In this episode, Sunny Ray talks with Anita Posch, an Austrian bitcoin educator and author, about the personal history that shaped her path to bitcoin. Anita traces her skepticism of authority back to her grandparents, her atheist upbringing in a strongly Catholic country, and her early awareness of being different, first as a tomboy, later as a lesbian woman. She describes her career as an urban planner turned internet entrepreneur, running web agencies, an early co-working marketplace, and a handmade goods marketplace in Austria before payment friction pushed her toward alternatives. A 2017 conference talk introduced her properly to bitcoin, sending her down the rabbit hole and eventually leading her to self publish a German language beginner guide, Bitcoin und Co. The conversation also touches on her research trip to Zimbabwe to document bitcoin usage there, and closes as she is about to describe the next major turn in her bitcoin journey.
An Austrian urban planner turned misfit becomes a bitcoin educator after questioning authority her whole life.
Where would you like your story to begin?
I want to start with my grandparents and my youth, because that is where I began to mistrust authority. My grandfather left the Catholic church after it blessed weapons during the Austrian civil war. I was raised without religion in a very Catholic country, and I always felt like a misfit, a tomboy who preferred soccer and biking to dolls.
Why do you think politics and religion end up so intertwined, and why does the state end up controlling things like money and urban planning?
Religion came before states, so the two stayed closely linked, especially in Austria where Catholicism was basically the state church. I think state and religion must be separated, partly because people like me who do not believe deserve a place, and partly because without that separation people like me, who is a lesbian, would not have the same rights as everyone else.
When did you actually get into bitcoin?
I moved to Berlin in 2016 expecting to find bitcoin there since it was the startup hub, but oddly it never came up. Back in Vienna in April 2017 I heard a talk by a blockchain researcher and it blew my mind. I fell into the classic rabbit hole and started researching seriously from June 2017 onward.
What made you decide to write a book as your entry into the space?
I realized I needed a product that could scale, so after giving talks and taking an online course from the University of Nicosia with Andreas Antonopoulos as a lecturer, I decided to write a beginner guide. Writing it forced me to actually learn everything myself, from exchanges to hardware wallets to software wallets.
What is the name of your book, and is it available in English?
The book is called Bitcoin und Co, a practical guide for beginners. Right now it is only in German. I have thought about translating it, but there is already so much English language material out there that I am not sure it is worth doing.
What was the actual process of self-publishing like?
I had never written a book before, so I self-published on Amazon, uploading a formatted PDF for the Kindle version and a paperback. I did the graphics and everything myself, with friends from Bitcoin Austria and Max Tertinegg from Coinfinity reading it to make sure I did not say anything wrong.
What can readers expect to get out of the book?
It is more a tutorial than a bitcoin theory book, since so many others already cover that. I focus on practical guidance, the best wallets, differences between custodial and non-custodial options, what a seed is, why to use a hardware wallet, and the safest, cheapest ways to buy and store bitcoin.
Building something daring? Sunny talks to founders like this every day. Fifteen minutes to see if your story belongs on the stage.
Claim your pre-interview