I held bitcoin through the blocksize wars and forks, through the 2019 drawdown, through the Covid lows, the China mining ban, the 2021-22 shitcoin exchange fiascos, and countless nation state attacks along the way. I hold enough that it’s the difference between being a lifelong wage slave if it failed and being able to do literally anything I want and make an impact on the world if it succeed.

It’s been the largest bet of my life and has taken a massive amount of conviction. I’ve had countless sleepless nights and doubted myself many times. All of this to say: if it were easy everyone would have done it. I stopped being an evangelist in 2021 after I realized the skills I needed to hold for so long cannot be imparted to others. I still have people who approach me and I’m happy to discuss, but I mostly talk about those long dark nights laying awake wondering if I’d fucked my life by not selling the last top.

Thank you for open sourcing this kind of information on nostr!!

Humans are herd animals who depend on social trust structures to survive. Maybe you can point me to a time in history over the past 5,000 years of recorded history where this wasn’t true outside of brief periods of total societal collapse, in which basic survival becomes the goal not wealth preservation. Even after these periods social structures and institutions reformed as soon as possible. If bitcoin is the base monetary technology there will still be institutions built around it and the rule of law will govern taxation and economic policy. I think bitcoin is a giant leap forward in how humans transfer value, but given the choice of trusting institutions over themselves, humans will always trust the institutions. It’s my hope bitcoin will build better, more reliable and equitable institutions. Maybe we’re saying the same thing. I just know a lot of bitcoiners think men will become islands unto themselves, so to speak, and that’s where I think it’s a bet on human nature changing. I’ll always take the other side of that bet.

Yes.

You can understand and/or predict a lot of outcomes by thinking about the incentives involved as they relate to human nature. My favorite investments over the years have been betting against people who are convinced human nature has changed.

I’m not implying anything about control by my note. I’m just walking through the logic of custodial versus self-custody solutions. There will always be options for both, technically, but custodial solutions will be far more popular based on incentives and human nature. I’d prefer to believe that everyone will self-custody, but that’s a delusional belief unless some major catalyst triggers a complete collapse of existing institutions.

3D printing with plans shared via Nostr executes the 2nd Amendment.

Imagine the US Constitution executed with encryption-based tech instead of political parties. The constitution does not mention political parties and our founding fathers were very wary of them. Most people don’t realize our government is held hostage by two political parties which are private organizations funded by corporations, NGOs, and special interest groups as well as foreign interests in some cases. Read Aristotle’s “Politics.” It’s what inspired the founding fathers and will reshape your understanding of governments and democracy.

We have some interesting technology now that aligns well with the constitution. So there’s always hope!

I believe the US government anyway is held hostage by two political parties. These are private organizations who are funded by corporations and special interest groups. Try to achieve any significant level of elected office without bending the knee to one of the two parties. People say “it’s the system we have” but to me that’s like saying “well, this guy kidnapped me so he’s all I’ve got.” There are lots of ideas for a representative democracy or even a direct democracy that have never been tried because the architecture of this type of system is built and funded by those with the most to gain. I do vote, but I get no comfort in that fact that most Americans will be much poorer in four years no matter who I vote for. I’m wealthy thanks in large part to bitcoin, but I’m dooming my fellow citizens by voting for fiscally irresponsible politicians but there are no fiscally responsible ones because the corporations and NGOs need their money. So I vote for the kidnapper who at least takes us outside once in a while. 🤷‍♀️

On person in this thread is clearly potty trained and takes care of it at home while the other isn’t and craps all over the world. Get your potty training early, folks!

The future of all fiat backed governments.

nostr:note1dltvd5sm9m4g7khw7d0xqnx0gpqcec5y7s0uhvk9jlv4srk0fm2qntp9k5

I was just at Walgreens this week and thought exactly this. Half crap food and half medicine to deal with the crap food. It’s a flywheel of bad profit.

Oh man. “Box of Rain” Portland, OR, 6/24/73. Phil at the height of his power. One of my top 5 Dead performances.

Shareholders often vote counter to the board’s advisement.

Some kind spirit who did tremendous good in the world is enjoying an incarnation as Carl. Paradise!

Who benefits and is incentivized to self-custody? Those with some technical abilities who are concerned about protecting themselves from existing or future government oppression.

Who benefits and is incentivized by custodial services? Governments, banks, corporations, financial institutions, yield seeking investors, sovereign wealth funds, those with limited technical capability, those wanting to hold bitcoin in a tax advantaged account, 99% of the world’s money.

If a bill were passed that ensured bitcoin is legal to use as long as it’s custodial would most of the world care?

Wouldn’t Larry Fink call the politicians on his payroll and tell them to support such a bill to increase flows to his ETFs?

Tried to zap you and got an error by the way. Just fyi!

Certainly an option and probably what I would do as I already have options in place. But not practical for some people. Similar to Nazi Germany in the years leading up to the war. Some who saw what was coming stayed anyway because of family ties, responsibility to those around them, businesses, love of country, etc. I’m just trying to say that it’s easy to be ideological but when faced with it, it gets complicated for those who have a lot to lose. Obviously the “right” thing to do is get out, but who and what are you leaving behind. It’s seems mad in hindsight that people don’t flee oppressive regimes but most comply and stay where they are.

Let’s hope so. More likely we get a greatly amplified repeat of 2020.