The US Treasury has proposed a rule so broad that it would effectively make sending a #Bitcoin transaction illegal.

After a 90 day comment period, this rule will likely become active. The kicker is they don't even need Congress to pass a new law. They are using a specific section of the Patriot Act to take more of your freedoms.

What is one to do?

Do you sell all your Bitcoin and accept fiat slavery?

Do you try to obfuscate your KYC stack to give you more plausible deniability?

I'm not sure what the right answer is exactly, but I do know you should be thinking deeply about this now. You don't want to look back 90 days from now and wish you took some kind of action that would put you in a better place after this rule is in effect.

So I encourage you all to take time to figure out this problem. Figure out what you're going to do.

Because they're done laughing at us. Now, they're fighting us. And you know what happens next.

Germany has one of the highest levels of Bitcoin adoption in the world. Usually in the #1 or #2 spot for number of nodes. Why? Do they remember the hyperinflation from a century ago?

Yet German politicians are overwhelmingly against it. Why? Liberal ESG concerns?

I used to believe in political incrementalism- the idea that you can change things gradually through better election outcomes.

But maybe it was also just youth, I don’t know.

After spending many years studying how the current monetary system works, studying how past debt and currency cycles ended, and based on practical realities from the past two election cycles, I dropped any notion of incrementalism, at least for the big economic things.

Incrementalism works for minority groups to gain social and political rights. Religious people to practice without interference, women to vote, gay people to marry, etc. Immigration policies. Things like that. But it doesn’t work for the financial system.

Instead, history and current affairs suggest that things generally point in the same structural financial direction, uncontested, until there is a massive fiscal crisis, geopolitical crisis, and trend change. And that is when politics becomes critical in all aspects- as chaos develops, the group that has enough power to set the next order *really* fucking matters. They either build a platform of virtue toward the next cycle, or they fall into the unfortunately common paths of communism or fascism.

And it is not just ideas that triumph, but technology too. Technology plays a big role in which ideas are even workable. Both ideas and technology are important.

So when I realized incrementalism wasn’t working, I sought out other methods.

The weaker method is just social- I try to put things out there with my platform to encourage reason, empathy, human rights, etc. Not partisan but also not necessarily moderate, but rather grounded in firm principles of virtue ethics.

The stronger method is to play some small part in building something better. Alternative money. Alternative communication methods. Either explaining and recommending them to people, or directly venture investing in companies that build on them and help improve the UX and solve new problems.

That’s my goal. I want to do whatever tiny part I can to bring about more peace, more fairness, more opportunity, more growth, and less destruction.

We’re just going to have to get more sly and more roundabout.

bitcoin will demonetize gold. superior technology

fuck a kayak! i’m flying on planes!

Americans traveling around Europe be like...

you do not have to quit tiktok or twitter if you do not want to but just know that I am disappointed in your lack of conviction

Good morning ☀️ Gratitude 🙏

Sometimes we just need to walk away.

Today is going to be a great day!

THE FIATJAF says it’s THE NOSTR. nostr:note1gt4q3wdd6lfjzmweh9ge594s8vjga5cshuqdqzdhj9d6ahdlgasqpe96fa