People often assume that whoever their god is, that it is standing with them specifically. In the US, they often separate this view along party lines.

Conservatives to some extent imagine Jesus standing with them on the border with a rifle protecting Christendom against anarchy. Even if many of those immigrants are ::checks notes:: also Christians. If a "woke" bishop calls for compassion on immigrants and is not a fan of the twice-divorced President who can't name his favorite bible chapter and forgot to put his hand on the bible when being sworn in, she's somehow the baddie rather than him, even among Christians.

Progressives to some extent imagine Jesus walking around in Gaza or Haiti or Sudan attending to the least advantaged among us. He shuns the empire and tends to them. And yet, while Jesus called for pacifism and was a rhetorical saint among chill speakers, many of them find a way to mentally turn extremists into heroes. Anything the underdog society does against the dominant society is justified. Even if it's violent toward civilians. In our media rebels are cool, but in reality they often like to kill the gays or the civilians, so it gets awkward pretty fast rather than being like the cool Star Wars rebels vs the Empire.

I find myself in a weird camp that almost nobody is onboard with.

I'm like, "Yes, we actually need to secure our borders. We need to be more scrutinizing for our society's sake. We need slower, higher-end immigration. And we actually need to enforce the rule of law for theft on the streets."

But also,

"No, I don't think Jesus of Nazareth as depicted in text would be onboard with this border view. He'd view us like Rome. Let's not re-imagine him as onboard with this. We're rooting for ourselves; he'd root for the underdogs."

I'm too woke for the conservatives and too based for the progressives.

The US was involved with multiple coups in Latin America. We ran the reserve currency and tried to bend them to our will with their dollar-denominated debt 40 years ago by spiking the value of that debt. Some of them went into retarded socialism and rekt themselves throughout that time period too; it's not all our fault. But it's some of our fault.

And then we militarily entered the Middle East. We made deals with them, funded them against the Soviets, and then turned against them. We've invaded them at like a 100:1 ratio vs them invading us with one major incidence (9/11). And as much as I am a fan of Jews as a people (as someone who grew up in Northeastern USA where Jews are relatively dense, I'd happily have them settle all around here), Israel is a state is colonial; our western powers displaced Gazans to make it and have been fighting that reality ever since.

We're Rome. And like Rome, we think we are justified. And along those lines, we're probably partially right, and probably partially wrong.

When you take a view, imagine every possible view opposing it.

And as the US dominates as neo-Rome, I think we will realize how distant we are from Jesus the hippie.

Bitcoiners and Christians. Would Jesus have been a Bitcoiner, if it had existed at the time. And why or why not?

I'm not religious. There is no combination of words in the English language that you can use to convince me otherwise.

Sometimes, though, I wish there was. To admit anything else would be a lie.

Christianity is on the rise amongst bitcoiners, and I sometimes think of my own experiences with religion because of this.

I grew up in America with the Greek Orthodox church. I was an alter boy, and I went to Greek school after normal school. We were taught Greek culture, religious topics, language, etc.

The church was my social center. More than that, it was an aesthetically pleasing place.

The Byzantine iconography. The smells of incense. The feel of the pews. The beautiful hymns chanted in Greek. The taste of the Eucharist.

As a youth & young adult, the divine liturgy was an experience for the senses. I wanted to believe. The idea of a greater power watching over us is very powerful. It gives a man purpose.

Alas, I could not believe. I do not believe. It's not me.

True believers show up every Sunday, but there are also the ones present for the social aspects. It's what they grew up with. They go through the motions, live their lives as decent humans, but are likely too afraid to confront their beliefs.

I couldn't respect myself if I did this. I can't be inauthentic to myself and to the true believers in attendance.

Being honest with myself meant leaving the church. It was like denouncing the club, removing myself from a social circle that was the foundation for much of my life.

It left a space that I've done my best to fill.

I think the world would be a better place if everyone lived by the general teachings of Jesus. If we were kind to others. Love your neighbor, forgive people, and all that. This is decent human behavior.

I try to live my life this way, but it is not easy.

This post isn't a cry for help. Deep down, I'm not trying to be convinced. Much like my journey with the carnivore diet, and diet in general, only my own experiences will convince me. I remain unconvinced.

I'm glad some of you are true believers, and I wish you peace and happiness on your spiritual journies. 🧡

Christianity is powerful

Hi everyone!

My new book just launched on Amazon.com this week! Check it out if you want to learn more about the global utility of Bitcoin in Africa!

Hearing "you were right about Bitcoin" from friends hits differently. It’s not an admission—it’s a defeatist shrug.

It means, "You were right, but it’s too late now. I missed it." That attitude is the hardest to hear because it’s not true.

A lot of people think Bitcoin is too good to be true. And when you describe it without thinking, yeah—it does sound that way. A future of sound money, fairness, and freedom? It’s hard to imagine because we’ve been trained to expect disappointment, not hope.

People have been conditioned to be nihilistic about the future. So when Bitcoin offers a way out, it’s easier to dismiss it as "too late" or "not real" than to accept it’s already here.

They think it’s over. They don’t see that it’s barely begun.

You weren’t right then. You’re right now. And you’ll keep being right. It’s not about the past—it’s about waking up to the future.

A lot of people have heard my moped story, but heres the math on it.

In 2016 I needed $5,000 to pay my wife’s master’s school tuition.

I didn’t have $5,000 cash at the time, but I did have bitcoin.

Bitcoin was trading at roughly $500, so I would have had to sell 10 bitcoin in order to pay the tuition.

I didn’t want to do that so I sold my car instead for $5,500.

I took $500 of that and bought a shitty moped and used the rest to pay my wife’s tuition.

So I rode the moped around the rest of the year and everyone made fun of me. Usually I play this part of the story up, but tbh it didn’t bother me. The people making fun of me were poorer than I was, they didn’t understand bitcoin or the market or even basic budgeting.

When people would make fun of me I would tell them why I was doing what I was doing. Then I would start peppering them with questions about their financial life.

“Oh so you financed your refrigerator? You’re still paying that off huh?”

“You have a timeshare you’ve never been to? How’d you get talked into that?”

People would generally go from laughing at me riding the moped to feeling shell shocked by me popping their bubble of comfortable delusion.

Still I drove the moped and everyone thought I was being weird and ridiculous and silly etc…

At 100k that decision was worth a million dollars.

At a million it will have been worth 10 million.

And at 10 million it will have been a nine figure decision.

100 million dollars.

I only rode the stupid moped for 8 months.

Ask yourself? Would you face 8 months of sacrifice and ridicule for 10 million in the future?

Because there are things you could be doing today that would generate that for future you.

My advice is to have your own moped moment.

Do something a little weird/cringe/out there in order to stack more sats and then check in on the sats in 10-15 years.

I think you’re going to be happy with the results.

Bitcoin has now been working and trading for 15 full calendar years. It's time to see how it's doing and run some numbers.

On Jan 1, 2010, there were 1,624,000 bitcoin in circulation trading at around $0.001 each. The total market capitalization of bitcoin was ~$1,624.

On Dec 31, 2024, there were 19.803 million bitcoin trading at around $93,389 each, for a total market capitalization of $1.85 trillion.

In total over the 15 years, the size of bitcoin cash balances has increased by 110,400,000,000,000%, or around 110 billion percent.

If, during the next 15 years, bitcoin grows at only 1 ten millionth of its growth rate over the last 15 years, it grows to a total market cap of around $210 trillion, making it larger than all the world's fiat currencies and government bonds combined.

In such a world, a government may be able to keep its shitcoin alive if it doesn't inflate its supply too much (a big if, and an even bigger may). Whether they do or do not is largely inconsequential, because either way, inflation won't be able to touch the majority of the world's wealth.

Any bitcoin bearish thesis needs to present a coherent explanation for why bitcoin's next 15 years are going to have a growth rate that is significantly lower than a ten millionth of the rate of the past 15 years. Don't expect to hear one from people who get paid from the inflation bitcoin will kill.

Happy 2025!

Fiat is over if you want it!

90,001.01

HORRIBLE ADVICE.

LEARN HOW TO HOLD BITCOIN SECURELY YOURSELF.

I RECOMMEND BITKEY FOR NON TECHNICAL USERS. COLDCARD FOR EVERYONE ELSE.

SELF CUSTODY IS EASIER THAN DRIVING A CAR OR RAISING A KID.

NO EXCUSES. FIGURE IT OUT OR REGRET IT LATER.

Some lightning minimum fee requirement I suspect. Try now.

The success of bitcoin can be defined in two ways.

On the one hand, there is the success of bitcoin as an investment asset. On the other, there is the success of Bitcoin as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system.

The success of Bitcoin as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system will always guarantee the success of bitcoin as an investment asset.

The success of bitcoin as an investment asset does not guarantee the success of Bitcoin as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system.

The success of Bitcoin as an investment asset is the blue pill – It’s the decision to stay in a safe, predictable world and avoid confronting uncomfortable truths. Scaling and privacy aren’t just not needed, but seen as actual risks.

The success of Bitcoin as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system is the red pill – It’s the decision to break out of the Matrix and build a world where financial censorship becomes an impossibility, but it requires future updates to the protocol.

Since the notion that self-custody is undesirable for users has increasingly been floating around, let us make this very clear: If you do not take custody of your funds, you do not get to decide.