves, the people, in defensive position. So we are trying to give them those signs. People, local people, however, more interested in Prospera than Bitcoin. Prospera had some time in media, and many Hondurans are aware that this strange experiment is happening on their island in this small valley over here. You know, we don't have a full island. I mean, Prospera is just like a small, maybe 5% of Ruatan, which is 100,000 people and 50 kilometers wide piece of valleys and beaches. But yes, so far the bigger interest we have from international audience. However, we try to bridge it. Uh, mostly networking meetups work better than educational campaigns, but who knows uh, you know, the w when the fruits will come. It's community engagement is hard to measure, it's hard to sustain, especially in countries where people are not very much focused on technological IT growth. People are more down to the grant and working with tourism. It's difficult in countries where people don't have resources to put their savings in. Today, Bitcoin, the biggest utility of Bitcoin, is still store of value. People need this uh spare value to be stored in Bitcoin. And in such countries it's just difficult. If you have ideas, uh, we are also happy to exchange know-how. We have uh channels of communication with other community leaders. Amitié just participated in the Bitcoin Circular Economies Summit in Salvador. And this is, you know, community engagement is always a difficult task, but local community engagement with such technology as Bitcoin, which is nobody ever tried before. You know, it's the first time that that you know, in humanity history that some groups of international people are trying to explain to locals this new technology which we all don't yet fully comprehend and understand. So uh this is pioneering. I think it's uh difficult to uh judge the effects of uh Bitcoin circular economies so far in the world because we are all trying. And I don't think there is anywhere real circular economy, but there are proto hubs, proto economies where the ground is fragile, and hopefully the next years will face bigger interest from local communities and also bigger circulation of bigger more utility than just storing value. That's why we do games, that's why we do hackathons. We want to implement, try to figure ways how to implement Bitcoin in a life on the island, but also in regular tasks other than just saving.
SPEAKER_00By the way, I have a special request in terms of game. You have Mario Kart, but uh Super Smash also is is there a Bitcoin version?
SPEAKER_02Because we try to have games where Bitcoin is somehow integrated.
SPEAKER_00That's what I'm saying. I don't know, I I don't think it exists, but I don't know who made it the Mario Kart version, but you should create one Super Smash uh bros.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Mario Mario Kart was created by D. D is a Bitcoin professor, she's a uh quite popular developer and educator. She forked emulated from Nintendo uh 64, I believe. She forked the code and added basically, she added a layer that connects uh time and money from Bitcoin game into bit into Lightning wallets. And she wrote some logic. Hey, every coin once Satoshi lands on the wallet. The times are shown on the leaderboard and they're rewarded with sats. However, what I can this is done like two years ago. She's constantly upgrading it, but now with vibe coding, I already seen on Bitcoin Twitter experiments of like just copying or reverse engineering or forking some game and implementing Bitcoin. And I'm super excited because use of Bitcoin in games is really one of the first uh use cases for Bitcoin was gaming and poker and bets. And I still feel, especially with Lightning that is underused, adding Bitcoin on stakes, adding some Satoshi instead of like your mana or points, or somehow tying your game with real stake, whatever game it is, is just making game you know at least two times more attractive. Imagine playing poker without money, and then imagine other game without money with a bit of money automated to your Bitcoin wallet. I just love it. It's just so much more exciting to play anything with it. If there is something on I don't uh I don't encourage anyone to gamble their Bitcoin and lose them. But come on, we use it uh we also need Bitcoin for to have fun, and uh I like fun.
SPEAKER_00I agree. Uh poker without money is not poker, uh, it's not the same. And I already lost some money, some sats in Rouatan for with the snake game. So with a chain duo, okay. Yes, I don't remember how much, but uh few thousand sets, it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_02Well, don't worry, somebody won it, probably developers of the game.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, exactly. Oh, yeah, okay. So, you know, you said that it's only a really small portion of the island, but it's only getting started, there is real estate getting developed. So I can imagine that, you know, in what you would be the dream, the vision in maybe 10 years, 20 years. Is there something in the constitution that opens the door to the expansion of the economic zone on the island? Or is it like, okay, this is your zone and you won't be able to expand out of it? What's your vision about that?
SPEAKER_02There is a way it was banned, frozen, let's say, and deemed illegal by previous government, but now it's reversed, back to normal. That legally it's possible for other land to incorporate into special economic zone. So you you need to fulfill certain conditions, you need to apply, you need a permission from the special economic zone that it gets you incorporated. And I know that there are already some filings that want to get incorporated here in Prospera, but also to Sudat Morazan and other Z that happen that uh is a housing project, cheap housing project uh on the mainland. So there is a way. I don't know how it will eventually manifest itself, but Prospera has also international plans. They would love this model to be replicated. They take Prospera Honduras as the pilot project. Of course, it's a pearl in the crown, the only one and only diamond so far in the in this network of Prospera cities. And I heard often from founders of Prospera that this is the vision inspired also by Hanseatic League in late medieval century Europe. Cities like one city in Poland, Gdańsk, multiple uh German cities, Swedish cities, they got autonomy from their kingdom. So Polish city, Gdańsk was not part of the Polish kingdom. Maybe it had some protection agreement, but these cities, it's called Hansa, Google it, Hansa from the 16th century, they formed a coalition of independent cities, and they had their own army, they had their own zero tax between goods between themselves. It was basically an economic league of independent cities, and Prospera sees it as a model to growth and eventually giving this example to the world that hey, different model of governance could work. So actively, Prospera, besides of course, developing this, what happens in Honduras and testing it out, they're actively looking for different locations and different host countries that would like to launch such special economic zone program because white paper is already here, the real world example is already here, and really one Prospera will maybe fix lives of some people and locals on the island, but it will not fix the world. We need 10, hundreds of uh prosperas in the world. It doesn't have to be managed by this one prospera company, it can be different, but we need this model to be changed. We are tired of big governments and governments that are not only big in scale but also big in the big horizontally into our lives, not only taking more taxes, but telling us more, you know, what what what you can eat, what you cannot eat, how who you can I don't know, assess. And it looks like the rest of the world is on the reverse. We we we we used to have more freedom decade by decade, but looks like this trend is uh being reversed, and we can check uh world economic economic freedom index. Every country is getting uh a bit lower in the recent years, and hopefully Prospera changes, uh changes this trend. Hopefully it grows. I don't know if there is any there are bets. People here love prediction markets, and there are bets. Where is the next Prospera? Many people here don't want next Prospera. We want to put our focus here, but at the end, it would be awesome if uh some I don't know, I would love Poland, but maybe some African country. Would be like we we need a solution to decades of wrongdoings and misorganizational. Let's give this forest and try to build our Hong Kong there. Who knows? I hope more uh countries like Honduras, because it was a brave step from their side. This is how they they looked at Hong Kong and they're like, okay, we need to change it. And they were inspired by noble-winning economists uh who designed charter cities. Hopefully, this inspiration will pass over the next 10 years, next generation, and hopefully, like uh before this project can be can achieve critical mass, because we don't have critical mass yet here of economic density, of people, it's not yet self self-running product. But before it comes, we will have more prosperous. And I think it's possible. If not, maybe within Honduras we will have more places that would incorporate into that and enjoy more economical freedom. I can't say yet. We I'm happy to bet with people on prediction marquez. This is usually the ultimate uh place to voice your opinions on the future because I can just say what I what I think will happen. But after six months uh here in Honduras and dedicating probably many years ahead, um, I'm quite optimistic. Objectively. Really, there is no other place that I'm so optimistic about in the world. Like I when I think about Poland, Europe, United States, Russia, China, I'm like, okay, it looks like there will be only more problems in the future. Whatever we are facing now, it looks like uh it's not the end yet. And the culture of the world, of the fiat world, the philosophical background of the fiat world. I'm sad to say that, but I'm I don't see a super bright future. Maybe technology might save us, but I don't think humanity is uh ready for human-saving technology. But here, our region, Prospera Project, Bitcoin, those are really one of the things that are I'm really optimistic, and it's not just my hope, but it's it's a conviction that the good times are coming. That's why I also I'm here. Uh, and I recommend anyone to check out.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think uh LATAM in general is seen a little bit as like the last uh possible bastion of liberty and uh and you know being away from the the biggest uh problems all over the world. So maybe uh I don't know if you think there is another there's another country in LATAM that will experiment with this kind of stuff. Are you aware of any uh nation that is maybe tinkering with it?
SPEAKER_02In whole America, I would if I would take a closer look where such things might happen would be Argentina, Salvador. However, after my recent trip to Salvador, I'm not so sure. Like this whole Bitcoin experiment is a bit overpromoted, and there is uh more selling the info than actual background for that. United States, Dominican Republic, Argentina. That would be my bets.
SPEAKER_00Interesting. Well, that was a really inspiring conversation. I think it was my favorite podcast so far, to be honest. Uh you're so passionated, uh Tomek, and it's it's really nice to see you know similar people to you. I was not born in Poland, but I consider myself uh Polish, more Polish than Canadian, even if I don't make uh uh speak perfect Polish and something.
SPEAKER_02And now do you consider yourself more Mexican? Probably someday.
SPEAKER_00I think I almost consider myself more Mexican than Canadian at this point, but Polish will always remain my soul and my heart, so it's hard to uh you know forget my Polish identity. I drink like a Polish person, also.
SPEAKER_02That's uh that that that that I can confirm. As much as I try to uh restrain myself from any group identities, and but there are objective facts.
SPEAKER_00Yes, like I understand. I also understand, you know, like a human is first a human, uh an individual, before it's a citizen and everything else. But I think you know it's just normal and natural to try to join a group, whatever it's uh nationality, whenever it's uh being a bitcoiner, right? I think it's it's normal.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we also careful with this uh grab identity as calling ourselves bitcoiners. I I I've seen I've seen it already, it starts to do more harm than good with this labeling, but it's always the case, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I just recently said something on X. I said, not all Bitcoiners are my friends, but all my friends are bitcoiners, you know. I think it's uh almost all the time.
SPEAKER_01I see you are sharpening your Twitter, tweeting, you know, rhetoric.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, I don't know if you have something uh to say. Maybe well, you already mentioned where to find your project, so I will put them in the description, of course. But you know, maybe last word or something I missed, I didn't ask.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but I can say that uh as always, people need to come and see and touch it to especially people named Tomek, Thomas. Uh they need to touch it to believe that it happens. Here, this Bitcoin uh initiative uh in Prospera, maybe there is not much marketing material and digital trace of it, and maybe it's even for better. It's uh really based on personal networks, uh gossip networks, uh physical interaction and vibes uh on the site. Uh every two weeks we are getting some random bitcoiner who is either on a cruise ship or just traveling through and want to see uh what's happening, and then we build a nice community here. We are having another uh Bitcoiner barbecue actually here in this floor uh today. We have weekly workshops, we have monthly meetups. There is uh there are things to check really for bitcoiners. So if anyone is interested, it's also not through website book automated uh tools, but rather through DMs, uh, check the Bitcoin district, leave your email, message me. I'm happy to show you around and explain the possibilities that um come with uh with this project of Prospera.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so you heard Tomek, you you will have a personal uh guide on the island, so make sure to visit and bring uh good bug spray because uh that's the only thing I didn't like the word about bug spray.
SPEAKER_02Okay, okay, yes. Uh in our defense, in our bugs defense, I can say that after like two months of staying here, they don't bother anymore. Like they don't you got him beyond, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So it's uh proof of work uh again, once again, proof. So thank you, Tomek. That was that was a proof of stake, exactly. So thank you, Tomek. That was great.
SPEAKER_02Thank you. Thank you, anyone who watches it. Guys, please appreciate Mache and his uh first episodes of podcasts. Share it, uh, leave your hands up, whatever is there, review, comment. Comment so we know comment is the best because then we know that somebody watches, just say thank you or screw you, whatever you feel is appropriate. It's it's always uh valuable. If you don't pay for listening to uh these things, at least pay with reaction. That's always also my mindset when I consume. But I often forget it, you know. But it's always like it's just such a good to mindset to sometimes adapt in your life when I read something for free, when I use something, and I don't pay for it. I try to message thank you to developers or find uh a musician on Instagram and tell him, Hey, good job. It's uh it works well for on both side for both sides mentally, I guess.
SPEAKER_00Sometimes it's just a little comment, you know, that makes it a good thing. And I'm grateful.
SPEAKER_02Uh thank you much for thank you much for inviting me and for hosting this and for talking about Bitcoin and Latin America. Vamos. Thank you. Vamos.