The Dispatch

FROM WARSAW TO COLUMBUS.

Dear subscribers,

Five updates this week. Our short introduction video screened at the Bitcoin Film Festival in Warsaw. Episode 7 of Share Your Bitcoin Journey is live with London-based designer-maker Thomas Forsyth. Singer-songwriter Ainsley Costello is representing BFTA at Camp Nakamoto this week. The Midwest Summit landing page is now fully live with programming, sponsorship tiers, and a volunteer signup. And we're quietly opening the doors to the BFTA Artist Directory — a new private roster for working artists in our network.

◆ Postcard from Warsaw

BFTA at the Bitcoin Film Festival.

Introducing Bitcoin for the Arts before the screening at the Bitcoin Film Festival, Warsaw.

Last week, our short introduction video — a one-minute piece on what Bitcoin for the Arts is, why sound money matters for working artists, and the model we've built around the 55/30/10/5 rule — screened at the Bitcoin Film Festival in Warsaw, Poland.

It's the most concise statement we've put on tape about why BFTA exists, and the BFF audience is exactly the kind of room — Bitcoiners who care about culture and filmmakers who care about sovereignty — that we want to be in front of as we grow internationally. Thanks to the BFF team for the invitation.

◆ Share Your Bitcoin Journey — Episode 7

Thomas Forsyth.

London designer-maker  ·  Saatchi Gallery  ·  Glastonbury  ·  K-2SO at Comic Con

Episode 7 of Share Your Bitcoin Journey is live. London-based designer, maker, and engineer Thomas Forsyth — whose work spans the Saatchi Gallery, Glastonbury Festival, the Wall Street Journal's Apple Car, and a Star Wars K-2SO build for Silicon Valley Comic Con — sat with us for a conversation about why he calls himself a "general handychap," the three times he discovered Bitcoin before it clicked, and why physical making and Bitcoin share a philosophical backbone.

The headlines:

• Bitcoin showed up on his radar three times before it clicked — first in a London bar around 2010, then in 2018 while teaching himself about money and finance, and finally in 2024 when "it actually started doing what people said it would do."
• "My thoughts became zaps and those zaps became food in your belly." The cleanest description of Lightning we've recorded — from his first Lightning transaction at a small Italian family restaurant in South London.
• The 16-hour-day, mud-soaked Glastonbury job that taught him to work smart, not long — a low-time-preference lesson dressed as a war story.
• AI as another tool, from the perspective of a maker who lived through the second wave of 3D printing and isn't panicking.
• "I'd quite like to be around for a while so I'll take things slow." Advice for the next generation of working makers.

◆ Camp Nakamoto

Ainsley represents BFTA in the woods.

Camp Nakamoto — where Bitcoiners, artists, and builders gather away from the conference circuit.

Singer-songwriter Ainsley Costello is representing Bitcoin for the Arts at Camp Nakamoto this week — the annual Bitcoin retreat that brings together artists, builders, and patrons in a working-camp setting away from the conference circuit.

Ainsley is one of the working artists in BFTA's orbit — a touring musician with a real audience, a real catalog, and the kind of artist-first instinct that makes her exactly the right voice to carry our flag into rooms like this. Find Ainsley, and if you're at the camp this week, look for her.

◆ Midwest Summit Update

What's coming to Columbus.

Our Midwest landing page is now fully live. It's the most complete picture we've published of what BFTA is bringing to Generations — the gallery and live-programming room we're co-curating with Kyle Knight inside the Midwest Bitcoin Summit on September 23–24:

• Live performances from 6–10 working artists, broadcast to Nostr in real time.
• 10–15 visual artists in the gallery, with Lightning QR codes on every piece so the audience can zap directly.
• A live painting in real time across the run of the event.
• Share Your Bitcoin Journey live tapings on-site.
• An artist discussion panel.
• The Lightning Lounge, where attendees onboard their first Lightning wallet.
• Two raffles — one for an artist to win $2,500 in Bitcoin funding, one for an attendee to take home an original artwork donated by a featured artist.

Plus eight sponsorship tiers (with detailed benefits), in-kind contribution categories, and a volunteer signup form — all on the page now. Fundraising target: $80,000+. The clock is ticking.

◆ New on the Site

The BFTA Artist Directory.

Quietly launched this weekend at bitcoinforthearts.org/artists/directory: a private, opt-in roster of working artists in BFTA's network. Your information stays internal — only the running count is shown publicly. Introductions are facilitated by us, only when another verified directory member specifically requests one.

We're starting with a small founding cohort. Subscribers to this newsletter get the first look — if you're a working artist, you're exactly the audience this is built for. Sign-up takes about a minute.

And the growing count itself is part of the work. As BFTA walks into sponsor and patron conversations through the summer, *“we have N working artists in our directory”* is one of the more meaningful signals we can offer about the scale of what we're building. Every founding member helps that signal grow.

Where to Start

Until next time —

Bitcoin for the Arts

Bitcoin for the Arts  ·  501(c)(3)

Sound money for timeless creators. Empowering artists with Bitcoin micro-grants & workshops.

bitcoinforthearts.org

Find us on Nostr →