Your intellectual hero walks up to you and says this:
"Bitcoin is a natural pomzi scheme. All the enthusiasm for it is techno-utopic horseshit designed to obscure the fact that it does nothing. All the 'scaling' solutions have turned out to be unusable boondoggles that barely work as demoware. And it's killing the planet to service a handful of nerds who haven't figured out that they are the last ones to be dumped on."
What do you say back?
HFSP
Yawn
Yawn at your hero. Their first sentence calling it a Ponzi already demonstrates they lack a basic understanding of the technology.
I said "natural ponzi", meaning nobody sits at the top and it is driven entirely by organic enthusiasm for profit.
Can you provide me an example of a “natural ponzi”?
Name a bubble. The tech bubble. The housing bubble. Anything that behaves and ultimately implodes like a scheme without a schemer. Robert Schiller, I believe, came up with this definition.
Interesting thought experiment. I suppose I dismiss the argument because it’s like calling the internet a bubble or something. Humans need a money to trade goods. We’re increasingly reliant on internet. Bitcoin is the natural solution.
Saif, what happened bro?!
HFSP
But honestly, this is the populist argument agianst bitcoin at this point. We have moved beyond "It won't work" and "It is weird" to
1) Bitcoin is a natural ponzi, driven entirely by organic enthusiasm for expected profits from something that does nothing
2) It is environmentally harmful and will tax our grids at a time when we can barely get renewables servicing *current* demand.
3) All the amazing promises behind it's 2nd layer solutions are driven by a handful of companoes that suck dick at delivering usable, viable, stable product
I don’t have any energy left to engage singular people holding these thoughts. I should but it’s increasingly difficult.
We fucking need to.
I know a few people who are intellegent, but they are cowards. Not trying to say intellegent people are cowards, but i don't think intellegence is the correct metric here.
I don't say nothing I don't care anymore. Like Saifedean said, Bitcoin is not a choice, you can't isolate yourself from the consequences of hard money. People don't understand Bitcoin because there never was anything like this, ever. The closest was in the beginning of civilations when gold took over other forms of money over time. Bitcoin is doing the same at a faster rate, moneys compete, Bitcoin is the apex predator, but people lack the knowledge that this is how money emerges in an organic manner without government mandate.
Nothing, because they’ll block you anyway for trying to respond with factual information.
"Sorry Taleb, your books were great and all, but you're the imbecile now, and we need a new edition of The Bitcoin Standard now so we can stop associating your NGMI intellect with this courageous seminal work. Who's the galaxy brain now?"
Definitely HFSP
Anyone thinking bitcoin is bad for the planet hasn't done their homework on the dollar or the rest of fiat currencies.
Also this... 👇🏻
I tell everyone to invest about the same as they understand. This guy shouldn’t invest anything and will eventually buy at the price they deserve, like everyone else. I no longer take this personally, some people have more to let go
Read ANY economy book written by an austrian economist.
Start with Bitcoin Standard.
Watch me do a magic trick: I can carry any monetary value while holding nothing.
“You used to be my intellectual hero.”Then walk away.
The more you learn about anything, the more you realize you have yet to learn. To be truly intellectual is to be humbled by the many times your ideas have not survived analytical and scientific rigor.
For this reason, this dogmatic, dismissive attitude is not one I associate with an "intellectual" and therefore this person ceases to be one in my mind.
*** The same can be said for Bitcoin maxis and Austrian purists ***
You can study in the same field your whole life and still lie on your death bed in awe at what you don't know.
I think the source is influential so would seem worth some thought.
I think the claim it “does nothing” is wrong. I think Bitcoin is the only technology that can move $ 1 million dollars (chosen because it the most liquid currency) any distance at any time without any permissions or middlemen or 3rd party.
That may not happen often, maybe never, but it’s not just theory- it’s actually possible with an internet connection and two agents willing to transact. What’s more they can move those Bitcoin back and forth probably 48 times in a single day give or take.
That isn’t just a nitpick that seems to be
A completely novel capability and seemingly so profoundly impactful it would seem to require full stop on the speakers rant because the rest that follows hangs off the “does nothing” chain that was snapped.
If I am wrong please help me understand
