Came to Buenos Aires for Avalanche Summit and blockchain tech, stayed for the nature and history, connecting colonialism to central banking.

Flew over Rio de la Plata to the stunning Iguazu. Mucho mariposa! 🦋🌳🌊

On the way, I learned how, in the 16th and 17th centuries, Spain’s extraction of silver and gold from Latin America, exploiting native labor, expanded state credit. Genoese bankers lent money to monarchs against future metal shipments. This evolved into systems where government debt was structured as tradable assets, leading to bond markets, early public debt management, and central banking functions like government debt and currency management.