Oddbean

Something I’ve thought about a lot in the past couple of years: Money is the one good that every single person uses. It’s one half of nearly every trade. As long as the price of money is set by a centralized entity, a true free market is fundamentally impossible, because every transaction is influenced by price controls. I literally just had to pull the car over to start writing: while listening @Jeff Booth describe “lightbulb moments” (in the context of free markets and deflation), a lightbulb — call it a zap — struck me profoundly… Unlike the fiat system, Bitcoin IS a free market for money. Meaning that in Bitcoin terms, “half the equation” is already resolved into a deflationary free market system. Even with governmental price controls on many products, because of how radically free Bitcoin is, it completely changes the nature of the trade. What clicked for me was this: Bitcoin exists — it’s already here — meaning that, humans already, here and now, have the choice to operate/participate in a free market, where prices fall forever. It’s not “when we reach hyperbitcoinization” or “when Bitcoin is legal tender” or “when adoption happens on XYZ level” (although all off those help to can grease the wheels). It’s already here, if you CHOOSE to measure in Bitcoin. No joke, my mind was blown so fully that I had to pull over so that I could write this stuff down. Now that I did, I realized it belongs on Nostr 🫡 Back to the drive, and to the podcast. Thanks for keeping my wife and I company, @walker and Jeff 🙏🔥 https://fountain.fm/episode/nvE4MO4qv2SB4q9ZcItK

💯 Combine a visionary perspective with a healthy grasp of nuance, (and then add one of the smoothest voices to listen to — actually two, with Walker’s radio host chords) and you’ve got yourself a perfect podcast playlist 🤙

Yes, yes, yes! I too have had a Booth bomb blow my brain before (see my profile header). If I had had the benefit of Booth back when I first stumbled into bitcoin in 2010, I’d be a billionaire today. But the best I can do is spend my time in the system I want to grow…and having made all the mistakes one can make in bitcoin to varying degrees, I’m like a wizened scholar ready to preserve and repeat the deep insights of those who have seen farther than I.

Cheers brother. I still feel new to it all, with those periodic “holy shit” moments that are so good for conviction. I’m the “bitcoiner guy” at my fiat job, but that feels right for me… for right now. Taking opportunities to share it with no-/new-coiners, when the moments arise 🤝

The Booth bomb I got from that episode with @walker was this: protocols come around a lot less frequently than applications, and thus people frequently confuse the two. If you analyze bitcoin as an application, you’ll massively undervalue it because as an app it can’t do it all. Bitcoin only achieves its full measure as the base of a stack of layered protocols.

I've listened to this podcast episode 3 times, and often reposted to Jeff's other video interviews I've been surprised at how slow my mind is to grasp the concepts. The first time I listened I had a sense there was something important that I didn't quite grasp. So I resolved to listen again until I got it. It really is a paradigm shift. And - as Jeff always says - of Bitcoin remains secure and decentralized, the world is going to change.

8 billion people, working in service of 8 billion people. — This is a comment on: https://yakihonne.com/flash-news/nevent1qqsxn4923npuyzwethhlurw7t4s9q7npy39kz5gfdjvertq7xqegsdczyq9vu5yyxg2cflr8za9ka4yc6tcr8ape3g3fueuhs5ughdx7tfrqcqcyqqqqqqggjsta8

I've had similar experiences driving & listening to Bitcoin pods. What I find interesting is thought that the mere existence of Bitcoin is limiting the printing of fiat currencies. There's now another denominator in which to measure fiat currency inflation. Prior to 2020, most people had never even heard of the term fiat currency.

They’re kicking my ass brother. The Toddlers new favorite game is daily hand to hand combat. Both are quick studies so now I actually have to play defense if I don’t want all their swings to land 🤣

Well written. I’ve just listened to the first 10min…have to sneak this stuff in between my day job. Really interesting pondering why humans have accepted/wanted these centralized systems over the last 5000 years…not sure if they dive into this more. Is it simply because we haven’t had the tech to allow our hope to grow for a public ledger

Thanks Nadia ☺️ Absence of tech is definitely part of it. I think it’s why Bitcoin is often likened to the harnessing of fire, or the wheel. It allows us to do things that were previously impossible. Jeff touches on how each generation/societal cycle is “tricked” into thinking that the status quo system is the way it has to be, and asks why we would think we haven’t been tricked too, at least until now. He focuses on each of our personal responsibility to make this change happen, which I took to mean stop contributing more energy, more falseness, to the existing framework and to instead make the complete (if perhaps gradual) transition into this new, better, *viably* optimistic world. Looking forward to your additional “musings from the fiat mine” 🤝

Only thing I’m not so sure about is if you can call bitcoin “radically free” yet. If banks are controlling peoples ability to purchase on an exchange, exchanges are requiring identification for purchases it doesn’t feel free. Most people don’t know how to purchase bitcoin p2p, actually most don’t even know there are platforms available to do this. There’s a long way to go and it seems like it will get worse before it will get better.

I hear that. I would offer that Bitcoin *is* free, in that one *can* use it freely and (more to my initial intention) the *price of Bitcoin* is a free market. There will always be authoritarianism, censorship, and overly controlling centralized entities. In one sense, banks today don’t even have a choice but to control and KYC everything, or they risk legal issues. Much of that will always be true; Bitcoin will continue to exist. And in existing, it is free, and we are free (knowingly or not) to adopt it. Thanks for getting me to think harder about this 🙏✌️

welcome to the bright side. it is moments that like this that make me smile. if it makes life even simpler for you - it's like moving country - you now work in a different currency or in this case with REAL money. enjoy the journey and stay safe. GM 🙃

Great take. GM to you 🤜🤛 The journey is a delight. That’s always been my approach to life to begin with, but even moreso now that there’s a viable way to clean up so many of the messes we’ve created as society