The single most important thing is integrity. Going back to the dawn of humanity, integrity is the most important ideal. Reputation among peers.

I'll critique certain platforms and technologies dispassionately. When I brutally talk about the Fed, for example, I have no grudge against Jerome Powell as a human being. He's not doing a bad job for the situation he's in; it's the institution and the technology around it that's corrupt, not him as a person necessarily. To the minor extent that he is fair game to get meme'd as its figurehead, it's because he chose to participate as its leader. But I meme him in a way that is not negative towards him personally, and mostly just funny. I imagine Powell laughing if he sees any of my memes of him. I view him as neutral, so I neither attack nor defend.

When a high-integrity person succeeds, I'll quickly shout it out to support them. If they fail, I'll assess what happened and likely support their next thing, within reason. Business is hard, but people with high integrity get multiple shots.

When a low-integrity person succeeds, which is usually but not always through unscrupulous means, I'll acknowledge it but inspect it to see where the shortcomings were and broadcast them. To the extent that they become apparent, I'll point them out. When it comes to success, truth is important, and so those that try to succeed without truth are worthy of criticism.

In 20,000 tweets, I've been polite to everyone except maybe five people at most, and I stand by being impolite to those handful. On the other end of the spectrum, there are plenty of people who I disagree with at times, but who I view as serious people with high integrity. I purposely stand down with public criticism against those types, and will be more strategic or private with any criticism that I have.

That's the benefit of integrity. You get networks, and you get support. You don't get to bend reality, but you get flexibility from your peers when things don't work out, and you get instant promotion when things work well.

It’s amazing how many bitcoin maxis are mocking Damus for building on iOS and recommending ... get this… not two… but… ONE OS! Because we all know Google has our backs forever. 🤦‍♂️

See you at 4:35pm EST

#proofofwalk

Too many people have given Elon a pass. Don't give him a pass.

He's a marketer, not a founder or an engineer. He didn't found PayPal or Tesla; he bought into them early. He's good at selling narratives and equity valuation for perpetually unprofitable companies.

Everything for him is a narrative. His green revolution was a narrative to sell more cars and get more subsidies. His bitcoin purchase was to gain appeal among bitcoin/crypto people in a bull market. And he shilled doge like a dumbass. His SpaceX narrative is to get money from the government.

His rooftop solar thing was an outright scam; the technology isn't ready and went nowhere because of that. His full-self-driving-in-an-intermediate-term timeline was a scam, and is going nowhere because of that. He makes scams to draw people and capital in, because for him it's all about narratives and equity valuation.

And then he dug unproductive holes, suggested unproductive hyper-tubes, built meme flamethrowers, for what? It's a narrative, not a business. None of this is real productive shit to make peoples' lives better.

His latest "we need free speech" narrative was a scam too. He tapped into something real, which is what marketers do and why it kind of worked. Yes, we need free speech. Yes, Twitter had censorship issues. He saw that and jumped on it maliciously rather than productively.

But what did he replace it with? He replaced it with arbitrary journalist censorship about his private jet, arbitrary censorship of Substack, selective Twitter Files release, won't talk seriously about any of his China connections because Xi Jinping fucking owns him economically there like Jack Ma, has his balls firmly in his grasp, etc.

Elon's playing the narrative, the anti-woke meme of the day. He's a master meme-momentum-player. Don't fall for it.

Bitcoin only ✅

Credit Suisse in Talks to Sell Stake in Brazil Hedge Fund Verde: BBG

Dear @federalreserve I bought SIVB at $320 at Cramer's advice and have an unrealized loss of 100%. Some angry guy keeps calling about some "margin call." I'd like to place the stock in your BTFP facility and get a loan for the full collateral value of $320. How can I do that?

BTC 24K

Talking with #[0]​ this morning. He’s an expert on banking, Bitcoin, ETFs, and fixed income. Send us your questions, Silvergate, Signature, Silicon Valley Bank, and DCG are already on the agenda.

QE time