We don’t get to manage who saves our life in a crisis.
We don’t get to manicure exactly how we will win.
We don’t get to pick the people who care for us, or our customers or investors.
We don’t get to choose how we are hurt, or who hurts us.
We *can* choose to show up as who we are, always navigating toward the best possible outcome on behalf of ourselves and others.
Too often, lives and opportunities are lost or wasted because people misunderstand what they can and cannot control.
#Bitcoin #Nostr
In the choice between 1) censoring your platform and 2) no longer operating in the country demanding you censor your platform, it seems clear that the choice is 1 if you value free speech.
More importantly, this is why it’s critical to build P2P platforms that can’t be censored.
Every centralized service will be captured.
Heavy regulation creates monopolies.
Panel discussion: “Power, Trust and Ethics” in #Bitcoin
At Princeton University’s DeCenter Spring 2023 Conference.
NIMBYism = the Cage of Norms
(Robinson and Acemoglu)
One of the most interesting things about the current political realignment is that groups that criticize “fiat” X, Y, or Z are often upset about the same things that other groups call “capitalist” X, Y, or Z.
“Fiat” and “capitalist” are used to describe the same “bad” things by people who don’t talk to each other.
This is a major opportunity. A large movement can find common ground if we just take the time to define our terms and clarify our assumptions about how the world works.
Capitalism is a social technology, like language and money. It gives people a kind of power, but power can be used to both create flourishing and destroy life. (The AI paper clip problem is one example of a powerful technology let loose to solve for something destructive.)
AI, markets, money—all of these things have critical roles in human society. But what they are *put to work to do* depends on the *character* of the human societies that deploy them.
The *purpose* of technology is a *human* problem.
#technology #capitalism #plebchain #grownostr #human
What if the character of money fundamentally inflects what is possible in a politico-economic system? I.e. what different “expressions” of capitalism emerge when the main currency is a hard one vs. a fiat one? Or where there is some dual or triple currency regime? There are so many interesting ways to approach these questions.
#hardmoney #bitcoin
There is a lot to criticize this administration for, but expanding access to legal immigration is good policy.
Since President Biden announced his border plan in *January*, encounters with migrants illegally crossing the border with Mexico are down 39%. By adding Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Haiti to the list of countries eligible for humanitarian parole in January, President Biden has cut illegal immigration from those countries by 98%(!) in only three months.
People want to come to the U.S. legally.
If you currently hold #Bitcoin or are considering buying #Bitcoin, this report by my friend and @TXBitcoinFound Board Member @tuur in partnership with @unchainedcom, is well worth your time.
Well-reasoned, evidence-based analysis for your consideration.
https://unchained.com/how-to-position-bitcoin-boom
#nostrplebs #coffeechain #plebchain #nostreon #grownostr
In 2021, 752 money laundering offenders were reportedly sentenced to prison in the U.S.
That works out to more than $61 MILLION per conviction, based on the costs of complying with the ever-expanding Bank Secrecy Act.
https://www.cato.org/blog/warren-misses-details-bank-secrecy-act
Just because it’s hard, doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong—or that it isn’t worth doing.
#growstr #plebchain
So if you’re wondering what the Effective Altruists are up to now, it’s re-introducing software export controls under the banner of “AI Governance”.
It’s weird how people claiming to have pinpointed the “issues that have the biggest impact on the future of humanity” (climate change, pandemics, “AI alignment”) seem to immediately conclude that expanding state power is the best way to approach solving those problems.
But since the “biggest problem facing humanity” changes constantly in The Discourse, and these people are entirely trend-driven, they will likely never be held accountable for their terrible judgment.
#grownostr
The internet is arguably humanity’s most important infrastructure, but it’s filled with centralized chokepoints that can and will be commandeered by powerful actors (if they haven’t been already).
#bitcoin isn’t just about fixing the money. It’s about fixing the internet.
They want you keeping your #money in dollars so they can devalue government debt by inflating away your savings.
They see “crypto” as either a foreign currency or a foreign asset—and either way, they don’t want you buying it.
This is what China, Japan, and many other countries have already been doing for decades.
America has of course financially repressed as well, but we tend to believe in free markets enough that we don’t exercise draconian capital controls.
That is beginning to change.
@CryptoHayes says the quiet part loud: The Federal Government’s “War on Crypto” (Operation Chokepoint 2.0) is its way of implementing something anathema to American free market ideals:
capital controls. https://cryptohayes.medium.com/exit-liquidity-3052309e6bfa
Wow. So kidneys and pancreases routinely fail to be transplanted because they’re treated as baggage and fly commercial.
But unlike people’s suitcases, organs aren’t tracked electronically—only on paper. 😱
Seems like Apple could save thousands of lives and discharge its CSR mandates by just donating a few thousand AirTags to UNOS.
The use of reason can be dangerous.
But it’s that or the mob.
The Twitter suppression saga is yet another example of why putting trust in one powerful authoritarian to quash another is a profound mistake.
It’s easy to wax poetic about freedom when you’re the one being suppressed.
But have you cultivated the character to wield the power you seek for the emancipation of others?
The concern around FedNow being a precursor to a CBDC has revealed to many the extent to which the digital banking system is already fully controlled.
While FedNow and CBDC are totally different projects, incubated by different groups, for different reasons, with different technical architectures, what they have in common is the premise that the state is at some point an intermediary for every transaction.
This is why the major distinction in the coming years will be state money vs. non-state money.
The state moneys are not going away (at least, not anytime soon); but, for the first time in a long time, the people of the world have a politically-neutral alternative #bitcoin