I’m now working with Elvis Gwaro, an online journalist from Kenya who is writing parts of the newsletter together with me. 

Great story behind this

1. I pay him a share of the profits from the newsletter in Bitcoin using lightning. It’s not a lot, but it’s a promising start. Here’s what he told me he’d have to go through if we didn’t. (TLDR: fees, delays and discrimination)

“with Paypal there's always the risk of my account being limited or suspended for reasons best known to the PayPal lords. If I was to receive a significant amount from abroad, for instance, $2,000, yet my account typically transacts less than $500, Paypal will halt my account and request me to explain where the money is coming from. 
Their anti-money-laundering measures often flag people who are doing legit online businesses, especially Africans. I have more than 5 friends who had their accounts suspended for 6 months before they could get their money, despite explaining to Paypal where the money came from. 
So yes, Bitcoin makes things waaaay easier. 

Then there’s fees. Paypal charges a currency exchange fee between 3% to 5%. If you send $100, I'll receive $100 in my paypal account. I think you'll incur a transaction cost on your side too. 

If I want to withdraw the $100 from my account, Paypal will give me an exchange rate that factors in the exchange fee. So for instance, currently the USD dollar exchanges for Ksh 130. Paypal will probably offer me between Ksh 124 and Ksh 126. So I only get between $95 - $97 of the $100 and that's how they make bank from that transaction. It's a big fee.”

2. He originally wrote an article that was well written, but FUD-filled about “6 technologies greener than bitcoin”. I respectfully challenged him. Unlike most journalists I’ve challenged he was more curious to learn than to save face, and started asking questions. Long story short, he realised Bitcoin is good for the environment and write so in his next article.

3. He had the idea of making a payment for the newsletter voluntary. And it worked. Plenty of people got behind the newsletter and started paying a modest amount, that now is helping to support me to do deeper research than I’d otherwise have time for and is really helping Elvis as he looks to see if he can make a living out of writing about and researching bitcoin for online magazines and newsletters. 


2 ways you can support him that’ll be a potential win-win for you as well. 

If you have a newsletter and want someone to write parts, he’s incredibly good: takes on feedback faster than most and produces high quality content. If you’re thinking of a newsletter but don’t want the burden of writing it all, he can help. 

And of course to shill our newsletter, every subscriber to that is helping him towards his goal of escaping the fiat economy and live on the orange side. He’s within reach already.