If you're ever looking to purple pill a friend, this discussion I hosted with nostr:npub1xtscya34g58tk0z605fvr788k263gsu6cy9x0mhnm87echrgufzsevkk5s and nostr:npub1az9xj85cmxv8e9j9y80lvqp97crsqdu2fpu3srwthd99qfu9qsgstam8y8 ain't a bad place to start. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi2JbHWd_BM
Would there be a need for global-scale decentralized social media without massive "democratic" governments?
I can see the value in communities of interest & connecting with people who want to discuss Aristotle or small-mouth bass with me, but it seems to me much of the existing function of social media is to serve as a public square for democratic or pseudo-democratic polities.
Absent massive governments which are (regardless of their formal structure) subject to mass consent or dissent, my communication needs become very local except for specific business concerns or special interests. The notion of a single "global conservation", "social mood" or Zeitgeist seems to me implicitly communist and statist.
In this sense, perhaps nostr should be understood not as "freedom tech" but as "resistance tech".
Basically you've taken fiat (which is utter nonsense) and patched one aspect of it without fixing the core problems.
Is Bitcoin better than other fiat? In some respects yes. But it is still just another fiat (ie meaningless) trade token.
The idea of paying money for goods is not new
The idea of sending money is not new
The idea of using meaningless ledger entries as money is not new
The idea of generating meaningless ledger entries via laborious mathematical procedures is new
But to presume that the (machine) labor involved gives the ledger entries value requires one to forget the most basic lessons of economics
I think it is and will be seen as a mark of shame on many otherwise-brilliant Austrian school economists to have fallen for this nonsense
The classical & Marxists notion of value as being based on labor creates unresolvable paradoxes, such as why trade occurs at all. With a single objective scale of value, a trade is either greater for lesser (in which case why would the one with the greater value agree to give it up for lesser?) or equal for equal (in which case why does anyone bother?)
So either the labor theory of value is wrong (even when the labor is machine labor or electricity or whatever) or all of human trade is pointless.
Instead, value is subjective, which does not mean arbitrary and made up. Rather, the value of a good is the highest use to which it may be put.
But Bitcoin has no use to which it may ultimately be put, because it does not exist. There are no Bitcoins. You have (in essence) a ledger entry saying how many Bitcoins Satoshi owes you for running some calculations for him, but he will never pay up and can never pay up because the units in which he is meant to pay you are made up nothings. You might as well have a ledger entry saying you own 8 jabberwockies.
I consider it a form of self-propaganda
𝗤𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝟭: "𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗕𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗶𝗻?"
Below is the first chapter from the "𝟮𝟭 𝗤𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀" audiobook, which is comprised of answers from nostr:npub1ahxjq4v0zlvexf7cg8j9stumqp3nrtzqzzqxa7szpmcdgqrcumdq0h5ech, nostr:npub1jt97tpsul3fp8hvf7zn0vzzysmu9umcrel4hpgflg4vnsytyxwuqt8la9y, nostr:npub1dtgg8yk3h23ldlm6jsy79tz723p4sun9mz62tqwxqe7c363szkzqm8up6m, and yours truly.
The audiobook will soon be available through Audible, so stay tuned!👀
https://video.nostr.build/2a05531be392279eeb4bc172db74e75768d539856d8340198057f76a83b5d96b.mp4
Bitcoin is an opportunity, Bitcoin is a set of rules, Bitcoin is a commodity, Bitcoin is digital cash etc etc. It begins to sound like a religious mystery.
The white paper: Bitcoin is a signature
Reality: Bitcoin is nothing at all.
I can reproduce what Satoshi did quite easily - the source code is not even secret
Who is taking this video?
The shooter? The shooter's buddy?
The cameraman doesn't try to turn and look for the shooter
In which case, why are these retards posting it?
To be fair some of that is debt that some Union agencies owe to other Union agencies
But a bunch of the GDP is also government spending & the unfunded liabilities are basically debt that doesn't pay interest until later
Net debt held by the public is probably 125%-130% of productive capacity
Net liabilities are probably something like 600% of productive capacity
"Weekly earnings increased by 19% in real terms from 1933 to 1939, but this was largely due to employees working longer hours, while the hourly wage rates remained close to the lowest levels reached during the Great Depression. In addition, reduced foreign trade meant rationing of consumer goods like poultry, fruit, and clothing for many Germans."
(I know wiki is generally not trustworthy, but I believe these particular claims are accurate)
My point is that Bitcoin (a specific ledger with a specific number of units and a specific schedule of issuance) was invented, could easily have been invented differently, and thus is not truly scarce.
I can make Bitcoin 2.0 which takes the exact same source code but only ever issues 100,000 units.
Should my Bitcoin 2.0 be worth 210 times as much as your Bitcoin 1.0? It's 210 times as scarce but with the exact same properties
Radio waves were discovered
The possibility of FM Radio was discovered
The actual apparatus, channels, and so on was invented
98.1 "The Rock" was invented and not discovered
Similarly, the possibility of using a cryptographic public ledger to verify transaction events was discovered and not invented, but the particular public ledgers and particular methods of using this technology were invented, including Bitcoin
I deny it
Germans (like Americans) survived at Great Depression levels throughout the 30s and 40s
Germany pursued Autarky under Hitler in the 30s, which was a disaster that necessitated the war
HFCS was not produced before about 50 years ago
(with the discovery by the Japanese of an enzyme that breaks corn starch into simple sugars cost-effectively)
HFCS is basically the same as table sugar (55% fructose 45% glucose vs 50/50)
Sugar consumption is up something like 10x over the past 100 years, but not 8,000x
HFCS was not produced before about 50 years ago
(with the discovery by the Japanese of an enzyme that breaks corn starch into simple sugars cost-effectively)
HFCS is basically the same as table sugar (55% fructose 45% glucose vs 50/50)
Sugar consumption is up something like 10x over the past 100 years, but not 8,000x
HFCS was not produced before about 50 years ago
(with the discovery by the Japanese of an enzyme that breaks corn starch into simple sugars cost-effectively)
HFCS is basically the same as table sugar (55% fructose 45% glucose vs 50/50)
Sugar consumption is up something like 10x over the past 100 years, but not 8,000x
HFCS was not produced before about 50 years ago
(with the discovery by the Japanese of an enzyme that breaks corn starch into simple sugars cost-effectively)
Sugar consumption is up something like 10x over the past 100 years, but not 8,000x
Mathematical theorems are discovered
This does not imply that every mathematical abstraction is a discovery rather than invention
Was FM radio invented or discovered?
After all it's just math and physics
This is nonsense
That mathematical theorems are discovered does not imply that every mathematical abstraction is a discovery rather than invention
What property of the natural numbers led to the supply cap of Bitcoin at 21 million units? What quirk of computational theory led to the halving schedule?