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We are Bitcoin - Andrej P. Škraba

    I interviewed Andrej, co-founder of the education portal Astra.si. A person who understands mathematics very well and at the same time helps the rest of us to understand it. I asked him about Bitcoin, AI, economic schools, the educational portal and the steps needed to improve the level of monetary literacy of Slovenians.


    You are a bitcoiner. What does this term mean to you?

    Andrej: For me, this term means that you understand bitcoin on several levels: technological, cryptographic, economic, sociological, philosophical and political. I think bitcoin is the most interesting and important thing in the world since the invention of the internet.


    When did you first encounter Bitcoin and who introduced it to you?

    Andrej: I was first introduced to bitcoin in the spring of 2010 by a colleague who was mining bitcoin on his laptop at the time.


    You're an economist and maths is close to your heart. During primary school, secondary school and later studies, Slovenians arm themselves with sufficient mathematical and economic knowledge, yet it turns out that we don't understand the basics of economics - money. I always had a feeling that something was not "right" with the existing system, but I could not decipher what it was. Why do you think that is? Do you have similar experiences?

    Andrej: I believe that society has three foundations that are crucial for its functioning. The first foundation is the legal system, or the rules of the game and how society works. Without some basic laws of how society works, civilised life is not possible. The second foundation is the school system. This regulates the transfer of knowledge and information to the generations that succeed them in the world and in society. The third foundation is the health system, which should provide health services to society and raise people's awareness of the importance of health. For only healthy, educated and moral people can create a prosperous society. Because these 'foundations' are not working optimally in Western countries and societies, we have sick, stupid and corrupt people. Of course, this is a very simplistic description and money plays a key role as a connective tissue between all human interactions. I believe that economics is part of the legal system where we agree on how we will value and exchange value. If one group can control this part of the "game", then all the other "players" are in a deprivileged position and trapped in an inflationary spasm.


    What do you think of the Austrian School of Economics? Has it been deliberately excluded from the existing curriculum?

    Andrej: I came across the Austrian School of Economics while I was studying economics, mainly because of the GEP, the movement for economic pluralism at the EF. At that time, we were exploring many other ideas than just classical and Keynesian economics. Because of my own libertarian worldview, the Austrian school is close to my heart. But I am not a fan of religiously following ideas that have emerged in history. Every historical period has its own characteristics, and these change over time. That is why it is always necessary to look for a mixture of ideas. I do not know whether the Austrian school is being deliberately squeezed out, but it is a fact that politics prefere Keynesian principles, precisely because, in this kind of set-up, it gives them more power.


    Bitcoin is mathematics. How do you explain that statement?

    Andrej: The Bitcoin protocol uses mathematical functions and methods to validate transactions and maintain transaction histories, ensuring the accuracy, precision and security of the information stored in the blockchain. Without cryptographic methods based on mathematical concepts, the existence of Bitcoin would not be possible. Therefore, we can say that mathematics is at the core of Bitcoin.



    You are the founder of the Astra.si educational portal. What does it offer, what do you want to achieve and who is it aimed at?

    Andrej: Astra.si is a portal for all pupils, students and other knowledge seekers who want to refresh, deepen or learn new mathematics knowledge. It is a non-profit project, all explanations, more than 2.500 videos, are free!


    You have recently expanded your offer with an AI instructor. What does this mean for the user?

    Andrej: Astra AI is the most advanced AI instructor that utilises the power of artificial intelligence to teach maths. It is available to anyone who wants help with learning maths and is much cheaper than traditional tutoring - that is the main purpose and goal; to drastically reduce the cost of tutoring and to provide each person with a personal tutor. We have designed Astra AI so that the user experience is very similar to tutoring, and the answers are tailored to the level of knowledge.


    How complicated was it to "train" the AI programme so that the quality of its results is satisfactory to you?

    Andrej: Astra AI currently runs on the Azure Open AI API, so we can't drastically affect the quality of the results. It is a language model, so its accuracy is somewhere between 95-98%. By developing dedicated mathematical models and a combination of mathematical-linguistic models, we will be able to raise this to 100% in the future. For now, the solution is good enough to focus on growth and market education.


    AI is a tool that humans can use to benefit the majority. But it can also be misused to work against the vast majority of people. How do you see AI and its further development?

    Andrej: Just like any other technology that has an impact on people. The consequences can be both positive and negative. I will fight for the use of this technology in education because I think it can drastically improve learning processes and bring mathematics and other subjects closer to young people. The next decade will certainly be a turning point, because artificial intelligence will make a huge number of people redundant. I fear that this would lead to countries flirting even more with totalitarian ideas.


    Can we already pay for our Astra.si subscription with bitcoin?

    Andrej: Not yet, but you can support the project with bitcoin on this page.


    Are you thinking about adding Bitcoin content to the portal?

    Andrej: I have a dedicated Bitcoin section on the portal: https://astra.si/bitcoin/.


    You've mastered marketing. What is the simplest way to introduce people to Bitcoin? What is missing or what do you think is too much in the current approaches?

    Andrej: Good marketing always tells a good story and influences people's emotions and thinking. That's why you need to tell people a story.The story about money, economics, how their lives are affected by the fiat monetary system, etc. Most people still see bitcoin as a speculative investment and not as a tool for economic sovereignty and independence.


    How do you think we could raise the level of general knowledge in Slovenia about the current monetary system that is not working for people and show them an alternative, Bitcoin?

    Andrej: Through education, through events on the topic, through podcasts, through books, etc.


    Are you otherwise active in the Bitcoin community?

    Andrej: I try to attend meetings and participate in debates.


    Why bitcoin? (In one sentence)

    Andrej: Bitcoin is a unique and special way for people to store and exchange value.


    You have one orange pill. Who in Slovenia would you give it to and why?

    Andrej: Blaž Brodnjak, CEO of NLB. He is an extremely intelligent man, but he has not taken the time to study bitcoin and its properties. This is clearly evident from his public statements.Bitcoin books are finally available in Slovenian (bitcoin-knjiznica.si).


    Which book would you give to the President of the country?

    Andrej: Bitcoin standard.


    Where can people find you?

    Andrej: They can contact me via Twitter/X or LinkedIn.


    Andrej, thank you for your time.If you need help with maths, don't forget to check out Andrej's web portal Astra.si, where you can find more than 2,500 free resources. You will also find Bitcoin content in podcast form, suitable for beginners and those who have already taken the initial step. As Andrej says, education is one of the foundations of a successful society. Take advantage of quality content.

    We are Bitcoin - Boris Filipovac

      Guest: Boris Filipovac

      The availability of literature in Slovenian language will help people to learn more about the world of Bitcoin. For many years, the content was available almost exclusively in English, which discouraged many people from engaging with the inherently complex subject of money. Fortunately, we have individuals who have decided to bring Bitcoin literature closer to the Slovenian audience. Boris, the founder of the Bitcoin Library, is one of them.


      You are a bitcoiner. What does this term mean to you?

      Boris: Yes, definitely. It's hard not to be a bitcoiner once you learn what Bitcoin really is. Bitcoin for me is a change from bad to good. All the things in our lives are very much connected, and if you change one thing, it changes another, etc., Bitcoin brings a key change for our society, which in turn will bring changes for the better in many areas.


      Why did you start exploring Bitcoin in the first place and what was the moment that made it click in your head?

      Boris: I had heard of Bitcoin in its early days, but only from people who presented it as a pyramid scheme. Without checking the facts, I believed them and started going around saying it was a scam. Even when someone tried to explain it to me again, I could not or perhaps did not even want to understand. Until the price hike came along again, which caught my attention to such an extent that I really began to wonder why this was happening, how it was even possible. I read the book Inventing Bitcoin by Yan Pritzker, and the Bitcoin standard by Saifedean Ammous. And that's how it all started to fit together into a bigger picture. Bitcoiners like to help people who are willing to listen and hear. How are you ready to help them?Boris: I always take the time to explain in detail when anyone asks me a question about Bitcoin. I share information openly, because that is what bitcoin promotes. 


      People are different, so the content usually has to be tailored to the audience. What experience do you have with this? 

      Boris: It's true, I could write a book about the diversity of people and the different conversations I've had about Bitcoin. Everyone has their own views and stands firmly behind them. The challenge is to recognise that and to present bitcoin from their point of view. This is often difficult because people are (initially) closed and even openly against it. But bitcoin is good for all of us and that is something I like a lot about bitcoin. I am also learning about Bitcoin from different sources, and in doing so I am learning about different perspectives that help me to identify and answer a wide range of questions about Bitcoin.


      You are the founder of the Bitcoin Library. Please tell us more about the project and the purpose.

      Boris: The biggest lesson I have learnt on my Bitcoin journey is that I got a lot of wrong information, spent a lot of time and made a lot of wrong decisions before I got the right picture. I created the Bitcoin library with the intention that people can have access to the right information immediately. Since I believe that information is understood even more when it is given in the native language, I decided to create a collection of the most read books from the Bitcoin world in Slovenian.


      How many books have you managed to translate so far?

      Boris: We currently have three books in the collection, two of which have been translated and published through the Bitcoin Library.


      Titles:




      How long does it take you to translate a book, including printing?

      Boris: From the contact with the author about the licence to the final printed version, it took us about half a year for each. It's worth pointing out, however, that the Bitcoin library is run by just a few individuals, all of whom run it in their spare time on top of their regular jobs. 


      What are your goals?

      Boris: The Bitcoin Library aims to provide a one-stop shop for anyone who wants to find the best answers to all their Bitcoin-related questions. In addition to literature, we would like to add workshops and trainings where individuals could learn how to use this technology with our help. We have already successfully carried out one such project, when we presented the economic and technical aspects of Bitcoin in theory to the students of the High School of Economics in Ljubljana, Roška. We are planning a practical workshop on how to use Bitcoin with them at the beginning of next year.


      Are you self-funded or what does it look like to carry out a project of this kind?

      Boris: All our projects are self-funded at the moment. But it's definitely worth mentioning that the Bitcoin Association Slovenia and its members have helped us in many steps, for which we are extremely grateful.


      What difficulties have you encountered during the project? 

      Boris: The hardest part is finding translators and proofreaders who are at least familiar with economic and financial terms, if not with the Bitcoin world. Many of the terms also had to be reinvented, which is still a challenge today. Once book has been translated and proofreaded, it has to be graphically edited and prepared for print, which means that it has to be carefully revised again afterwards. Nevertheless, we learned from the first translation that even then our work is not over. We sent the carefully proofread texts to the printers, but they had a printing bug which replaced all the 'š' with 'ž' on the cover. Fortunately, this was only on the front cover and the damage was not too big.


      Are you active in the Bitcoin community in any other way? 

      Boris: Yes, I try to attend the Bitcoin Association Slovenia events as regularly as possible. There is a lot of us there, helping each other and spreading knowledge about Bitcoin through different projects.


      In my experience, the financial literacy of Slovenians is poor. The scary thing is that when you present them the facts, at least 90% of people refuse to accept it. They prefer to stick their heads in the sand and get on with their lives. "I haven't heard anything. There is no inflation. Taxes are not going up. Everything is fine and the state will take care of all my financial problems. Money grows on a tree." What is your experience in this area and how to wake up and help such people?


      Boris: Given that every individual makes transactions on a daily basis, we are all participating in the economic system. At the same time, everyone would like to create financial independence and freedom as quickly as possible, but few people understand what money is and how it works. When I look around me, almost everyone invests the money they earn with the desire to increase their profits. The current system forces us to work more and more in order to maintain our 'status', but at the same time, to avoid this, we spend our free time reading the news and studying graphs on where to invest our money. And that is exhausting and wrong and just means that we have to earn our money twice in this system. If we would just look a little bit at the history of money and understand what the difference is between hard money and easy money, it would quickly become clear to us that perhaps we are reading and studying the wrong things in our spare time. People may be financially illiterate, but they are certainly not stupid. Understanding Bitcoin is something that will certainly help them become financially literate. Above all, it shows us that it is not some bogeyman that requires advanced knowledge of what is going on in the financial markets.


      Why bitcoin? (In one sentence)

      Boris: Because it is the most stable money in the history of mankind.


      You have one orange pill. Who in Slovenia would you give it to and why?

      Boris: It's hard to decide exactly who I would give it to, because I would like to give it to everyone.


      Where can people find you?


      There are no more excuses that the literature is only written in English. People like Boris and the Bitcoin Library project make it easier to access the knowledge and information, and bring you to the edge of the Bitcoin hole. But it is only up to you if you will jump in. Take the first step.

      We are Bitcoin - Aljaž Čeru

        Guest: Aljaž Čeru


        The first guest in the series of interviews We Are Bitcoin is Aljaž Čeru. A man with a wealth of knowledge, clear goals, a focused approach and, for most, a very different, courageous view of the world. Entrepreneur, founder and initiator of Bitcoin meetup Ljubljana, very active in the Bitcoin community and a great conversationalist.


        You're a bitcoiner. What does this term mean to you?

        Aljaž: The problem with this term is that it has as many meanings as there are bitcoiners. For me, bitcoin means freedom. And because freedom is the thing I value most in the world, it means that I fight for that freedom. And I do it in a way that helps bitcoin succeed. Just as most bitcoiners do in their own way.


        When did you really realize that Bitcoin is the best money?

        Aljaž: It's hard to say when exactly that moment was. I certainly didn't understand it at the beginning, but it came with time. I ignored it for a long time because I imagined it as something like e-gold (one of the precursors of Bitcoin) and other solutions that all suffered a similar fate - failure and loss of funds. Later, I was attracted by the possibility of paying anonymously for services on the Internet, but even that did not compel me to get to know it. It was only after I had been trading for a while that I started to spend more time with it and to delve into technology, and later into philosophy and economics. I realized that it affects practically everything around us and from then on I started to spend more and more time on bitcoin.


        Bolt observer is probably your most important project at the moment. Can you tell us more about it. What does it solve, who is it for, why is it better than the competition (if there is any)? Can we test it?

        Aljaž: Bolt.observer was created as my attempt to bring Bitcoin/Lightning infrastructure management to business and individuals. My interest in the Lightning network started in late 2018/early 2019. Since then, I've set up quite a few nodes and made my share of mistakes. So by the time I have set up the company, I have gained a lot of experience and figured out what tools are missing to make the experience of managing the nodes easier and better at the same time. The basic idea was pretty simple - fix all the problems companies have with this :) .Bolt.observer is for anyone who manages a Lightning node. However the long-term plan primarily targets companies that use or will use the Lightning network. The tools are available to everyone at https://bolt.observer.


        What phase of development are you currently in?

        Aljaž: We are in the exploration phase. Development is slowing down because it's just me working on the project since this summer. The demand reflects the market situation, but at the same time, a lot of projects and companies have started solving the same problems in the last year.


        Are you self-funding or open to VCs? What is the situation in the VC market?

        Aljaž: In early 2022, we raised some funding from two bitcoin-focused funds - Timechain and Hivemind. But unfortunately, the volatility of the bitcoin price is also quite evident in the industry itself. During a bear trend, there is much less funding available for early-stage companies. There are also far fewer start-ups in need of these solutions. The problem with this is that every bull trend solves the problems of the previous bull market, at least from the point of view of investment capital. At the same time, many companies fail or stop their development because they are left without funds in the middle of the cycle. The nature of projects in the bitcoin ecosystem is that they require high-end solutions involving a lot of effort, which certainly makes sense - after all, it is about money, but this is not necessarily reflected in the availability of capital and investor behavior.


        You are very active in a number of areas. Can you tell us more about the rest of your projects?

        Aljaž: One of the projects we have created is Lightning landscape, which aims to compile in one place all the projects and companies that exist in this ecosystem, in order to raise awareness among a wider audience. At the same time, it helps companies to find solutions, investors to evaluate opportunities and developers to discover products/services/solutions that already exist.I'm also fairly active in the LSP Spec community, where we work with companies in the Lightning ecosystem to create specifications for interoperability between apps and wallets. Here we are more focused on liquidity while I am working with Breez on the Fiatlink specification. This will simplify the buying and selling of bitcoin directly from the self-custodial wallets.


        Additionally, I maintain a few websites in the wider Bitcoin environment and other environments that allow individual freedom, such as:


        In August 2021, the Bitcoin Ljubljana meetup was launched, the first event of its kind in Slovenia, which I actively managed until this year (2023), when my colleague Toni took over the project. https://www.bitcoin-ljubljana.si


        Next year (2024), I will also be part of the first team that will spend two months in Madeira developing tools and systems for a more sovereign life and a better future - https://sovereignengineering.io/ .


        You have decided to leave Slovenia. Why?

        Aljaž: There are so many reasons for this that I could write a book. Every year Slovenia tries to be more hostile to businesses, entrepreneurs and individuals. Either through bureaucracy, tyrannical covid measures, absurd taxes, a crumbling public sector and a political "elite" that is not even fit for the gulag. Add to this the Slovenian servant mentality and the question quickly becomes "why should anyone stay here?".


        Do you think the trend of economic migration will escalate in the future?

        Aljaž: I think economic migration is going to get harder (or at least more expensive), especially in the European Union, because instead of changing things for the benefit of citizens, countries are just digging their claws deeper into individual wealth and freedom. But the trend of migration is increasing, and working from home has enabled many individuals to move. The Covid measures have been good for opening many people's eyes to how far their freedom actually extends.


        Do you think people are aware that the wheel in the cage is turning faster and faster? What do you advise them to change?

        Aljaž: The desire for change has to come from the individual. Until that happens, no advice helps. More and more people are realising that they can get out of the cage, but at the same time the average person is still in too comfortable position to find the motivation to make radical changes in their behavior and world views. Fortunately, countries around the world are doing everything they can to open people's eyes, and sooner or later this will lead to change. But it will probably have to hurt a little before that happens.

        Why bitcoin? (In one sentence)

        Aljaž: Free people need free money.


        You have one orange pill. Who in Slovenia would you give it to?

        Aljaž: To no one. Every person finds bitcoin when they are ready for it.


        Where can people find you?



        If you meet Aljaž, the man with the most beautiful beard, on your travels around the world, just ask him about Bitcoin. Maybe you'll extend your trip. Otherwise, as Aljaž says, Bitcoin is something that is only found by the individual when the moment is right for him. Aljaž has already prepared a high quality collection of knowledge, projects, tools, waiting for you to discover them. Do not hesitate, set yourself free.


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