Oddbean new post about login | logout I'm on the fence about it. Gov't tends to trash anything it touches. But, I'm not sure the world will have the confidence in BTC necessary for mass adoption until some big players get involved. The FUD is still strong. I want every shop owner to accept bitcoin, but there is still a lot of risk involved. Risk that pushes bitcoin to the fringes for development and use. I'm all about DIY, cypherpunk tech, but we need normies to get to scale. Gov'ts buying it is a clear signal of normalization. That's something I look forward to.
I get that, but don't need mass adoption. Never did. It's literally not the point of it.
In your opinion, what is the point of bitcoin? I see two main use cases for it: 1) Investment that hedges against out of control inflation. 2) Opt-out parallel banking system that Gov't can't control. Case 1 requires that bitcoin be valued by people. So, this requires more people wanting it, and mass adoption is good for demand. Case 2 is why I think bitcoin is important. It takes the money supply out of the control of centalized banking and reduces their ability to rob us to fund their corruption and wars. For bitcoin to make a meaningful impact, here, I believe there would need to be a lot of people using it as their currency (mass opt out). Bitcoin also provides an alternative the CBDC in the pipeline. I want more people to be free of the dystopian nightmare tied to that. In either case, mass adoption is not the point, but it is beneficial to the goal or may be required to achieve it.
Mass adoption without govt would be great, but I'm not sitting around holding my breath waiting for that to happen. Case use #2 is all I care about. People who want case use #1 would definitely want govt recognition & legalization of bitcoin investing because it would legitimize their activities, but I'll keep saying it a million times... I feel like using btc for anything other than subverting the state and banks is asking for trouble, IMO. People who disagree think I'm just silly anarchist. I am, but I live by agorist ideals & solutions. I don't believe in legitimizing the state. Period.
To be clear, I don't think bitcoin is completely parallel to banks yet because a lot of people still cash out sats and btc for debit cards and bank accounts. I think more people need to learn to use btc as a circular currency online and in their local communities.
I think we are in agreement, then 🤙 I mainly see Gov'ts buying bitcoin as a negative, as they will just use it to prop up their failing system to keep the illusion going. Although, I think the collapse is inevitable. If we can get more people using Bitcoin before it does, we have the parallel system to switch to and people will suffer less. My only point was that Gov'ts adopting bitcoin is an indicator that the perception of bitcoin (Gov't and the general public) is getting better, and the risks to developers and users will go down if Gov'ts are less hostile to it or more people are using it. I don't seek permission from Gov't to use bitcoin, but I want others to use it too, and all the FUD is preventing a lot of people from doing so. To your last point, I believe most people are more libertarian/anarchist than they know. But, they've been conditioned on what anarchy means through lots of propaganda. When it comes down to it, they just want to live their lives and if the Gov't did start intruding into their lives, they'd be pissed. They are pretty libertarian in their day-to-day, but for some reason there is a big disconnect when they start thinking about the larger scope. Conversations with them are pretty productive when you just ask basic questions and stay away from the language of politics.
I agree100% w/most of what you said, especially the second paragraph. I really think however, there are far too many people who think "those in charge" (obviously not in charge of you or me) are their betters, and/or are elected and appointed to protect/serve them, guarantee their inalienable rights (they greatly misunderstand "inalienable") and these folks who you say are more libertarian than they are aware (or that you or I give them credit for) are among the same people who also still give much reverence to the 3 branches as well as to the constitution, and yet, much disregard for the Declaration of Independence lol...and yet, at the end of the day, don't realize how much power they have given (and freedom they surrender at the same time), whenever they bootlick and go to the polls.