Bitcoiners - Live From Bitcoin Beach

Arrested and Debanked in Germany, Free in El Salvador: A Warning to Every Bitcoin Maxi in Europe | Michael Ballweg

• Mike Peterson

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What if the government used debanking and digital surveillance to silence you? Michael Ballweg (@Michael_Ballweg), founder of Querdenken, rebuilt on a Bitcoin standard in El Salvador and is now fighting for local AI and data sovereignty while Europe tightens its grip on free speech and privacy protection.

Michael took a 180-person rally in Stuttgart and grew it into 1.3 million people in Berlin with Robert Kennedy Jr. on stage, all under the banner of free speech and the right to peacefully assemble. The German government responded by sending the Verfassungsschutz, Germany's constitutional protection agency, to monitor him, label him an extremist, and eventually raid his home on fraud charges that prosecutors spent years trying to make stick.

What followed was nine months in Stammheim prison, the same facility built for RAF terrorists in the 1970s, with no finalized charge, no bank account, no house, and no company infrastructure left standing. Full debanking meant living on cash and Bitcoin for nearly four years, and that forced experiment turned Michael into one of the most practically tested voices alive on what government overreach actually costs when it targets someone who keeps saying no.

After a 44-day trial and a complete acquittal on every meaningful charge, Michael and his wife landed in El Salvador and never looked back. Living on a Bitcoin standard here means a 12-cent transaction that clears in 10 minutes with nobody's permission required, and that experience makes the old banking system feel less like a convenience and more like a leash he's glad to have cut.

His focus now sits at the intersection of privacy protection and decentralized technology, watching centralized AI absorb the same power Big Tech used to capture the open internet in the 1990s. He's building with local AI tools that keep data out of corporate servers, using privacy-first devices for his Bitcoin stack, and watching Europe quietly roll out mandatory digital ID while most people are still arguing about whether any of it matters.


—Bitcoin Beach Team


Learn more about Michael Ballweg:
X: https://x.com/michael_ballweg
Web: https://michael-ballweg.de/en/
Web: https://digitaler-aktivist.org/
Patreon: https://presse.querdenken-711.de/en/home/


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Browse through this quick guide to learn more about the episode:
0:00 Intro
1:23 Who is Michael Ballweg and what is the Querdenken movement?
5:10 Did European governments coordinate COVID protest bans?
6:27 How did Querdenken grow to 1.3 million people in Berlin with RFK Jr.?
13:18 Why was a German protest organizer arrested for money laundering and fraud?
19:41 What happens to your assets when the German government raids your home?
26:13 How did Michael Ballweg win acquittal after nine months in Stammheim prison?
34:07 Why are Bitcoiners leaving Europe and moving to El Salvador?
38:51 How do you live on a Bitcoin standard when banks refuse to open your account?
43:47 Is centralized AI the next big censorship threat after social media? 

Live From Bitcoin Beach

Michael Ballweg:

So it's very nice to be in a country where you don't have the problem that you need to lock, lock, lock down everything or lock up everything, and you can just move and and be free, that's a very new feeling against what it is in Europe now, of course, if you have the experience with the police now, so normally until 2020 I mean, my opinion was the police is protecting you now. Now it's at least in Europe they're not protecting you. So we'll love it here. I feel very safe here. I love to use Bitcoin. It's a new feeling for me. I'm totally debunked, so since three or four years, almost four years, I'm living with cash and Bitcoin, which is sometimes very difficult. So it's a new experience. It's very nice to be in a country where I can feel safe.

Mike Peterson:

Michael. So excited to have you on the show today, especially just kind of hearing a little bit of your back story. We were talking beforehand, and, and I think you're one of the people who really understands the need for money that's not confiscated by governments, and just the importance of Bitcoin and protecting freedom. So, welcome to the show, and would love to have you give a little bit of an introduction of your back story, and then we'll talk about the protests that you were involved in, I believe it's in Berlin, and your subsequent arrest, and how that's kind of led to you moving with your wife here to El Zonte.

Michael Ballweg:

Yeah, I'm happy to be here. Thanks for the invite. So, my name is Michael Ballweg. I was an entrepreneur since I finished my studies. I did it business, it software solutions. I got a little bit tired of all that business after like 20 years, 25 years, and said, what's what's my mission in life. Basically, I wanted to start a world trip, backpacking trip 2020 Sold the main product of my company to Bosch, which is a big German company, and then the lockdowns came. I was not so happy that I could not do my,

Mike Peterson:

Planning on this trip, and then the lockdowns came, and you had to kind of put things on hold.

Michael Ballweg:

Yeah, then, well, I did not only have to put things on hold, I was saying, like, what's going on here, because I saw all this censorship on in the online media, there was no other position allowed, and I said, so how can democracy work under pandemic conditions? Conditions, how will that work?

Mike Peterson:

And was, was that unusual for, for Germany, because I know, like in the US, free speech is something protected by our constitution, but I know in Germany, and a lot of other places in Europe, they don't have those same type of protections. So, was this, was this something new, this censorship that came in during Covid, or is this something that's kind of always existed there?

Michael Ballweg:

Well, it's somehow.. so now I'm much more informed about the history than I was at this point. So, I would say it was, it was a new, a new way. How it was executed, because all the mainstream media had the same things on the newspaper. YouTube was just deleting stuff, but I think censorship was also very active in, in the US.

Mike Peterson:

Yeah, during Covid. It was for sure, but I think in the US we have more of this history of like free speech is sacrosanct, where I know in Germany you know there's lots of books that are prohibited and things like that. So I was just kind of curious what the difference is, so in the level of censorship there.

Michael Ballweg:

We also have it in our constitution, like in the Grundgesetz, it is called there are 19 articles or 20 articles, which grant basic human rights, and one is, of course, free speech, but with COVID, which was like a military executed action, which we know right now it was just ignored, and the main courts were like approving everything, and saying, okay, that's okay, we have a difficult situation now, we all need to hold together, and human rights are not so important at the moment. Yeah, that's basically what happened.

Mike Peterson:

And was this something that, like, happened from the beginning in Germany, and was it, was it different there than it was in the rest of Europe, or was it kind of something that was kind of happening across the continent there?

Michael Ballweg:

No, it was happening across the continent, it was like it looked like orchestrated, and it was happening all at the same time, and this was where I got this gut feeling. Okay, I need to do something. I had time, I had money, I still had my development team. So I thought about what can we do. So everything, like all assemblies, were forbidden in Germany at that point, even like sitting on a bench in the woods and reading a book was prohibited. Police will go after you.

Mike Peterson:

Hey guys, just a reminder, the best way to really understand how Bitcoin is impacting El Salvador and what's happening here is to get some boots on the ground and come visit. And, of course, we're excited now to have locations both in El Zonte and Punta Mango, where we have guest homes there that you can rent, that everything can be done in Bitcoin. So we have the Bitcoin Beach Suites in El Zonte, and we have Punta Mango Villas in Punta Mango, and you can find all that on the Stay at Bitcoin Beach website. So make sure that you check that out, and if you're planning on coming down, make sure you stay in at a place where Bitcoin is going to be welcomed, and that you'll be surrounded by other Bitcoiners.

Michael Ballweg:

And then I sued, like the country of Germany, for this article eight, which we have, which is the right to freely assemble, and I won, so I had the first little demonstration in Stuttgart, which won 180 people the week afterwards. We were 500 people the week afterwards, seven and a half 1000.

Mike Peterson:

Wow,

Michael Ballweg:

Then 25,000 Then they tried to forbid the

Mike Peterson:

Then the demonstrations were basically demonstrations in, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, and they said only 5000 people are allowed, that's enough, like, against the lockdowns, or what was, and the other people, they are not allowed to go to the rally or to the demonstration, and,

Michael Ballweg:

Basically it was for peace and for freedom, and of course against the lockdowns. Yes, so just reminding everyone that basic human rights are rights everyone has. The state has no rights, by the way, because the state has to make sure that these basic human rights are not not prohibited, and that's that's basically the the position between people and the state, and the state behaves like we make all the rules, yeah, and your human rights are not so important, but basically it's vice versa, the we are giving as people a part of our freedom to the state, to the politicians, and the basic human rights are our defendant rights, so that the state cannot take action against us, and this is basically what I noticed the first time in 2020 the press, the mainstream media was also going after us and saying, like, we are against press freedom, but basically we cannot be against press freedom, because press freedom is a basic human right, which we have, and the state, the state, or the country cannot, cannot decline it. Yeah,

Mike Peterson:

So what was the result of the, as you were holding these demonstrations, the numbers were growing. How did the state react to that, and what was what wound up happening longer term?

Michael Ballweg:

Yeah, so we were from the beginning, like the mainstream media was reporting these are conspiracy theorists. How do you call it tin foil heads,

Mike Peterson:

Right wing,

Michael Ballweg:

Right wing Nazis, all that stuff, Reichsberger, which is like very, very bad category in Germany, and the politicians were like saying we are against solidarity, we are not willing like to keep the bigger picture, to see the bigger picture. We are dangerous, we would be extremists. They even sent the like secret, I think Secret Service is the right wording for Verfassungsschutz would be the German word, so the Constitution Protection Police, and they were monitoring us, and they were like saying basically we are terrorists, and that's where the story got like interesting, then yeah,

Mike Peterson:

And as they were trying to clamp down on you guys, did that impede you from getting the message out, or was it something there was enough people in Germany at that time that were upset about these things that they couldn't

Michael Ballweg:

Yeah, so in Berlin we had 1.3 million people, and Robert Kennedy Jr was on stage, and end of August he was visiting, so basically he planned to have a rally for children's health defense in Bavaria, in Munich, but the rules were so strict in Bavaria, so in Germany, in Baden-Württemberg said 5000 people were allowed, but in Bavaria only 1000 people are allowed, so in Berlin was unrestricted at this point. So we decided to go to Berlin and ask Children's Health Defense if they want, like, to make the demonstration earlier, because it was planned for October. We didn't know, is the next lockdown coming October, as it's going through to winter time, silence you?

Mike Peterson:

We have some video clip that kind of shows the, that demonstration is, is, is this the one that they had, the, the one point,

Michael Ballweg:

The 1.3 million, yeah, it was in, so we started in Stuttgart, this was like seven and a half 1000 people,

Mike Peterson:

Okay,

Michael Ballweg:

And I don't know if you want to go a little bit forward, as we, yeah, this is already Berlin, I think a little bit too far, you need girl, yeah, wow,

Mike Peterson:

That's quite the crowd there, and there's Kennedy,

Michael Ballweg:

Yeah,

Mike Peterson:

And you were saying they tried to, they tried to arrest Kennedy and prohibit him from participating.

Michael Ballweg:

Yeah, so basically Kennedy was arriving through the Netherlands, and at this point there were this quarantine rules, so if you're coming through a foreign country, so the police tried to say you need, you cannot be here, you need to be in quarantine, and they tried to arrest him, but while my lawyer and other people were keeping the police busy, he was escaping through the German park in Berlin, it's called Tiergarten, what you see on the right and left side here, this is already Leipzig, so the demonstrations were going really big. People were upset, and when we come back to the role of the free speech and the mainstream media, basically they were reporting so wrong about the demonstration, because it was all peaceful, peace, freedom, and truth were all always our main, main topics and main main goals, and they were reporting like all this thin for conspiracy theorist stuff. So people were saying, okay, I'm going again to a demonstration next time they need to report in the right way, but it never happened.

Mike Peterson:

So, what were the repercussions for you after, you know, kind of being the organizer behind these demonstrations? Obviously, that pissed the state off, and from what I understand, they came after you personally.

Michael Ballweg:

Yeah, so in mid of 2022 I had a house search, and afterwards I was arrested, and I was..

Mike Peterson:

Did they have to have.. I don't know how it works in Germany, but did they have some type of warrant to come into your house?

Michael Ballweg:

Yeah, so basically they accused me of money laundering and fraud, so the like the reason for the warrant was, was that

Mike Peterson:

So officially it wasn't because of the demonstration?

Michael Ballweg:

Right. So basically, let's say I said they, I didn't use the money, which people gave me in the right way. So basically it's funny, the accusation was I didn't do enough demonstrations, and at the end of the warrant they said, okay, we will now arrest you, because I was just selling my house at that point, I was planning, so I had a divorce, and I was planning to put all the money into Bitcoin, at this point I was already debanked almost completely,

Mike Peterson:

And that happened like at the time of the demonstration, did you lose your bank account then, or was it?

Michael Ballweg:

Yeah, it started with the demonstrations. The deep banking started, and it was more and more difficult to get an account, but it didn't only hit me, it hit a lot of people who didn't have the official opinion at this point, like lawyers who tried to, to like defend the human rights, other demonstration organizers, journalists, doctors, a lot of doctors are still in prison today,

Mike Peterson:

Really?

Michael Ballweg:

Because they made, they supported like people with men. Common sense, mass myth, common sense, and mass mask certificates. I know Kennedy raised that topic, and the German Minister of Health, she said this doesn't exist in Germany, so there's no political prosecution of doctors at all. So we are now documenting all these cases, and I just read yesterday that Kennedy wants to send some process. How do you say it in English? People who are like watching these trials, investigating what's really happening, because, like, the what the German ministry just said is just untrue. There are a lot of people still in jail, or their money is taken, or they're having like debanking or other other problems that cannot work anymore. We have professors from the university, they lost their job because they were against the mandates, and even if they are going through all instances, as most of the time they're losing. So even at this point when anybody with any common sense realizes the what a debacle the reaction was, they're still trying to punish these people. Yeah, so in Germany we don't have like something which is I don't know if you have it in America, if Fauci is still free, so there's they're still holding the line and saying everything what we did at that point was right, so maybe at the end it was a little bit too long, but for 2020 and 2021 the official meaning of the or saying of the politicians is we did everything right, and there's no reason, like, let's not talk about it anymore. Let's look forward,

Mike Peterson:

And even though they're saying let's look forward, they're still trying to punish the people that stood, they're not trying, they're doing it. Yeah,

Michael Ballweg:

Yeah, so there are a lot of, a lot of doctors still in prison, or debanked or have trials, even a I just read last week a 91 year old doctor has now his trial because he had made mask exceptions for his painting, you need to think 91 years old and the state is going after him, but I mean I know what the idea is, because you see they're trying to start the next pandemic now, and they need to be the doctors silenced, so basically it's censorship, and, and trying to, how would you say, make people afraid of saying that, speaking out, yeah.

Mike Peterson:

So you said you were trying to sell your house at that time, but my understanding is they actually like confiscated your house from you, was that,

Michael Ballweg:

Yeah. So basically they came with a warrant, and because of the fraud and money laundry, but which, which I should have done, they said this is like 1.3 million, and they came with a warrant and seized 1.3 million at that day after the house search, because I was trying to sell the house, it was like quite empty. They said, "Okay, you try to escape, so we need to put you to prison. And then I was nine months in Stuttgart Stamham, Stamheim, which is like the famous RAF prison. I know you don't know if you know this terror group. There was a terror group in the, in the 70s, and they were building like this prison exactly for these terrorists. I spent nine months there, while I was in prison, they, my, I mean, my house was sold, they confiscated all the money, they were adding one more point to the allegations, which is tax evasions, basically, they said you did not do your tax filings while you were in prison, I mean, they seized all the documents, everything from my company, my whole infrastructure, laptops, phones, everything, and in prison you don't have internet access, so you cannot do anything, but they added this, and yeah, after nine months, so normally you can in Germany, you can only be six months in pre-trial detention, but because the like courts were holding everything, I had a big lawyer team at this point already, like 12 lawyers who were supporting me while I was in prison, so we did every, every possible step.

Mike Peterson:

Yeah,

Michael Ballweg:

Like reviews and going through all the instances, but so it didn't, didn't hold them from keeping me longer than is normally allowed, and when I came out of prison, everything was gone, so basically then. And a lot of people are still supporting me. We thought maybe we can link this video. You will see that there were almost every three months, every three weeks, more than 1000 people demonstrating in front of the prison, really for my release. Yeah, so maybe you can just show that for a minute, so it should be 2020 22

Mike Peterson:

And what was the conclusion of the court case like? Why, why were you released? Did they basically, so basically, are you innocent? Or,

Michael Ballweg:

Yeah, so basically they, so it was, you need to go a little bit further to 2022. Yeah.

Mike Peterson:

So this front of the prison.

Michael Ballweg:

This is in front of the prison. Yeah, and this is my friend and lawyer Ralph I Wow, this was my birthday. This means peace and freedom.

Mike Peterson:

So, how did the. how did the trial conclude? And then what? What happened to you after that?

Michael Ballweg:

So, basically, I was let out of prison because it was all made up, and they couldn't tell the story any longer. So, basically, the while I was in prison, we were putting so many details to to get the story correct, so it was not fraud anymore. What I was accused, but it was attempted fraud. So I basically said I tried to do fraud, but I was too dumb to like finalize it. That was the accusation at the end, and well, then I came out of prison, and it was like I did not have anything, so but I had a lot of people supporting me, so basically I did some couch surfing, reminded me of my student time, then I noticed that this is not good for me, that I need to be at points a little bit longer. I had people then from on Mallorca, on the Spanish island, saying you can stay like half a year here. Then I had people from Switzerland saying you can stay here, and then mid of 2024 the trial started. This was a trial, which went almost one year.

Mike Peterson:

Okay, so you were held that, that nine months, you were held, that trial wasn't going on during that time.

Michael Ballweg:

No, basically, the work of the prosecutor's office was so bad they didn't even have an accusation. It was like, like, just a story, and based on that story, I was in prison, and basically the idea of the raid was to get more details, and this bad guy, so at some point we will find something that was the idea of raiding my home and getting more details about the Quetta movement, so the name of the of the movement is Kwerden, which means lateral thinking or thinking outside the box, so that's the that's the name, and now there was a big gap between when I was led out of prison and until the trial started, of course, until then they didn't release any money, that just so the prosecutor's office kept their story. The highest court said, okay, the money laundering is like not not added. This court at first declined the accusations. then the prosecutor's office went to the higher court, and they said,"Okay, you need to do it. So, basically, the court didn't want to make that trial, but they were forced by the politics, I would say, to do it and keep me busy. Yeah, then the trial was for 4044 days, almost one year, and it ended with a acquittal of the of the attempted fraud, so fully acquitted, and I got a warning because of 19 euro 50. Three text evasion, vet evasion, because my company bought a document and a perfume, perfume, which is about 100 euros or 200 euros, and I said this is not allowed, that the company is buying a dog mat and perfume, which is totally nonsense, because if you're a dog owner, of course, you can. So I deducted this from my taxes years. I'm a dog owner for since I'm, since I'm an entrepreneur, and so they just didn't want to make the acquittal official, yeah, and the mainstream media, then the headline was Balvik, not Balvik acquitted, but Balvik convicted of tax evasion, yeah, and they didn't say the amount, and then the storm of the people was so big on the on the on the mainstream media that they need to correct it, but you know, I mean, the first message is out and the correction nobody hears.

Mike Peterson:

So, from that point till getting you, you arriving here in El Salvador, what was, what was kind of what brought you here.

Michael Ballweg:

So, basically, the acquittal was on 31st of July 2025 I had nothing left in Germany, so I said, okay, I can do my backpacking tour now. My wife and me, we started in Thailand, which is nice, but I mean it has some disadvantages with digital ID and how everything is developing. Maybe you heard about it. They like froze 3 million bank accounts.

Mike Peterson:

No, I did not hear, yeah, Thailand, in Thailand, yeah,

Michael Ballweg:

For foreigners as well, so no, no protection there. And, of course, you cannot learn the language, it ties a very difficult language, and it's a total, totally different culture. Yeah, then Mark from the Bitcoin Hotel, I knew he was already here, he said, 'Come to El Salvador, it's great. Basically, we wanted only to stay for weeks here, and then travel to Argentina and Santa Barbara, and decide where, where do we want to live, and where's a nice place to build a new life, basically. And then we liked it here so much in El Salvador that we just said we stay here, and,

Mike Peterson:

So you never made it on to Argentina?

Michael Ballweg:

No, basically, I had a friend helping me with my LLC. Deep banking still goes on, so the, the, the, even the US account of my LLC was canceled this this week, and the friend who was helping me with the LLC, he lives in Paraguay, and he was just in Argentina, and he said, "You don't need to come here, it's so, So not good at the moment. Yeah,

Mike Peterson:

So the plan is to for El Salvador to be home.

Michael Ballweg:

Yes, at the moment it's so.. I decided not to go back. Basically, we wanted to go back to Europe in, in May, but then, like, you know, all this geopolitical events, beginning from this year, Venezuela, Iran energy structure, we said we don't want to have the risk of being in Europe and not coming back because of no kerosene, no no fuel, whatever. So we decided to stay here. Yeah, and now now we have the time also to build like our our life. We are looking for a house, another place to stay, deciding to is. I mean, the climate is different here. Yeah, I don't need any to tell you. So we are still thinking, do we go to the mountains, where there's a little bit cooler? Do we stay here? My money is still seized, so the German tax department still ignores the, the acquittal and the court decision, they say demonstrations are a business model. I made huge profits with the demonstrations in 2020 and 2021 all based on their estimates, and the guy from the Financial Department said in court his estimates are based on life experience, so I need to sue the tax department. This is not over yet. This is,

Mike Peterson:

Still on process trying to get your funds back.

Michael Ballweg:

Yeah, so there are two things running. So, firstly, prosecutor's office. Said we don't like agree to it to the acquittal, we will go to a next instance, and the tax department said we ignore it as well, and you need to sue me. So the funny thing is basically they take all your money and then they say sue me to get it back.

Mike Peterson:

And so all your, all your assets, your bank accounts, everything was was taken from you, everything, yes, everything, except Bitcoin.

Michael Ballweg:

And what I got back is basically I needed for the lawyers and for doing all that process, because I basically, so the, the court said I'm, I'm getting, how do you say it, money, money back, you know, like the I'm getting a replacement reimbursement for, for the time where I was in prison, I don't know if reimbursement is the same, the right word, you know, for the, for what they made wrong, I will get money.

Mike Peterson:

Okay, so they'll, they have to pay a certain amount, yeah. Okay,

Michael Ballweg:

But basically it's only 75 euros per day, and they still deduct the, the meals you get in prison, so it will be maybe 45 euros per day, I don't, not a big amount, but of course there were a lot of, I mean, if they take everything from you, it's a huge, huge disaster, and I mean, all my company equipment is now four years or five years at the still at the police, it's basically worth nothing, you know. Computers, yeah, phones,

Mike Peterson:

Yeah.

Michael Ballweg:

So they need to pay all for that, but I need to sue them as well.

Mike Peterson:

Wow, so even though you've gone through all this, you're still dealing with the repercussions and still having to try to fight this,

Michael Ballweg:

Right. But I'm not putting so much energy into it, because you know in Germany the digital euro is coming, maybe they will take until then, and with the digital euro you can just do nothing. So I accept that it's gone. I have many talents, I'm an entrepreneur, I'm doing things, so entrepreneurship is for me just doing things, failings, and doing new things. I think AI, and everything like what is changing in the world, has so many opportunities. So I'm not broken, and I'm not mad. I just,

Mike Peterson:

You're sitting here smiling, and you have, I think, a much better attitude than I would have if I had gone through all of that.

Michael Ballweg:

Well, the question, I don't know if it would be like that way. You have only two things in life, you can only make the decision, like take it as it is. If you're getting sick, you can be mad with life, or you can just go through. I mean, you get challenges in life, and the question is, what's your mindset? How do I deal with these challenges? And for me, it was a big challenge. Of course, I didn't expect this. People are asking me, would you do it again? I say, yes, of course, I would do it again, because I mean, it was important at that time that people stood up, and it's even now important to continue this political work. I mean, freedom is under, under pressure, Bitcoin is under pressure, peace is under pressure. So we are live, we live in very like exciting and strange times. Fourth industrial revolution, many people will lose their jobs. I mean, this will be a very.. we have demographic challenges. So, basically, this is a lot of things which are changing, and where people will need to, or we will live in a different, in a different world, I guess, in two or three years.

Mike Peterson:

So, I'd love to hear your take on people that would say you left Europe, where they would say is is a free and democratic society there in Germany, and you've come to this authoritarian-run country of El Salvador that's under a dictatorship. Obviously, I'm being facetious, but this is like the view you would get from the press as a real person living this and having lived through what you did in Germany and now reestablishing your life here in El Salvador. How would you contrast the countries and where your, your freedoms actually protected?

Michael Ballweg:

Yeah, so first I want to say the funniest post Puquila made is he said now we have helmets and and what do you. Torches again in Germany, and basically, when the, when the former Chancellor Merkel was like quitting, German Bundeswehr, so the German army had helmets and torches again, and this is like a very bad story in, in Germany, you remember that Nazi time, yes, and like Bukele was making fun of it, so I like that very much. And speaking here now, so life is much better in San Salvador, or in El Salvador, than in Germany and the rest of Europe, I would say. For now, you can. It's so security is one topic, so you can go out here at any time to any place, nobody will do anything to you or will harm you. I started noticing this in Thailand already, so in Thai, Thailand is also very secure, so people leave their motorbikes to live with Bitcoin like your real life, that for me the old outside or keys in all their belongings, so it's very nice to

Mike Peterson:

Yeah. And live, if you want, you can live on a banking system feels so complicated. It was really Bitcoin standard here. be in a country where you don't have the problem that you need to lock, lock, lock down everything or lock up

Michael Ballweg:

Right. Absolutely, I do. Basically, so complicated to get that bank account in the US, and all the everything, and you can just move and, and be free. That's a documents, which I needed to provide. And then they, you very new feeling against what it is in Europe now, of course, if cannot send money from Europe to a US bank, because all the, you you have the experience with the police now, so normally until 2020 I mean, my opinion was the police is protecting you. Now, now, it's at least in Europe, they're not protecting you, so we'll love it here, and I don't know how it is, I cannot say how know, different standards, and they charge you like $50 and I the political system here works, and if there's some suppression of an opposition, I just don't, don't know that, but I feel very safe here. I love to use Bitcoin. It's a new feeling for me. I'm totally debunked, so since three or four years, um, almost four years, I'm living with cash and Bitcoin, which is sometimes very difficult, especially when you want to send, like, money, you know, cash works only person to person, and so it's a new experience. It's very nice to be in a country where you can feel safe. mean, with Bitcoin, I can make a transaction for 12 cents, and it will be here in 10 minutes,

Mike Peterson:

Anybody's permission, nobody block it.

Michael Ballweg:

So therefore I think I will continue living in the Bitcoin standard, and just people who want to work with me need to pay me in Bitcoin, and if people are not willing to do that, then we are not working together.

Mike Peterson:

So, so what's what's next for you as you kind of go forward, you've kind of recovered from this. Obviously, you're still fighting that stuff in in Germany to some extent, but, but what kind of opportunities do you see here in El Salvador? And what, what do you put in your efforts into?

Michael Ballweg:

So, basically, well, it's supporting the Bitcoin community. I'm still teaching a lot of Salvadorians how to use Bitcoin, so every taxi driver, every in-drive driver. I'm always trying to give them the tip in Bitcoin. Most of the time, they are very interested. I just don't have time. And the other thing is all the AI stuff, but doing like AI the right way, local AI, not using this, the digital digital company's way of, so basically I need to like go two steps back, so I would say in the 90s and 2000 we had a different internet, it was decentralized, it was free. It was a really good tool for having free speech, and especially communicating like worldwide. Then we know what happened to the internet, so we had this five big companies: Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook, Meta, a Google, they built basically their apps on the internet. It's no longer decentralized, and of course, all the censorship, what we, what we experience is only possible if you have centralized systems, so Meta can like block you and censor you, or YouTube or whatever, and I see the same problem with the AI. So, if everyone is using, like, Google Metas, I mean, it's the same company, we have a new one, Open AI, but not many new players. If they, if they're using this centralized AI, censorship will be very easy, and it will be also very easy to give you like a micro-targeted political decision, because basically nobody, the AI gains your trust, or these AI systems gain your trust with right information on some topics. Then people trust them, then they will ask whom should I elect, and basically, the I will tell people whom to elect, and I guess a lot of people will follow that opinion, because it's so transforming the brain,

Mike Peterson:

They're using it for all their other decisions, right? So it makes sense.

Michael Ballweg:

Yeah, should I get divorced? I remember that Eric Schmidt once said people want Google to tell them what they should do, and basically all this AI development is going into that direction. So, my new field of being very activist using local AI, I know that El Salvador, I did not attend the AI conference because I don't like to do conferences so much, I like to do like my stuff, and really like taking my hands into oil, and like doing local AI. I know that El Salvador bought a lot of equipment, a lot, a lot of capacity, AI capacity to do local AI. That makes me, makes me positive on that, on the development, I mean, if, if a president understands Bitcoin, he will probably also understand the importance of local AI, or just being sorry, just being dependent of foreign, foreign companies, or foreign countries, because this is also a kind of power, if Google, Apple, and all the big companies are just holding your data and then deciding what you get back,

Mike Peterson:

Yeah. No, that makes a lot of sense. So that's kind of what you're putting your focus into now.

Michael Ballweg:

Yeah, absolutely. I love you know, I'm basically. it is for me like being in the kindergarten, you get a lot of tools every year. Every year, at the moment, it's too many tools, too many new Bitcoin wallets, too many new to AI tools, and I mean, the technology is evolving very fast, and it's a little bit challenge to keep all the other things up, I mean, I'm still not using Nostr, you know, Nostr is also very important for me, but I always build teams, so Nostr authentication and Teams is not, not compatible, at least it was not until last year, I think there's something new coming out that you can like give your private Nostr key to somebody of your team, like create a deviation of it and just give permission for at a certain time. So these are the things I'm working on. I read there's Nostr for PN, so I don't know how it is in the US, but in Germany they are in Europe, they try to forbid VPN now.

Mike Peterson:

Really.

Michael Ballweg:

Yeah, because it's dangerous for people to have not the right opinion, so they will need to teach people a lot how to use their freedom rights and how they defend their rights also in the digital space. I think Bitcoiners are a little bit not privacy aware enough. I see that there is a lot of education also needs to be done, so everybody is talking about quantum computing, and maybe it will be a risk for Bitcoin, but I see bigger risk is you just have like your Android phone or your iPhone, Google is monitoring it, or Apple is monitoring, and they just take like they know all the transactions what you do. So the first thing would be for me, Bitcoin and privacy on using the right phone for your Bitcoin stack is a very, very important topic at the moment. We know that Apple is rolling out the digital ID, so in the UK it's already activated, so it's mandatory to have your to show your ID, so that. You can use your phone fully, which you purchase and which you pay fully. You don't rent it, so that's basically the focus. Having a proper phone to be being protected from, I would say, the state services and the secret service, but also not to giving like all your data to the big companies who are selling it, then to the government. And the second point is working on Bitcoin, and the third point is working on AI. And then I think I have a quite busy life.

Mike Peterson:

Well, I'm glad we were able to get you in studio and hear some of your story. Is there a way people can follow you? Are you on Nostr or X? Yeah, so basically

Michael Ballweg:

I'm on X. My handle is Michael underscore Ballweg. I'm not yet on Nostr. We have two, yeah. internet pages, but most of them are in Germany. Some of some of it is in English about my trial, which is queer Danken minus 711.de Basically, we added to the I guess, and the other one is Digitala minus activist.org Basically, I'm that's the freedom phone and Bitcoin, and how do I opt out of the system? How do I draw my energy from the existing system, and how to, how do I live in a, I would say, in a more, in a less monitored way, so that I can really like communicate privately again,

Mike Peterson:

Yeah. No, that's so crucial. I mean, everything now is so monitored, and like you said, I think a lot of times we underestimate the risk that we're putting ourselves in. So awesome. Well, thank you for coming in. We'll put the information in the show notes, and how people can follow you and help support what you're standing for, and I look forward to see what you do here in El Salvador.

Michael Ballweg:

Yeah, thank you very much for the invite. It was a pleasure to be here. Thanks a lot, and that's also a benefit of El Salvador. I would say people are so open here, and you can feel the energy of people just being here and not being like fighting against each other, but cooperating, and I think that's what we need in a new world. There are so many things to do, no need to fight and say you have the wrong position, and you, this is wrong, and this is wrong. Just do your stuff, cooperate where you, where you like have the same vision, and for the rest, I mean, we don't want to be people who are like straight, or how will you say, yeah, straight, straight thinkers all with the same same vision of life. Yeah, so life is full of flavors, and everybody should live the life he wants, should be able to live the life he wants, and here it's so positive, so to meet so many entrepreneurs or people who are just sick of the old system and saying I'm I'm trying something new and I'm on a mission here and I just cooperate and we do things together, that's really beautiful.

Mike Peterson:

No, I love that. And, oh, special thanks to your wife for the artwork that she brought here. I know she's, she's working on some projects with that here, right?

Michael Ballweg:

Yeah, so she's bringing some color to Bitcoin, because we said a Bitcoin artist not powerful enough, and so we bring more colors to Bitcoin. At the moment, you can only buy it in El Zonte, in the Cocoa Cafe, which Adam, really nice guy. And so, who's interested can buy it there, but we're working on it.

Mike Peterson:

Perfect, awesome. Well, thank you, Michael. And thank you, guys, for coming in. And we'll look forward to hearing what you guys accomplished here in El Salvador.

Michael Ballweg:

Thank you very much.