Many Bitcoiners became rich through cryptocurrencies. Really rich, unimaginably rich. Yet there is little talk about the subject. It’s always about money, but almost never about wealth. Almost like a taboo. We try to break down the topic. For today, through an interview with early adopter Aaron Koenig – who tells us why he’s not as rich as many think, but why that rarely makes him sad.
I saw him for the first time in the summer of 2013 at a conference in Cologne. I was brand new to Bitcoin then, and you looked like you’d been around forever. I guess that’s when you joined Bitcoin in 2011. Is that right?
Yes, I first read about Bitcoin in May 2011, in Handelsblatt and Spiegel Online. In June 2011, my first own article about Bitcoin appeared. At the end of 2011, our cooperation with Bitcoin.de began. They donated the prize money for our Bitfilm Festival, 200 euros per category. You could get it paid out in euros or in Bitcoin. However, all the prize winners opted for euros. Not such a wise decision: they would have received 100 Bitcoin each at the time. In 2012, we produced our first Bitcoin explainer video for Bitcoin.de, with Dr. Münzmacher and Hermann the robot. In Cologne 2013, we then already showed a whole series of Bitcoin films, including for Colored Coins and KNC Mining.
Did you also get Bitcoin for the Bitcoin.de video at that time?
Only to a part, and exactly the amount that went to our Indian animator. It was simply the quickest and cheapest way to make a payment to India.
Did the animator keep the Bitcoins? And you yourself were paid in Euros?
I guess he exchanged them for rupees right away. We took Euros for outside costs like music and sound mixing, people didn’t accept Bitcoins then. We didn’t earn anything from the film itself, it was an investment in marketing, so to speak. But it was worth it, because the film was very well received and we gained many new customers through it.
A young woman buys a Bitcoin for 70 euros on the BXB. Hopefully it held … All image rights by Aaron Koenig.
Did you buy bitcoins then? Or accepted them for other jobs?
I was rather sceptical about Bitcoin at first and thought it was better backed by gold. This was probably because before Bitcoin, I had already studied the Vienna School and its critique of the monetary system. It was an article by Erik Voorhees that opened my eyes. Only then did I realise that Bitcoin gets its value from its usefulness and scarcity and does not need to be backed by anything. I then invested a small amount in Bitcoin and started accepting Bitcoins for my work.
How did you come to stick with Bitcoin? I think a lot of people heard about it in 2011, but only a few got into it. Do you think there’s a certain mindset that was needed for it? And do you think it has changed since then?
I had interviewed representatives of the “Viennese School of Economics” for a film project in 2009 – 2010 and learned a lot from them, of course I also read books by Hayek, Mises and Rothbard. In this respect, it was clear to me that we need a different monetary system. So my interest in Bitcoin was not of a technical nature, as it was for many in the early days, and it’s not about making a lot of money quickly with it. It’s about changing the world for the better, and of course that takes a lot of patience and stamina.
Aaron’s new book project: crypto-art.
Most people who have been around longer and really built something, no matter what the price is right now, have that kind of attitude. The incredible price increases of the last few years have also attracted a lot of speculators and scammers to Bitcoin, which is a bit annoying, but probably unavoidable.
How many Bitcoins did you buy or take in back then? You don’t have to give me an absolute answer, a size range would also do …
Bought very little, and how much I have taken in over the last few years: no idea. Many of my film projects have been paid for in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, but the vast majority I have spent again. On the one hand, to pay my animators, narrators and musicians, on the other hand, I have lived mainly from Bitcoin since 2013. Sometimes I spent 23 Bitcoin on a rent. I’d better not start adding it all up, lest I get in a bad mood.
Do you feel like you missed the chance to become very rich?
I’ve gotten out of the habit of getting angry about this kind of thing. With Bitcoin, I think everyone catches themselves thinking “if only I had bought more back then” or “if only I hadn’t sold back then”, which is a waste of time. I have lived well on Bitcoin for the last few years and have been able to save a little bit, so I am happy with that. Above all, I have met many exciting people through Bitcoin and am part of a historically important development that I can even actively promote.
Excerpt from Aaron’s new book.
I find that much more interesting than being able to buy a Lamborghini every week. If people like me hadn’t spent five Bitcoin on a burger and a beer at Room 77, there wouldn’t be a Bitcoin economy today and the price wouldn’t be over 50,000 euros. In that respect, it’s nonsensical to regret anything. It probably helps that I’m not only involved with Bitcoin, but also with Buddhism, where dealing with disturbing feelings is part of the daily practice.
Sounds like that was not an easy thing to do. I find it amazing that it didn’t dampen your enthusiasm for Bitcoin. My impression is that many people make it dependent on their wallets whether they find a coin good or bad … Have you also had phases where you thought you would like to turn your back on Bitcoin?
No, I never had that. Of course I’m happy when the price goes up and less happy when it goes down. But more importantly, Bitcoin is catching on in general, even against resistance. The very fact that Bitcoin has always recovered despite all the dead calls and crashes confirms to me that I bet on the right horse, or better: on the right honey badger.
Could it be that bitcoiners are like that? That is, that they don’t show their wealth so much, they almost don’t care about it because it’s more an accidental consequence of idealism?
There are probably all kinds of different types. No one is indifferent to money, but of course it makes a difference whether you spend it on sports cars, designer clothes and champagne, or reinvest it and make it work for you. Bitcoiners probably have a more pronounced awareness of money than the average citizen. You automatically think twice about what you spend your coins on when they could be worth five times as much next year.
I imagine you meet a lot of Bitcoiners on your travels. Do you sometimes feel poor there? There are certainly many who have benefited greatly …
No, on the contrary. It’s wonderful to have rich friends. At the moment I’m staying with a crypto friend who has a luxury flat in the middle of Barcelona. In August, I was a guest at the Crypto Castle near Weimar, where I gave a lecture and was able to spend a few days in a lavish hotel and restaurant. In between, I was in Prague, London, Gdansk, Warsaw, Krakow, Budapest, Budva (Montenegro) and Dubrovnik. I mostly stayed with friends, now and then in cheap AirBnBs. Travelling from place to place is also very affordable thanks to RyanAir and Flixbus.
Bitcoiners love the moon. No wonder it goes down as a meme and a piece of art in Aaron’s book.
In November, I’m off to El Salvador for the Latin American Bitcoin Conference, where I’ll be a speaker and present my new book on Crypto Art and Crypto Culture. I’ll be staying with friends again. So my lifestyle is rather budget. Nevertheless, I could hardly imagine a freer and richer life.
How many Bitcoiners do you meet in a year when you travel, how many do you know well, and for how long?
I’m sure it’s a few hundred, at least when conferences take place normally. I know the scene best in Buenos Aires, Mexico City and Miami because that’s where I’m most often. My best friends in the Bitcoin world are Rodolfo Andragnes, Diego Gutierrez and Franco Amati, the founders of the Latin American Bitcoin Conference, where I have been a speaker or presenter every year since 2013, always in a different Latin American country. I’ve known Jeff Gallas the longest, who has organised the Berlin Bitcoin Stammtisch since 2011 and now does the Lightning Hackdays and the Lightning Conference. Most of the people I know have been around for a long time and more for idealistic motives. Probably many of them are quite wealthy by now, but I don’t know anyone who is particularly flaunting that.
You mentioned the Latin American Bitcoin Conference that’s coming up in El Salvador. What are you doing there?
This is my favourite conference, it takes place in a different country every year, so far Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Uruguay, and this year of course El Salvador, where else? I’m on a panel there and will probably be the “Master of Ceremonies” again.
We will also be inducting a new member into the Crypto Hall of Fame, which I founded last year. It is, so to speak, the counterpart to the “Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame” for the crypto world. In contrast, however, there are only 21 places in the Crypto Hall, 13 of which are already taken, including Satoshi Nakamoto, David Chaum, Nick Szabo, Vitalik Buterin and other rock stars of the crypto world. Anyone can suggest who should be added, and a committee of international experts, mainly crypto journalists, will make the decision. The winner will then be portrayed by Max Cryptohead and displayed in our 3D gallery.
Crypto Hall of Fame
Max, a young artist I manage, also had the idea for an exhibition about crypto-culture, where artists depict typical crypto terms like HODL, Honey Badger, To the Moon! or When Lambo? in artworks. The exhibition is expected to premiere in New York, and we are already showing part of it as a “sneak preview” in El Salvador.
We will also present the exhibition catalogue there, which will also be published as a book, hardcover, full colour, it is currently being printed in El Salvador. For each artwork there is a text explaining what this “crypto-meme” means and where it comes from. The artworks are complemented by simple explanations of NFTs, mining, the blockchain, and everything else you should know about crypto. So it is not only made for art lovers, but at the same time an easy to consume book for beginners in the crypto world.
