This summer, Nate Scholz retired from Brilliance Labs. In retirement he is spending his time with family, working on his property, writing, and traveling.

Nate had been writing and building with us since 2024, and in August 2025 he joined our staff as Global Programs Director. His job description was simple to say and hard to do: come alongside global leaders to solve chronic cross-cultural problems. He did it for a year, and much of our Bitcoin for Missions work carries his fingerprints.

He came to us with more than twenty years of cross-cultural ministry behind him. He co-founded the Arizona Center and taught English there. He spent seven years in Tyre, Lebanon, and learned Arabic. He directed a mobilization team in the Pacific Northwest that recruited and coached 85 new cross-cultural workers. He spent a decade convening practitioners from more than 170 organizations through the Vision 5:9 Network, and later worked on innovation at Frontier Ventures. While he was with us he also finished a Master of Arts in Global Ministry Design at Southeastern University, with Alpha Chi honors.

What Nate built

  • The Bitcoin for Missions white paper. Our first full case for how Bitcoin can help money reach missionaries in hard places. It still anchors the initiative.
  • Design labs. Nate and Ahshuwah mapped out the Bitcoin for Missions design labs and first offered the model to Missio Nexus as a proposal for their innovation grant. The labs took Nate to India, where he worked with local leaders to design Bitcoin tools around real needs.
  • Training in the field. Nate trained cross-cultural workers to exchange Bitcoin for local currency, one practical step at a time.
  • Writing that traveled. He wrote more than fifteen pieces for From the Lab, and his article "Bitcoin Is Bridging Barriers in Global Missions" ran in Mission Frontiers in September 2025.
  • Bringing people in. Our research intern Jacob Evans first met us at the 2024 Thank God for Bitcoin Convention, where Nate was handing out materials on cryptocurrency and the mission of God. That is how Nate worked: always inviting someone else into the story.

What carries on

Bitcoin for Missions and Frontier Finance continue. Questions about either can go to hello@brilliancelabs.org.

Nate, thank you. For your patience with every question, your faith, and the long hours you put into making this practical for people far from Portland. We are grateful for you, and we are cheering you on.

The Brilliance Labs team