About
My name is Giovanni, aka Learntheropes.
I was born in 1974 in Rome, but I grew up in a town on the Adriatic coast.
I speak native italian native, spanish and english, both C1 level I've been told but maybe it is a bit too generous.
Before the Bitcoin era I was a professional sailor and boat builder specialized in sailing yachts and I visited almost any port from Istanbul to Miami.
I discovered Bitcoin in 2013 and in February 2014 I started to work at Localbitcoins Oy as support and fraud prenvention agent.
This remote job allowed me to move to Latam, a continent that I'm exploring since 2001, spending my time between Argentina, Paraguay and a bit of Mexico.
I was visiting Guadalajara because we had a branch there but I lived in Argentina for almost 4 years as an irregular immigrant, before moving permanently to Paraguay where I'm working for naturalization that I will apply in about 2 years, because spending time in the country is one of the many requirements.
I've been a left wing anarchist for most of my life, grown up with a socialist family and friends. When I discovered Bitcoin I started to better understand economy and I became a libertarian, or a crypto-anarchist if you prefer, more concentrated on the personal benefit I can get than on the "ideology" itself.
Residency
I'm a permanent and tax resident of Paraguay since 2017 when I renounced my Italian residency.
Citizenships
Apart from my original Italian citizenship, I'm currently working on the Paraguayan naturalization that I will apply in about 2 years.
The success rate is very low. If it fails as I suspect, my next alternative plan for naturalization will be Ecuador and Argentina, also with the help of a marriage with my ex-girlfriend that has dual citizenship in the named countries, if needed. It will be a win-win since she is looking for the Italian citizenship.
Tax
UK LLP & US LLC
Because Paraguay is a territorial taxation country, I previously owned an LLP in the UK and an LLC in the US getting a total tax rate at personal and company level of 0%, legally.
PY RUC
Since one year, I closed all my foreign companies and I now invoice all my clients, in Paraguay and in the rest of the world, with my Paraguayan RUC that is the equivalent of the VAT number in Europe.
I pay 10% IVA monthly on income less expenses and 8% annually for IRP (I recently discovered there is a 3% option on the total profit but from my calculations it is not convenient for me).
This decision was mainly taken for 2 reasons: citizenship requirements in the 3-year process and local bank relationships.
Banking
All my earnings and savings are in bitcoin.
To invoice my clients I have a BTCPay Server instance with multiple shops. Some are BTC on-chain or LN only, another one also supports USDT on Tron.
For a new startup I'm working on, I'm also planning to receive bank transfers from third parties to my Schwab Brokerage account in the US that allow me to receive many currencies sent to local bank details at a good exchange rate. They support: USD with ACH or Wire from inside the US and Wire from outside the US, AUD with national bank transfer in Australia, GBP with national bank transfer in the UK, CAD with national bank transfer in Canada, DKK with national bank transfer in Denmark, EUR with SEPA transfer in Europe, HKD with national bank transfer in Hong Kong, JPY with national bank transfer in Japan, MXN with national bank transfer in Mexico, NOK with national bank transfer in Norway, SGD with national bank transfer in Singapore, SEK with national bank transfer in Sweden.
In the past I had a Xapo bank account, that in conjunction with a Curve card metal plan, allowed me to spend everywhere with no currency conversion fees or spread. However, due to the increased costs of both, I now switched to a more localized solution.
Expenses in Paraguay
For Paraguayan expenses I'm selling p2p in the Bitcoin Paraguay community at 0% fee and with a trusted broker for a 3% fee.
I have two bank accounts in the country:
- Banco Familiar with a monthly inbound transactions limit of 9.100.000 PYG and I'm working to remove the limit completely. The account comes with a physical debit card not working for online expenses and with a physical credit card with a monthly credit limit of 7.000.000 PYG. Both cards are not compatible with Apple/Google Pay.
- Ueno Bank, with a monthly inbound transactions limit of 11.000.000 PYG. The account comes with a debit and a credit virtual card working with Apple/Google Pay. The credit card right now has a ridiculous credit limit of 500.000 PYG but because you can pay the credit at any time, this limit could be reset eventually every day.
In Paraguay QR payments are accepted everywhere or via instant bank transfer, so the cards are not strictly necessary for me except for food delivery etc.
The total balance of the two banks of 20 million is enough for my monthly expenses in the country.
Expenses in Europe
I travel 3/4 months per year back to Europe.
For expenses in Euro, I sell bitcoin on Kraken for EUR, withdraw to Wise account (for which I don't have a card not being EU/UK/US resident) and then transfer by SEPA to Paysera where I have a physical debit card compatible with Google/Apple Pay. The whole process is mostly instant.
Rarely, I also sell bitcoins p2p to trusted european friends using Revolut.
Expenses in Argentina
I never spent the time to open a local bank account with CDI, so when here I usually sell bitcoins for cash at a trusted "cueva" and I pay everything in cash.
Online subscriptions
For online subscriptions in USD (Proton, Vercel, Digital Ocean, Luna Node, Namecheap, Chatgpt, Youtube premium, Netflix etc) I use a Schwab brokerage account that comes with a physical debit card not compatible with Google/Apple Pay.
Every month I sell some sats on Kraken for USD for the total amount of my subscriptions, withdraw to Wise and then transfer by ACH to Schwab. The process takes about 24 hours.
I can also deposit more if I need to pay something in USD such a flight bookings.
I fund Schwab with: Kraken EUR > Wise EUR > Wise USD > Swchab via ACH
Backup bank
I also have a Revolut account registered in the UK.
Being this the only account I have not registered with my real physical residency (Residencies ouside UK/EU/US are not supported), I use it as a backup-only account with a few hundred euros in it, because I'm not sure how long it will last. The physical card is compatible with Google/Apple Pay.
This is actually the only physical card I bring with me all the time, even if I never use it, just in case I have no battery on the phone or the other banks are down (not unusual with Ueno) or stuff like that. It is also the most versatile card with good (not optimal) exchange rates everywhere. I don't mind losing this card that is just a backup and that I can block and replace from everywhere I am at the moment.
Insurances
I still have my old italian worldwide health insurance, now registered with the paraguyan residency from which I can get payouts to my Wise Belgian IBAN. I have a Unipol Unisalute Sanicard and a Unipol Infortuni Premium, one for illnesses and one for injuries, both valid worldwide 365 days a year.
Occupation
Peach Bitcoin
I work as the Head of Operations at Peach Bitcoin, a p2p KYC-free privacy oriented Bitcoin exchange.
P2Pay Server
I'm the main developer at P2Pay Server, a payment processor currently based on BTCPay Server and Peach where buyers pay with fiat local payment methods and the merchant always receives bitcoin.
Blockchange PY
I'm the founder of Blockchange PY a startup still in a very early stage aimed to help, mainly but not only, self-custodial Bitcoin and crypto business to relocate to Paraguay.
BTCPay Server
I run a BTCPay Server instance where I never hold your funds and where open registrations are disabled due to spam, but feel free to contact me if you want an account. Here you have a wiki to set up your on-chain and LN wallets easily from a mobile. Please note that Blink is custodial so it's highly suggest to run your own node instead, if you have the skills.
Devices
Desktops
I have a TongFang GX4 14-inch Metal Ultrabook from the EU and a System76 Lemur Pro from the US. They share the same hard disk with Pop OS, and I use them interchangeably. I keep both as a backup and to quickly and cheaply get spare parts wherever I am.
Mobile
I have an iPhone 11 bought from my previous company. I'm waiting for it to die so I can buy a Google Pixel and install GrapheneOS.
SIM Cards
I have a paraguyan phisical Claro sim with a post paid plan that covers roaming in the american contienent and a top up italian Vodafone esim that covers roaming in Europe and I topup with Bitrefill. I also use Google Voice number for communication with Schwab and other inernational calls and a lifetime UK number with Hushed.
Bitcoin
I have an old Ledger Nano S and a Blockcstream Jade that I use with Sparrow wallet.
For Lightning Network I use Zeus connected to my own LND node.
Contacts
Email: giovanni@learntheropes.xyz
PGP: 5BA78A510CDA44132BDC51FA58C798100FF8A743
Nostr: giovanni@learntheropes.xyz
Lightning Network: giovanni@learntheropes.xyz
Telegram: giovanni_learntheropes_xyz
X: giovanni_learntheropes_xyz
Signal: learntheropes.56
Github: learntheropes
Linkedin: learntheropes
SimpleX and Session on request
Asynchronous communication is welcome and always free of charge. Synchronous communication is not very convenient for me so it comes with a fee.
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