Tl;dr version

Here’s what I share with people who say “Bitcoin has not valid use other than speculative asset”

My first assessment of Bitcoin was "Speculative asset that does nothing useful but uses lots of energy."

Sound familiar?

What I learnt was that it was only my ignorance combined with me inability to imagine the lives of others living outside the West that had me believe this.

The reality is that Bitcoin is in the same pantheon as the smartphone and the Internet itself in terms of its utility. But unlike its predecessors, it helps people in the global South first - the West last.

That's probably why most people (like me) in the West initially fail to see its utility TO THEM, and therefore assume it has no utility TO ANYONE.

Bitcoin analyst Willy Woo estimates there are 100Million+ users of Bitcoin, rising exponentially. Here's a demographic snapshot of who they are and why they use it:

There are 1.2Billion people who are unbanked - 57% of them are women, 90% are people of color.

There are 4Billion people living under autocratic or semi-autocratic regimes, where the financial system can be used against them (eg: state freezing of bank accounts, censoring and surveillance of how you spend money)

There are 8.1M adult women in Afghanistan who are prohibited by law from opening a bank account, starting a business or receiving an income because of their gender

There are >300M people who's economies are experiencing hyperinflation (including Turkey, Lebanon, Argentina, Venezuela)

These are the people who see the utility of Bitcoin first. Not us in the West who take for granted our privilege, human rights, functioning banking system, 99%+ access to banking, and relatively low inflation.

You may be thinking "so what - how does Bitcoin help these people?"

It helps the unbanked, because you don't need a bank. A feature-phone (yes, like the one you had in 1999) plus some basic Bitcoin education is all you need to receive, save and pay. There's a financial revolution happening in Africa right now: the poorest in the world are leapfrogging the banking sector and going directly to Internet-native money (Bitcoin). This is why the continent of Africa is adopting Bitcoin faster than any other continent.

It helps people in autocratic regimes because they cannot be surveilled, censored, de-platformed or frozen by the State. This is why Nigeria is one of the biggest adopters of Bitcoin. It's driven by human rights activism.

It helps women in Afghanistan, because they can (and do) adopt bitcoin Lightening Wallets, which means state discrimination cannot deny them financial equity.

It helps those living with hyperinflation because it allows them to avoid 10 years of life saving being reduced to 1/2 its value inside a year.

That's why of the top 10 nations adopting Bitcoin

1. Top 2 nations are experiencing hyperinflation

2. 7 or the top 8 countries were colonised + have heavy IMF/World Bank loans

3. 8/10 are autocratic or semi-autocratic regimes

4. 7/10 from Africa, Latin America or SE Asia

To more than 1/2 the world, Bitcoin is the most useful technology in a generation.

i shit you not, i popped over to bitcoin twitter the other day to see if they were freaking out about the current bitcoin price action and i saw a few people discussing nostr and how they hated nostr, because everyone was so nice here. they said they hated the positivity and the Kumbaya feeling. some people are so used to fighting one another that they have forgotten that it's okay to be nice and friendly humans too.

What happened to Swan?

It's up to the central banks. Operating a registered company means playing within their system. For now, compliance just means KYC etc (and all registered companies comply). More rules will be added as Bitcoin adoption increases, these companies will not be allowed to transact with non-custodial wallets, for example.

There used to be cocaine companies too.

The only reason people are getting away with it is because we're still in the honeymoon period. The criminalization phase will be very different.

Cause it's work and they'd rather be scrolling tiktok videos too.

Me, I'm a bad parent cause I'm addicted to #thecasine

Daily reminder: there is no such thing as a Bitcoin company (or a nostr company).

A Company is anchored in the State and may be called upon at any time to "comply" by acting as a branch of the State (giving up user details, banning certain users/customers/transactions, etc etc).

"Bitcoin companies" and Bitcoin can't both survive. If Bitcoin keeps growing, we enter the criminalization phase next. Bitcoin companies will comply with the State or be shut down.

"Nostr companies" and Nostr can't both survive either. If nostr becomes large enough, any "nostr company" will comply with the State or be shut down.

The biggest lie that Governments like to propagate is that humans can't spread risk and collaborate without registering a Company (or Security) of some kind. We've been collaborating and distributing risk longer than we've been human, there are indeed ways of doing this without the government stepping in to mediate our relationships.

Omw home from another date, this one seemed quite succesfull. She already wanted to meet a second time. Curious to see how this will be 🫣🤔

Therein lies the problem. It is not like company decides one day to spy on people’s habits (visited sites, ads clicked, things purchased, etc), it happens gradually and one day the line is crossed. The common question each company asks is, how do we increase our revenue?; what data can we utilize to improve customer retention; what other customer segments can we tap into? This goes on gradually, and one day we are collecting large datasets with a lot of information about customers that can tell the company how to “manipulate” them into more purchases and spendings. I am not saying it is spying, but if that data are used by the government branches to use against individuals, companies are powerless in most cases. 🐶🐾🫡

Hey is it kewl for someone to repost their own note every single day bc it’s super profound and important, or nah

Just curious nostr:note1kce0frkq3mvsjj60gr7ul6j0pzc6dljzx02njh6uhfw66e6j22zs6j945a