Oddbean

Here is my case for why it is a technology problem: In the “natural state” of humans, we would have little technology which preserved the value created through our labor into the future. Wealth (preserved value from a previous period into the present) would be harder to hold as it would just rot, nor could a disparity of preserved material value arise between humans as it would continually be rotted away from everyone. Bitcoin would not be special in this regard it would be a problem caused by all technology of value preservation in proportion to the preservation enabled, Bitcoin would just be the latest improvement in the technology of preserving the value generated. But if Bitcoin is the best value preservation technology so far, then the technology which preserves our labor value indefinitely, also enables the greatest miserliness. I don’t think the “selfish monk” and the “orphan” are non existent, impossible caricatures, I think I see them in the motivations of many, in the fears and ideals of Bitcoin stacking in the context hyperbitcoinization. But my error may be in treating hyperbitcoinization as a serious idea and necessary result. Perhaps that belief is not as likely as I had presumed. And so the scale of the problems in 1 and 2 may not be so great.

I don't actually think bitcoin improves on gold in terms of preserving ownership of value through time. And anyway, once you pass up a human lifetime, the benefits of value-preserving technology diminish rapidly. So I don't think bitcoin amplifies miserliness in a technological way. > I think I see them in the motivations of many, in the fears and ideals of Bitcoin stacking in the context hyperbitcoinization. But my error may be in treating hyperbitcoinization as a serious idea and necessary result. I think it's less that hyperbitcoinization isn't likely, it's that while pure, distilled ideas can exist, they're always tempered in actual people. The "selfish monk" is an archetype, like an Egyptian god or something. It's not impossible for a real person to be fully possessed by such a spirit I suppose, but people are almost never one-dimensional, and are motivated by many things — however much they might explicitly ascribe their identity to a single thing.