Melanie Carstens is a media host, writer, and cultural curator with over 20 years’ experience in the music and fine art industries. She began working with Bitcoin five years ago as an alternative economic model in response to long-standing issues around ownership, control, and value distribution for artists.

She is the host of Bitcoin & Beyond, a weekly interview series covering Bitcoin, Bitcoin L2s, artificial intelligence, and culture through conversations with global founders, artists, and thinkers, as well as Pulse, which provides current ecosystem updates. She also writes HXMXN, a publication focussed on Bitcoin, AI, and creativity as these systems evolve.

Melanie has led three cohorts of the Stacks DeGrants Funding Program, supporting founders and artists across creative and digital industries. She is also an early investor and advocate for Bitcoin Ordinals, working to expand understanding of Bitcoin as a cultural and creative layer, not only a financial one.

She is based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Find out more at https://lnk.bio/melaniecarstens