He Quit Poland for the Best Job in Bitcoin

- Tomek Kołodziejczuk is a Polish bitcoiner from Warsaw, where he founded the Bitcoin Film Festival, now four years old and the first of its kind in the world. A year ago he flew to Roatán to visit Próspera, the Honduran free economic zone he'd been hearing about for years. On his second day he bought a motorbike from Facebook Marketplace to lock the decision in. He hasn't been back.

Timothy Allen sits down with Tomek for a wide-ranging conversation that goes from the new Hollywood sub-genre of Satoshi Nakamoto films and the quantum threat to Satoshi's million coins, through Iran and the Great Reset and why neither of them would accept the job of king of the world, to the Bitcoin District inside Próspera, Orangeville (the wooden modular Bitcoin neighborhood climbing a jungle valley), the renovated Bitcoin Arena, the quarterly BitChill retreats, and Tomek's bet that this small Caribbean island can become the most Bitcoin-dense place in the world.

Tomek runs the Bitcoin District inside one of the only jurisdictions on earth where a company can pay its taxes in Bitcoin and keep its books denominated in BTC. He's 33. He's been at the front line of Poland's freedom movement for the better part of a decade. And he has a lot to say about what it actually feels like to build a city from scratch in a jungle.

In this conversation:

• The new Hollywood sub-genre of Satoshi Nakamoto films, and why Tomek doesn't actually want anyone to figure out who Satoshi was
• Hal Finney cryogenics, the quantum threat to Satoshi's million coins, and the game theory of the honeypot
• Iran, the Great Reset, global capital as the actor moving the world, and why neither Tomek nor Tim would accept the job of king of the world
• The Bitcoin District inside Próspera: what it is, what it isn't, and how it's different from a nomad village
• Orangeville, the wooden modular Bitcoin neighborhood climbing a jungle valley, with funding secured for the first phase of over a dozen apartments
• The Bitcoin Arena, BitChill, Bitcoin Games (two BTC of prizes), and the Bitcoin Roatán coalition that ties them together
• The bet that Roatán becomes the most Bitcoin-dense island in the world, and where Madeira (with ~170 merchants) sits today
• Running a business on a Bitcoin standard: 1% corporate tax, books denominated in BTC, residency in months, and the only jurisdiction on earth that allows it
• Why Próspera's gaps (the missing coffee shop, the missing scooter rental, the missing town hall) are the real opportunity, not the problem
• The one-month stay strategy, the Duna Tower, and why anyone with a builder mindset should come and try a month
• Bitcoin Vibe Camp in August, Sovereign Engineering coming to Roatán, and what's next at the Free Cities Conference in September

Enjoy the conversation.

Timestamps (audio version, includes Timothy's episode introduction):

• 0:00:30 - Introduction to episode
• 0:08:38 - Start of conversation: meeting at the first Bitcoin Film Festival in Warsaw
• 0:10:09 - Four years of the Bitcoin Film Festival and the state of Bitcoin cinema
• 0:12:19 - The Mystery of Satoshi: an animated French series on national TV
• 0:13:02 - The new sub-genre: Finding Satoshi, Killing Satoshi, and the rest
• 0:13:55 - Why the search for Satoshi doesn't matter (and might cause harm)
• 0:16:37 - Hal Finney, cryogenics, and the quantum threat to Satoshi's coins
• 0:17:36 - Why touching the chain is worse than a price dip
• 0:19:13 - Game theory of the Satoshi coins as a honeypot
• 0:21:04 - Who is Satoshi: a group, Hal Finney, or Adam Back?
• 0:22:35 - Aliens, time travelers, and AI: who really wrote the white paper
• 0:25:51 - Hotel Bitcoin and the wider growth of Bitcoin cinema
• 0:27:36 - Michael Saylor's bet and the film that needs an ending
• 0:29:53 - Why a lower Bitcoin price might be better for Bitcoin
• 0:31:50 - World on the brink: Iran, the Great Reset, and the oil shock
• 0:35:18 - Global capital as the actor, not a secret cabal
• 0:37:42 - Why neither of us would take the job of king of the world
• 0:39:15 - Trump assassination attempts: real, staged, or somewhere between
• 0:40:06 - Charlie Kirk and what happens when the masks fall
• 0:43:08 - The Epstein files and why nothing changed
• 0:44:10 - On Roatán, in Próspera: the most cutting-edge Free City
• 0:47:39 - The last six months: new government, lights back on, projects everywhere
• 0:49:28 - Building the Bitcoin District as an ecosystem inside Próspera
• 0:51:21 - The Bitcoin District as a layer two on the Próspera protocol
• 0:54:23 - 200 people, builders, and Próspera's rotating community
• 0:56:36 - Orangeville: the wooden modular Bitcoin neighborhood climbing the jungle
• 0:58:48 - Renovating the Bitcoin Arena and onboarding Roatán's merchants
• 1:00:34 - The international map of Bitcoin hubs: Bitcoin Beach, Pub Key, Casa de Satoshi
• 1:02:43 - What makes the Bitcoin District different from a nomad village
• 1:03:14 - BitChill, Bitcoin Games, and the two-Bitcoin prize pool
• 1:04:01 - Bitcoin Roatán: the coalition behind "most Bitcoin-dense island"
• 1:07:32 - Próspera's bigger plan: Hong Kong of the Caribbean and a deep water port
• 1:10:43 - Orangeville's investors: ideologically aligned, not return-chasing
• 1:15:20 - Vibe Camp, poker tournaments, and what the district becomes long term
• 1:16:38 - Running your business on a Bitcoin standard
• 1:19:12 - The agency layer that's still missing in Próspera
• 1:22:11 - The grocery store experience and the chicken and egg of new cities
• 1:25:45 - The coffee shop opportunity and Tomek's challenge to listeners
• 1:32:25 - The one-month stay: cheap rents, productive grooves, the Duna Tower
• 1:36:35 - Six weeks away from the family and the work that comes out of it
• 1:38:23 - El Salvador, learning by doing, and the same lesson on Roatán
• 1:40:38 - Breaking ground on Orangeville and the calendar ahead
• 1:42:54 - Bitcoin Vibe Camp: developers, Bitcoin, and AI
• 1:44:38 - Sovereign Engineering, Bitcoin++, and bringing the biggest hackathons to Roatán
• 1:46:20 - More projects coming: Nomad X, Noma Collective, and the Fashion District
• 1:49:09 - The bet, the year ahead, and the close

Guest: Tomek K - X / Twitter | Nostr | The Bitcoin District | Bitcoin FilmFest

The Free Cities Podcast is the official podcast of the Free Cities Foundation hosted by Timothy Allen. New episodes every Friday. Long-form, in-person conversations with the builders, investors, residents, and thinkers shaping the future of Free Cities, charter cities, special economic zones, network states, private cities, and governance innovation worldwide.

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