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DrLuke
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Husband, Father, Son, Brother, Disciple, Friend, Doctor, Mentor, Coach, Teacher, #Bitcoin, #Nostr, #SouthAfrica πŸ‡ΏπŸ‡¦, #Photography, #Wildlife, #Birding, #Languages, JoshGen.co.za, kena.health, Healthforce.io, ✝️🧑 πŸ’ πŸ“– πŸŒπŸ©ΊπŸ“·πŸ•οΈπŸ¦œπŸ¦πŸ‡ΏπŸ‡¦
Replying to Avatar Lyn Alden

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?

Because self custody and owning your own keys is such a prominent narrative in #bitcoin, we might find that security becomes an issue for individuals.

If you are your own bank, wich is probably a good thing, where does the bank robbers go if the money is not in the traditional banks any longer?

My brother-in-law is a very successful businessman and I eventually orange pilled him after a few years. He went all the way to cold storage when he had his 1st coin and took the security very serious, more than I am use to see amongst bitcoiners.

So what is my question?

If #BTC goes to the market cap of gold, it would be 18-20X from the current price, do we then look at security differently or do we start now and prevent risk to ourselves and our families?

Thank you for your insight nostr:npub1a2cww4kn9wqte4ry70vyfwqyqvpswksna27rtxd8vty6c74era8sdcw83a , always great to read your work.

DrLuke 🩺

Replying to Avatar BitcoinEkasi

Hi, nostr:npub10vudmjqhr8kn2kv2pxhezt2h5t5c9zauwq8qr56nhdn64yacsqyqf08djm

It's been two years since you made that first Bitcoin purchase in the township.

Surfer Legends!

Replying to Avatar bitcoin.rocks

NEW BITCOIN STICKER CONTEST

Win your share of 2.1M sats by putting a #bitcoin sticker in public!

1. Get stickers @ https://bitcoin.rocks/stickers

2. Put your stickers in public where people will see them

3. Reply to this post with a photo

We'll pick our favorite 30 photos on September 1st!

Swipe through the photos below to see the prizes. First place wins 1M sats!

nostr:npub18kpw3akvdsyk239lx0jgwksr74sq4nlha3r8u9g2rnrhztfpfhysy469c4 in the middle of the Food Court at one of the biggest shopping malls in Cape Town πŸ‡ΏπŸ‡¦

Study #btc

As far as I know you also in Africa, so just download the files and get them printed the correct size.

Not to expensive - I had to stick about 35 to cover the cost - nostr:npub18kpw3akvdsyk239lx0jgwksr74sq4nlha3r8u9g2rnrhztfpfhysy469c4 really helps educate people.

Yes, a small mistake - there where some eyes watching so I was in a bit of a hurry. Still it’s directly where everyone walks.

Thank you for the encouragement BR!

Yes that is indeed my plan. I did add the β€œStudy Bitcoin” on the escalator down yesterday after visiting the McDonalds and the baby change sticker in another McDonalds for the monthly competition. (I thought that one was hilarious)

I remembered not to post duplicates this time.

PS: Next month I have to onboard the barber. Will have to print some merchant stickers for him and hopefully more to follow.

Today it rained all day in Cape Town

Tomorrow morning I have some time to get back to Proof of Work!

Hopefully 2-3 new McDonalds to visit - I still have lots of stickers left.

Distances are getting a bit further from home but we have way to many McDonalds, I never new how many!

Having fun with #Bitcoin and nostr:npub18kpw3akvdsyk239lx0jgwksr74sq4nlha3r8u9g2rnrhztfpfhysy469c4 on #nostr

Replying to Avatar bitcoin.rocks

Proof of Work like this just earned nostr:npub169zxhwp0dyv5kznqtv5fe8e6jw2zcnsvt72wa499gxusr88a0lkqdfkmnp 54,600 sats 🍟 nostr:note1n2edw2cch93rhe8py6wkc3xtuml9yg0ea757ekmnqles32w6shksgfhnxa

POWork indeed! πŸ˜‚πŸ˜…

The next McDonalds was in a mall - definitely a bit more challenging to do the work there.

STAY FOCUSED

#btc #nodtr