The future is coming at us fast and furious. Life will change out of all recognition.
But then hasn’t it always.
As we kick off 2026 it’s time to wake up to the fact the world doesn’t operate with money anymore, it operates with currency — tokens created as debt and used as a proxy for money. Once you understand this system a lot of the chaos starts to make sense.
Study bitcoin.
I used to think the ‘idea’ that is America was in jeopardy after Jan 6, after the financial crisis, after 9/11, after Iran Contra, after Watergate, after Vietnam, after JFK, after The Manhattan Project.
But despite all that the idea remains.
https://blossom.primal.net/84ba4eb8ef0bd9bc72a2c2a794c39d2247b826a758f4235c4943766899841c31.mov
₿
99% of us just want to live quietly, raise our kids, love our people and chase our dreams in peace.
So why do we keep tolerating “leaders” who start wars, sow hatred, and treat entire populations like chess pieces?
How much longer?
Inflation, often dismissed as a natural economic phenomenon, is in reality a subtle tax on your time and energy. Every hour you work, every ounce of effort you expend, is converted into currency that loses purchasing power over time due to deliberate policy decisions.
Study bitcoin.
“Own and control your digital life. Simplicity, self-sovereignty and privacy.”
Study bitcoin.
When Europeans arrived, Native American populations were overwhelmed.
Now technology might overwhelm traditional American life: neighborly bonds and self-reliance replaced by screens, LLMs and Palantir.
Own and control your digital life. Simplicity, self-sovereignty and privacy.
Yes. I’ve spoken to a few merchants. The reaction is often “Really. That’s interesting.” Then they return to their busy fiat lives.
I do keep up the efforts though as I think inflation will eventually make the frog realize the water around them is starting to boil.
It briefly went to $1M but is now back at $87K.
Frankly…useless so far. But at least the locals keep hearing the word ‘bitcoin’ over and over.
🇨🇭 Lugano, Switzerland has emerged as a rare example of citywide bitcoin adoption, where bitcoin is used for everything from buying coffee to paying taxes, purchasing from local merchant and tuition.
Through its Plan ₿ initiative, launched in 2022, residents and businesses can pay with bitcoin via simple QR codes. Unlike credit cards, bitcoin fees are often below 1%. ⚡️
(Mendocino could do the same making bitcoin our local currency.)
Out here you can still live with most of the comforts of modern life…
but you don’t have to.
But it’s all pseudonymous.
If someone paid me for mowing their lawn in bitcoin and then I went to a local farmer and bought some raw milk with some of my bitcoin. Then say the farmer went to someone else and paid in bitcoin for some orchard grass for some of their horses…only some people would know about these transactions.
₿
Feel optimistic.
The future is bright.
Turn on, tune in, drop out.
From Adam Livingston | @AdmBLiv:
The Stages of Becoming Orange-Pilled
Stage One: You're Sleeping
You're comfortable. You have a job. A 401k.
You believe in "the economy." You think the Federal Reserve is boring but necessary, like flossing or C-SPAN. You're saving money.
By which I mean: you're watching your purchasing power evaporate in real-time while calling it "being responsible."
You are a debt slave who hasn't checked the chains yet.
Someone mentions Bitcoin at a party. You laugh. "That thing criminals use?" you say. "That internet money that crashed?" Everyone nods. You all agree.
Bitcoin is ridiculous.
You go back to discussing your mortgage - 30 years of indentured servitude at 6.5% interest that you celebrate like Stockholm syndrome.
The system has you. And you don't even know it.
Stage Two: The Itch
Something doesn't add up.
Why do houses cost ten times what they cost when your parents bought theirs?
Why does your salary sound impressive until you try to buy anything?
Why can BlackRock afford to buy every house in America but you can't afford one?
You start noticing things. The money printer memes.
The inflation rates that don't match your grocery bill.
The billionaires getting bailouts while you get budgeting advice.
Bitcoin keeps appearing. In headlines. In conversations.
Like a splinter in your mind. Like the Matrix glitching.
You buy $100 worth as a joke. To say you did it. To see what happens.
The price immediately drops 30%.
Welcome to the fucking arena.
Stage Three: The Rabbit Hole
You were just going to check the price. Just a quick look.
That was six hours ago.
Now you're watching a video about the Byzantine Generals Problem.
Now you understand what "proof of work" means.
Now you're reading the white paper - nine pages that explain how to trust math instead of men - and something in your chest cracks open.
You realize: Every economics class you took was a lie.
Every financial advisor was selling you slavery with extra steps.
The entire monetary system is just confidence game wrapped in acronyms.
You're angry. So fucking angry.
You buy more Bitcoin. Not because the price is going up.
Because you've seen the truth and you can't afford not to.
Your friends are worried.
Your spouse is asking questions.
You're trying to explain that money isn't real but also it's the most real thing and Bitcoin is the only honest ledger in a world of lies and....
...you sound insane. You know you sound insane.
But you also know you're right.
Stage Four: The Zealot
You are insufferable.
Every conversation becomes about Bitcoin. Your family dreads Thanksgiving. Your coworkers avoid the break room when you're there.
You've memorized Saylor's speeches. You quote Satoshi like scripture.
You see fiat debasement everywhere.
In the shrinking candy bars, the subscription fees, the way your parents' generation bought houses on single incomes and now you need three jobs to rent a studio.
You calculate everything in sats. You experience physical pain watching people "invest" in bonds yielding 3% while inflation runs at 7%.
You want to grab strangers and shake them: DON'T YOU SEE? THE WHOLE THING IS A SCAM.
You go through bear markets like Christ in the desert.
80% drops that would make normal investors vomit.
But you? You're dollar-cost-averaging.
You're stacking sats.
You're buying the dip with money you shouldn't be spending because you've calculated that in 2035 this will seem cheap and your only regret will be not buying more.
Your conviction is unshakeable. Your portfolio is red.
Your family intervention is scheduled for next Tuesday.
Stage Five: The Plateau
The mania subsides. Not the belief - that's permanent now - but the need to convince everyone.
You realize: They have to find it themselves.
The orange pill can't be forced down someone's throat.
It has to be swallowed willingly.
You stop checking the price every hour. Then every day. Then every week.
You understand now: Bitcoin doesn't care about your attention. Bitcoin doesn't care about anything. It just produces blocks every ten minutes like the universe's most reliable heartbeat.
You set up your cold storage. You run a node. You become part of the infrastructure.
You're not investing anymore. You're participating in the future of money.
The volatility doesn't scare you. You've seen Bitcoin "die" 400 times in headlines. You've watched it resurrect itself while the dollar dies slowly, quietly, by design.
You're calm now. Eerily calm.
Because you've done the math and the math doesn't lie.
Stage Six: The Acceptance
You stop measuring your Bitcoin in dollars. That's the final step. That's enlightenment.
Because denominating your Bitcoin in dollars is like measuring the sun's brightness using a candle.
You understand now: You're not getting rich. The money is getting poor. Bitcoin isn't going up. Everything else is going down.
The dollar is the shitcoin. It always was.
You've become time-preference incarnate. Low time preference like a sequoia. Like a glacier.
You're thinking in decades now. In halvings. In generations.
While everyone else is playing checkers with their paychecks, you're playing 4D chess with your bloodline's financial sovereignty.
You don't talk about Bitcoin much anymore. When people ask, you share. When they don't, you stack.
You've realized the greatest gift you can give someone is not to convince them about Bitcoin, but to be there when they're ready to ask.
Stage Seven: The Becoming
Here's the secret they don't tell you: Bitcoin changes you in ways that have nothing to do with money.
You learn patience. You learn to do your own research.
You learn to verify instead of trust. You learn that the majority is often wrong and being early feels exactly like being wrong until suddenly it doesn't.
You become ungovernable. Not in an angry way. In a quiet, competent, self-sovereign way. You stop asking permission.
You stop waiting for institutions to save you.
You save yourself.
The journey isn't about getting rich quick. It never was.
It's about getting free slowly.
It's about opting out of a system that was designed to extract your life force one paycheck at a time and opting into a network that runs on mathematics instead of manipulation.
The Truth
You are not the same person who bought that first $100 of Bitcoin.
That person is dead.
They died the moment they understood that scarcity is real and the emperors have no clothes.
What remains is someone who's tasted financial sovereignty and can never go back to believing in fairy tales about stable coins printed by unstable governments.
The journey never ends. Bitcoin is always ten years away from changing everything and always has been.
But you? You're already changed.
You've seen the future.
And the future is ₿.
Talk to someone you disagree with.
The conversation is much more fun.
When you understand that at its core it is economic insecurity that exacerbates social divisions you’ve taken the first step.
Then when you go to the second step and understand that the current debt-based financial system exacerbates economic insecurity you’re ready for the third step…
Study bitcoin.
it is time that the U.S. recognizes that the world is filled with people who have different cultures, governance structures and priorities. This is okay. While we don't have to agree with any or all of these things, it is not our job to change them and we should find common ground where possible and use that as a jumping off point for mutually beneficial trade.
Everyone gets a prize!
The difficulty adjustment.
The bitcoin - U.S. $ exchange rate earlier today.
MARK MOSS: “In the world, there’s about 60 million millionaires and there’s only 21 million Bitcoin. Do the math.”
“BITCOIN IS NOT CRYPTO!”
“…which is why I constantly try to undermine it by distracting people with altcoins and other shiny objects.”
People say bitcoin is confusing.
Simply put:
Fixed Supply – 21 million cap, enforced by consensus and code
Decentralization – No central issuer or single point of failure
Immutability – Transactions are irreversible and final
Portability – Send value anywhere in the world in minutes
Divisibility – Can be split into 100 million sats per bitcoin
Durability – Digital and incorruptible; not subject to physical decay
Verifiability – Anyone can audit the supply and transaction history
Censorship Resistance – No one can block or reverse your payment
Neutrality – Rules apply equally to everyone, everywhere
Security – Backed by the most secure computing network in the world
If you think bitcoin is a get rich quick scheme you don’t understand bitcoin.
If you think bitcoin is an investment you don’t understand it either.
Bitcoin is an escape from the fiat currency system that has driven wealth inequality for fifty years and keeps more and more Americans living paycheck to paycheck.
We went to town and bought two ice creams for $11.75
Inflation is not prices going up, it’s the purchasing power of the dollar going down.
~~~
Bitcoin Mendocino
