In this episode of the newly rebranded Becoming Sovereign podcast, host Brandon Karpeles sits down with Steve Martin, the founder of Bitcoin Beans. Steve tracks his radical lifestyle transformation from working as a corporate accountant in London to living on a functioning permaculture farm in Colombia, exploring what it truly means to apply the principles of proof of work to the food we put into our bodies.
They dive into a fascinating first-principles discussion on how the departure from the gold standard directly triggered the "enshitification" of global agriculture, forcing industrial complexes to use toxic preservatives and empty calories to hide monetary inflation. Steve also shares the unique history, science, and medical benefits of pure, untampered cacao, explaining why the open-source Nostr marketplace is building a parallel economy grounded in human connection and true quality.
In this episode, we cover:
• The Becoming Sovereign Mission: Why taking absolute accountability over your personal health, household inputs, and local supply lines is the foundational step toward human autonomy.
• The Accountant to Farmer Pipeline: Steve shares how an abrupt termination from a high-status corporate job in London opened a doorway to discovering local agriculture and permaculture in Colombia.
• The Science of Real Cacao: A look into the differences between processed cocoa powder and raw cacao blocks, focusing on theobromine, healthy fats, and why pure cacao acts as a smooth, long-lasting fuel source.
• The Fiat Food Trap: How central banking and state-subsidized crops (like corn and seed oils) structurally corrupted the human diet, creating highly addictive, nutritionally empty foods that mask true inflation.
• Capturing and Storing Energy: How the 12 core tenets of permaculture design flawlessly mirror the economic structure of a long-term Bitcoin standard.
• The Nostr Marketplace Revolution: How decentralized protocols are reconnecting consumers directly with elite artisans—from custom leather straps and raw ghee to hand-pressed olive oils.
Connect with Steve Martin & Bitcoin Beans:
• Website: bitcoinbeans.co (Note: .co for Colombia)
• Nostr: bitcoinbeans@primal.net
Connect with Brandon & Sovreign:
- Website: sovreign.io
- LinkedIn: Brandon Karpeles
- Nostr: @plebiAnon
- X: @sovreignBTC