Lebanon

Getting hitched, Satoshi style: A Bitcoin-themed wedding in Lebanon

A Bitcoiner used his wedding day to share his love for his favorite digital currency, Bitcoin, by gifting 4,000 Satoshis to every guest and incorporating a volcano theme.

A Bitcoin (BTC) evangelist in Lebanon took their love for Bitcoin to the next level. Said Nassar, an international business engineer, themed his wedding day around Satoshi Nakamoto’s innovation, Bitcoin.

Each and every wedding guest received Satoshis (the smallest denomination of a Bitcoin) as a wedding gift for attending the Nassar family’s special day, while the theme of the wedding was volcanoes—a nod to El Salvador’s Bitcoin bonds, commonly known as the Volcano bonds.

The Bitcoin volcano followed the wedding party. Source: Nassar

Nassar told Cointelegraph that he put a volcano stand in the wedding and “distributed gifts via the Lightning Network.” Indeed, under every cutlery set for the post-ceremony banquet were instructions to download a Bitcoin Lightning Network wallet to receive 4,000 Satoshis. Worth roughly $0.80 now—due to bearish price action—at the time of the wedding, the gift was worth $1.60.

The wedding thank you gift. Source: Nassar

The link took the wedding guest through to a thorough YouTube video that shows how to set up a wallet and why people should buy Bitcoin. Of the 250 to receive wedding Satoshi gifts, 75 people downloaded wallets and asked Nassar to send over the 4,000 Satoshis—this was the first time these people had received Bitcoin.

At a 30% success rate, his method for promoting Bitcoin adoption is high given that worldwide Bitcoin adoption may only reach 10% by 2030. Plus, Nassar qualifies, “All of them [the wedding guests] saw it and thought about it.”

The QR code thank you gifts are in the red circles. Source: Nassar

Nassar is an insatiable Bitcoin advocate. So naturally, his wedding day would be the perfect time to “orange pill” or educate more people about the importance of Bitcoin. He’s the brains behind Lebanon’s first Bitcoin-themed escape room and jokes that he has a half-hour limit for talking about non-Bitcoin themes when making acquaintances:

“I try to explain monetary policies and what is fiat money to every person I meet longer than 30 minutes.”

Curiously, Twitter user Stackmore also treats weddings as the ideal time to both start a family and start stacking sats. Stackmore has sent Satoshis as wedding gifts for the past five years:

In Nassar’s home country Lebanon, the inflation rate exceeded 200% in January this year. Bitcoin, by comparison, has a fixed supply of 21 million coins and benefits from a programmed issuance rate that makes the currency deflationary.

Related: Couple gets married on Ethereum blockchain for $587 in transaction fees

Despite calls from top execs to avoid buying Bitcoin in Lebanon, groups such as AlJazeera report that Bitcoin adoption is booming in the country. For Nassar, it’s key to start with family and friends as “Hyperbitcoinzation starts at home.” He has already introduced his nearest and dearest to Bitcoin:

“All my close friends and my family members have bought bitcoin, and my mother is a whole coiner.”

What about you, anon? Do you love Bitcoin enough to theme your special days around the coin?

Mind games: Bitcoin education at an escape room in Lebanon

At a Bitcoin-themed escape room in Lebanon’s capital Beirut, it’s all fun and games until you take the orange pill.

Bitcoin (BTC) sets people free. At least, that was the story at Lebanon’s first Bitcoin-themed escape room in Beirut. 

Lebanese Bitcoiners from the group Bitcoin du Liban took on the latest Bitcoin education challenge — Bitcoin Escape the System. The best part? The team of four snuck out of the escape room in the fastest time to date.

For the uninitiated, an “escape game” or “escape room” is a team game where players work together to solve puzzles, clues and conundrums usually based on a theme such as spies, zombies and now, Bitcoin. As per the name, the mission is to “escape” the site of the game within a certain time.

Sooly Kobayashi, MENA advisor for Swan Bitcoin and a moderator at Bitcoin du Liban, told Cointelegraph that “All of us (except one) had never played escape rooms before. We entered the room without relying on our Bitcoin knowledge.”

However, they likely had a slight advantage over those new to Bitcoin. The escape game’s themes revolve around fiat money, time-chain technologies (commonly referred to as blockchain), SHA-256 (the Bitcoin hashing algorithm) and self-custody.

The escape artists: @marco_bdl @Sooly_Kobayashi @Thomssmn @al3apodcast @BitcoinduLiban. Source: Sooly Kobayashi

While the escape game is a bit of fun, according to Sooly, it’s another example of the Lebanese Bitcoin community’s creative approach to onboarding more Bitcoiners. Sooly, who is also a moderator at Bitcoin du Liban, told Cointelegraph that “education is challenging in a country that hasn’t invested much in this sector.”

“And with a history filled with instability, the Lebanese population has been busy surviving in economic restlessness. Hence, Bitcoin education needed a creative modern approach.”

As shown in the following graph, government education expenditure in Lebanon pales in comparison to that of Argentina; a country that also sufferers from critical problems relating to inflation and instability. It’s therefore on the people to take financial education, and creative orange-pilling techniques, into their own hands with grassroots activities.

Source: Sooly Kobayashi

Indeed, Bitcoiners from Lebanon to Slovakia are taking Bitcoin education by the scruff of the neck, seeking to spread the word of sound money. Bitcoin books, games and even family-friendly days out are spaces for Bitcoin veterans or those new to the tech to learn in ways that suit them best.

The team solving one of the puzzles during the escape game. Source: Kobayashi

For the escape game, due to the at times high-stress, adrenaline-fuelled nature of escape games (if you know, you know), it’s possible that participants absorb information quicker and retain it longer. As a result, a Bitcoin-themed escape game could be a quirky yet quick way of educating people about Bitcoin. Sooly explains:

“It’s been scientifically proven that humans learn better in two scenarios. First, when we are emotionally driven. […] Second, when we are expected to pass on information to someone else, our minds tend to focus and memorize knowledge better.”

Related: Jack Dorsey and Jay-Z collaborate on Bitcoin Brooklyn educational program

To date, the escape room founder, Said Nassar, an international business engineer, had only seen a “few” Bitcoiners play the game. Despite the Bitcoin-friendly appeal, the game had been enjoyed by newcomers to Bitcoin, or “no-coiners,” as they are sometimes known. 

Sooly adds that some of the players are “shitcoiners,” including individuals interested in Ethereum (ETH):

No one would play this escape room and not learn about Bitcoin.”

For some Bitcoiners, there’s an irony to exiting a Bitcoin escape room. To some, the whole world may already feel like an escape room, and Bitcoin is the only way out. The Bitcoin Escape the System joins a fledgling list of Bitcoin-themed escape rooms, including The Bitcoin Heist in Macedonia, and the DIY Bitcoin escape room, Badass Daddy’s Bitcoins.