Oddbean

Laszlo is a great reminder that spending #bitcoin is good for Bitcoin. He used bitcoin on-chain to pay for pizza in 2010, and used bitcoin via Lightning to buy pizza in 2018. Sure, it’s easy to look back now and say “DUDE you wasted generational wealth on PIZZA?!” But the creators, pioneers, and early adopters of new technology are the ones who change the world. We wouldn't be where we are today without them. I’ll never tell anyone what to do with their money, and if you simply use bitcoin as a store of value that’s wonderful, because without SoV it’s all meaningless. Store of Value based on the absolute scarcity of 21M coins is the solid foundation that enables everything else. If you don't believe me, I encourage you to study shitcoins. Hodling drives adoption because NGU is the most powerful Bitcoin meme there is. Different people move along the progression from Store of Value to Medium of Exchange to Unit of Account at different rates, and not always linearly. So I'll never judge someone just because they're at a different place in their Bitcoin journey than I am. Personally, I personally use bitcoin as a SoV, MoE, and UoA. I've purchased (a lot of) beer and food, art (shoutout to @Jethroe111 ) wine (shoutout to @BenJustman ), trading cards, clothing, hotel stays and pupusas in El Salvador, and a whole lot more... When I spend bitcoin on goods and services, I also convert more of my fiat petrodollars into bitcoin. I DCA into bitcoin every single day, and try to be as short fiat as possible. I also spend and earn bitcoin every single day by zapping and being zapped on #Nostr I've funded projects on @geyser and had my projects funded as well. I've donated bitcoin to charities and open source development. I send sats to my favorite podcasters like @preston , @petermccormack , and @TheGuySwann on Fountain because I find their work valuable and want to give value in return. I also receive sats from people on Fountain who enjoy @Titcoin It's a beautiful thing when value can flow across the world without the friction of fiat rails. So, do whatever you want with your bitcoin. I truly don't care and it's none of my business. Personally, I'm going to keep using bitcoin as a Store of Value AND Medium of Exchange AND Unit of Account. I'd like to thank Laszlo for being a pioneer who wasn't afraid to spend bitcoin, because he knew nothing changes unless we change it. If you want to build parallel systems, you have to build parallel systems... They don't just appear out of thin air because you LARPed about it on social media. Shoutout to the developers, the Hodlers, the Spend & Replace-ers, the merchants, and the miners. We're all Bitcoiners, and we all believe a better future is possible thanks to Bitcoin. But the future we want doesn't just happen; we have to build it. https://m.primal.net/IKDX.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZTJsYuAsNc This is a PLEA TO EMOTION nothing more. It is not 2010 it is not 2014 it is 2024 the world and Bitcoin have both changed in this regard. There is no need to spend it to prove value to anyone now. Sure spend it when it makes sense but don't FUCKIN LIE and say that people don't regret doing it. I bought a shotgun for one bitcoin when it was 600 dollars. I don't hate the gun, I don't hate the decision but I look at it often and remember the lessons of "The Richest Man in Babylon" and regret the decision. I don't lie to myself so I feel better and say, "it was good for Bitcoin". If you must spend BTC buy it and spend it minutes apart and ONLY on what you would spend cash on anyway unless you want an accounting nightmare with tax bullshit up your ass. Next on "cash you would spend anyway" start evaluating what the fuck that means and stop listening to honest to God BULLSHIT about YOUR need to spend YOUR Bitcoin from others. We do not have a spending deficiency problem. Not in Bitcoin, not in Dollars, not in FUCKIN ANYTHING. All we do is fuckin spend and spend and spend. Listen to this book, it is free, it is over 90 years old now, it is timeless wisdom and if you are going to listen to BULLSHIT about your need to spend, you need to take the time and listen to this vs. yet another book, blogger or podcaster that tells you "money is broken and BTC fixes this". The problem with today's money is it encourages spending. Yea Bitcoin fixes this but only if you FIX YOUR OWN BULLSHIT FIRST. Give a drug user a less bad drug and they are still a fuckin addict. Listen to this book, or buy a copy and read it. Either way every time you hear or read the word gold, do what Peter Schiff should of done long ago, change it in your head to Bitcoin.

1000000% agree and I push it for that all the time. I pay anyone who wants Bitcoin with US dollars that magically turn into BTC on the way via strike. The only real limit is what country the other party is in.

In essence it doesn't matter what country because if you're in another country you can use robosats to buy Bitcoins & then spend them. Or w.e service you use to buy Bitcoins in general. That's why I think it's important to eventually have a spendable LN node operating, that way you can have a spending stack that can be hodled or spent at choice meanwhile stacking on chain sats and sending to cold storage.

Richest Man in Babylon is a classic for a reason. Highly recommend the principles such as budgeting, spending with the end in mind, acting in a way so as to respect yourself, and investment that generates income,etc., are all good. But, as a friend reminded me, applies best to sound money. It is an underlying assumption of his argument. Gold worked then, still kind of does, but the RMIB applies better using Bitcoin than inflationary fiat as you are unable to outsave debasement. So read it yes but understand the new playing field.

Great message! I'm pushing myself to the boundaries of the SoV definition and starting to think that correctly storing value means having the ability to always exchange that value for goods and services. Otherwise, there is no value. Making sats flow into the real economy means using lightning wallets, onchain wallets,<whatever-protocol> wallets, apps, services, LSPs etc. These actors cannot survive if users are not using theirs products. Thus, SoV forces you - at least casually - to enforce your sovreignty in spending the sats, to remind yourself that the value you're storing actually is only **valuable** if you're able to spend it whenever, wherever, with who you want. Thanks for your take