HOW DO YOU BECOME A BITCOIN MAXIMALIST IN 2025?
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There's that moment, often imperceptible at the time, when something changes. It starts with a few euros on an app. A clumsy exchange on a custodial wallet. We buy "Bitcoin." We still think it's an asset, a green or red line on a screen. And then, one day, we understand. We don't always know how or why. But we do. Bitcoin isn't a stock. It's not a technology. It's not an investment. It's an entire paradigm. And this simple realization, which might seem abstract to ordinary mortals, often triggers a chain of irreversible consequences. This is where the transformation begins. The gradual abandonment of the fiat world, not out of hatred or rejection, but out of lucidity.
We begin to accumulate. We learn what a seed is. We discover individual sovereignty, responsibility, the fear of KYC, XPUB addresses, cold wallets, full nodes, mining. And suddenly, the very idea of leaving your money in a bank becomes laughable. The idea of obeying a government becomes suspect. The idea of spending in euros becomes painful. The shift isn't brutal. It's organic. A maximalist Bitcoiner isn't born. He or she is forged, through friction with reality.
So we set up a node. Maybe with Umbrel, maybe on a refurbished Lenovo mini PC, or a Raspberry Pi cobbled together in the kitchen. We want to verify the blocks ourselves. We no longer trust others. We want to see. We want to know. We want to validate. This simple, innocuous act, spinning up a node, changes everything. It's as if a citizen of the Empire had decided one day to recalculate the calendar themselves. Then comes Bitaxe. A handcrafted, open-source, elegant, and powerful tool that allows us to play a role in securing the network. It's not a quest for profitability. It's a declaration of existence. Here, in this garage, in this living room, a solo human mines Bitcoin, without permission.
And with that comes transformation. It's not physical. It's structural. Perspectives change. Consumption changes. Our connection to time changes. We no longer speak in euros but in sats. We no longer think in months but in halvings. We no longer wait for a salary, we build independence. We no longer buy, we invest in our sovereignty. Maximalism cannot be taught. It emerges as a logical consequence of an incoherent world. It's a virus of truth in a matrix of lies.
But who are they, these somewhat unusual beings we call maximalists? Are they dreamers? Radicals? Utopians who haven't found their place in the modern world? Or, on the contrary, are they the last realists? Those who look at the world as it is, who see the end of a monetary cycle coming, and who prepare for it with the calm of lucid people? The answer is not clear-cut. Bitcoin maximalism is neither a pure ideology nor a religion. It is a response. A raw and brutal response to a world slowly collapsing, piece by piece, debt by debt, right by right.
In 2025, we no longer become maximalists for the sake of speculation. We become so because reality pushes us to this position. The euro is no longer worth anything. Banks are unstable. Institutions cheat. Governments lie. Money is monitored. Cash disappears. Work becomes absurd. And meanwhile, Bitcoin continues. One block every ten minutes. An immutable monetary policy. No cheating. No surprise inflation. No president. No ministry.
In this context, the maximalist Bitcoiner becomes a strange figure. A sociological mutant. He no longer believes in representative democracy but does believe in proof of work. He no longer believes in social security but does believe in cold storage. He no longer believes in unemployment figures but does believe in the hash rate. He no longer believes in the state but does believe in code. He no longer believes in the dollar but does believe in the next block. Some will say this is a deviation. That it's a retreat. But it's often the opposite. It's a transcendence. A way out.
Where modern society multiplies dependencies, the maximalist bitcoiner eliminates them. Where the state imposes, he chooses. Where the bank levies, he protects himself. Where the crowd follows, he resists. The life of a maximalist, seen from the outside, can seem austere. No credit, no debt, no banks, no trading, no shitcoins. A single obsession: to accumulate, secure, transmit. But what others see as confinement, he experiences as liberation.
And this process could well accelerate. The more the fiat world crumbles, the stronger Bitcoin becomes. The more institutions buy, the more access to the free market closes. The more governments worry, the more they regulate. And the more they regulate, the more citizens look for a way out. This is no longer an underground revolution. It's a mass flight toward a mathematical escape hatch. It's no longer a utopia. It's a reality that's beginning to become the only viable alternative.
In fifteen years, what will remain of the current world? Cash will have disappeared. CBDCs will be everywhere. The economy will be on a monetary drip. Freedoms will have melted away in the name of security. And in the face of this, a growing minority will stand tall, strong, autonomous, and unassailable. They won't have shouted. They won't have protested. They will simply have left the game. They will have chosen to live in Bitcoin.
So yes, there is faith in maximalism. But it's not a religious faith. It's an experimental faith. A bet based on facts. It's not a delusion. It's a cold reading of the world. Most maximalists don't believe in a perfect world. They know it doesn't exist. But they do believe in a world that cannot be falsified. A world where lying is costly. Where error isn't punished by prison but by the loss of one's sats. Where truth isn't imposed by decree but validated by consensus.
Becoming a Bitcoin maximalist isn't about wearing a T-shirt with a ₿ on it. It isn't about tweeting against Ethereum. It isn't about waiting for the bull run. It's about building a decentralized life every day. It's about refusing easy loans. It's about taking custody of your keys. It's about living with less. It's about turning off the TV. It's about reading the blocks. It's about detoxing from the system. It's about understanding that true wealth is about not depending on anyone.
This is why we talk about a tipping point. There is a before and an after. Before Bitcoin, we lived in a blurry world. After Bitcoin, everything becomes clear. Every expense is a decision. Every choice is a responsibility. Every mistake is a lesson. And this inevitably creates a new human being. Tougher. Freer. Less naive. More demanding. It's no coincidence that maximalism attracts very different profiles: libertarians, engineers, survivors, dissidents, philosophers, artists. They all have one thing in common: they saw something. And they no longer want to turn a blind eye.
In truth, perhaps this is what being a maximalist is all about: refusing to look away. Seeing the empire crumble and deciding not to go down with it. Seeing the raw truth and deciding to embrace it, whatever the cost. No longer waiting for a savior. No longer believing in reform. No longer negotiating with a corrupt world. Just leaving. And building elsewhere. Block by block. Silently.
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