Oddbean new post about | logout
 His business is to get as many viewers as possible and spread the message of Bitcoin. By leaving the most popular platforms and deliberately cutting his numbers and the possibility of getting sponsorship, Nico’s business will suffer. If he were to do that, which he is not, because he is on Rumble.

"Decentralization” is not a magic dust that you can add to anything to make it better, including chocolate cookies. Decentralization is a technique that is good for some things and not for others, like BitTorrent, Bitcoin and similar tools where adversaries are out to kill you. It is not an absolute requirement where good leadership is sufficient to protect users. “Decentralize all the things” is just Bitcoin Cult talk and of no help to anyone.

Rumble is a good example of good services to solve problems. Rumble is better than YouTube and Vimeo because the man who runs it will not tolerate interference. Because video delivery requires massive storage and bandwidth, it is much more efficient to have a service with its own servers, rather than rely on people to keep and manage huge archives of copies of their content available for streaming, like the old Mojo Nation tried to do.

The root of the problem is that the adversarial anti-Liberty State has a monopoly on violence. This is the problem that eventually will have to be faced. Durov being arrested may be the spark that triggers this.

Nico and broadcasters like him can play a pivotal role in getting this message to many people, and he is doing a good job of it.

Leaving an account with 250,000 people just to virtue signal about “Decentralization” is (as an example) super irrational. Those 250,000 users who look to the account holder for tips, tricks and guidance, not being on the new hip platform, are now left in the dark. It’s borderline unethical, and certainly irresponsible, and everybody loses.

In this information war, reaching people is key, not virtue signaling to the cognoscenti.

Redundancy at the platform level is the thing that is needed in the case of Simply Bitcoin, so that if YouTube cut Simply Bitcoin off for talking about Bitcoin (that’s coming for sure) then he can resort to his mirror channels and reach all his followers..

Because these threats are being unleashed rapidly, it may be the case that there is not enough time to replace the old distribution systems. Does this mean that people should not try? Obviously not. And in the long term, new tools may be developed to solve these problems.

Should these techincal problems be solved, then the tools can be shared and…wait, what’s that? They have to be shared by people who control the distribution channels? Oh dear.  If the distribution channels and the people who own them are also under draconian control, the tools to bootstrap any new system can be choked off.

It’s a fundamental problem that will not go away by itself; and the exact nature of that problem is what needs to be identified and directly addressed.

Bear in mind also, that the storage of files is a burden for the ordinary person. Max Kaiser’s archive of thousands of episodes was just lost as YouTube deleted his work. He doesn’t have the means or skill to keep a permanent service up to host his archive; that’s much better handled by YouTube or Rumble; its more efficient, more accessible and serves the purpose.

The problem here again is the character of the people running YouTube, who do not care about freedom of speech, are not interested or don’t believe other people are real, and who destroy a decade of people’s work without an afterthought.

If YouTube had been run by someone ethical, then Max’s body of work would not have been deleted. Its the same as burning down a library of books. Unconscionable and completely unethical.

UGH!!