“Planting trees does not necessarily mean a forest is being restored. And reviving ecosystems in which trees are scarce is important too. Determining whether local people and the environment are benefiting is a more helpful measure of success than simply scanning a forest canopy from above.”
#grownostr
“Also worth mentioning is the current push by the Bank of England towards central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), in which buyers and sellers would transfer money directly without having to use the banking system. This could enable central banks to encourage or discourage certain spending in more targeted ways, for example by restricting what can be spent by people in certain areas or income brackets. If inflation was controlled using only fiscal levers, CBDCs could be used to reinforce this policy.”
https://theconversation.com/interest-rates-the-case-for-cutting-them-permanently-to-zero-209427
“Neo-Keynesians want you to believe that unit price movements are the same as aggregate prices. And it is not. The only thing that makes all prices rise in unison is the constant destruction of the purchasing power of the currency issued by a monopolistic player: the state.”
https://mises.org/wire/private-corporations-dont-cause-price-inflation-governments-do
“I now hear in Kant’s line about the “crooked timber of humanity,” not a sage, even wryly appreciative regard for humanity’s inescapable flaws and foibles as one might find in Chaucer or Montaigne, but an anticipation of the technocrat’s annoyance with the recalcitrant human element, which eludes their total mastery. If only we had sufficient data, we could aim deliberately at the realization of the grand designs of nature for the human race by bringing greater swaths of human activity under predictive administration.”
“Third, buying bitcoin could reflect a “loss” of assets under management (AUM). If these institutions were to help their family offices or wealth managers directly buy bitcoin, that is no longer an asset they “manage.” This amount of AUM is a critical metric for banks, investment managers and other institutions. In contrast, by creating products, they would remain in management control.”
“After Lightning is incorporated into sites, you can start integrating Lightning into APIs. A single website owner doesn't need to be the provider of the APIs either. We can begin making API requests across domains and allowing the 402 payment-required response to prompt the user to make the payment (or automate it). 402 can remove the identity from the resource consumption too. So no need to have accounts across the entire internet to use a one-off functionality.”
“People don’t understand the monetary system, let alone the problems they face within. (Insert the potentially-overused analogy about asking a fish about water here.)”
“At the heart of Bitcoin maximalism is a critique of traditional, centralized financial systems. Maximalists regard Bitcoin as an antidote to the flaws they perceive in these systems - from the manipulation of monetary policy and the erosion of individual privacy, to systemic corruption and economic inequality. This perspective is deeply intertwined with the political and ideological leanings of many maximalists.
To maximalists, Bitcoin represents a new financial paradigm, one that is transparent, decentralized, and resistant to censorship. The potential of Bitcoin to breakdown traditional financial intermediaries and return financial power and privacy to individual users forms a crucial pillar of the maximalist thought.”
“Proof-of-work is insanely efficient if your goal is to create a monetary system that is free from politics and secured in a public and transparent manner. If you do not value such a system, it will always seem wasteful.”
“…no other currency serves as a valid economic standard because it lacks the crucial criterion: a fixed boundary. Moreover, since money is handed over in exchange for a service, it embodies a claim on the entire market, which is distorted if the total money supply is increased.”
https://dematerialize.blog/bitcoin-is-the-economic-measuring-stick
“Proper diversification requires liquid assets outside of the traditional financial system.”
“Bitcoin’s market cap sits currently at roughly 600 billion USD, a tiny, insignificant little spot in all the world’s money and markets, which exceeds 1.3 quadrillion USD (A number with fifteen zeros!). Thus, Bitcoin is currently valued at 0.00046153846 per cent, despite being one of a few assets without any counterparty risk.”
“Self-interest seems to take precedence over everything else – but these are so skillfully and unalterably guided by the rules of the network that everyone benefits.
…
Bitcoin makes no promises to anyone and has no vision. Bitcoin makes no contracts and has no sanctions. Bitcoin also has no values. Maybe we can project them in, but Bitcoin just exists to begin with. And works. And through technology based on hard rules, something even greater is created: A global cooperation that puts the individual first while adding unparalleled value to the whole.”
“Put simply, to pass the Modern Turing Test, an AI would have to successfully act on this instruction: “Go make $1 million on a retail web platform in a few months with just a $100,000 investment.” To do so, it would need to go far beyond outlining a strategy and drafting some copy, as current systems like GPT-4 are so good at doing. It would need to research and design products, interface with manufacturers and logistics hubs, negotiate contracts, create and operate marketing campaigns. It would need, in short, to tie together a series of complex real-world goals with minimal oversight. You would still need a human to approve various points, open a bank account, actually sign on the dotted line. But the work would all be done by an AI.”
“…the idea that inscriptions are embedded “onto” or directly “into” satoshis, and that the inscription data and a corresponding sat are inextricably linked within the Bitcoin protocol without the need for an external indexer, has created a dangerous fallacy for potential investors.”