hey nostr

any non US folks open to chatting with me and some of the strike team in a user research study we’re doing?

we are looking to launch our global on-ramps soon and we wanna learn more about how strike can be the best bitcoin experience and learn more about the financial needs of different parts of the world

I spoke at a big bitcoin-adjacent company this week and one of the best questions was from someone who asked what the downsides of bitcoin adoption might be.

I always do appreciate these steelman questions, the skeptical questions, the ones where we challenge ourselves. Only when we can answer those types of questions do we understand the concept that we are promoting.

So the classic example is that in modern economic literature, "deflation is bad". This, however, is only the case in a highly indebted system. Normally, deflation is good. Money appreciates, technology improves, and goods and services get cheaper over time as they should. Price of Tomorrow covers this well. My book touches on this too, etc. The "deflation is bad" meme is still alive in modern economic discourse and thus is worth countering, but I think in the bitcoin spectrum of communities, people get that deflation is fine and good.

My answer to the question was in two parts.

The first part was technological determinism. In other words, if we were to re-run humanity multiple times, there are certain rare accidents that might not replicate, and other commonalities that probably would. Much like steam engines, internal combustion engines, electricity, and nuclear power, I think a decentralized network of money is something we would eventually come across. In our case, Bitcoin came into existence as soon as the bandwidth and encryption tech allowed it to. In other universes or simulations it might look a bit different (e.g. might not be 21 million or ten minute block times exactly), but I think decentralized real-time settlement would become apparent as readily as electricity does, for any civilization that reaches this point. So ethics aside, it just is what it is. It exists, and thus we must deal with it.

The second part was that in my view, transparency and individual empowerment is rarely a bad thing. Half of the world is autocratic. And half of the world (not quite the same half) deals with massive structural inflation. A decentralized spreadsheet that allows individuals to store and send value can't possibly be a bad thing, unless humanity itself is totally corrupted. I then went into more detail with examples about historical war financing, and all sorts of tangible stuff. In other words, a whole chapter full of stuff. I've addressed this in some articles to.

In your view, if you had to steelman the argument as best as you could, what are the scenarios where bitcoin is *BAD* for humanity rather than good for it, on net?

Author proofs so that I can check the details.

The gray stripe is a not-for-resell indicator as an author proof.

Orange circuits grow across the cover, representing the future.

Kind words from Preston.

It has been a very time consuming process resulting in some degree of burnout, so I am excited to get it out there. nostr:note1lgas448rpp3jqdnh5d48n67ey8q54y3fnf8k48knlvt5znzuwtpsrzu4vh

Elon and Altman are in similar camp for me of people with maximum hubris.

Both understand the increasing power of AI, but seem hell bent on ensuring they capture most of it through broken money versus advocating that the productivity gains to flow to society through #Bitcoin.

Fortunately, their actions won’t work over the long term. Unfortunately, many people will be hurt along the way.

Used to be Pocket, now it's the Readwise reader. Perfect reader app doesn't exist (yet).

Exactly. I’d pay to read MSM hit pieces on Bitcoin if I could zap them.

mrs allen just bought Hamilton tickets for over a year away. at first she was a little guilty about how much they cost, but then said: “on the bright side, with inflation, these might go for 2 or 3 times as much by the time we decide to resell them.”

I'm writing again. Feels good.

Summary of yesterday’s project:

I successfully connected my #[0] LN address to my LN Node so now when I receive and sending zapps it goes straight to my Node!

Pretty good feeling!!

Only one thing that’s bothering me. I have my Node connected through LNC but it takes about 4x the time to open when I press the zapp button compared to when it’s connected to Albys Node.

I still have a few things to try but it’s working good for now!

⚡⚡⚡⚡ Spread the love by Zapping ⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡

bot made by #[0]

List of successful zaps

⚡️ Zapped #[1] 21 sats

⚡️ Zapped #[2] 21 sats

⚡️ Zapped #[3] 21 sats

⚡️ Zapped #[4] 21 sats

Successful Zap count: 1175. My Zap Balance: 21351 sats. Zap me to keep this going forever..!

It's so silent this moment, let's zapping around for a while. Repost and drop 64 sats invoice.

It's so silent this moment, let's zapping around for a while. Repost and drop 64 sats invoice.