Bitcoin Passports: How to Rank Countries for Bitcoiners | SLP744

**Adam Juchniewicz** (0:00)
January 1st, 2027, CARF is basically the common reporting standard for crypto exchanges, where they will report back to your home country based on the KYC you've provided, what sort of transactions are going on. You know, where you're cashing out, how much volume, how much training you're doing, how much profits you've realized. And so for people who have been, you know, using sort of non-licensed exchanges or in jurisdictions they thought they were safe because they didn't necessarily exclude your nationality or they were a little more lax about KYC. That eventually is going to be a thing of the past.

**Stephan Livera** (0:43)
Hi, everyone. Welcome back to Stephan Livera Podcast. We're doing another SLP Fast interview. My guest today is Adam Juchniewicz. He is of Bitcoin Passport Index and Bitcitizen.
So Adam, thanks for joining me on the show. And I know you have this Bitcoin Passport Index. So let's start there. What problem does the Bitcoin Passport Index solve that the traditional rankings miss?

**Adam Juchniewicz** (1:06)
Yeah, well, first of all, Stephan, thanks for having me on the show. It's great to talk to you again. Yeah, so at Bitcitizen, we were really looking at the different passport indexes that exist in the citizenship by investment industry. And none of them were aimed at Bitcoiners, right? So the idea that we had was, well, what's important to Bitcoiners? So the way, the methodology that we used is that it's not so much concerning where you can go. Because, for example, Henley and Partners, they're probably the most known company that publishes a passport, an annual passport index.
It's based on just straight Visa-free destinations. How many countries can you go to Visa-free? Well, that's not necessarily the only factor for Bitcoiners. So we weighted the methodology, and we put Bitcoin at 45%, the Bitcoin categories. So it came out to 45, 55
And I think if you look at the different categories, and we can get into that, we were very meticulous about double checking, triple checking everything. What are the things that are important to Bitcoiners? Not just having freedom of movement, like where can I travel, but how is my capital treated? Is my Bitcoin going to be taxed if I sell it? Am I able to move to certain locations? Some countries that have a great treatment of Bitcoin, for example, Switzerland, Singapore, it's very hard to emigrate to if you...
For non-EU nationals, it's hard to emigrate to Switzerland, right? Hard to get residency or get citizenship in Singapore used to be easier. But really, that's the distinction, is that we really tried to prioritize what's important to Bitcoiners for their lifestyle, their mobility, and where their capital is, is, you know, given the best treatment, like where...

**Stephan Livera** (3:37)
So if you're a Bitcoiner and you're thinking about second residency or citizenship, how do you recommend balancing this concept of mobility as contrasted with Bitcoin sovereignty?

**Adam Juchniewicz** (3:48)
Yeah, so it's a balancing act. You know, I think for myself, I've lived outside of the... as a US citizen, I've lived outside of the US since 2023 So you do have to kind of take into account where you can go, what are your options, and then also what are your reporting requirements? That's another thing.
For some people, they can just leave, you know, Australians, for example, you can become tax non-resident, and more or less the ATO isn't going to bother you unless you have some presence still in the country. But this idea about trying to optimize your lifestyle is really emerging, I think, in a post-COVID world. And I think predominantly Americans, we found ourselves at a disadvantage after that. So North America has actually turned up to be the largest market of people who are looking to sort of get second citizenship, second residency, that sort of thing. And Bitcoiners, as the price of Bitcoin has appreciated over the years, we're in a little bit of a bear market now, you know. But as people have accumulated wealth, they have basically decided to vote with their wallets and their feet. And they're looking to relocate to places that they might receive preferential tax treatments or it's easier to get residency.
El Salvador made residency easier this year back in March, where you only need to spend 90 days in the country to become a tax resident. So, you know, those are just examples of where people can sort of optimize their lifestyle with respect to Bitcoin.

**Stephan Livera** (5:56)
I see. Yeah. And just kind of glancing through your index, you've got El Salvador comes in number one, Malta number two, Switzerland, St. Kitts and Nevis, Portugal, UAE, Grenada, Cyprus, Antigua and Barbuda, and Singapore is kind of your top 10 So, listen is kind of trying to get a sense of that. Now, you touched on this reporting concept. So, obviously, there's a lot of this kind of global reporting, things like FATCA, CRS, CARF, Cundo Asset Reporting Framework.