Oddbean

Yuval Harari produces the kind of pseudo-intellectual word salad that appeals to young college students and old kleptocrats. His logic on #Bitcoin is deeply flawed. You can only build trusted institutions when the base layer (money) can be trusted. The base layer can only be trusted when it does not require trust in a centralized institution. i.e. you can trust the money because you do not have to trust any one party. Thus, to build trusted institutions, you need a trust-less base layer as a solid foundation, one that cannot be manipulated by the institutions built on top of it. One that cannot be perverted by a centralized party, thus perverting the incentives. Yuval is also wrong that Bitcoin is just “algorithms;” Bitcoin is a network, and a network is nothing without people. Without users, node runners, and miners all acting independently in their own self interest, Bitcoin is nothing. Bitcoin removes the capacity for corruption at the base layer of society (money) so we can build genuinely trustworthy institutions on top of a solid foundation that is free from centralized perversion. I would also like to point out that fiat money is the ultimate currency of distrust, because in order for people to actually use fiat money, you have to enforce it at the barrel of a gun. https://v.nostr.build/Aakz6.mov

As Yuval Harari would understand if he had ever picked up an anthropological textbook, money is always and everywhere only a technological means of social coordination necessary in situations where individuals are unable to fully trust their peers. A community whose members have implicit shared trust can safely rely on gift exchange and institutions such as pot latch as a safe means of coordinating their energy and have no use of money as a technology.

Nevermind that algorithm incorrectly describes bitcoin, he believes (or more likely is just full of shit) that algorithms will control humans anyways https://v.nostr.build/Ygn6G.mp4 https://video.nostr.build/1c8bcaa09cdacaf5aa4ab3c0adb557c3fec861db7c0bc3cb272ea977652310ab.mp4

This seemed like a commercial FOR bitcoin. "Bitcoin is based on distrust of human institutions" - Exactly. "Bitcoin fans may have good reasons to distrust banks and governments" - Damn straight. "Originally there was very little trust in institutions like banks and governments" - Makes sense. "It assumes that we shouldn't trust human institutions and shouldn't allow them to create money at will" Right, because 'the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust' (Satoshi Nakamoto) "Bitcoin is basically a return to gold" - A return to hard money, yes. "Electronic gold" - Even better, I don't need to guard a vault, and I can carry it across borders in my head. "But it doesn't change the fact that Bitcoin is based on distrust" - You don't have to sell me on it, I am already all-in on bitcoin! The only things he gets wrong is ...the conclusion haha. And that "the whole purpose of money is to create trust between strangers" When the reality is the opposite. https://image.nostr.build/693410c96acc5bd78deece47783a213374a3102cdea06abf534f234b89f46b2c.jpg

"Distrust of human institutions"? Nice sleight of hand, sir. Money is an institution of human action, but NOT of human design. That's the eternal truth that Bitcoiners re-assert: let's have money that we CAN TRUST by no longer having to trust HUMANS to run it well. Rules, not rulers. #anarchy #nostrphilosophy #econstr nostr:note1gmcfzlgy6qlsf03sr62s7gvk8lx45x3svatf553sa749fnq9ehws37yu8q

It's such an absurd and transparent concern troll. I taxed this from Dave Smith: It would be like if you cheated on your wife then acted outraged that the "lack of trust" in the relationship is what's causing it to falter.