Asanoha Interview
By Tselly
For this issue, we had the pleasure of interviewing a rising artist in the bitcoin space, Asanoha.
Tselly: What initially led you to bitcoin?
Asanoha: I got paid for some work I did on a hemp farm. I got paid 3 bitcoins in 2017 when the bitcoin was about $1200 a coin. I sold about all of that because at the time I just considered it money, unfortunately.
T: So you heard about it and you used it a long time ago but like most people didn’t really understand it at the time. When did you start understanding Bitcoin and what was that experience like?
A: I was in and out over the next few years after selling, but when it clicked, I immediately regretted selling. I started buying back in as quick as I could, as it got further out of my price range to buy back my 3 coins. It wasn’t until the last bull market that I started to get it, when a good friend of mine, and author of “The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written”, Kesha Luna, told me that I really gotta start studying bitcoin in depth and should start making some bitcoin artwork.
So I started researching and diving deep down the rabbit hole to get a more focused standpoint than I had previously, and I will say it’s a very very confusing space and I don’t know what it is but there’s some magic thing that just clicks at some point and then you just get it. It took, gosh, 3 years for it to click for me.
T: Oh yea, it takes a bit to get there, and then you start falling down all sorts of rabbit holes in bitcoin Twitter that aren’t even money related. Any rabbit holes that were interesting to you?
A: I find it very interesting how many layers there are to Bitcoin Twitter. I think the KYC/Non-KYC bitcoin was an important one. Knowing the difference was very helpful. I think it’s also funny how many slain heroes we’ve had on this journey towards mass adoption.
T: Yes, Bitcoin Twitter does a good job practicing the “Don’t Trust, Verify” mantra. We will lose more heroes I’m sure. Now, have you found any rabbit holes that caught you off guard or were just too crazy?
A: No, not at all; in fact I found it funny in a number of ways. I come from a classic liberal household. I had hippie parents and it’s funny seeing the “seed oils are bad” and “stop using sunscreen” – I grew up being told this. Even the perineum sunning didn’t surprise me. But it was exciting to find a community that didn’t grow up being taught that and now embracing it.
I got lucky because my parents were hippies, and I wasn’t really in the TV generation. I wasn’t forced to go to public school. Moreso it was homeschooling but I would actually call it free schooling. I read a lot on my own of what interested me. The concept of mass teaching all kids the same exact curriculum is fairly new. Think of what people did before that a couple hundred years ago – kids were more a part of the community and went towards trades and people that interested them and learned through becoming an apprentice.
T: Absolutely, this is what type of communities we are trying to bring back by rebuilding local circular economies. Now that you are selling your art for bitcoin! Do you only accept bitcoin for your artwork?
A: On the website, I only accept bitcoin. This next bull run, I may accept fiat but that is to be seen. I’m gonna try not to but I am still a pleb and gonna stack any way I can. At events I want to get an Azteco bitcoin voucher machine, and make people buy bitcoin if they need to purchase so events can be bitcoin only.
T: This is the way! Can you explain for our readers what type of art you do and how bitcoin influences your art?
A: The grand quest to conceptualize what is bitcoin? I began making geometric art four years ago and I think that bitcoin is the newest and purest form of energetic storage and transference based on precise mathematical truth, and I believe that sacred geometry and geometric conceptualizing are the oldest pure forms of mathematical truth.
Trying to join bitcoin on geometry is interesting and trying to conceptualize bitcoin in and of itself is very difficult and very interesting to do. My intention is to create fine art that is opsec. I would like to push the boundary on what is bitcoin art.
T: Lots of layers to your art. Now I know you were recently selling art at BitBlockBoom in Texas. When did you start selling your bitcoin artwork, and what other conferences do you plan on showcasing at?
A: I debuted my art at Bitcoin Conference 2022 in Miami. Since then I’ve been at Plan B Lugano, Pacific Bitcoin, Bitcoin Miami 2023 BitBlockBoom. In the future, I’ll be at Unconfiscatable this year, and I’ll be speaking at the Bitcoin Freedom Festival in Costa Rica.
T: Well that escalated quickly within a year. Hope to see you at the next one! So final question for you, as a new bitcoin artist to the space, what advice do you have for other bitcoiners trying to sell their art or even survive.
A: I think at the end of the day it comes down to integrity, morality and ethics. Like you said earlier it’s hard to make money off of sound money, and it’s even harder to market to bitcoiners who are even more aware of that. To anyone trying to sell in the bitcoin space I would say to laser-eye focus on what it is that you are offering and what is it within your good or service that has intrinsic value for others to to spend their hard-worked money on.
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Note from Stackchain Magazine: No Bitcoin (or inferior monies) were exchanged for this article. No joke Asanoha is an amazing artist, if you’re not following him on X you definitely should. You can find him at @asanoha_gold or you can tip him or Telly for there participation in this article: Tselly Tselly@WalletofSatoshi.com or Asanoha at asanoha@primal.net