Corporate CPA to The Bitcoin Accountant
By Satoshi Pacioli
June 4th 2021 – Ron Paul kicks off the bitcoin conference in Miami. I’m 900 miles away on the outskirts of Washington DC, annoyed by the one meeting I had that day that would interfere with me watching the full eight hours of content.
The next day I’m watching again in the afternoon as Jack Mallers introduces the President of El Salvador as he introduces his proposal to make bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador.
The pressure had been building for a while, but after those couple days and seeing the contrast between the excitement and promise that bitcoin offered compared to the repetitive and uninspired work I was getting paid for, I decided I needed to get involved on a deeper level.
I worked for a couple more months before leaving my fiat role on October 21, 2021. (Feel free to check the chart, yes it was very close to the peak). I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do next, but I knew it involved bitcoin. For the first time since I was 22, I didn’t have a full-time job and the freedom was quite refreshing. No longer being attached to the DC swamp, I took off to sunnier (and freer) pastures down to Florida to avoid winter in DC.
After a couple months and continuing down the rabbit hole, I decided the best way for me to contribute would be to use the skills and knowledge I had acquired over 15 years as an accountant to help support the many new startups in the bitcoin space. So, in March 2022, I started Satoshi Pacioli Accounting Services. The goal was to bring the highest quality accounting services to an industry that not only was the most important to me personally, but also that I expect to grow massively in the years to come.
In 2022, I attended several conferences and was even invited on a few podcasts throughout the year to discuss bitcoin and accounting, a topic I was surprised anyone else was interested in. Throughout the year I was able to grow brand awareness and slowly pick up clients, but it was honestly much tougher than I expected.
Based on feedback received from fellow bitcoiners, I realized that tax services were the most immediate and valuable services for many companies and individuals. So, despite my aversion to taxes (see Ron Paul reference above), I dove headfirst into the tax world.
As 2023 kicked off and we rolled into tax season, business picked up as well. I was working long hours and weekends, not because I had to, but because I wanted to. The freedom and responsibility of owning my own business, combined with the absolute privilege of getting to work with bitcoiners, is something I can’t quite describe.
Tax services really only need a few months a year though, so I still needed to pick up more clients that would need recurring services on a monthly basis. As great as bitcoin twitter is to connect with fellow bitcoiners, it is tough to build trust as a professional service even with the best of memes.
The big change in 2023 for me was getting out and connecting with bitcoiners in person in a way I had not done before. It started in February when I visited Bitcoin Park for the first time. I had heard about the park in passing but didn’t fully grasp what they were building. I had a chance meeting with Rod, one of the Co-founders who casually mentioned I should stop by the park for one of their monthly meetings. I checked my calendar and booked a flight two weeks later to check it out. I was instantly impressed with the atmosphere they created in Nashville. It’s not just the actual buildings (which are very impressive) but the community that they are building in. They are attracting locals from the area and bitcoiners from around the country. Within 24 hours of landing I asked to become a member to support their project. The following month I made a return trip for a couple days before heading to Austin to visit Bitcoin Commons. In just a few short years, Austin has managed to attract a critical mass of bitcoiners that has spawned several startups and not one, but two community spaces. In April I made it to Bitcoin Bay in Tampa, FL, one of the newer “bitcoin cities”, but with a devoted crew working hard to increase adoption and build a grassroots movement. All these little projects are being done slightly differently; there is no copy and paste from one city to another, but they are planting seeds today that could have a massive impact in the years to come.
When I set out to create a bitcoin-only accounting services organization, I knew my target market was small. Go ahead and search for Crypto Accountant/CPA, you’ll get countless CPAs that can help you with crypto, web3, or Digital Assets. I understand from a business perspective that the “web3” market is much bigger at the moment, but it is a clear signal that we are not focused on the same goal. What they don’t understand and what I didn’t fully appreciate until this last year is the closeness and instant connection bitcoiners can share.
Last week I attended the amazing BitBlockBoom conference in Austin, TX. Despite the ridiculous Texas heat, it was an amazing week and took my appreciation for the bitcoin community to a new level. I was there for “work”, but it really did not feel that way. I spent three days working out of Bitcoin Commons and visited the folks at PlebLab. Being around other bitcoiners adds a degree of focus I had not felt in a while. At the actual conference later in the week I had a table set up which got some great traffic, but the real value was connecting with so many great bitcoiners from around the country. Some I had were current clients, others I had met at previous events, and many I met for the first time. What I realized, was that everyone there was working towards the same purpose, bitcoin. Whether they were actively working for a bitcoin company, orange-pilling their local community, or simply DCAing and Hodling, everyone was pushing in the same direction.
Working with bitcoiners for the last year plus has made me more bullish than ever, yes on bitcoin as a monetary system, but maybe more importantly on bitcoiners as a community.
________________________
Note from Stackchain Magazine: No Bitcoin (or inferior monies) were exchanged for this article. You can find out more about Satoshi Pacioli and his services on satoshipacioli.com , you can follow on X @SatoshiPacioli, or you can tip at his LNurl jw4068@strike.me